Currently due to the Covid-19 pandemic a lot of what was planned for members of the NYSSO have been put on hold. Originally a biennial meeting in April of 2020 was planned in White Plains, NY with Chris Benson as the speaker on “The Practice & Wealth Management in an Ever-Changing World.” This event was cancelled due to the rapid rise in Covid-19 infections with the plan to conduct the meeting in 2021. This meeting certainly will morph into a truly meaningful topic due to the economic downturn from the Covid-19 pandemic. We hope that everyone will have a strong interest in this meeting as the pandemic has certainly affected all practices in New York state. In addition, the NYSSO executive board held its first ever Zoom meeting on October 9, 2020. At this zoom board meeting, we discussed the planning for the original biennial meeting scheduled in April 2020 of this year to take place at the same venue in March 26, 2021. The question remains whether it may be converted to a virtual zoom meeting, and we hope the answer to this will be available to our members by January 2021. During the initial shut down the NYSSO board continued to send letters of concern to Governor Cuomo’s office to determine when dentistry would be allowed to reopen. Through the efforts of the NYSDA we were allowed to reopen in June 1, 2020 and since that time dentistry has been reclassified as essential so this will allow us to continue to practice safely into 2021.
Deborah New
President, New York State Society of Orthodontics