Please e-mail me any more ideas for increasing membership and improving our visibility to the public.

I would like some suggestions for General meetings. We are required to have four per year. We have had a very poor turn out of members and non-members at our meetings during the last 2 years. I got the attendance up a bit last year. I was able to get sponsors for food and mailing costs each of my terms as president. The more attendance we have the easier it is for me to get sponsors. It costs about $900 to put on a meeting. This does not include hours of my time and that of other BOD members. We only get about $800 in dues money per month unless membership is increased. The meetings have not been attracting people who whish to join CCA. I feel that our dues is better spent on keeping up our website, yellow page listings and other activities that may benefit OCCD members and attract more CCA members. I need your feedback.

Let’s also have some fun. Let me know if you want to have more formal lectures, more social events for chiropractors to interact with each other, a Holiday party, CCA sponsored booths at health fairs…. This is your society. I cannot do it alone. Please e-mail suggestions for future meetings if you want any. Any feed back about a big party in the park for the entire family and guests, baseball tailgate party, holiday party, Kids Day publicity, Spinal Health week, Health Fair, etc… E-mail me at: DrHeller@BeaHellerDC.com

We are limited on what we can spend on political activities. We all need to be doing more for our own profession at this time. Please visit our OCCD website. I try to keep it updated weekly to include National as well as California legislation. If you want to schedule a meeting with your Senator or Representative or have political connections on a National level, please contact these people. Schedule breakfast or lunch with these people. Some of us BOD members will be glad to join you. 

Call CCA to get more information to help you present the chiropractic profession and our needs to politicians. Seeing the need for the benefits of chiropractic care for their voters encourages politicians vote to protect our practice rights. We need a Key doctor on the OCCD/BOD. This position is very important to keep our legislators informed. OCCD BOD members are here to help. We cannot do this without greater participation of other chiropractors. Please encourage any non-members you know to join CCA at this crucial time. Remember: Hawaii lost Work Comp! It can happen to us. The acupuncturists are on the list to be removed because they are not included in the Medicare fee schedule. We chiropractors are fighting just to keep our fees at a reasonable rate. 

As President for the last few terms, I have tried to add some benefits to joining CCA/OCCD. I created the www.OCChiro.org website to help serve our needs to communicate with one another. Please look at all the pages. CCA members can post equipment for sale, adds for CAs, associates, vacation relief, etc., for no charge. I have sold equipment to out of state. Associates from out of state looking for jobs have found jobs. Our website is viewed worldwide. To get local exposure I created the yellow page add for each phonebook in Orange County with the phone number toll free direct to CCA matching our website address. 1-866-OCChiro Our website is also listed in the yellow pages. A referral service was too expensive to implement, but our website has search features for location and techniques. There is also a direct link to individual doctor websites, e-mail, and a photo. I took digital photos of many of our members and have posted these at no charge. You have the option of e-mailing me a digital photo to post or coming by my office and having me take a photo if you have not yet made it to a meeting. I get 2 to 3 new patients a week from just my website listing. I noticed that many people are searching for a doctor during work hours via the web and cross checking with their insurance company lists. Even if you do not have a website yet being listed on the OCCD site can help grow your practice.

We have a public service section where you can list your food drives, health fairs, etc… We also have a member news section. This is a great place to announce a new office location, any wins in your life, addition of a new associate, new technique certification, etc… This would be the place a press release would go. Any DC to DC communication, such as the CCA chat line would go through CCA.

The legislative updates from ACA are posted weekly. I felt it was important to keep everybody informed of potential legislative changes Nationally and in California. I also felt that the public should be aware that these changes are also going to affect them.

We had a practice management and nutrition section that I would like to re-activate. Please send in any contributions to OUR website that you would feel would serve the public or our profession.

Thank you all for being CCA members. I hope our OCCD BOD can help you. We also would like you to help us by e-mailing us with your suggestions. We also appreciate any help you may be willing to offer. We also have more positions on our BOD if you would like to join us.

Sincerely,

Bea Heller, D.C.
OCCD President