The monkeys stand for honesty, giraffes are insincere

My next Sacramento trip was on September 26 and 27. I got to stay overnight this time! This time I went for a Recruitment and Retention Conference, sponsored by the CDA Council on Membership. Since I am the Chair of Tri-County's Council on Membership, I was invited to attend. I sat next to Laura Petersen, the Executive Director of Orange County Dental Society, on the flight up. My dentist friends from Orange County don't realize what a great director they have.

After we arrived on Friday, we took a junket to the Sacramento Zoo, where we had a forum on new dentists, and a nice dinner. We had the opportunity to visit with our colleagues from across the state, and I met a UT grad (who is LDS), and some other interesting people.

On Saturday, we had a seminar conducted by Colin Rowan, who discussed Storytelling as a Best Practice. He taught us about how to recruit using stories instead of using numbers and data. We had heard him speak at the ADA Recruitment and Retention Conference in Chicago in March, and I told him I was glad to hear from him again. I tend to be a numbers and data person, and I've always liked making lists, but that will be changing. Maybe I'll be a little less boring, too, who knows?

Colin told us that the typical nonprofit would tell the story of a popular novel this way: a dysfunctional blended family in the Midwest runs into difficulty with a rebellious teen. During a major storm, she suffers severe head trauma and is rendered unconscious. She has a confrontation with a person of color, and seeks the help of three homeless neer-do-wells as she tries to rectify her situation. If you couldn't tell, that was a sanitized version of The Wizard of Oz. He taught us how to tell a more compelling story. So I now have stories to tell when I am trying to persuade someone to join CDA.

We had an enjoyable weekend in Sacramento. I'm not trying to position myself for anything in CDA, but it is good to be seen at their events. I also have some good material for my training sessions with our Ward Mission Leaders. So it's beneficial across the board! My church training helped to land me in dental leadership, and now the opportunities I have to learn in Tri-County, CDA and ADA are strengthening me in my church callings.