True Power

PFA Fellows are all leaders who, on a daily basis, provide positive, volunteer acts that are beneficial to someone that they may or may not know. In the case of the PFA Foundation, it is people that are remote to us.

This year’s group of applications for grants reveals the amazing altruism of dental volunteers throughout dentistry. Reading through them discloses that money has been requested to support volunteers for dental functions in nine countries. They are Mexico, Costa Rica, Canada, France, Laos, Nepal, India, Vietnam, and the United States. In almost all cases, these grants go for direct dental care for distressed populations.

In most of these cases, the dental workers volunteer their time and expertise. Often they will travel great distances at their own expense. The patients will frequently be found to be waiting in line for two days after still having walked great distances. For many, this is the only time they will see a dentist in a year.

For those of us who cannot be on the patient end of the program, there is the opportunity to enable the grant seekers through donating money to the PFA Foundation’s newly developing “Memorial and Tributes Fund” Program.

Donations may be Memorials to a deceased person that you wish to honor or to commemorate with a special Tribute in the name of some living person. Details on this program are to be published elsewhere.

Due to the huge $5 million bequest of Dr. Fernando Brenes-Espinach of Costa Rica, your Foundation has been able to support grant seekers in the amount of over $3 million during the last nine years, all from interest earnings. The principal has not been invaded and is now worth $7 million. While this one was an enormous bequest, more modest donations of $50 to $1000 and larger will really add up. Important grants can then be made, in your name or someone else’s name if you wish. We have plenty of applicants who can really use the funding support.

In nine years, we have given over 200 grants, most of them for direct dental care for the underserved. We have administered over 700 scholarships of $1500 each to dental students in a large number of countries where PFA Sections are found. See our Web page at www.Fauchard.org.

Our volunteer Foundation Board has proven to be excellent stewards of the money. We have just one part-time person being financially supported and the rest of us are volunteers. We have no rented space and have an extremely limited overhead.

We feel that by being givers, and not takers, we feel good. And we know that those thousands of unseen patients out there feel better than they did before. The main people in this effort, the volunteers in the field, feel good. We applaud them.

United States

Washington State

Molly McAllister, the Honors & Awards Coordinator for the University of Washington School of Dentistry, reports that our last year’s Foundation Scholarship winner, Brian Almond, was also selected as this year’s Senior Student Award recipient. Dr. Tracy Popowics of the Department of Oral Biology was this year’s main Awards Presenter for the University’s annual Honors and Awards Assembly last June in Hogness Auditorium. Dr. Almond graduated in the top 10% of his class and was involved in the student council, serving as President during his first three years of dental school.

Current junior dental student Christopher Piper was chosen by the Student Awards Committee to receive this year’s Foundation Scholarship. Chris is also involved in student leadership and has served as class President for his first three years at the dental school and was just elected Student Council President for the coming year.

The event’s Awards Program lists the Pierre Fauchard Academy Dental Student Scholarship Award as presented each year to the individual in the junior class who has demonstrated the greatest potential in developing into an outstanding leader in the dental profession.

Brian Almond is listed as the 2004 recipient with Chris Piper as the 2005 recipient. The Pierre Fauchard Academy Senior Student award is described as a Certificate of Merit to be awarded to an outstanding senior dental student who has exhibited leadership, achieved academic excellence in professional training including clinical skills, and demonstrated dedication to the advancement of dentistry. Brian Almond’s name as listed as this year’s recipient.

Dr. Almond also received the ACD Outstanding Senior Student Award and the School of Dentistry Governance and Service Award.

Chris Piper also received the Ben & Betty Zukor Scholarship, the Daniel G. Middaugh Dental Student Professional Service Award, and Certificates of School Service for being Junior Class President and Student Council Vice President.

Wisconsin

Chair Glenn Maihofer noted that this year’s Foundation Scholarship Award was presented to Marquette dental student Barret Straub, who is enrolled into the Marquette Orthodontics Program.

The Section Chairpersons collectively are the backbone of the Academy. Their activities and recruitment processes establish the prestige of the Academy and its Fellows and the quality of the membership; in general, they maintain the atmosphere of selectivity so necessary to meet the goals established by our charter over 60 years ago.

What are the characteristics of an ideal Section Chairperson?

The ideal Section Chairperson is one who fundamentally has a strong sense of ethics in his or her personal and professional life; one who has proven strong leadership qualities by achieving the presidency of a dental organization or reaching line officer status; one who has a strong recognition factor through political, professional, or academic credentials, or community service. Above all, this individual is someone who would like to be active in organized dentistry at the international level.

Yet in the reverse, I have known ambitious Section Chairs who, even lacking Board recognition, managed to successfully achieve the presidency of a local dental organization by their innate skills and diligence and achieved success through PFA Chair activities.

A major question always asked is: Who is eligible for Fellowship? What are the criteria for selection?

My own approach, when I served as a Section Chair, was to try to honor the outstanding achievers in the many segments of our profession.

Certainly, line officers of various organizations, including Board members, presidents of the important constituent societies, leaders of the specialty groups, chiefs of major section committees, and those colleagues who contribute to the literature or are in research make excellent choices for Fellowship.

In fact, the Academy should welcome any dentist who has in her or his individual way made a contribution to our profession in an ethical manner.

Besides Fellowship, the Section Chairperson has another role to play. They are in a position to recognize “super achievers,” dentists who stand above their elite peers. The Section Chair can and should elect the super achiever for further PFA recognition at the local and regional level for a possibility at the national and international levels. The Chair can “test” this individual by appointing a new Fellow to a committee to work on for the Section to observe his abilities for higher responsibilities.

That is one of the perks, awarding honor where honor is due.

In the larger States or Regions, it is quite important for the Section Chair to build up a team of deputy chair people in a formal or informal screening network. Their job is to suggest qualified candidates in the various areas of the State or Region. If there is a major dental school, the Dean or an Associate Dean could be a member of the network. If there is a major dental center or hospital complex in which students assemble for graduate training or research, the chief director can be considered for such a role.

What do you emphasize in your personal approach letter to a potential candidate?

A very important point is the variety of our activities that serve the needy, our Foundation grants, and local projects to provide assistance for their success. Another is our publications, Dental Abstracts and Dental World-–one of the best-wedded dental publications of its kind. Of equal importance is that your potential candidate for membership is to be honored, even just the invitation, accepted or not, is an honor. Then there is the honor to be included into an Academy of leaders in their profession, the doers and shakers who set the standards with programs and projects beyond the normal professional requirements.

It is important for the potential candidates to know that when they enter Fellowship, they join the “Club.” They are marked with a substantial responsibility to continue to be a leader in their profession and to fulfill their already demonstrated potential that drives them from inside. And the Academy can become a part of helping them achieve these goals through contacts, networking, and help from others to have gone before them.

In a democracy, elitism is always a suspect word. Nevertheless, a PFA Fellow belongs to a special group that is elite. The only difference is that PFA Fellows are democratically selected for their achievements and outstanding qualities above the professional norm.

In retrospect, the job as Section Chair need not be an arduous task if organized properly. Chairpersons have all the resources of the Central Office to call upon; they have the Regional Trustees by their side; they have established programs and projects to become a part of, or they can create their own; and the Foundation stands ready to support worthwhile local activities with funding and scholarships. There is the Web site to provide 24-hour answers; e-mail/call/fax the office for special needs; and our publications to promote and report their successes.

Serving as a PFA Section Chair is like any leadership position, to be taken one step at a time. Plan, organize, recruit, delegate responsibilities, and coordinate the efforts. You are the backbone of the PFA International service honor organization. You are the most valuable resource we have.