Thursday, December 12, 2013
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The FOS will host its annual meeting on Tuesday, 22 OCT 2013 in Seattle in the Club Room of the Tap House, beginning with a mentorship lunch and 4 hours of COPE approved CE.  The annual business meeting and reception will follow the CE portion of the meeting.

The COPE approved courses are "Practice Management in Socialized Healthcare" and "Healthcare Fraud Red Flags".  The healthcare fraud lecture will be presented in part by a current Department of Defense Criminal Investigative Service Special Agent based in the Seattle area, who will offer a question and answer session at the end of the lecture.  This presents a rare opportunity to hear first-hand from an active Special Agent and will be particularly useful for new graduates or those who will soon graduate.

Click here for a meeting flyer.

Members can register for this meeting.

Non-members: register for the reception

CE database

The FOS is gathering COPE approved CE information to populate a database of federal OD COPE-approved CE courses.  If you are a federal service optometrist and have any COPE-approved CE lectures, please let us know by writing to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .  If you provide your name, we can look up your courses information in the COPE directory.

Featured Article

Current Efforts

ARBO Distance Learning Policy - In early September, Dr. Auvil requested an ARBO policy change to update online continuing education requirements.  If successful, these changes will greatly benefit federal service ODs as the current federal budget crisis becomes the new normal and commands are no longer able to fund optometry continuing education.

FOS Award Program - This has proven to be more challenging than first anticipated, but the FOS recognizes the value of a this very deliberate process so we get it right the first time.  The FOS Award Program promises an innovative and inclusive opportunity for high-achievers.

CE database - As budgets dwindle, regions prefer to bring presenters to a large provider audience to meet CE requirements. This database will support such regions (Pacific, Europe for example) and the FOS will freely share this information with Services, if requested.

FOS Board of Directors - Watch on the member site in the next few weeks for FOS Director nominations.

Mentorship - This never-ending process is critical for organizational success.  Leaders MUST build the bench to prepare subordinates, peers must share knowledge to elevate the entire organization, and subordinates must inform leadership through cooperative interaction. The FOS exists largely for this purpose.

Member Resource Section

The Member Resource Section includes the following categories: Clinical Operations, Professional Development and Mentorship Development.  FOS Members can share files on the Member Resources page including video, PowerPoint slides, Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, Adobe PDF documents, etc.

FOS Brand Promise

"...to be the premier, in-house venue for federal optometrists to share knowledge..."

Qualification Criteria

You can join the FOS if you are or ever were a federally-employed optometrist or if you are currently attending optometry school on a federal scholarship. There are various member categories depending on employment status, including student membership, resident membership, active and retired memberships. The membership category drives the rates for dues.

Membership Dues

Membership dues depend on your federal employment status and are reduced for qualifying membership in other organizations. There is also a temporary Founding Member category for people interested in helping the organization get off to a good start. For the first year of the organization, members may choose to join as a Founding Member at a rate of $200. Renewals will then be at the normal member rate,...

Why Should I Join?

     Members will have access to top-quality, low-cost, COPE-approved CE during FOS sponsored meetings. The FOS will also offer Mentorship Education (ME) and Professional Education (PE).  These tracks will target members at various milestones in their careers to offer advice through prepared lectures and member interaction.      Our annual meeting will...

How do I join?

First, congratulations on your decision to join the Federal Optometric Society. There are just a few things you need to do to join the organization - you have to register, decide whether or not you want to be a Founding Member, and then pay your membership dues. Simply click on the register link at the top of the home page, fill out the demographic information, and submit your registration request....

The FOS salutes the American Optometric Society for its active and direct support of the profession. Specifically, AOS was very generous to federal service optometrists by providing CE at no cost. Thanks for serving those who serve, and best wishes to the members as they grow into a new organization.

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