2023 ICD USA SECTION
FOUNDATION PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
“YOUR FOUNDATION AT WORK”

Greetings! It is an honor and a privilege to serve as your 2023 ICD USA Section Foundation President. I will do my best to follow in the footsteps of our astonishing Foundation leaders, while working diligently to keep true to the Foundation core values. 
 
"It is difficult for us, in our hi-tech world, to comprehend the obstacles our founding fathers had to overcome to create the International College of Dentists 70 years ago.  It was their vision and determination to promote the education and communication needs of their developing profession that has set the standard for its continuing success worldwide.

This year we celebrate the 70th anniversary of ICD and the 12th anniversary of the U.S.A. Section Foundation.  Through the generosity of life and Active Fellows of the USA Section it has grown in assets.

The Foundation reflects the innovative spirit of the College and the Fellows that have endowed it.  A Foundation has remarkable flexibility because it can respond to a need as it becomes manifest, it can strike out quickly in a new direction, and it can give in a single community or throughout the world based on the action of the Trustees.”

 Those words and the sentiment behind them were not written today, but written 25 years ago, by the then Foundation President, Dr. Baxter Sapp. They still hold true today for your 2023 ICD USA Section Foundation, which is now in its 37th year. Since I first came aboard the Foundation in 2015, the “flexibility…strike out quickly in a new direction”, capabilities of the Trustees have truly been on display.

Revisions and revamping of the Foundation’s “Foundation” have spurred a new generation of Trustees; applied strategic planning, grant distribution protocol, investment of dues/contributions, policy manual/bylaws, matching funds efforts, collaboration with the Global Visionary Fund, Signature Project, are just but a few of the “innovative spirit” actions the Foundation has tackled.

As the dust settles on the post-pandemic world, the mission of the Foundation has not wavered. In 1989, the goal of the Foundation was to “promote excellence in dental education-research-practice-now and in the future.” Today’s Foundation “functions to support many missions and charities in both the United States and internationally. The support is focused on education, communication, leadership, and dental care projects and activities.”

Dr. Sapp’s forward-thinking words are woven within the Foundation you see today. In particular, “through the generosity of life and Active Fellows of the USA Section it (Foundation) has grown in assets”, creating the immeasurable effect of the $100,000+ Foundation grants distributed each year.

In closing, branding/messaging will be a major platform of this year’s Foundation. Our “hi-tech” world barrages us with much information, that filtering through the foggy lens to see the details can be challenging. We want our Fellows and the dental community to clearly grasp the impact the ICD USA Section Foundation makes while “Serving Others” and following our core values of “integrity, leadership and service.”

In Fellowship,

Michael Bydalek, DMD
2023 ICD USA Section Foundation President