Greetings from your Oral Health Section Chair!

It’s a busy time of year preparing for the Annual Meeting, reviewing proposed policies, and promoting our oral health policies. There is much going on at the national and state levels in public health, and I encourage you to stay active in APHA and the Oral Health Section.

Annual Meeting: I hope you are planning to attend our next Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., Oct. 30 - Nov. 2, 2011. Kathy Lituri is heading up the Program Planning Committee, and a wonderful program has been developed. The program (see below) is shaping up to be quite interesting and informative. Thanks to all the committee members who have helped Kathy develop the scientific program. Thanks also to those of you who submitted an abstract or are volunteering to be a moderator.

Registration online at the APHA website opened June 1; you should have received an e-mail on June 1 announcing the opening. If you did not receive it, you may want to check your membership record to assure that it has your current e-mail address. The Oral Health Section sessions will be in the Grand Hyatt Washington Hotel. I hope you visit our Section booth, or even better, volunteer for a shift to help staff it. We hope to see many of you in Washington, D.C.!

Policy development: The Section leadership has been active in reviewing the new policies proposed for consideration at the 2011 Annual Meeting. We have also reviewed the existing policies that were up for review this year to decide if they should be retained, updated or archived. Thanks to the Section Executive Committee and others who volunteered to participate in these efforts. We also commented on the proposed change in the optimum fluoridation concentration proposed by HHS and CDC. The proposed optimum would be 0.7 mg/L for all areas of the United States, rather than the 0.7 to 1.2 mg/L based on mean annual air temperature.

Welcome to those of you new to the Oral Health Section! Whether new to APHA or joining us as a second or third Section, we look forward to your participation as we strive to advance the public’s oral health.

I again ask that all Section members consider recruiting a new member from your sphere of colleagues and students. Existing APHA members who belong to other Sections can join Oral Health as a second or third Section for $30/year. There is also a joint membership pilot program to join both the state public health association and APHA for a reduced fee that is ongoing in Northern California, Kansas, Massachusetts and Ohio.

We encourage your involvement in Section activities, whether by serving on a committee or by running for an office. And for those who have already served in a leadership capacity, it’s time to give some thought to getting involved again. We need you on our committees, such as the Membership, Program Planning, Awards, and Policy; to help staff the Section booth at the Annual Meeting; and to contribute to the newsletter and the Annual Meeting program. We depend on Section volunteers to carry on the bulk of the Section’s business. Feel free to contact me or any member of the Section leadership. Any suggestions on how we can improve the Section’s efforts and increase the value of membership are welcome.

Oscar Arevalo, Section Chair