The OAA Leadership conference is over, enlighten us?
Hi All,
I heard from our state Secretary Treasure this morning, having returned from the OAA leadership conference in Charleston. He missed a day because his plane was grounded in Detroit Airport.
Question to all that attended, what conclusions did you come to?
:bbg: Jerry
The mighty oak tree was once a little nut that held its ground
The OAA Leadership Conference was all that we had hoped for and more! However, I've been out of my shop for 3 days and need a day to catch up and organize my thoughts. I'll be ready to share tomorrow, or maybe Wednesday, since I seem to be quite busy today...:bbg:
Judy
It's good having you back. Hope to hear some good things about what the meeting accomplished.
:bbg: Jerry
The mighty oak tree was once a little nut that held its ground
I approached the OAA Leadership Conference with cautious optimism. Last year was a particularly difficult one in very many ways and a small group of us decided that it was time to make some changes.
The meeting in Charleston was more enthusiastic, more confident and more dedicated to the future than we had a right to expect. We were briefed on the current financial situation at OAA, and while it was as dismal as we had expected, the numbers we saw were real and provided a framework for us to begin work. Every attendee had the opportunity to express their states wants and needs from OAA and we were able to condense these to 26 talking points and then establish our top 3 priorities. They included effective, consistent and regular communications between OAA and its constituency, an effective Executive Director and staff, and an updated mission as a legislative and business advocate.
We also exchanged ideas on meeting planning, effective state level communications, public relations and member recruitment and retention.
It was truly gratifying to see representatives from so many state organizations, including Florida, Texas and New Jersey who have been absent in past years. In fact, our conference attendance was up by about 30% over last year. Opticianry is poised to move strongly into the future, advocating college-based education programs and licensure in every state.
You all know what's coming next...it's going to cost money and time. In the past, the bulk of OAA's revenues were from Firm Member dues. The reality is that the numbers of Firm Members are shrinking as the number of independently owned Optical firms decline. We, as individual members and as members of our affiliated state associations, must pick up the slack. We can't wait until something tangible happens to help us make that financial commitment. We must band together, pay our dues at the state and national levels and keep the momentum begun in Charleston pressing forward.
Judy
Thank you for the information. I feel that there is direction in the process now. Was the current leadership of OAA present? With these goals in mind the leadership must make plans and commit to the communication with each state. I look forward to the outcome of the national meeting and hopefully a union in the future with NAO. Thank you again for taking the time to give us a look at the postive move the leadership conference attendees made.
:D Jerry
The mighty oak tree was once a little nut that held its ground
Yes, the current OAA leadership was there and enthusiastically involved in the entire process. While I don't see a merger with NAO in the future, I see a strong commitment to changing the face of OAA. Perhaps if we see more women involved in the process at the state and national levels, we'll even see some women in executive roles.
It is time for EVERY Optician to get on board and keep this train running!
Judy
With the resources divided between OAA, NAO and CLSA it would seem that after OAA organizes that dialogue to come to an understanding and cooperation would be a great advantage.
Jerry
The mighty oak tree was once a little nut that held its ground
This was my first leadership conference. I went with an open mind and no expectations. I left convinced that a new day was dawning for OAA. As president of the Texas Ophthalmic Professionals Society, I will be recommending to the board and general membership that we rejoin OAA.
Carol D
Carol, that is truly music to my ears. I enjoyed meeting and talking with you and hope to see you in Atlanta in July!
Carol, I realize you weren't that involve in the process that had our Texas Association leave the OAA, but it was personaly very discouraging, since I had served as a COAT Board member for 16 years and served on the Guild and OAA Board and as Guild Chairman. Seemed like resigning from the OAA was two steps back in our efforts to unify our state associations, same goes for the POF in Florida! I believed that when you worked for ALL opticians that that was one way to work best for Texas opticians as well, what affects any of us affect all of us!
The one point that seemed to echo thoughout this meeting is that it was time to put the negitive past behind us and move forward into a positive future.
Carol, I hope as many people felt as positive about the meeting as you did, thank you attending and keeping an open mind, we are the leaders of opticinary in our respective states, and as a group we need to be the leaders of opticinary in the united states.
Tom
So true. The positive remarks I've heard from here and e-mail from our state association leaders looks like we are on an uphill. Now for Action at the convention!
:bbg: Jerry
The mighty oak tree was once a little nut that held its ground
My first OAA Leadership conference was in 1991. At that meeting, as just a state society board member (not an officer), and as a business owner, and as a person who had only been back in the US for only 1-1/2 years, I made this statement and I think is still applies:
"OAA IS NOT OUR MOTHER! OAA is not a place /person you go to get some consolation, rocking, sweet-talk and a nipple to suck on! Individual opticians and state societies need to get off their ABOC's and educate themselves instead of asking "mother" to get them some respect!"
What we found out at the latest gathering in Charleston is that "mother" is no longer able to provide milk - for one reason or another.
I say again: OAA is not our Mother, IT IS OUR CHILD! It was state society leaders (mostly owners & BTW the back-then baby chains) who came together to create an organization that they could make into a strong national voice. And that is what OAA needs to be today! We must feed, nurture and support this child -- probably all of our lives.
What we did learn at the latest meeting is that even the licensed states are in jeoprady and they they greatly benefited from a communications system established last year that enabled them to get to word to state leaders and other interested opticians who would write letters to the decision makers in the states where they were being challenged
This is powerful! But then why would a state like Florida not want to unify with the rest? If for no other reason than just out of thankfulness for the response?
Another thing we found was needed is a national database for information regarding legal cases and studies that point to the need for licensure in all states.
So we need OAA, not as a Big Brother to come and help fight the bullies, but a national communications center and a clearing house of ideas and a storage bank for information that can be researched and drawn upon by its members.
Get out your check books not your critique sheets!
If in fact, this is where the membership wants to go, then is would follow that each person has equal representation and equal value in the orgainzation and therefore should pay an equal amount. Non of this "big states" getting a break per member while the small states have to pay full price!
I still don't get it!
Homer
Equal representation is critical at OAA. Not only in votes but also in dues. The rigid rules put in place by the executive board at OAA has made it difficult to make any changes. Also a "child" doesn't replace its parent (Connecticut and Tennessee) with other parents.
Jerry
The mighty oak tree was once a little nut that held its ground
Homer,
Thank you for a response that answered one of my questions about the OAA. If this is what truly has come out of the State Leaders Conference, then you have answered my "What is the OAA?" question very well.
If I read your post correctly, then the OAA is not a member proclaimed "Optician's Union" but a tool and an interface that will allow all members to create a unified message and voice as well as share information.
Absolutely Correct!
Homer
That was it's original purpose even back when most of the members were firm owners and corporate executives.
What happened in the last 10 years is that the "Chains" were kicked out by the Firm Owners, becasue of fear, and they tried to recover by developing individual membership.
What has happened since then is a dynamic shift in the demographics of membership - firm members dying like flies at the end of Summer and a younger, female, employee tendancy of the new members.
The "Old Guard" for some reason did not read the writting on the wall and the organization took a nose dive. The OAA leadership began to believe that it had a life seperate from the State Societies and its members. Just like a government bureaucracy, it took on a life of its own, a life that was never intended.
Now many of the owners and former owners, other very interested people, and members are trying to change the rules to make it a more democratic system - imagine having to talk about this in America. The other alternative is to terminate this "child" and start a new one. We think there is a good chance that this one will respond to dicipline.
So, we can make a difference but we will all need to become involved from the ground up. Get on board (perhaps on the board) with your local society and then OAA. I think it is our only hope of improving the lot of opticianry in America. I don't have the energy to start again from scratch - besides being too old.
Homer
Never too old. The only path to success is to listen to the wise ones about the past and accept advise and guidance from those leaders. No one should stop in this battle until the train is on the track.
:D :cheers: :bbg: Jerry
The mighty oak tree was once a little nut that held its ground
the chains were not kicked out by the firm owners, the chains were kicked out by the state societies, it started at a state leadership conference in tuscon AZ. the state societies said that they did not want the chains there because they would then know what they were planning and stratiges. This cost OAA a lot of money but they reacted to this request. The states were also worried about block voteing and a potential takeover.
state societies could have a lot more control if they would just all join and work together instead of bickering about joining oaa.
right now they pretty much could control the vote and who controls the vote controls who is elected. instead they let the nominating committee put up names and then just vote on them.
At leadership they could have decided who they wanted to put up for nominating committee and who they wanted to put up for seats on the board. if the present nominating committee decided to put up other names then you have a real election. The states control the votes. They still can if they would talk and decide on names and submit them before may 20th
The billboard and busses advertising was in 1992 and it did cause some concern for the od's but there was not enough money to run it longer than 2 months.
while you might be correct about the state societies kicking out the chains, at that time the state leaders were largely owners.
Would like to offer some suggestion for nominations? Are you one the leadership e-mail list?
I thought I'd bring this thread back up. It deserves a second look.
Thank You Judy
We need to look at this and reflect on the upcoming convention.
:cheers: Jerry
The mighty oak tree was once a little nut that held its ground
Some of us are waiting eagerly for news.
Richard,
We've been discussing the results in the thread titled "OAA/SEOC results".
Judy
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks