A very happy New Year to all of our members, colleagues and supporters across the professions and industry.
The beginning of a new year always provides us with the opportunity to reflect on what we have achieved over the preceding 12 months and what impact these achievements have had – or will have in the coming year.
This month marks the start of a new three-year CPD cycle and, as such, ABDO’s programme for online and face-to-face events is well advanced – ensuring members can get a head start on accruing those valuable CPD points. This includes a range of discussion workshops being offered at 100% Optical in March (see page 29), which will be available to book shortly.
My suggestion to you is to ensure you achieve at least the minimum number of CPD points required by mid-year and, arguably, look to obtain 12 points during 2025 as your target. Let’s not see that last minute scrabble for CPD points come December 2027.
ABDO’s new CPD-accredited Professional Certificate in Paediatric Eyecare continues to gain momentum with constant interest and many members already signed up since its launch last October. Feedback has been extremely positive, and we should see the first members successfully completing the course in a few months’ time. Details of how to register for the course can be found on the ABDO website.
Members will by now have received notification to renew their membership. ABDO staff and Board members continue to work on your behalf and, in response to the members’ survey conducted last year, are looking closely at engagement, raising awareness of membership benefits, raising the profile of the profession, and promoting awareness of the valuable roles that dispensing opticians and contact lens opticians play in practice.
You deserve so much more recognition, and your professional body will continue to speak up for you on important issues that affect our profession.
I look forward to meeting members in 2025 at ABDO and other national and regional events. If you would like to contact me direct, then please email kgutsell@abdo.org.uk