Time to double up: "each one reach one".

In 2002, when the U.S. Army joined the ADAA, so to speak, we were delighted with the immediate growth in numbers as we began serving over 2,500 military dental assistants. We provide them with continuing education, professional journals and recognition for their professional education efforts.

We're proud to have served the profession so well that our relationship with the Army continues, but we need to be thinking about our relationship with all dental assistants everywhere in America and what we can do for them.

As an organization, we represent the only professional growth opportunity for dental assistants to join up, reach out, grow and make their voices heard as professionals in the dental field. Too often our efforts are not viewed professionally, and we will never gain parity in the fields of compensation, employee benefits and professional recognition until our organized outreach is impressive enough--in size and content--to gain the attention of dentists, dental commissions and members of the public we serve.

In order to reach these identified audiences, it's time to take a bold step forward and reach out to our fellow dental assistants who are not members, to the dentists who employ assistants, and to the public who need to be educated about what a professional dental assistant is and does. There are ways to do this and we have identified them. Now we must move forward in 2004 with the necessary budgetary expenditures that will ensure our access into these areas.

We have a well-planned campaign of direct mail to potential members and dentists, media efforts to reach the public in print and video in their homes and in the workplace. We have planned increased liaison with Certified and Registered Dental Assistants to aid us in these efforts everywhere.

We will continue the member incentives that we hope will encourage our present members to reach out and attract new members to our organization. Most importantly, we pledge to uphold the highest standards in service to you, our members, through development of more continuing education, more funding of legislative efforts, high quality periodicals and continuing efforts to spread our knowledge through networking with other professional groups.

We are assisted in this effort by the ADAA Foundation with its concern for education and newly expressed plans for professional publicity. But most of all we are depending on the efforts and example of our own members to encourage co-workers and others who will benefit by joining our ranks.

If you missed the September/October 2003 issue of the Journal with its outline of membership rewards available to those who help us grow, please visit my President's Page there and read how you or your state or local unit can benefit financially from adding new members. You can request a free copy of the article by e-mail from [e-mail].

It's a new year with new challenges, and I hope you'll be happy to take this challenge to help us grow as a profession in dentistry.

Our motto is "Each One Reach One"--a not-so-difficult way to double our membership and increase our voice and influence many times over. Be a part of this challenge for 2004!