Serving as NADE President requires a great deal of time away from work and at work. It takes a very special DDS Administrator and a very special family to allow someone to have this opportunity, especially twice. I am very grateful to my Administrator, Mr. Fred Beckham, and to my family for their support. I am also grateful to the membership for your support in entrusting me to serve in this capacity twice. My pledge to each of you will be to represent your interests to the very best of my ability and to work with you to achieve those goals that our Association has set forth as its agenda for the coming year. There will be many new challenges and new opportunities in the year ahead. I have no doubt that NADE will meet those challenges successfully and that NADE will be well positioned to take advantage of new opportunities. The future of this Association will be what we make it so let’s work together to build a successful future! The successes NADE has enjoyed in the past were made possible by the hard work and dedication of our members and the commitment of the Association’s leadership at all levels to further enhance NADE’s stature. Our commitment in the year ahead must be no less than it was in the years past. Today, we are already able to reap the rewards this dedication and commitment has brought, including recognition that our credibility and expertise in disability issues is unquestioned and unequaled. But we must choose to use that credibility and expertise on a level unparalleled in the past. The disability program has come under fire from many directions and is losing support in the view of the public. NADE cannot afford to stand idly by when we have the expertise to offer guidance on many issues that must be dealt with. NADE must work with SSA and other stakeholders to stop the erosion of American confidence in the disability program. For too long, the diversity of interests among the many stakeholders has served as an obstacle for cooperative efforts in the past. NADE will take the lead this year to emphasize that this diversity can be, and should be, utilized as the pillar upon which a more viable program can be established. The many stakeholders have traditionally reacted like the parents of a Little Leaguer who, either by their words or by their actions, tell the other players on their child’s team, “I want you to do well, help my boy win, just don’t outshine my boy!” Too many stakeholders choose to represent their own selfish interests at the expense of the program as a whole so that they will appear to shine. That must change! The message that NADE will convey to all stakeholders, beginning this year, is that the ship’s band had its shining moment on that dark night in April, 1912 but the Titanic still sank. We must all work together to restore American confidence in the disability program.

NADE has taken a giant step in this direction by acting to strengthen the requirements for our certification program. This action will make our certification process more meaningful for what it says about the knowledge and skill levels of our members. Even SSA has come to recognize the importance of certification and the value it can add to the professionalism of those who make the decisions. SSA has decided to investigate the possibility of a national certification program and is now exploring how such a program should be designed and implemented. NADE is a partner with SSA in this endeavor. However, we will not abandon our own certification program since the goals of our program, and the goals of SSA’s program, while similar in their approach to attest to the skill level of the decision-makers, do have some significant differences that are important to our members. We will continue to lend our expertise to SSA in their effort while we continue to pursue further refinements in our own program.

NADE must remain committed to the concept that we all have much to learn and that education is an ongoing, never-ending process. The demand for new knowledge and skills will be constant, no longer a value added element, but the essential factor in determining organizational survival. Thirty years ago, futurist Alvin Toffler wrote that, “The illiterate of the year 2000 will not be the individual who cannot read and write, but the one who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” We have now moved beyond the year 2000 and we must recognize the fact that Toffler was, indeed, accurate in his claim. Employment security no longer comes from being employed but, rather, from being employable. Superior performance will depend on superior learning. In this regard, NADE’s commitment to provide opportunities for “superior learning” will continue to be one of the Association’s primary goals in the year ahead.

Our Association just recently concluded its annual national training conference in Austin, Texas. Our training conferences, conducted at state, regional, and national levels, highlight NADE’s commitment to superior learning. Our conferences serve notice that we are an equal partner in the design of meaningful training that provides practical knowledge and skills that enable our members to more efficiently and effectively perform our job duties. I want to congratulate the Texas Chapter for hosting this year’s national conference. In spite of many obstacles, including a changing economic and political climate, the conference was a tremendous success and TADE deserves a Texas size “Thank you!” for a job well done.

While NADE must continue to provide the resources our members need to acquire the new skills and knowledge necessary for professional success, NADE must also commit itself in the years ahead to provide for its own future. We must begin to prepare a new generation of leaders and to encourage our members to aspire to become leaders. NADE must commit itself to pursue the goals outlined it its long range plan and to educate its members as to what those goals are and how they will be achieved. Leadership in NADE is to be shared, rather than monopolized.

NADE will continue its emphasis on congressional concerns and we will continue to maintain contact with the congressional committees that exercise oversight of the disability program. We look forward to additional opportunities to appear at congressional hearings that examine the direction and scope of the disability program. We will continue our effort to enlist support for the elimination of the five-month waiting period. While events of the past year focused attention away from this issue, NADE’s commitment to advocating for justice has not been shelved.

Finally, let me urge NADE members to look ahead to the opportunities that exist for you in the coming year as a NADE member. Make plans to attend those events you would like to attend or that are located near you. The NADE 2002 mid-year Board of Directors meeting will start an exciting year of conferences and other events, all of which are open to NADE members. The Board meeting is scheduled for February 21-23 at the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C. NADE will also sponsor training conferences in each of the regions as well as a national training conference in Portland, Oregon. These are exciting and educational opportunities that have no equal for their ability to energize, educate, and entertain. More information about these and many other events can be found by checking out the NADE Calendar of Events in the Advocate and by visiting the Association’s official web site at www.nade.org.

NADE is your professional association. Believe in it and be involved in it!

Jeff Price
NADE President