Dear Colleagues,

I feel remiss in how long it has taken me to do what I should have done sooner. The reality is that I’ve been out of town for most of the weekends of the last 5 weeks for either lecturing or dental meetings which has caused me to be running in “catch up” mode on both the business and home front (spring is a busy time for a “farmer- boy” you know).

Two weekends ago, I had a wonderful time delivering a full 8 hours of lecture to a great group of dentists in Seattle. By in large, this group was a very classy group of dentists. They were knowledgeable, caring and wanting to absorb/learn all they could. That being said, something that has really helped me is learning from the evaluations provided me from the previous dentists I’ve lectured to over the last few months. They have given me some great inputs (even direct and somewhat painful at times but hey, we need these the most) that have allowed me to improve my presentation. Life is always about improving and pushing to do better each time. If we ever get to where we lose the desire to do better, we are on the downhill slope.

I was so impressed with our Tams who organized this. Janet Gjerde and Michelle Champion were the leads. They were probably responsible for bringing in 80% of the 120 dentists (plus 30 auxiliaries) who attended. They both are so driven, so caring and such great representatives for UPI.

Michelle always has a great positive attitude (as so many of you do). She sets her own goals and then is driven to reach them. Janet is a champion. Nobody pushed this program more than her. And furthermore, her husband, Pat, a gifted firefighter up there supports her in tremendous ways. He was even at the program the night before and late, helping to get things set up. (This is something I’ve seen so many spouses do for/with our TAMS. It makes me feel very humble and thankful for the caring people and families that we all are fortunate enough to work with.) Add to these two the bright, upbeat and personable Judi Galusha, our Tam in Portland Washington, who even brought a number of her dentists to the lecture albeit from some distance plus the likes of Cody Sunderland,(Endo), Jessica and Rachel of Seminars plus the gracious and professional Marti and it was a heck of a program filled with not only great dentists/customers but with great caring Ultradent colleagues.

The pictures show our team plus the wonderful lecturing guru Dr Nasser Bargi who happened to be in Seattle at the time and working with our great school representative, Jay Frazier yet at another program, plus the rest of the team as described above. The second is of the lecture.

We can be proud of this group and so many of the rest of you, the great and caring Ultradent individuals and groups around the country and the globe who give it your best. It is drive and purpose like this by you/us all that will push us through this “down turned” economy!

Thank you all,
Dan