President's Message
Well good day fellow surgeons, it has definitely been a hot beginning to summer.
There has been a lot of activity over the last several months at your American College of Osteopathic Surgeons. Let me provide a bit of detail on what’s been happening with the organization...
First, there has been significant concern over the relationship of the American Osteopathic Board of Surgery and your American College of Osteopathic Surgeons. Let me assure you that we are in good communication with the board, and while we feel that the transition last October certainly had significant difficulties as well as significant communication problems between the AOBS and the AOA that affected all our members, we feel that the collegiality expressed and informative meeting that we had together on June 8 helped us to establish a better relationship with the board. We also feel that our members absolutely need and deserve support from our College as we look to the future regarding primary as well as continuing Osteopathic certification efforts. We know that some significant improvements are coming. For example; starting this fall the written examinations will be going electronic. We will try to have more information regarding this as October approaches. There are new examination questions that will challenge yet fairly assess our members. With that in mind, if you desire to continue or begin to be involved with the oral examination process needs of the AOBS, it is suggested that you contact the AOBS directly for information on participation.
The college is kicking off the "I’m in" campaign. We talked about this briefly at our October meeting in National Harbor. This campaign will showcase the many ways ACOS supports the osteopathic surgical community. It serves as the common thread connecting key initiatives with the benefits of membership. Our objective behind this campaign is to highlight the role of this organization as the home for the Osteopathic surgeon as both educator and advocate. We will also provide our members with opportunities for feedback and encourage members to share how they are “in.“ This campaign will have its own branding and you should be looking for this on our newsletters as well as social media. “I'm in“ will encourage our members to make the most of their ACOS membership, identifying the advantages of the many ACOS initiatives that promote and support the Osteopathic surgical community. We want to inform our members of the many awesome opportunities available for them to beneficially engage with ACOS, and their colleagues.
We want to congratulate our CEO, Linda Taliaferro, for being recently selected as Vice President of the national Society of Osteopathic Specialty Associations, SOSA. This will give us not only an opportunity for a unified and large voice for our AOA specialties but especially surgeons in the house of medicine.
Finally, the week of 16 July your executive committee will meet at the AOA’s annual Board of Trustees and House of Delegates meetings to continue discussions related to our recent member survey, the future, and new and exciting opportunities of the ACOS. We will have a presence at the House of Delegates as well.
We look forward to bringing you updates following these meetings. We hope to see you in October in Atlanta For the Annual Clinical Assembly.
Ray L. Morrison, D.O., FACOS
President
American College of Osteopathic Surgeons