For those of you who haven't heard of Branch and Sections, Stephanie Van Der Wens, Local Services Manager, offers students a flavour of what you can expect

Branch and Sections are an active network built up of local groups and arrange meetings in the local area which offers a great way to network and meet like minded people.

The Branches, Sections and Divisions offer a varied programme of educational events and webinars on both clinical and general topics plus social events to help raise the profile of the BDA and the profession from a local perspective. The Divisions consist of community dentists and regularly meet virtually and in-person to support community dentists in the local area.

How - and why - you can get involved

Attending your local meeting will not only give you an opportunity to learn and gain valuable CPD or attend a fun social gathering, but it will also give you valuable skills to network and meeting local peers means it opens the doors to job opportunities and to learn from those who have been in the field for years. There is a mix of face-to-face and virtual meetings available, which can help to work around your university schedule.

Branch and Section meetings are open for both BDA members and non-members and are often free or subsided by the committee.

There are also opportunities to join a committee as a local officer if you're a BDA member to help develop their events, from evening lectures, study days to gin tasting events, you can share your ideas with the committee and help make them happen.

In the past two years, we've had young dentists join local committees and they have taken on roles including Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Young Dentist Representative, Student Representative and general committee members. These young dentists have been thriving in their roles and have often helped bring back events/webinars to their local community.