Membership report shows gains in 2007 for Association

The ADA gained 1,272 members in 2007, bringing the year-end total to 129,292.

At the same time, the number of dentists seeking licenses to practice in the United States grew by more than 3,000 over 2006.

As a result, while membership numbers have continued to climb, ADA market share went down slightly last year, from 71.8 percent in 2006 to 71 percent in 2007.

“We faced significantly greater challenges in increasing our market share this year compared to 2006,” said Dr. Pamela Z. Baldassarre, chair of the Council on Membership. “In 2007 the number of licensed dentists increased over 2006, partly due to obtaining more accurate records for non-U.S. trained dentists.”

In 2007, the ADA added 1,265 new dentist records for non-U.S. trained licensed dentists who did not previously have a record on the ADA database. In addition, more non-U.S. trained and U.S.-trained dentists obtained active licenses to practice in 2007. As a result, the total market of active licensed dentists grew by 3,814鈥攃ompared to an increase of just 613 active licensed dentists from 2005 to 2006. Since 2001, the market has increased by 15,395 active licensed dentists.

Even so, ADA membership has risen steadily with the Association adding a total of 12,014 active licensed dentists to its membership rolls since 2001. The findings were detailed in the 2007 National Recruitment and Retention Report, which summarizes ADA market share percentages and tracks membership trends.

“These are wonderful reports and very detailed,” said Dr. James Bramson, ADA executive director. “Our Council on Membership, the Board of Trustees and other agencies have a lot of data to analyze. Overall, the aggregate number of active licensed members increased by an additional 1,272 members over last year, and that continues to be very gratifying. We have also seen growth in critical target markets.”

“The Council on Membership is satisfied with our overall growth in 2007 but intends to do more for 2008,” said Dr. Baldassarre. “Volunteers for the Tripartite Grassroots Membership Initiative continue to look for ways to connect with nonmembers and show them how the Association accomplishes things that individual dentists cannot do on their own.”

Other membership findings include:

• The number of new and reinstated members in 2007 remained strong.
• The active nonrenew percentage rose slightly from 2.8 percent in 2006 to 3 percent in 2007.
• There was an increase in active licensed members in all tripartite target groups in 2007.

“We can be very proud of these numbers,” said Dr. Baldassarre. “We have been working hard to reach out to all dentists so that there is an ongoing awareness of what the organization does to advocate for oral health and strengthen our profession. They want to be a part of the ADA because it is the umbrella organization of the dental profession, America’s leading advocate for oral health.”

Some examples of focused activities that increase membership value with target markets include the reduced rate annual session registration specials for nonmembers, which can be redeemed only one time, and flexible payment plans like zero dollar quarter year dues. 2007 marked yet another successful year for zero dollar quarter year dues, with hundreds of nonmember dentists taking advantage of the offer to join in the last quarter of the year and pay no national dues until 2008.

“The council is looking to engage more and more volunteers on a grassroots level so that the ADA will continue to grow,” said Dr. Baldassarre.

“Our growth in membership numbers is because of volunteer efforts at each level of the tripartite,” she added. “I encourage everyone to make a contribution to membership recruitment and retention. If you know of someone who hasn’t been to a meeting in a while, call that person and invite him or her to go. If you know someone who isn’t a member, let us know鈥攚e want that person to be a member. Your contribution makes a difference.”