2017 Future Leaders of Optometry Award Preston Cup to Illinois College of Optometry - Private Practice Club (ICO PPC)
Award presented at the 7th Annual Student Optometric Leadership Network (SOLutioN) Leadership Conference in Dallas, TX
President: Mohammed Jomha (ICO Class of 2018) President Elect: Jessica Capri (ICO Class of 2019)
Congratulations ICO PPC!
List and explain the activities your club has done over the past year to advance business education for your members?
The ICO PPC team explored 6 different avenues of advancing business education for its members! Dining With The Docs: This form of business educations aims to provide students with an opportunity to meet in a small group with private practicing OD's to discuss aspects of optometry after school as well as owning a business. This personalized setting is second to none and this was reflected through the numerous reviews we received in the past! This year we reached out to over 20 practicing optometrists and managed to hold two separate sets of Dining With The Docs sessions; one open for the entire college and the other reserved strictly for 3rd year students upon completion of NBEO part 1!
Practice Opportunities Symposium Evening Social: We recognized the importance of networking and its impact on our potential futures as students. So we pushed to have our second annual social event! This event is held after a huge networking symposium sponsored by the college; the ICO Practice Opportunities Symposium. We worked with administration and other practicing optometrists to host this social event at a local Chicago Bar that provided our members with drinks, appetizers, and most importantly more opportunities to meet numerous doctors in a more relaxed setting. Doctors shared practice management pearls and prizes were raffled off at the end of the night. Guest Presentations: Guest presentations were the bread and butter of our club this past year. They brought many different perspectives and pearls for our members! Here are the numerous different presenters we had the pleasure of working with:
Dr. Eric Baas: “Why private practice” first year orientation comparing the advantages and disadvantages of private practice vs corporate practice. Ms. Daphne Anderson cosponsored by ICOPro: Learn the real life ins, outs, tips, tricks, do’s, don’ts, and everything in between about resume building, interviewing, and networking! Practice Management: Billing, Coding, and beyond with Kirk Mack of Corcoran Consulting Group! One of the top comments many ICO graduates make is "I wish I learned more about billing and coding before I graduated." So the Career Developments office here at ICO is taking steps to change that! PPC joined in on the opportunity and invited all students to attend in order to gain some invaluable information that will set us apart from many other practitioners IMMEDIATELY! Financial Statements Interactive Workshop with Dr. Pat Pirotte: Cosponsored by COVD. Dr. Pirotte taught us about Balance Sheets as well as Profit and Loss statements. Understanding Practice Profitability: Presented by Ms. Tammi Sufficool, Executive Vice President of Corporate Planning of Williams Group.
Dr. Hansra sponsored by Luxottica: This presentation aimed to give us an understanding of how optometry has changed in recent years. Topics discussed included things like measuring exam growth and measuring patient experience! The presentation dove into Net Promoter Scores and tips on how to increase the number of promoters and decrease the number of detractors that leave your office! "Buyology" with Dr. Ryan Parker sponsored by Essilor: This presentation dealt with how to sell and market to our customers and the differences between how men and women shop and buy. Needless to say this was a very interesting presentation. Practice Management with Dr. Witt and Dr. Mallady: Dr. Witt and Dr. Mallady are both successful Vision Source Docs! They came in and shared their experiences in private practice and how they attained the level of success they are at today! Private Practice Library: Two years ago we realized there was a common theme among most successful guest presenters… They always seemed to be inspired by an outstanding book which they have read numerous times! Our Private Practice Library was set in place to provide students an easy avenue at advancing their business education by putting together a collection of these books all in one place. The PPC Library allows our members to borrow books for longer periods of time compared to the traditional school library. First years are encouraged to borrow a book to fill their time with during their summer break. Fourth years are also welcome to borrow a book during their fourth year externship rotations. BONUS: This year our club was awarded $250 from ODs on FB for a polling competition that took place. Half of the money collected was put towards purchasing more books for our Library. Some books include: How to Win Friends and Influence People, Blue Ocean Strategy, The E-Myth Revisited, 201 Secrets of a High-Performance Optometric Practice, and many more.
Practice Visit: Early on in the academic year I was put in contact with one of the Senior Eye Care Directors of Luxottica asking if the club and its members would be interested in visiting a Lens Crafters which they had recently opened. To my knowledge ICO PPC had not previously visited a commercial practice in the past. So in order to best broaden our knowledge of the working world, a group of club members toured this new office. Contact lens leadership and practice management tips were addressed at this event! Afterwards the group was treated to a dinner and 2 sunglasses were raffled away! EyeMazing Race: The best way to learn about most things in life is to experience them firsthand. So playing off of the practice visit idea previously discussed, we launched our third annual EyeMazing Race. This is college wide competition between pairs of students at ICO to see some of the best practices in Chicago. The goal was to allow students an opportunity to explore the beautiful city of Chicago meanwhile broadening their knowledge by comparing and contrasting the different practices. Raffle prizes were set in place for the teams that were able to finish the race successfully!
How have you worked to improve your individual club over the previous year?
Our club looked to take what was already a great club and make it even better. This all started with our election process which ensures our executive team is comprised of the BEST of the best! Next we had an End of the Year Survey asking all of our members to contribute their ideas on what they liked about the club, but more importantly what they felt could be improved in the club.
Two years ago our focus was placed on increasing club membership. In order to promote first year members we launched an initiative called EYEtalk. This year with the assistance of the best executive team on campus we launched the second annual EYEtalk series. When comparing the percentage of students that signed up as members of PPC 2 years ago (pre-EYEtalk) to the percentage this year, we found a 123% increase. In total we were able to maintain an impressive amount of students signing up and showing interest in our Private Practice Club making our club the second largest on campus (second to the AOSA, a club which is made mandatory to join).
As a club we understood the importance of having an online presence in the private practice world. Therefore we pushed our ICO PPC Facebook page by offering materials for our members on the club page. Our page “likes” increased by about 10% this year reaching just under 700 likes. This makes our page the second most followed ICO page!
This year our club generated over $6,600 in revenue! This was utilized to sponsor various events with food or raffle prizes! The Money was also used to offset the cost of our Annual White Sox Patio Party tickets in order to allow us to sell the tickets at a cheaper rate for our club members to enjoy! This year the club executives understood the importance of community service and recognized that it has a place in private practice; so why not implement it into our private practice club! Just before finals our club executives set up tables in the main foyer and encouraged students to submit anonymous quotes raising awareness around mental health! These quotes were then posted around the school for students to read as they passed by. We will look to keep this new initiative in years to come as well as implement new community service initiatives!
List any other reasons why you feel your club is deserving of the Preston Cup this year:
This year the club Executive board had one overarching theme: “Some people DREAM of success, others make it happen… So let’s MAKE it happen!” Right from the start our dream was to be the MOST active club on campus, but we understood that if we wanted to attain that dream we had to work for it; as a team. We worked to ensure that our club membership percentages did not decline, and aimed to be the club on campus which offers the most to its members. We could have made excuses along the way, but instead we made it happen. This is why we feel our club is deserving of the Preston Cup this year, but more importantly we would love to share the ideas we have come up with so that all of the other clubs may benefit from our success!
The ICO PPC team explored 6 different avenues of advancing business education for its members! Dining With The Docs: This form of business educations aims to provide students with an opportunity to meet in a small group with private practicing OD's to discuss aspects of optometry after school as well as owning a business. This personalized setting is second to none and this was reflected through the numerous reviews we received in the past! This year we reached out to over 20 practicing optometrists and managed to hold two separate sets of Dining With The Docs sessions; one open for the entire college and the other reserved strictly for 3rd year students upon completion of NBEO part 1!
Practice Opportunities Symposium Evening Social: We recognized the importance of networking and its impact on our potential futures as students. So we pushed to have our second annual social event! This event is held after a huge networking symposium sponsored by the college; the ICO Practice Opportunities Symposium. We worked with administration and other practicing optometrists to host this social event at a local Chicago Bar that provided our members with drinks, appetizers, and most importantly more opportunities to meet numerous doctors in a more relaxed setting. Doctors shared practice management pearls and prizes were raffled off at the end of the night. Guest Presentations: Guest presentations were the bread and butter of our club this past year. They brought many different perspectives and pearls for our members! Here are the numerous different presenters we had the pleasure of working with:
Dr. Eric Baas: “Why private practice” first year orientation comparing the advantages and disadvantages of private practice vs corporate practice. Ms. Daphne Anderson cosponsored by ICOPro: Learn the real life ins, outs, tips, tricks, do’s, don’ts, and everything in between about resume building, interviewing, and networking! Practice Management: Billing, Coding, and beyond with Kirk Mack of Corcoran Consulting Group! One of the top comments many ICO graduates make is "I wish I learned more about billing and coding before I graduated." So the Career Developments office here at ICO is taking steps to change that! PPC joined in on the opportunity and invited all students to attend in order to gain some invaluable information that will set us apart from many other practitioners IMMEDIATELY! Financial Statements Interactive Workshop with Dr. Pat Pirotte: Cosponsored by COVD. Dr. Pirotte taught us about Balance Sheets as well as Profit and Loss statements. Understanding Practice Profitability: Presented by Ms. Tammi Sufficool, Executive Vice President of Corporate Planning of Williams Group.
Dr. Hansra sponsored by Luxottica: This presentation aimed to give us an understanding of how optometry has changed in recent years. Topics discussed included things like measuring exam growth and measuring patient experience! The presentation dove into Net Promoter Scores and tips on how to increase the number of promoters and decrease the number of detractors that leave your office! "Buyology" with Dr. Ryan Parker sponsored by Essilor: This presentation dealt with how to sell and market to our customers and the differences between how men and women shop and buy. Needless to say this was a very interesting presentation. Practice Management with Dr. Witt and Dr. Mallady: Dr. Witt and Dr. Mallady are both successful Vision Source Docs! They came in and shared their experiences in private practice and how they attained the level of success they are at today! Private Practice Library: Two years ago we realized there was a common theme among most successful guest presenters… They always seemed to be inspired by an outstanding book which they have read numerous times! Our Private Practice Library was set in place to provide students an easy avenue at advancing their business education by putting together a collection of these books all in one place. The PPC Library allows our members to borrow books for longer periods of time compared to the traditional school library. First years are encouraged to borrow a book to fill their time with during their summer break. Fourth years are also welcome to borrow a book during their fourth year externship rotations. BONUS: This year our club was awarded $250 from ODs on FB for a polling competition that took place. Half of the money collected was put towards purchasing more books for our Library. Some books include: How to Win Friends and Influence People, Blue Ocean Strategy, The E-Myth Revisited, 201 Secrets of a High-Performance Optometric Practice, and many more.
Practice Visit: Early on in the academic year I was put in contact with one of the Senior Eye Care Directors of Luxottica asking if the club and its members would be interested in visiting a Lens Crafters which they had recently opened. To my knowledge ICO PPC had not previously visited a commercial practice in the past. So in order to best broaden our knowledge of the working world, a group of club members toured this new office. Contact lens leadership and practice management tips were addressed at this event! Afterwards the group was treated to a dinner and 2 sunglasses were raffled away! EyeMazing Race: The best way to learn about most things in life is to experience them firsthand. So playing off of the practice visit idea previously discussed, we launched our third annual EyeMazing Race. This is college wide competition between pairs of students at ICO to see some of the best practices in Chicago. The goal was to allow students an opportunity to explore the beautiful city of Chicago meanwhile broadening their knowledge by comparing and contrasting the different practices. Raffle prizes were set in place for the teams that were able to finish the race successfully!
How have you worked to improve your individual club over the previous year?
Our club looked to take what was already a great club and make it even better. This all started with our election process which ensures our executive team is comprised of the BEST of the best! Next we had an End of the Year Survey asking all of our members to contribute their ideas on what they liked about the club, but more importantly what they felt could be improved in the club.
Two years ago our focus was placed on increasing club membership. In order to promote first year members we launched an initiative called EYEtalk. This year with the assistance of the best executive team on campus we launched the second annual EYEtalk series. When comparing the percentage of students that signed up as members of PPC 2 years ago (pre-EYEtalk) to the percentage this year, we found a 123% increase. In total we were able to maintain an impressive amount of students signing up and showing interest in our Private Practice Club making our club the second largest on campus (second to the AOSA, a club which is made mandatory to join).
As a club we understood the importance of having an online presence in the private practice world. Therefore we pushed our ICO PPC Facebook page by offering materials for our members on the club page. Our page “likes” increased by about 10% this year reaching just under 700 likes. This makes our page the second most followed ICO page!
This year our club generated over $6,600 in revenue! This was utilized to sponsor various events with food or raffle prizes! The Money was also used to offset the cost of our Annual White Sox Patio Party tickets in order to allow us to sell the tickets at a cheaper rate for our club members to enjoy! This year the club executives understood the importance of community service and recognized that it has a place in private practice; so why not implement it into our private practice club! Just before finals our club executives set up tables in the main foyer and encouraged students to submit anonymous quotes raising awareness around mental health! These quotes were then posted around the school for students to read as they passed by. We will look to keep this new initiative in years to come as well as implement new community service initiatives!
List any other reasons why you feel your club is deserving of the Preston Cup this year:
This year the club Executive board had one overarching theme: “Some people DREAM of success, others make it happen… So let’s MAKE it happen!” Right from the start our dream was to be the MOST active club on campus, but we understood that if we wanted to attain that dream we had to work for it; as a team. We worked to ensure that our club membership percentages did not decline, and aimed to be the club on campus which offers the most to its members. We could have made excuses along the way, but instead we made it happen. This is why we feel our club is deserving of the Preston Cup this year, but more importantly we would love to share the ideas we have come up with so that all of the other clubs may benefit from our success!
|
|
