Dr. Jack S. Kacewicz

I feel honored and humbled to find myself as President of the Northeastern Society of Orthodontists. Thank you for allowing me this privilege.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Jake Martin, the NESO Immediate Past President, for the wonderfully successful Annual Meeting in Boston last October.

New management company brings special service

There are many changes to report to you in our Society. The first major change is that we have a new management company. Starting January 1, 2008, our management services are being provided by AAO Services, Inc. AAOSI is the for-profit arm of the AAO. In the summer of 2007, AAOSI offered to provide management services to the constituencies and components. The contract between NESO and Burmeister Associates was scheduled to expire December 31, 2007.  The NESO Executive Committee decided to hire AAO Services, a move subsequently followed by the Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists and the California Orthodontic Association. NESO has our own Executive Director, Anita Craig, and her experienced team of AAOSI staff.  Not only will they give us wonderful service, but we were able to reduce our management fee by 42%. The new NESO Headquarters is in St. Louis, at the AAO headquarters. The new NESO phone number is 888.242.3795 and the general email is NESO@aaortho.org. Thank you to Dr. Dave Angus for helping to arrange this new relationship.

Changes approved for volunteer leaders

The NESO Board of Directors had recommended, and the membership has passed, sweeping changes to the governing structure of NESO. These changes have been made so that members can volunteer their time to NESO without having to be “over-committed”. Most commitments are now made to task-oriented ad hoc committees that last for 6 -12 months and then are over. This makes it easier for a member to volunteer with a reasonable volunteer time commitment. The membership has also voted a change in your component representation to the NESO Board. Instead of being represented by your Component President, we have asked all components to elect a Component Director. That person will represent your component to the Board for a term of two years and will relieve your Component President of the responsibilities to the NESO Board.  In addition to reducing the number of positions on various committees, we have revamped the officer structure. We now have four officers, each with a term of one year: President Dr. Jack Kacewicz from RI; President-elect Dr. Leslie Will from MA; Secretary Dr. Phil Mansour from NH, and Treasurer Dr. Lee Erickson from Nova Scotia. Our Trustee is Dr. Hugh Phillis from NH. The Trustee has the responsibility of being NESO’s representative on the AAO Board of Directors. The others on the NESO Executive Committee are Dr. Jake Martin, Immediate Past President from NY, and Dr. Paul McKenna, a NESO Past President from CT.

You will see that more and more of the communications from NESO to the membership will be in electronic form. You will see that more and more of the communications from NESO to the membership will be in electronic form along with the familiar print.  The logo on this issue of the NESO News is another new communications tool to brand the constituency.  It was designed to mirror the AAO logo in color, acronym and the repetitive circular curves.  Some suggest that the design conveys the outreach of a New England light house beam. The NESO logo graphic may be secured for NESO related projects through Kim Leadford at NESO headquarters kleadford@aaortho.org 

Email will inform you of what is going on, and you will be referred to the Web site for most of our pertinent information. Dr. David Briss, our Editor, and Dr. Victor Grazina are working on redesigning our Web site to make it current, informative, and pertinent for information exchange. If you haven’t looked at the website recently, go to www.neso.org and check it out. Already information about next year’s annual meeting is there. In December you received a communication survey from NESO.  Thank you to those who took the time to respond. We will be using the information for communication planning. Of the 1,300 NESO members, we have email addresses for all but 262 of you.  Since the trend will be for more and more communication from NESO to be electronic, please update your email address on the AAO Web site (www.aaortho.org) or email NESO@aaortho.org.  NESO gets your email address from there. There is no reason to waste your dues dollars on printed mailings when electronic communications are essentially free.

Leadership through advocacy

The AAO Governmental Affairs Conference will be held on January 29 & 30, 2008. As all of you know, government can have a profound influence on our lives. And if we are to have a voice, we have to have a presence in Washington. Well, we do. Through the AAO, we have lobbyists in Washington that represent your interests. And as part of that presence, constituent members travel to Washington for two days every year to visit our Senators and Representatives on your behalf. This year, NESO will be represented not only by your officers, but by seven New and Younger Members. On behalf of the NESO membership,  thank you to the following members would have taken time away from their families and offices to represent you at the AAO Government Affairs Conference: Dr. Matt Almeida from RI, Dr. Peiman Mahdavi and Dr. Negaar Sagafi from MA; Dr. Ken Carlough from CT; Dr. Victor Grazina, Dr. Todd Weinberger, and Dr. Christina Carter from NY.

The governing body of the AAO is the House of Delegates. It is made up of 64 representatives of the constituencies, these 64 members vote on all of the decisions of AAO policy.  NESO has nine votes. Those votes are cast by your colleagues. Thank you to your delegates: Dr. Nick Barone (RI); Dr. Lee Erickson (Nova Scotia); Dr. Jess Kane (MA); Dr. Chris Lundberg (VT); Dr. Phil Mansour (NH); Dr. Carolyn Melita (Mass); Dr. Perry Opin (CT); Dr. Patricia Timmeny (NH); Dr. Leslie Will (Mass, and Chair of the Delegation); Dr. John Callahan (NY); Dr. Dennis Hiller (NH); Dr. Jake Martin (NY); Dr. Dot Whalen (NY); and Dr.  Jack Kacewicz (RI).

As you are aware, the AAO House of Delegates voted last year to institute a two-year, $3.4 million per year Public Awareness Campaign. That media campaign, on both television and in print, is meant to educate the public that orthodontic treatment should be done by the orthodontist, who has 2 or 3 years of additional training after dental school. That Consumer Awareness Campaign is funded by a special assessment of $450 to your dues. The House will be voting again this May in Denver to either continue, increase, or not extend the program.  Please express your views to the above mentioned delegates who will be voting on that in May. All of their email addresses are in the AAO Directory.

An unforgettable Annual Meeting promised in September

One of the greatest and most challenging responsibilities of the NESO President is to organize and run the NESO Annual Meeting. The 2008 NESO Annual Meeting will be one to remember. It will be held in the Renaissance City of Providence, RI on September 11 – 14, 2008. The Westin Hotel will be the headquarters hotel. It is connected to the RI Convention Center where all lectures, meetings and the Exhibit Hall will be.

The speakers program encompasses 2 ½ days, and is star-studded. Speakers include our keynote speaker, Dr. Bjorn Zachrisson as well as Dr. Tony Gianelly, Dr. Hans Pancherz, Dr. Lysle Johnston, Dr. Jim Vaden, Dr. Terry Dischinger, Dr. Rolf Behrants, Dr. Gerry Samson, Dr. Eric Liou, Dr. Mike Rogers, Drs. Bill and Tom Wilcko, Dr. Gabby Marquez, Dr. Chung Kau, Dr. Paul Zuelke, Johnson & Gambardella, Michael Swartz, Carolyn Friedman, Lori Garland Parker and Debbie Best.

Recognizing that the way we provide our services to patients’ changes over time, you will see that much of this year’s meeting will have combined doctor / staff lectures. We recognize that our dental assistants are an integral part of the team. A more knowledgeable team player means a better team to provide our patients’ treatment.

There will be a special Thursday afternoon program for our New and Younger Members (in practice from 1 to 7 years) and our Residents. I am most pleased to tell you that Thursday’s program will be “An Afternoon with Tony Gianelly and Bjorn Zachrisson” followed by a reception for our N&Y Members and Residents.

Many of you have been to Providence, Rhode Island, and have heard of our city festival WaterFire. At this upcoming meeting, NESO will be the corporate sponsor for WaterFire. On Saturday evening, our registrants will walk down the beautiful Providence Riverwalk to the NESO Corporate Tent of the President’s Reception which will be in the center of the evenings’ celebration.  Since this years’ meeting is in early September, the weather should be spectacular, and I have no doubt that you will fully enjoy our outside city celebration WaterFire. To see a little of what WaterFire is, go to www.waterfire.org

On Sunday morning I think that you are in for a real treat. We have a most unusual program for the doctors, a panel discussion on “How to Treat Class II Div 1 Retrognathic Mandibles in the Growing Patient, Including Using Fixed Functionals”. The program will be moderated by Dr. Tony Gianelly, and will include four speaker/panelists: Terry Dischinger, Hans Pancherz, Dr. Lysle Johnston and Dr. Jim Vaden. This panel discussion should be most enlightening. Dr. Gerry Samson from Atlanta will present the morning’s staff program. If any of you have had the pleasure of being to one of his lectures you will already know that the staff will be in for a fabulous morning.

For more information on the 2008 NESO Annual Meeting, go to the NESO website www.neso.org.

I asked you to get involved in your professional organization. Feel free to contact me anytime regarding any concerns or ideas. My email is www.egbraces@ids.net, and my phone is 401.884.6500.

Jack S. Kacewicz