Bulletin
| Supreme Chapter Volume XXXVI October 2001 |
Incoming
President's Address
by James L. Delahanty, DMD, EdM
Twenty-six years ago I was a senior dental student at New Jersey Dental School with less than 3 months to graduation. I can remember the day as if it were yesterday. I was in an oral surgery closed clinic rotation. One of the nurses came into the room and tapped me on the shoulder and said that Dr. Yamane was out in the hallway and would like to see me when I was finished. At the time, Dr. George Yamane was chairman of the Department of Oral Diagnosis & Radiology. I kept asking myself, why would a department chairman come looking for me? What had I done? It was all I could do to tie up the last few sutures. I took off my gloves, washed up and went to face my fate. As I walked up to Dr. Yamane still a bit shaken, he extended his hand, and with a big smile, said that he wanted to be the first to congratulate me for having been elected an alumni member of OKU only hours earlier. Dr. Yamane was not only the department chair; he was also the president of our local OKU chapter. My mouth was dry and I did not know what to say, except "thank you" and "Dr. Yamane, what is OKU?"
The "Publicity and Marketing" of OKU has been a re-occurring agenda item at the last 3 Board of Directors meetings. Indeed, it is also an agenda item of this meeting. Student awareness of OKU was of such a concern to President Curtis Kuster 4 years ago that he had a questionnaire mailed querying local chapters about their individual programs and activities. The results were compiled and sent back to each chapter with the hope that we would learn and borrow from each other. Dr. Kuster felt that the strength of this society rests at the local level. And to encourage involvement at the local level he proposed the establishment of the Chapter Award. Today we presented our first Chapter Award. Congratulations to New Jersey and Omega Omega Chapter.
I urge each chapter to become a presence at your school. For the tenets upon which our society was founded, that is, scholarship, exemplary traits of character, and the potential for future professional growth and development are as important today as they were in 1914 when OKU was founded. Our members must serve as role models and mentors. For our members, being well regarded, influential dental educators are in a unique position to influence the career decisions of our graduates. It is quite possible that you may be advising a future "Charles Craig Teaching Award" recipient.
It has been 3 years now since www.oku.org went on line. Our website will remain a lasting legacy to its creator, Dr. Richard Carr, and a testament to his commitment to this society. Thank you Dr. Carr. As our website continues to evolve I see our website as a focal point for the distribution of knowledge and information from the Supreme Chapter to each component chapter and a means of sharing resources among our component chapters.
I would like to suggest that in the next few years, that all correspondence from the Supreme Chapter to the local chapters will be done electronically, eliminating the thousands of dollars spent on postage and stationary supplies. I look forward to the day when a component chapter’s secretary-treasurer will go to the OKU Website and call up the form for "Membership and Insignia", complete the information and send it off electronically to Ms. Janet John. As each of our component chapters develops its own website and links to the Supreme Chapter transfer of membership, necrology updates and chapter reports will also be as effortless, as we will have electronic access to one another.
Today we presented our fourth "Stephen H. Leeper Award for Teaching Excellence", and our second "Charles Craig Teaching Award". Although its is important to recognize our seasoned pedagogues with prestigious awards such as the "Stephen H. Leeper Award", it is equally important to identify our new teachers, our up and coming rising stars, with awards such as the "Charles Craig Teaching Award". For these young men and women will be our future contenders for the Leeper Award. This morning at the Board of Director’s meeting I proposed the establishment of the "OKU New Educator Research Grant". This grant would provide research grant monies to newly appointed faculty members who have never previously applied for or received a research grant. In addition to awarding grant monies, a mentoring mechanism would be established, in which an OKU member will serve as a mentor to our recipient to provide encouragement. It is also envisioned that the mentor will encourage the mentee to pursue publication of his/her research in a refereed dental journal. OKU will actively promote the program to the dental education community at large; and in particular, the members of ADEA Special Interest Group for Career Development for the New Dental Educator will be targeted as a source for potential grant applicants. I believe we can significantly contribute to the existing body of knowledge while simultaneously encouraging the career development of new dental educators.
This morning the Board established an endowment for a perpetual $1000 award to the recipient of the "Charles Craig Teaching Award". In addition, I also asked the Board to establish an endowment which will allow us to provide for the "OKU New Educator Research Grant." I hope that each chapter will enthusiastically get behind the idea of a lottery in an attempt to fund this endowment.
I am pleased that once again we will be co-sponsoring a symposium with Sigma Phi Alpha, the dental hygiene national honor society, at next year’s meeting. I believe that our last 2 symposia together were well received and this venue provides us the opportunity to share our considerable talents and resources.
Finally, I would like to thank the Supreme Chapter and each delegate here today for allowing me the opportunity to serve as President for the coming year. I consider it an honor and I am looking forward to the coming year’s activities.
