DLAT Houston Conference and Expo

Today I'm headed for the DLAT Houston meeting at the Marriott North Greenspoint. It will take place Fri. Nov. 21 through Sun. Nov. 23, 2008. If you were unable to pre-register, come on anyway! We're happy to take on-site registrations.

I'm looking forward to the Board Meeting this afternoon, and continuing a positive and new direction for the Lab Assn. for 2009. I will be posting meeting notices and updates here, so check back often.

The 2009 DLAT officers are:
Felix Silva CDT-Garland TX, Past-President;
Brenda Triplett CDT-Pasadena TX, President;
Leo Cortes CDT-San Antonio TX, President-Elect;
Larry Mercadel CDT-Austin TX, First Vice President;
Ernest Cardenas CDT-San Antonio TX, Second Vice President;
Elyese Anderson CDT-Austin TX, Secretary-Treasurer;
Keith Wilson-Carrollton TX, Affiliate/Technician Liaison;
Larry Mercadel CDT-Austin TX, Legal and Legislative Chairman;
Gary Box CDT-Plano TX, Director;
Wendy Wagner CDT-San Angelo TX, Director;
Milton Pokladnik CDT,ret-Dallas TX, Executive Director

Along with the meeting activities, I will, most definitely, be rooting for my Texas Tech Red Raiders to beat up on OU Saturday night! Guns Up! That would be a GREAT birthday present (which is actually Sunday Nov. 23).

Have a great weekend

A Visit With River City Study Group

Saturday, Nov. 1, 2008 I found myself traveling to San Antonio to spend the day with the good dental technician folks from River City Study Group. Richard Gamble, Leo Cortes, Diana Gaston, and Ernie Cardenas welcomed me and made me feel right at home. The guys and gals of River City do a fantastic job coordinating their bi-annual meeting. The meeting is held at the Omni Hotel near I-10 and Wurzbach, and from the check in, to lunch, to exhibitors, to prize drawings, to clinicians, they handle everything smoothly and professionally. They are a "stand up" group of folks and I had a great time. I chose to go to River City's meeting because our DLAT Houston Conference and Expo scheduled for Sept. 19-21, 2008 had to be postponed due to Hurricane Ike (that's a story all to itself, for another day). I had never attended River City and had heard very good things about the group. The speakers they had for this meeting included Chris Miller from Dentsply Ceramco with a great presentation on the Cercon system, Ed Flocken sponsored by Sirona with a look at why you should consider offering some type of CAD CAM product in your lab, Tom Moore and Jason Stubbs with a great overview on how to legally outsource internationally if you operate a dental laboratory in Texas, Dentsply Raintree Essix on their many uses for mouthguard and splint material, and finally Leo Cortes with an Infection Control (Regulatory Compliance) update. Some of the exhibitors included Dentsply Ceramco, Dentsply Raintree Essix, Sirona, Argen Corp., H & H Lighting just to name a few. If you are interested in coming to River City for their next meeting, it will be held Saturday, June 13, 2009 at the same Omni hotel location. The cost for attending is $70.00 pre-registration and $100.00 at the door. Contact Richard Gamble or Diana Gaston at (210) 479-8767 to get youself on their mailing list. BUT don't forget the rescheduled DLAT Houston Conference is Nov. 21-23, 2008 at Marriott North Greenspoint. For more information you can go to our website at www.dlat.org or email me for further info.