If your year has been anything like mine it comes as a shock to realise that there are only a few weeks remaining before the end of the year, and the time has come for renewal of your SAAO membership. The SAAO financial year runs from the 1 October to the 30 September of the following year.
At the last AGM it was decided to increase the annual membership subscription slightly to R800-00. This goes towards the administration and running costs of the organisation and the administration of the website.
The goal of the SAAO remains the unbiased distribution of new information and the exchange of knowledge pertinent to dental implantology, and to seek strong affliations with similar organizations globally, especially the Academy of Osseaointegration and the EAO. The knowledge transfer happens through regional meetings in Cape Town, Gauteng and Durban, and the hosting of a bi-annual international conference which attracts world-renowned speakers in the field of implantology.
The next such event is scheduled for Gauteng from the 31 May to the 2 June 2018.
Membership of the SAAO is, as you know, open to all the participants in implant dentistry and serves as the umbrella organisation through which the above goals of knowledge transfer are promoted. The benefits of your annual membership are:
- Attendance of the regional meetings (usunally the first meeting of the year is for free)
- Discounted attendance of the bi-annual international conference.
- Members access to the website, which we are hoping to develop and expand on a new platform to include information, newsletters and education of the public and practitioners.
- Complimentary membership of FOR.
I encourage you to renew your membership of the SAAO for the forthcoming year. The board and local committees strive, as always, to keep the membership fees as low as possible and hope to obtain a significant portion of our running costs through sponsorship and support from the dental implant traders. Our thanks goes to all our sponsors for their continued support of the SAAO.
We look forward to an expanded SAAO activity base in 2018 and thank you for your on-going support of the organisation and its goals.
Yours sincerely
Dr John Bronner (President)