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04.20.14
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Bea Heller, D.C.
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June 2004
Dear OCCD/CCA Member:
It is finally time to pass the baton. I have served as OCCD
President for 5 of the last 6 terms. I have great confidence in Dr.
Paul Gregory serving as your next President.
We have reached the most of the goals, which I have set for my terms
in office.
 | Get the meeting notices out before the meetings in a cost effective way. I created postcards so that they could be mail-merged by Kinko’s and sent at bulk mail rates from the post office, rather than using a costly and frequently late bulk mailing service. This also eliminated the need for hand labeling and stamping from initially 1100, to 1616 postcards this past year. Yeah!
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| Meetings were scheduled 6 months to one year in advance, as per CCA guidelines. Unfortunately, this did not continue after my 3rd term.
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| Increase attendance at General Meetings. We went from 5 to 65-70 attendees!
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| Speakers were professional presenters.
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| Meeting topics included cutting edge technology, ways to make money, improve our practices, marketing, golf games,
etc.. I wanted to add topics that we might not have heard at our usual seminars and would appeal to different doctors with different interests. I began to see different faces each time we had meetings.
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| Speakers were required to become CCA members.
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| Sponsors were required to become CCA members.
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| We greatly increased our Professional Affiliate membership by offering tabletop space, and requiring door prizes of their choice to give away at meetings.
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| I called every member during my 2nd term and personally spoke with
them. This allowed me to add fax numbers, and for the first time, E-mail addresses, to our database. I also discovered that we were mailing to incorrect addresses. This has greatly improved our ability to communicate with our members.
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| I instituted our website to replace the function of our costly newsletter. After Kenneth Martin, D.C., was no longer working on our initial website, I took over the creation and editing of our website. By changing the website to a Front Page format we have eliminated our dependence on custom coding writers. This has allowed me to use off-the-shelf software with the assistance of Tony Vaca as our website host. Utilizing his services allows us to be placed high on the search engine lists.
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| Our membership increased from 135 doctors to 190 doctors. I have had the opportunity to sponsor about 25% of the additional members. CCA and all of our members have been a great help in this endeavor.
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| Have inexpensive, easy to find, centrally located meeting rooms with catered
dinners. This past year our meeting speakers/sponsors fully paid for ¾ of our General Meetings. We went from very expensive cookies and coffee at a very expensive hotel - to a free meeting room and finger food - to the community center in Costa Mesa with catered dinner. Our next meeting, June 8, will be at El Torito Grill, Fashion Island. We will have delicious Mexican Food - All courtesy of our sponsor,
TrueMRI!
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| Offer our website as a means to communicate with each other and
CCA. You can always go to the website to find other members, place ads for CA’s and associates. (I have a new CA who saw the ad while looking up her DC on the Internet and found our website!) As a member benefit, there is no charge for placing an ad for an
OCCD/CCA member. (I have had people join CCA just to place an ad!) You can also find previous speakers listed, as well as our upcoming events. I have created more than 300 pages on our website for your benefit.
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| Help promote the practices of our members. I have listed all our members on our website. Potential patients may search by city for a member doctor. I have personally taken photos of members at our meetings, edited them, and had them placed on our website along with information about the practices of each doctor.
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| Created a toll free, easy to remember number to reach CCA. 1-866-OCCHIRO is for our members to use and for potential new members to call
CCA.
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| Improved the image of chiropractic to the public via our website
www.OCCHIRO.org and via our matching yellow page phone number listing for CCA/OCCD. Our website serves as a resource for the public regarding chiropractic, our education and training, nutrition information, etc. It gives us a professional image.
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| At each meeting we donate money from non-members to the
CCA-PAC.
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| Members attend general meetings for FREE as a members benefit.
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| We hired Sharon to update our mailing list and added over 500 non-members from the State Board website to our CCA/OCCD mailing list. These people were receiving any information from CCA or us. From that point we had her do an Internet search for phone numbers. We then had her call all new numbers to get fax numbers and e-mails. We started with no e-mails and only a few fax numbers. We now have over 700 fax numbers, 400 e-mails and a mailing list of 1610 OC doctors. This has greatly improved our chances of getting new members.
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| Having our finances kept in Quicken instead of pegboard. This allows us to eliminate the cost of an accountant creating the reports needed to be sent to CCA and can help us better track our expenses.
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| Reduced spending of BOD meetings by meeting in homes rather than restaurants.
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| Have professional headshots of officers on our website. Thanks to a photographer friend of mine, this finally happened for free, in 2002.
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| Have every OCCD BOD position filled. This year we actually have more people running than positions. We still have many Presidential appointed positions available for Dr. Gregory to fill. |
I could not have accomplished this by myself!!! I would like to thank:
| Dr. Burdi for helping me convince the BOD we needed to join the 21st century by going digital. Thanks for all the help with the mass e-mailing and assistance with the postcards and for being there to help check-in attendees at General Meetings.
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| Dr. Nowicki for keeping us informed about legislation and his tireless political work and CCA-PAC efforts.
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| Dr. Bates for working with me so diligently throughout these 5 terms. During my first year, helping me find a new meeting room for free, setting up the general meetings and speakers, giving me guidance, stuffing envelopes during CCA Directors meetings, and more. I have always valued your advice. Thank you for stepping in to help continue the work of Treasurer and learning Quicken. Your professionalism is greatly
appreciated.
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| Dr. Storm for taking on the task of transferring our finances, and for tackling the daunting task of initially categorizing everything into Quicken.
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| Dr. Murphy for serving as Treasurer and Secretary. Thanks for keeping meticulous records, making the transition to Quicken much easier.
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| Dr. Caldwell for being there at every General Meeting with food, scheduling and suggesting speakers, making the meetings go smoothly while serving as 1st VP.
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| Dr. Ahrens for his work with membership and for his professional guidance.
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| Dr. Gahn for his generous spirit of caring and volunteerism.
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| Dr. Soloway for her go-get-it-done-now attitude.
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| Dr. McAndrews for sharing her skills in marketing, editing, helping with the flyers, helping with our Town Hall Meeting and her professional guidance.
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| Susan Pellegrini for her tireless assistance at OCCD BOD and General meetings. She always had great smile on her face. She is greatly missed as a BOD member and as a friend.
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| Dr. Thomas for helping out with e-mailing and promoting our meetings even when not on the OCCD
BOD.
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| Dr. Kole for his enthusiasm and desire to promote Chiropractic.
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| Dr. Dundas for his suggestions at General Meetings.
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| Dr. Pryal for going above and beyond the duties of his elected OCCD BOD positions. He has been our best Secretary, setting the standard at a high level. As Alternate Director, thank you for attending 2 of the last 3 Directors’ Meetings and reporting back with meticulous, accurate and timely messages. Thank you many times over for the many referrals of speakers and sponsors. Several have donated thousands of dollars to
OCCD. Your professional contacts have been greatly appreciated. Thank you for your willingness to step in, as a speaker when one was needed, twice! I have always been able to count on you to go over and beyond the call of duty. Thanks for the help you have given me through the years, when I need another professional or legal opinion regarding OCCD matters. Your wisdom and years of chiropractic experience have been a great help to me.
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| Shawn Steel for his continuing generosity and support of CCA and
OCCD.
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| Dr. Gregory for his work in many OCCD BOD positions, especially with his membership work. He could always be counted on for helping with general meetings. His professionalism and desire to do what is right is a great asset to our profession. Thank you for taking the baton. I look forward to watching OCCD grow and prosper with your guidance. |
There is still more to be done.
| We need to be able to reach as many doctors as possible, especially when a legislative crisis pops up. CCA has now hired a staff person to update their list from the State Board. We still need people to help us locate phone numbers, fax numbers and e-mail addresses of non-members. It costs us a lot of money to mail to everybody, so stay on that digital highway!
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| Please check the website to see that your practice information is correct. If you want your picture on your listing, please attend the next general meeting June 8, so I can take your picture. You may also e-mail me a digital headshot. Limit your listing to include techniques, PT equipment, specialties, QME. Do not list that you do Work/comp. Give us your website and e-mail address to post for you. E-mail this to me. If your listing needs correcting notify me. CCA has no way set up for me to get changes, only adds and drops.
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| If you wish to use our classified section, please send me the add and notify me when the add needs to be removed. If you found a new associate, sold something, send a testimonial. This helps me recruit new members.
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| If you have a lead for a new member, notify me so I can tell them the benefits of joining and what our website can do. Also call Scott van Horn. Ask other professionals (MDs, PTs, Other vendors) to join as Professional Affiliates for $175 year.
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| Notify Dr. Nowicki of your interest in being a Key Doctor.
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| Call Dr. Gregory at 714-541-0400 and volunteer for an OCCD committee.
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| Give Dr. Thomas leads for speakers and sponsors.
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| Fill out the OCCD survey on the other side of this letter and return it so we can plan for the next year.
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| Vote and Volunteer!
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Attend the
Convention in San Diego, June 18-20, 2004.
Attend the next OCCD General Meeting, June 8, 2004
Great Lecture "Learn to Read MRIs"
Learn when to
order an MRI vs. a CT, when to order an MRI with or without
contrast. Learn when and when not to order an MRI.
This promises
to be a great media presentation and enjoyable learning experience.
Some of you may have already heard the sales pitch from our sponsor.
This is actually a radiology learning session.
El Torito Grill - Fashion Island
951 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach (949) 640-2875
5 - 7:00 pm - Taco & Tequila at Happy Hour
7:00 – 9:00 pm - TrueMRI is providing a Catered dinner!
Diagnose! Document! Confirm! Get Paid!
Do not let insurance companies cut off care when
patients are still in pain. Positional MRI may help
find the discopathy with the help of gravity.
RSVP to our Host: (714) 490-3983 Susan Zeldin
or email szeldin@truemri.com
www.truemri.com
Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your OCCD President for so many years. I started without many computer skills. I have learned a lot. I have grown a lot. I have, at times, put in more than 20 hours per week at this volunteer job. This has taken its toll on my health and on my practice. I need to focus more on myself now.
I hope to see you all at the General Meeting and at the June Convention.
Sincerely,
Bea Heller, D.C.
President, OCCD
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