Articles from prior issues of The Advocate

September/October, 1999

Magnolia State Hosts The Southeast Regional Conference - A Great Success!
by Karen Gunter, Florida DDS, and Mary Jane Williams, Mississippi DDS

THE SOUTHEAST REGION HAS a rotational schedule so that the chapters in the Region know when it is their turn to host a conference. Due to circumstances beyond their control, the Mississippi chapter has been out of the rotation schedule since the late 1980s. This year with the help and support of their new Administrator, Sheila Everett, MADE hosted our Regional conference. They upheld their tradition of hosting an informative meeting as well as having excellent after hours networking activities.

The conference got off to a great start with the President’s reception. It was hosted by mdsi Physician’s Group. We were enjoying good food and fellowship when who (to our surprise) should appear but “Elvis.” He got the audience involved as well as singing some old favorites.

The first day of the conference was very moving. We had a presentation on organ donation. Ed Buck and Roger Skelton presented the before and after picture of transplantation and how it affects an individual’s life. Both Ed and Roger were former Mississippi DDS employees. Ed was awaiting heart and lung transplantation at University of Alabama in Birmingham and Roger had received his heart transplant from UAB. Both related the impact of the transplant process on themselves and their families.

Richard Hindricks described A.D.A.M., the new medical anatomy computer program that will hopefully be available to on all of our computers soon. It is an interactive anatomy and physiology program that should be a great help in adjudicating claims.

We had a very timely presentation by Anne Cosier, Executive Director of the Magnolia Speech School. It was especially impressive because she brought two of the children from her school to demonstrate speech development. One of the little boys had been at the school for just over a year and had entered autistic and non-verbal. He was definitely speaking to us. In fact, he found his calling when they put a microphone in his hand.

Maggie Wade, WLBT-TV, was our keynote speaker at our awards luncheon. She encouraged us to make a difference in the lives of others. She stressed the importance of family and community in making this a better place.

We were privileged to hear Dr. Maureen Dinges, the new Regional Speech and Language consultant. She provided some insight into the problems we have been facing with speech and language claims.

At our Regional business meeting, we made some changes to our constitution. We also learned that Tennessee will be returning to the rotation list and hosting a conference in 2001.

We elected the following officers:

President Kay Stapleton Georgia

President-elect Sharon Summers Tennessee

Secretary/Treasurer April Suttles Georgia

Regional Director David Lovingood Alabama

Our next Regional conference will be held in Atlanta, GA May 9-12, 2000. GADE is planning for us to stay at the Atlanta Marriott North Central. We look forward to sharing a good meeting with them.

We in the Southeast want to congratulate and thank the Mississippi chapter for hosting a great conference. It was fun, educational, and great to see a lot of old friends from that chapter.