COBC Newsletter  December 2022

Bylaw Changes | CCP | Board Appreciation | Office Closure
 

New COBC Bylaws in effect January 9, 2023

After a series of reviews and consultations, COBC will begin enforcing our new bylaws this coming January. Registrants are encouraged to review the bylaws in full and to contact COBC with any questions they may have.

This month, we're highlighting some important bylaw changes that are likely to affect you and your practice.
  • Elections (Sections 2–8)
    • We've developed more robust procedures for nomination and election into board roles. We've also made changes to the eligibility criteria.
       
    • Electoral districts:
      • In our existing bylaws, registrants were elected from “districts” around the province to sit on the COBC Board. This created barriers, as some districts are home to more registrants than others.
      • In the new bylaws, electoral districts have been removed to align with regulatory trends and to eliminate the misconception that a registrant is elected to “represent” their district. Going forward, ar egistrant from any area of the province can be nominated/elected to the board when there is a vacancy.
  • Changes to committee structure (Sections 15–22)
    • COBC will be able to appoint more public and registrant members to committees. Registrants can expect to see volunteer call-outs in upcoming communications.
  • Registration timelines for new BC opticians  (Sections 41, 42)
    • Graduates of accredited optician education programs will have three years from the date of their graduation to pass their NACOR Examination(s) and register with COBC. After three years, their eligibility for registration will be revoked and they will be required to go through the PLAR process to demonstrate their competency.
       
    • Similarly, individuals entering the BC optical industry through COBC's PLAR process will be required to pass their NACOR Examination(s) and register with COBC within three years of completing PLAR. After three years, they will be required to start the PLAR process over again.
  • Independent automated refracting (Forms 1A and 1B)
    • Forms 1A and 1B will be mandatory for use by refracting opticians, taking the place of Form 3B.
  • Addition of the temporary registration category (Section 45)
    • An optician who is licensed in good standing in another Canadian jurisdiction will be permitted to apply for short-term registration (up to 90 days) with COBC.
  • Marketing and Advertising (Section 65)
    • COBC will implement more robust requirements for marketing and advertising to ensure that advertisements by opticians are ethical and truthful.
      • Registrants must retain promotional materials for one year from the date of publication and must be prepared to produce such materials upon request.

Review the existing bylaws   Review the revised bylaws (in effect January 9, 2023)
 

AGM recording available

COBC's Annual General Meeting took place via Zoom on November 24, 2022. Members of the COBC Board and staff provided updates on current and future projects, including the College's Indigenous Cultural Safety and Humility work and the proposed amalgamation of BC health regulatory colleges.

COBC's financial auditor also reviewed the College's financial picture over the last fiscal year.

Registrants and members of the public are always welcome at the AGM, but we understand that the timing doesn't work for everyone. If you were unable to attend the meeting live, you can now view the full meeting online!

Watch the Annual General Meeting
 

Vacancies on the Board

The deadline to apply to join the COBC Board is January 6, 2023. Any interested registrant, in any BC region, may apply by sending a resume and cover letter to cdodge@cobc.ca. In particular, we are encouraging applications from Indigenous registrants, members of racialized groups, individuals identifying as LGBTQIA2S+, and those with lived experience of physical, cognitive, or mental health conditions.

Find out more and apply

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CCP cycle ending soon

If you are currently in the third and final year of your continuing education cycle, you must fulfill all the requirements of your Continuing Competency Program (CCP) no later than December 31, 2022.

The program is self-managed, so you are responsible for ensuring that all the steps have been completed in the online system.

This includes: taking the assessment(s), creating goals for yourself, finding and completing activities to achieve those goals, and reflecting on how it went.

Please log in to your profile on the COBC website to log your progress. If you have questions about CCP, you can visit our website to access guides and tools or contact Christopher Dodge, our Manager of Quality Assurance.

Unsure when your cycle ends?

Log in to your COBC account and navigate to the HOME tab to see your cycle end date, along with other important dates related to your registration.

(If you can't see any dates in your HOME tab, it may be that you need to complete your log-in security questions!)
 

AOA interactive online webinar

The Academy of Ophthalmic Education, in affiliation with Alberta's new opticianry association (the Association of Opticians of Alberta, or "AOA"), is offering free education sessions that are open to BC opticians.

The interactive sessions are scheduled for Sunday, December 11, between 9:00 AM and 12:15 PM Pacific. (Note that the schedule uses Mountain Standard Time.)

The sessions will cover a variety of topics, including visual acuity testing.

View the full schedule

Register for the webinar

Looking for other CCP ideas? Consider building a goal around  COBC's new Standards of Practice. If you need inspiration, check out our case studies:
 

Board appreciation:
Raheem Savja

This month, the COBC Board and staff are reflecting on the diligence and dedication of Raheem Savja, a Licensed Optician who has been volunteering with COBC for more than 13 years. As his terms on the Board and Registration Committee draw to a close at the end of December, we thank Raheem for the impact his work has had and will continue to have on the BC optical industry.
 

COBC office closure

The COBC team will be operating at reduced capacity beginning December 20, 2022, and our office will be closed from December 24 through January 2, 2023. 

We'll respond to emails and voicemails once we're back at our desks on Tuesday, January 3.

If your CCP cycle end date is December 31, 2022, we recommend doing the following before December 20:

  • Making sure you know your COBC log-in information
  • Checking out the online system (if you haven't already) and asking any questions you may have about it
  • Requesting an extension (if you need one)
 

Do you know whose land you live on ?

Christopher Dodge, COBC's Deputy Registrar/Manager of Quality Assurance since 2017, lives and works on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples—specifically, the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. He was raised on Treaty 6 territory, the traditional lands of the Cree peoples and homeland of the Métis Nation, where his family still resides and he feels fortunate to visit frequently.

College of Opticians of BC operates on the traditional, ancestral and unceded Coast Salish territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.

Unsubscribing from this email will revoke your consent to receive email correspondence from us as outlined in Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) . We will no longer be able to send you important reminders pertaining to your license, which may affect your registration with the College of Opticians of BC. Please contact us if you have any questions.