Greetings Fellow L.A. Dental Hygienists!
It is with great excitement that I step into the position of presidency for our local Los Angeles component of the California Dental Hygiene Association! I have big shoes to fill following the outstanding leadership from Elizabeth Brummel, who served for two years to see us through the stormiest parts of COVID-19. I give her a huge THANK YOU for keeping our component on track, bringing in more members, having regular virtual leadership meetings, writing the monthly newsletter, and many behind-the-scenes phones calls, answering emails, and more. Her time and dedication are to be commended! Thank you, Liz!!
The most important message for me to convey to all of you is the importance of membership in any organization. Without members, an organization ceases to exist. I want to thank those individuals who have continued their membership in CDHA since they were newly licensed hygienists. I want to thank and welcome all new members as well. I hope you choose to become active in our component. We would love your help as we try to expand local public health services, social media presence, continuing education courses, and our website. We are open to fresh ideas!
Over my 40+ years of practicing as a dental hygienist, I have been a member of many organizations that I felt were very important to our profession and I have been on the boards of several. All are experiencing lack of new membership by the younger professionals. Many organizations are experiencing member burn-out because the same people stay in the leadership positions due to the lack of new members to replace them. Why is this? Could it be that social media has replaced the need for the younger colleagues to socialize in-person? Is it because they have loans to pay back after completing the professional degree and think they can’t afford it? Maybe this is so, but using the Starbucks analogy, where so many professionals buy a daily coffee for about $5 from their local purveyor, becoming a member of CDHA is about $1 a day for a year.
I’ll never forget my father’s answer to my query when I asked him as a teenager why he paid dues and went to the meetings of his local Pharmacists’ Association. He replied, “Who else is going to protect me, my profession, and the public?!” For me, I joined the different associations offer my help, to network, socialize, earn a lot of CEs during their annual conferences, and further my professional career. All those annual dues were costly, but my affiliations brought me personal growth, a sense of helping others, and taught me leadership skills. The worth of those memberships far outweighed the purchase of a new expensive handbag, the newest smart phone, or the fanciest car. The return on my dues investment is immeasurable.
Like our taxes paying for services and structures we take for granted in our daily life such as roads, fire departments, clean air and water, public education, and more, dues to our professional association pay for the unseen forces that are necessary for lobbying to change laws in our scope of practice, wage protections, insurance coverage, continuing education, the CDHA Journal, and more. Check out the CDHA website https://cdha.org/ and all their links to see what you’ve been missing. Also, please check out our local component website and find out the local dental hygiene news http://www.ladhsociety.org/ . Make sure that your contact information is current. If your dues are on autopay from your credit card, ensure there have been no changes within the year, so the association won’t lose you. You worked hard to obtain a degree and license in a wonderful profession. Come join us as we advance together! I look forward to hearing from you.
Here's to oral health for life!
Linda
presidentladhs@gmail.com
