Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Summer 2019 - 8

Trustee Report

Trustee Report, Summer 2019

Dr. Norman Nagel
PCSO Trustee

The American Association of Orthodontists (AAO)
Strategic Plan for 2018-2022 has been the guiding
document for the AAO during Dr. Brent Larson's
tenure as president of the AAO.

the meantime, the retired list keeps growing-a
group that pays no dues. There were 3390 retired
members in 2015. By 2019, that number has
grown to 3901.

Our (AAO) Mission: "To advance our members'
success through education, advocacy, and research that drive excellence in patient care."

One way to increase revenue, when membership is relatively "stable," is to look for sources of
nondues revenue. Recently, CEO Lynn Thomas
Gordon hired Ms. Mindi Tomey Brothers, who is
now the Vice-President of Growth and Transformation. Mindi presented a PowerPoint overview
of how the AAO could be less reliant on dues and
assessments to fulfill our strategic mission. Her
presentation was accompanied by a resolution,
presented by the BOT to the House of Delegates,
called the Innovation and Transformation Fund.
While Reference Committee 3 did a substitute
resolution, the final version is as follows:

Our Vision: "All orthodontic care is provided by
qualified specialists who successfully address
patient needs."
Our Goals and Objectives: (1) "Promote and
defend our specialty." (2) "Engage and delight
our members." (3) "Drive transformation and
innovation."
With this Strategic Plan ("roadmap") in mind, last
summer the Board of Trustees (BOT) went into
our board planning meeting with our facilitator, Mark T. Engle. Mark helped to get the BOT
focused this past year on looking at our board
meetings differently. I have briefly discussed
these ideas in the past. Generative discussions
attempt to frame a problem or opportunity, strategic discussions concern issues that may have
a significant impact on the AAO or our specialty,
and operational discussions focus on the routine
or core functions of the AAO. Our board meetings
have focused on those three themes throughout
the past year, allowing us to move through our
agenda with improved efficiency.
From generative discussions, the board has focused on increasing nondues income. In the 2018-
2019 budget, income from dues represented 60%
of operating revenue (excluding the assessment).
For the 2019-2020 budget, dues are scheduled
to represent 61% of the operating revenue. Also,
the membership trend on active dues-paying
members is relatively "flat." In 2015, there were
8246 active members (does not include other categories where "some" dues are paid but represent
a significantly smaller number). In 2019, there
are 8279 active members who pay full dues. In

RESOLVED, that the AAO appropriate
$3 Million from Excess Liquid Reserves
to establish an innovation and transformation fund to support development of new non-dues revenue products and services, and be it further
RESOLVED, that the Board of Trustees
(BOT) develop a plan by the November
2019 BOT meeting, that can be executed immediately as to how and
under what circumstances the funds
would be distributed, and report back
to the 2019 VHOD [Virtual House of
Delegates] and/or by February 15,
2020 House of Delegates and every
House of Delegates thereafter during
funding as to the action taken.
This resolution passed 62-2 (there are 64 delegates in the AAO House of Delegates). This is
a strong response to the AAO goal of "driving
transformation and innovation." The initial
Business Development Task Force included Dr.
John Callahan, Trustee NESO as Chair, with the
following members: Dr. Ken Dillehay, Trustee and

PCSO Bulletin Summer 2019

Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Summer 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Summer 2019