So here I am!  I must say I am awestruck to be here and to begin my tenure as the Supreme President for the extraordinary Xi Psi Phi Dental Fraternity. It was a mere 22 years ago that I was first introduced to this great organization.  I started like all of us as a student at UCSF feeling a little different and outside the core of individuals who were young students moving directly from undergraduate to dental school.  Here, I was the second oldest student in the group with 14 years work experience as a dental hygienist, a husband and young child at home, and living 35 miles from school.  As I tried to settle in and feel comfortable, I noticed a group of people that seemed to have a special bond and looked out for each other.  It wasn’t long before I learned that they were members of the dental fraternity, Xi Psi Phi!! Having had previous exposure to the fraternal organizations at UC Berkeley, I was intrigued.  I was still reluctant, because how could I fit in with all these young kids??  To my amazement I soon became good friends with Penni Yip, a very active young member, and found a home away from home with the ZIPS!!  It was within this organization that I soon felt a part of something really special!!  I truly experienced their motto “Hospitality is the life of friendship.” It is that belief that I wish everyone could have and live by!! I could not have survived dental school without that feeling of community and family that the ZIP fraternity provided.  I was first introduced to the members of the Supreme chapter in Memphis at the Supreme Assembly, and again found the fellowship and instant friendships a breath of fresh air in these times of restrained commitments and constant movement within our society.      It is my objective as Supreme President for all members to not only experience this phenomenon of feeling part of a bigger whole, but to seek out others who need and want to be included in this family. 

As so many individuals before me, I, too strive to see our fraternity continue to grow and expand to serve the needs of its members.    I come here before all of you with some lofty goals that I wish for our fraternity, but I do not have the clear cut answers to achieve them.  I would like our Supreme Chapter to have a greater impact on our dental students by continuing to make our Supreme assemblies a high priority and having increased interaction with our students.  I believe this can be accomplished by increasing our presence on social media websites.  Our world is changing so quickly and we must ride the tide so that we are can maintain a presence in the busy lives of today’s dental students.  We have discussed this possibility numerous times before, but I reach out to all our members for help in this endeavor.  I hope to find a technical guru to help us jump start this project!! It would be awesome if we could connect the individual chapters who have facebook to the national website!! The horizon has changed drastically since the early days of the birth of our fraternity in 1889 and we must adjust to stay current. 

 I am so excited to hear we have a record number of new members this year totally over 400.  It must be our goal to make sure we keep in contact with these individuals, so that they too may experience the value of our fraternity not only today, but in the future as well.  Our students often join Xi Psi Phi, because they seek social interaction and FUN activities, but they can also benefit greatly from mentorships and networking post graduation to help establish their future.  This is an important benefit many students do not realize. So many of our members have contributed their time and energy to strengthen and support our fraternity so that others may benefit.  I encourage all members to become involved and at the very least become contributing alumni, so that we can continue to be presence in the dental community. 

We have discussed the financial state of the fraternity in the past.  Xi Psi Phi invested some its assets into investment funds that have not performed to our expectations resulting in a depletion of funds.  At the last annual board meeting a committee was formed to research this aspect and propose a better solution to our current state.  I am excited and look forward to hearing and working with this committee, so that we can insure the vitality of this great organization and that future generations will enjoy the benefits of Xi Psi Phi fraternity.

In this time of worldwide and economic uncertainty, I have the comfort of knowing that my relationships within the fraternity can serve as a resource for support.  This year has been a difficult year for some of our board members who have had challenging physical illness to overcome and by sharing with their Xi Psi Phi family, I know they felt our support.   I am a strong believer in the power of prayer and I feel that the more people that are surrounding you with light and the power of positive thinking, the greater the possibilities of overcoming obstacles.  To those of you out there, I hope you know that we are here for you.  I greatly value the time when we come together to share ideas and experiences as this allows us to enhance our lives, as well as our profession.  This to me is invaluable (priceless).  For this reason I have chosen “support” as our biennial password, in hopes that all our members will realize and embody this aspect of our Xi Psi Phi fraternity.  I hope and pray that all our members will embrace, support, and strengthen this fraternity for our future together!

Fraternally,

Anne-Lise Fink, Supreme President

Iota Chapter, 1994

Concord, California

(Supreme President Fink has selected the following Xi Psi Phi BIENNIAL "password" - SUPPORT)