as found in the July 2010 Newsletter

It’s cold.  And raining.  An “old-style” Melbourne winter’s day.  Thank goodness for a warm space to sit and type “to you all”, but in reality, the membership of the VWDA has been slowly declining.  In 2000, we launched with 121 founding members, but our current membership is less than half that.  The number of dentists at our lectures and seminars has been declining. The current committee is concerned about the direction of the VWDA and its relevance to the current audience.   The committee invited Dr Pamela Dalgliesh to attend a special committee meeting to share our concerns.  Pamela was the founding president of the VWDA in 2000, and now is a Quality and Clinical Governance Consultant. I am pleased to advise you that the committee has now engaged Pamela’s services as a consultant to assist us in getting the answer to the question: “Is the VWDA relevant in the current environment?” The committee with Pamela’s assistance will be using focus groups drawing on both current members and non-members to help us determine how we can better serve the women in the dental profession.  If you are contacted to be part of the focus groups, we hope you will be willing to participate.  The committee would also value your input as to what services we can offer that would be of interest to you. Were you at our recent seminar?  I was.  I enjoyed the day immensely.  Special thanks to the program committee – Ferne Trinh, Sara Lou, Kim McLauchlan and Ruth Paluch for a great effort in organizing the day!  We heard new information (and some reminders) on the dental topics, and a new slant on thinking about property for investment. 

As a group, the VWDA encourages us to keep our professional and work lives in good balance.  As people, we sometimes struggle to maintain this balance – our patients, colleagues, friends and families can at times pull us in many different directions – so for me it was terrific fun when the “surprise activity” before lunch was to try some REAL juggling with Ron Gallagher from Funbiz.  There are photos up on the VWDA facebook page of some of our speakers and attendees “having a go”. 

Not on our facebook page yet?  Contact me by email at fangquack@hotmail.com or directly through facebook! I look forward to seeing you at Dr Geoff Knight’s presentation in August!

Cheers,  Jenny.