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UOA 2008 Park City Meeting

on June 4th, 2008 | Filed under Optoblog

The Utah Optometric Association held their annual meeting in Park City at the Canyons Resort last week. The whole thing was a four day meeting, Thursday-Sunday, which is puzzling since the total CE hours offered was a mere twenty-three. The first two days only offered four hours and the last two days offered seven and then eight.

So why did the first two days only offer four hours? Well, of course you have to have the golf tournament which I overheard the same people win every year so they have to change the scoring rules to give others a chance. Then there’s all the luncheons, vendor fairs, dinners, parties, receptions, and association business meetings that take up more time.

Personally, I wish they would do all that other stuff on one day so that I could skip that day and still get all the CEs I need in just 2-3 days instead of four. I especially dislike having to go to CE on Sunday when I should be going to church instead. I mean, we live in Utah for Heaven’s sake! More than half the optometrists at the meeting are LDS church goers who normally wouldn’t work on Sundays, so you’d think someone could change the schedule to allow for more CE on Friday and Saturday and then I could skip out on the partying on Thursday and Sunday.

The Canyons is a nice resort. In the winter, it looks like you could ski out of your hotel onto the lift. But hey, all resorts in Park City are nice. The Canyons staff took good care of the conference room set-up, and there was plenty of pop, water, food, and hot chocolate.

Park City is great, but May is the off season. It’s neither winter nor summer, so you can’t ski and you can’t ride the alpine slide. Part of me would like to see the conference done in either the summer or winter when a lot more is available for the family to do; however, that would only serve to increase the rates of the convention and its hotel stay, so maybe it’s just fine in late May.

Really, it’s a great meeting, but the time lost in an extra day away from the office and the whole disrupting my Sunday routine has me thinking I might go to the NROC, SECO or AAO next time.

I’m sure I’ll still go to the UOA Park City conference occasionally in the future because it’s great to talk with other O.D.s in the state, but I’m never going to stay for a Sunday CE lecture again.

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3 Comments

3 Responses to “UOA 2008 Park City Meeting”

  1. […] Rowley was in the class above me in optometry school, and I just saw him at the UOA Meeting. It seems he is in the news as a baseball […]

  2. Mike Judkins says:

    David:

    I was just looking over your comments about the UOA convention. I had a very good time as well. I did not know you were there, I would have liked to talk.
    We struggle with the schedule every year at the convention. You are right about the time. We get a good deal because we are not in the winter or summer season. Move it forward a week and rates more than double I think.
    Having won the golf this year I hope you did not overhear me talking about it. The same people would not win every year but the system was changed so more people had a chance TO win. It is now all about just haveing fun and golfing. If you win great, if not great as well. The prize money does not even cover the green fees. I had a great time golfing with my Dad, brother, and uncle.
    CE is also another area of difficulty. Rich H has done a great job with this for several years. We had to bring him back after John A. also did a great job. If you look at Utah law, you have to have 30 hours every 2 years. If you attend all classes T,F and S you get 15. Do that every year and your CE is done. We could pack more into F and S but this is a STATE convention. People from distant areas of the state will have to take T off just the be at the convention for the 7:00 am CE so we have the afternoon classes T. No Sunday required. Or go to all of Sunday and also in the Fall and you have met your yearly CE. Sunday is designed for the ODs that can’t, don’t or won’t take off the other days of the week. Also, most of us get at least 4 hours of CE each year at dinners and industry sponsored CE.
    The parties and functions are also a big part of the convention as well. They are done by industry and they keep the cost way down as well. Plus, I really enjoy them. It is a good chance to socalize. I hope you contine to attend.
    We can always use help as well. If you would like to become a member again and help with the CE (or anything) I would welcome you.
    Mike Judkins

  3. Thanks for the comment, Mike. I see that they are doing their best to please the most people and largely succeeding.

    I still will probably only go to UOA every couple years because some of these other meetings like SECO look really cool.

    I will join again the moment that I can afford it and/or when the price of dues for AOA/UOA combined is less than $250 a year (to put an arbitrary number on it). Right now all my money goes toward school loans, health insurance, car loans, gasoline, saving for a house, credit card debt, and…oh, yea, a loan for a solo private practice that went down the drain.