President’s report for November 2009aej_212 118

It would seem, all going according to plan that this shouldbe my penultimate report to you, our members on thestate of our Society – one last thing to do in my retiringyears perhaps! I must admit that the pressing need toprovide a ‘report’ on a thrice yearly basis was somethingwhich never entered my mind when taking on the posi-tion of federal President of our Society! Of course I think,as with many of us who take on honorary positions, therequirements of the role are never comprehended com-pletely till well into the term of commitment! I havealways thought of myself as an ‘accidental’ president (asmentioned in my previous report) who fell into the rolewhen others took a step backwards leaving me standingforward, but I must admit I now find that it is a role thatI have enjoyed immensely and an opportunity withoutwhich I feel my life would have been so much poorer ifI hadn’t had the opportunity to serve our Society and itsmembers!

I feel that serious thought needs to done regarding‘successioning’ in our Society. The smooth transfer fromone Executive team to the next has been unbalanced oflate, which is one reason Dr Fiona Heard and myself findourselves in our present position. The transfer of theExecutive from one state to a next at the end of a two-year period in office is now seriously out of kilter. TheExecutive will move to South Australia in February 2010and will remain with the South Australian office holdersfor at least two years, but who comes next? The originalplan would have been for the Executive to move fromSouth Australia to New South Wales, but your presentExecutive is from New South Wales, so where to fromhere? To Victoria? That would perhaps have been theoriginal plan, but is this fair when Victoria has provided acandidate for the Presidency more frequently than anyother state societies since the inception of the FederalSociety in 1967. Is this a reason for the Executive not tomove to Victoria following South Australia? Perhaps awillingness to carry out the duties is more important thana fixed geographical rotation? The idea of service in abusy professional world and family commitments cancertainly impact on this willingness but the running ofthe Federal ASE has changed enormously over the lastdecade. At one stage all the federal councillors met ata well-placed airport meeting room for a whole-daymeeting once per quarter. Now with electronic commu-nication such meetings are no longer necessary withalmost all business being conducted electronically and byquarterly teleconference with the resulting major savingin time for the Executive and the Society’s funds. So

participation on the Federal Executive is no longer a roleto be feared but a role to be relished! I encourage you allto consider serving both your Society and indirectly yourprofession as well!

The Society’s major role is to encourage interest in thefield of Endodontology and following from this to supportresearch within the field. This is carried out throughresearch grants and several interesting and worthwhileresearch projects have been submitted this year for theconsideration of the Research Committee. Those whowish to apply for funding in the future are requestedto check details on the Society’s website (http://www.ase.org.au) to ensure a timely application. Thewebpage, which we try to ensure it is always up to date,may become a problem as it relies on volunteer effortand the goodwill of the Australian Dental Association. Itshould be the first point of contact for our Society and allmatters relating to competitions, grants and the like are tobe found there. Perhaps in the future this site may needto be funded completely by the Society to ensure itscurrency.

Our Society has also recorded a modest, but pleasingincrease in numbers, which has taken us above the magicnumber of 520 subscribers to our Journal which removesany threats of additional costs in distribution whennumbers falling below this cut-off mark. When it comesto our membership numbers the Federal Society dependsentirely upon the state branches in maintaining and (ifpossible) increasing their membership numbers. Somebranches are more successful than others in doing this buta fertile field for ploughing is the new graduate, whichour endodontic teachers can tap while these prospectivemembers are still students. Food for thought!

The prospect of looming national registration in July2010 will have significant ramifications for our profes-sion. The maintenance of registration via continuing pro-fessional development will become an issue for all andmany positives may potentially flow to our Society as weare ideally placed to be a preferred supplier of continuingeducation! This should produce a significant financialboost for the state societies and also the Federal Societywith our future precongress and Trans Tasman meetings.

As I sign off this report I’d like to encourage allmembers to check our Trans Tasman Conference website(http://www.tteconference.com.au) for all the latest onthis exciting venture for next year!

Peter DuckmantonFederal President

Aust Endod J 2009; 35: 118

118 © 2009 The Author

Journal compilation © 2009 Australian Society of Endodontology