Page 4 - GP Fall 2020

From the President

Berry Stahl, DMD and wanted to know what we were doing for you. I, along with
A View from the Top other members of the Board, were in constant contact with our col-
leagues at NYS Dental Association. We were on top of what was
Fellow AGDer’s: I hope this column finds you going on and were fighting on your behalf. We were sending you
well, in good health, busy, and trying to get your notices of updates from the ADA, CDC, OSHA, etc. We sent out
practices back to normal (OK, the new normal). notices of free CE other than AGD and our own that we thought
would enhance your practice and/or knowledge. We were trying to
These last few months we here in the States have keep on top of the situation and keep you updated.
been devastated by a pandemic and social issues.
Our Dental Education Committee, led by Drs. Brian Ciporin and
As a life-long health care professional I have been trying to save Sean Shekib, went to work to try to design a better dental edu-
lives in some way or another. All of us in the AGD save lives or cation system. They came up with giving CE via Zoom. We had
make lives better. Some of us take people out of pain and restore some test runs to see if it was feasible and it worked. Next was
teeth, some smiles, some faces, and some lives with BCLS, ACLS convincing the speakers to give the courses via Zoom for a rea-
or PALS. Some dental professionals even volunteer as EMTs or in sonable fee. After some tough negotiations we were able to put
hospitals. together a line-up suitable for the AGD with regular and not so
run of the mill courses. Finally, we had a meeting to discuss fees
The Covid-19 pandemic devastated our profession and especially and, where feasible, we made the courses free for AGD members,
NYS. We were forced to close for nearly eleven weeks, asked to a slight fee for non-AGD members, and reduced the fees for the
donate our PPE, and then given less than 24- hour notice that we remaining courses we were unable to get the costs down to where
can reopen not giving us enough time to get ready. We will perse- it was feasible to give the course for free.
vere. The NYSAGD is here to help you. If you need any resources,
please contact us. We will make every attempt to get you the con- We here at the NYSAGD Board, I assure you, are always thinking
tacts you need. No stone will be left unturned. of ways to save money to keep our state dues down, give you the
best possible CE at the lowest costs, and presenting or making
When I took office in January, I thought, “We will have a great programs to enhance your AGD membership.
year.” We assembled a great dedicated team to make the NYSAGD
work for you from our Executive Director Paula Bostick down to We welcome your thoughts and ideas.
every member of every committee and Council. I was working
on a mentorship program to help all our members but that was Keep safe and hopefully we will get back to our regular normal
sidelined, other initiatives were sidelined, even our extensive CE soon.
course line- up was put in jeopardy. Many of you called the office
From the President-Elect

Teresa Skalyo, DDS, FAGD could we believe that we were adequately servicing the upstate
Online courses! This is the silver lining on the area? We pretended that this occasional upstate course was truly
dark grey “Covid-19 cloud” that has affected enough. But it wasn’t. I thought of all of those members too far
us all. NYSAGD can now reach all of our away to attend the courses. I thought of all of those courses that I
members with our new online courses. This couldn’t take in the NYC area, courses I couldn’t take because of
is incredible! All of our members, anywhere distance. And I knew I wasn’t the only one that couldn’t go.
in the state, can attend our online courses from As President-Elect my dream was to have online continuing educa-
the comfort of their own homes. tion courses that could reach all of New York State. But it seemed
New York is HUGE! From Niagara to Mon- like there were always roadblocks. The main roadblock has been
tauk, 9 hours, plus or minus, depending on traffic and who is driv- our own fears about presenting a quality course online due to the
ing. There is no way we can truly reach all of our members with logistics of how to set it up and concerns about if the speakers
our dental education courses. Living in Geneva, between Roches- would want to work that way. There always seemed to be enough
ter and Syracuse, I would be frustrated with how few members our hurdles to jump through that the idea was pushed to the side. With
upstate courses could reach. As one of the NYSAGD representa- the Covid-19 crisis we had to do things differently… and, with the
tives from the upstate region, I have always wanted more access to vision and support of some key members of the Board, specifical-
our courses for ALL of our members. NYSAGD would hold an ly Dr. Sean Shekib, our NYSAGD Vice-President, we succeeded.
occasional course in Syracuse, but only our members within a one- We have courses that our entire NYSAGD membership can attend.
hour radius would realistically be able to go. Attendance at these We are now more united in our connections to each other. We are
courses was always less than 30 members. Less than 30! How no longer isolated. We are a unified NYSAGD.

www.nysagd.org l Fall 2020 l GP 4