How does one get involved in the committee then if somebody was interested in,
in, in, in joining one? And maybe this is a good time for you to um
chart your entry into dental politics a bit more detail.
Yeah, yeah, I mean um.
I mean, you, you and I go back a while Eddie, and you know my path and relationship with the
BDA has been torturous, uh, you know, I, uh, when, when I was involved in the judicial
review back in 2007, 2008, um.
I, I was really, really angry about the way I thought I was treated by the BDA at that
particular time. I suppose now sitting on the other side of the
fence, I understand.
Some of that, you know, uh, not all of it, but some of it,
I understand. um, but we have an election cycle,
uh, which is every 3 years.
Um, we don't always fill the seats of all the committees, although we've had a sorry to
interrupt, is that open to anyone to put themselves forward for?
Well, it depends on the particular committee.
Committees, some committees are particular for people who are members of the BDA.
We'd like every single member of every committee to be a member of the BDA,
but they're not. Um, our general dental practise committees
represent the profession, um, and you don't have to be a member of the BDA to,
to put your name forward for the General Dental practise Committee.
Um, we'd just gone through a cycle. We had a,
we had some by-elections because we didn't have some seats filled in some parts of the country.
Um, there are still some vacancies, and if, um, if people were interested in actually putting
their names forward, even at this late stage, if we could marry them up to some of the
vacancies that we've got in those committees, we'd certainly like to fill a compliment of
people for those committees, so.
Uh, while she might have missed the boat on the election process this triennium,
um, you know, contact the BDA if you're interested in actually being part and getting
involved, because we, we value people who want to commit to that.
Um, but my, my, my pathway, um, I, I actually became secretary of my local
dental committee back in 2005, Birmingham LDC were really.
Uh, anti the 2006 contracts, probably over, uh, aggressive in our,
in our campaigning, um, we certainly made some enemies as well as some friends.
Um, but, uh, going on from that, I, I, I made a, a name for myself standing up to the government
and, and in fact it was members of the profession sending me donations,
um, to help my financial situation, to take a judicial review,
which is bloody expensive to do, um, and I shall be forever grateful for the support that
I got then. And I, I think I changed my mindset at that
particular point to think I need to get involved, I need to help change things so that
we are an organisation that tries to help people who are campaigning and fighting.
Uh, and, and lobbying and doing all of those things.
And um I got involved with the General Dental practise Committee after chairing a conference
of LDCs, uh, and I eventually ended up on the executive of the General Dental practise
Committee. Um, and when, when the BDA changed its
structures, um, and, and created the, the principal executive committee,
I stood for the very first one.
Um, it was, that was traumatic as well, because it was at the time when we,
we introduced a three-tier membership, uh, which went badly,
you know, despite all the preparation.
Uh, the irony of it was, I, I sat down with the American Dental Association a few years ago and
they said, we've come up with this great idea of um,
of introducing tiered membership.
And I said, oh yeah, he said, oh, we've gone out, we've gone out to a marketing company and
they've told us so many will sign up for this level, so many will sign up for that level,
and we've done all our sums. And I said, you know,
as much research as you do.
Yeah, with, with dentists about what their intentions might be with the membership
structure. When they have to put their hand in their back
pocket and open the wallet, it changes the mindset.
And uh and I understand the American Dental Association have have had similar problems to
us. And in fact one of the things we're doing at
the BDA at the moment is a serious review of where we are with membership and how we can
encourage people to be members. We've just introduced,
for example, uh a membership tier for, Dentists who are trying to get onto the register,
and waiting to sit the ORE exam, and we thought, you know,
we would support that cohort of people.
Um, we understand there's about 6000 people that are going through the ORE process at the
moment. And we believe that, you know, a 30 odd pound
affiliate membership is going to help that cohort, and hopefully if they feel like we've
helped them get through, uh, then they might be inclined to join us when they,
when they're fully registered on the on the GDC, so, um.
There is a reticence within the BDA of fiddling around with what we're doing at the moment,
but we have to do, I think, we have to change things.
We are a profession now that's, uh, I think, um, very transactional,
and I think, you know, dentists will buy products, and then when they don't need that
product anymore, they will move on and do something else.
And I think we need to modify our membership.
To accommodate people who do want to buy some of our services but don't want the whole
package, um, and I think in the next 3 years, I won't be around at that particular time that
he's introduced, but I think that's some of the work that we are doing at the moment.
How, how long, just because you mentioned it there, how long,
how much longer do you see yourself being involved with the,
well, we, we, we have a constitution for all our committees that you can serve,
uh, to triennium as as a chair of a committee, um, so I,
I came in in September of 2020.
So, September 26th, I will no longer be chair and someone will take my place.
Uh, I am actually a PEC member until the December elections,
so I will have a three month period where I'm sitting on the back benches,
so to speak. Um, that's that's the most enjoyable time.
You can, you can, you can create hell.
Uh well, uh, some people say I create hell anyway, but,
uh, um, no, I, I, I, I, I, you know, I'm, I, I'll be 66 years of age by then,
and as you, as you mildly intimated earlier on, I think,
I think we need, we need new, new, new blood, we need new voices,
we need people with passion, people with skin in the game.
You know, I, I, I enjoy talking to young dentists who,
you know, are launching out on a career because their, their opinions are so important for me
to take on board and to convey, you know, I meet MPs on a,
on a regular basis. I've taken a couple of younger students with me
to some of those meetings with MPs and. And I,
I met an MP really recently from the West Midlands, and I said,
you know, we've got a meeting with Stephen Kinnock in a few days.
And he said, you know, my advice to you is, take her with you.
You know, take that student with you, because, uh, she will have probably more influence on
him than, than you talking about, you know, the, the future career paths of,
uh, of the profession. Yeah.
Um, Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? Uh, although they say that youth is wasted on
the young, so you need, you need people with experience there that,
that knows how these things operate as well and know how to campaign effectively too.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, I, I, I had a conversation with some civil servants recently
about seniority pay, uh, which has always bugged me because um it was something that was
removed, um, just before I was eligible to actually get any of it,
and um, and you know, it struck me that um.
You know, the civil servants churn and ministers churn for dentistry.
I mean, Christ, I, I, I, I've had 8 ministers in my 5 years as chair of the uh of the
BDA um but, you know, historical knowledge of things that have
happened in the past and things that have been tried in the past,
I think it is important, you're right.
Um, and I, you know, I, I dig things from the back of my mind sometimes that,
you know, in meetings where, uh, people say, crikey, I'd forgotten all about that.
And so having a, a, um, um, a, a, a history of what has tried
and been tested in the past is quite important to, you're right.
Yeah.