The Value of Membership: AAO Advocacy
Dr. Trista Felty | Abbotsford, British Columbia | PCSO Trustee on the AAO Board of Trustees
The year 2021–2022 was a banner year for American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) membership, and we achieved a 98% active member renewal rate for the first time in a decade combined with significant growth in active member recruitment. In 2021, the House of Delegates approved new international dues structures through a series of resolutions. After implementation of the new dues structure, international membership saw considerable growth, with an 11 percentage point increase in renewals. At the conclusion of fiscal year (FY) 2022, 86.5% of US practicing orthodontists will be AAO members. This is up from 86.3% in 2021 and 86.0% in 2020. For comparison, the American Dental Association market share is 58.5% as of 2021.
When we discuss the value of membership, advocacy is continually cited as one of the top member benefits that distinguishes the AAO from other orthodontic entities that provide offerings to our members. In addition, our specialty faces significant threats from competitors and disruptors. As direct-to-consumer business models evolve and new teledentistry parameters and regulations are adopted, the need to advocate on behalf of the patient and public health and safety is becoming increasingly important. Therefore, it is more important than ever to ensure that our advocacy program is strong, well designed, and effective. To that end, during the past year, a task force was created to evaluate our political action committee (PAC) and Council on Governmental Affairs (COGA). This task force extensively reviewed COGA and PAC, with input from the AAO advocacy team, outside legal counsel, and our lobbying firm, and developed recommendations that we believe will allow both programs to be more active, responsive, and effective in dealing with the changing advocacy needs of our members.
A comprehensive AAO PAC relaunch is underway, including the website www.AAOPAC.org. There is now a formal Pillars of Giving to strategically guide the fund distribution process, official fundraising goals, and leveraging Member of Congress AAO PAC relationships for influence on AAO regulatory priorities. Recently, we also secured members of congress to request the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct an investigative study on direct-to-consumer oversight of medical devices by the Federal Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission, including orthodontic company products. The GAO study commenced in the summer of 2022, resulting from AAO advocating the importance of this probe on mail-order orthodontic companies and lack of oversight for patient health and safety.
“Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.” —Helen Keller
There has also been an increase in media advocacy. There are more than 25 unique, customized advocacy resources to better tell our story to decision makers on AAO policy priorities. These include one-pagers, a toolkit, social media graphics, and press releases, and so on. There has also been an increase in grassroots AAO member engagement. More than 1000 AAO members are engaged on priority federal and state advocacy campaigns. Our advocacy-focused website, www.orthofacts.org, and other associated resources allow us to maximize opportunities for grassroots outreach on AAO advocacy priorities. You may have already noticed the new advocacy-focused publication The Orthodontic Advocate. The goals of FY2022 include focusing on a range of issues, such as teledentistry, workforce training and shortages, small business initiatives, and student loan debt challenges, and addressing mail-order orthodontic concerns relating to patient health and safety. As noted in my previous report, the Staff Shortage Task Force has developed a multipronged approach to help address the staffing shortage. One important component to this is helping to advocate in states that are highly restrictive with regard to regulated duties of orthodontic assistants.
Another high-ranking member benefit reported by members is the AAO’s Consumer Awareness Program or the CAP, which is the only mass-market campaign promoting orthodontic specialists and educating the public to see an orthodontist in person. The website has more than 4.4 million users, with more than 3.6 million views of the “find an orthodontist locator” function. The AAO CAP online ads has had more than 100 million views with more than 180 million impressions. I have heard members wonder why they, themselves, do not see these ads frequently. The all-digital campaign is targeting those who have an interest in learning more about orthodontic treatment as well as specific demographic profiles. The CAP has also won five American Advertising Awards in the past year for the series titled “The Almost-Right Person.”
As always, please feel free to reach out to me directly at tfelty@aaortho.org with any questions or concerns!
“Success is best when it is shared.” —Howard Schultz