However, dental students (unlike their colleagues in the other health professions) lacked an overarching national organization to nurture and promote such efforts.

[5] Later that year, Spain, Payton, and Sattler attended a planning meeting sponsored by the ARC in Washington, D.C., in September where they met David Evaskus, a senior dental student from the University of Illinois.

Evaskus agreed to help Spain to recruit dental students from around the country to attend a founding and organizational meeting for SADA.

[6] 1970: Progress is Made At the behest of his Dean, Evaskus recruited Warren Smith, a freshman dental student, to help with the housing and local transportation logistics.

However, these informal, crowded accommodations had one fortuitous and unanticipated benefit – drinking beer and sharing ‘war stories’ until the wee hours of the night.

What had begun as a recruitment program for an Appalachian summer project soon became an independent organized movement that would pose a meaningful challenge to the dental education establishment and the ADA.

As such, we promote off-campus community and interdisciplinary health programs as essential service components of our education.” The fledgling organization was loosely divided into regions across the United States.

Although Evaskus (who was close to graduation and at the doorstep of his Oral Surgery Residency) chose to no longer be involved, there is no question that he, along with Smith and Spain must be recognized as the Co-Organizers of that first convention.

SADA officers decided that the best date and venue would be later that year in October to coincide with the annual meeting of the ADA in Las Vegas.

[8][9] This liaison enabled SADA to promote a credible national advocacy platform right out of the gate; one which was already of direct concern to all dental students.

This required student leadership to implement creative strategies both within and without 211 E. Chicago Ave. For example, Smith established working relationships inside the AADS and the ADA, and was able to identify alliances and points of resistance; and Spain communicated with dental school Deans and local campus-based student organizations to maintain momentum for a national convention.

In March 1969, the American Association of Dental Schools (AADS) had decided to initiate plans for their own student membership section.

The AADS invited each dental school to choose (not elect) a student representative to attend its Annual Session in NY in March 1970.

However, its very existence helped to legitimize the idea of an officially recognized dental student group, and gave the ADA cover to respond in-kind.

In addition, SADA lobbying efforts were making progress in generating sponsorship interest from the American Dental Trade Association (ADTA).

The ADA Executive Director, C. Gordon Watson, made it very clear that he was not convinced that a formal student section was worthy of further discussion.

SADA wanted to maintain its functional independence from the ADA, just as medical and pharmacy students had done vis-a-vis their parent organizations, but efforts to secure enough funding to support its planned national convention had fallen short.

Money from SAMA, two San Francisco Bay-area foundation grants, and the meager ADA travel subsidy was insufficient to sustain SADA’s organizational plans.

In addition to touring ADA facilities and electing officers, the delegates were divided into three working groups to address various fundamental structural issues and to create a template for the new organization.

of Pa. as Treasurer (who went on to become the 1ST President of the Student National Dental Association in 1972); Richard Featherstone from UCSF as Secretary; Smith was appointed as Editor of the ASDA Newsletter and given a ‘non-elected seat’ on the Board of Directors.

They had fulfilled their obligation to their medical and pharmacy school colleagues by helping them to secure their ARC grant and by participating in an important public service effort in Appalachia.

Of equal import, they had created an opportunity for friendship, open communication, and the sharing of information and grievances between student leaders from all over the country.

The founders of SADA fully realized that having failed to secure significant financial support, their hopes for an independent national organization were dashed.

As President, Martin oversaw several fundamental accomplishments over the ensuing months: along with Smith (Editor in Chief) and Chuck Lockhart (Assoc.

they produced a quarterly newsletter that was shipped in bulk to every dental school and was ASDA’s main means of connecting to its student base; he secured staff support and shared office space in the ADA building; finalized the Constitution, By Laws, and other formal documents working side-by-side with Dr. C.W.

These funding initiatives were supplemented by ASDA membership dues (only $1), although a resolution for mandatory joint ADA-ASDA student membership was defeated by the ADA House of Delegates session in Atlantic City in October - a bitter pill to swallow for dental students hoping for more of a welcoming gesture from their ‘parent’ organization.

[15] Finally, there was a positive cash flow (although barely sufficient); and at last, there was some breathing room to begin to address the myriad of substantive challenges that lay ahead – and that is a whole other story.