Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Winter 2017 - 7

Editorial

Follow-up to 2016 PCSO Member
Needs Assessment Study
Recently, PCSO invited members to participate in
five focus groups, with emphasis placed on new
and younger members and female orthodontists,
to evaluate the following categories of members:

Dr. Jae Hyun Park
PCSO Bulletin Editor

 moderately to weakly engaged members
 lapsed members (those who have dropped
their membership in the past three years),
 new and younger members (two groups:
those in practice for ten years or less), and
 female members.

Participants were recruited by email, and the Loyalty Research Center (LRC) moderated the focus
groups. To encourage honest discussions, no
PCSO representatives participated in the focus
groups. The groups of participants included a
total of 10 males and 14 females: 17 individuals
with seven years of membership tenure or less,
four individuals with 8 to 15 years of tenure, and
three with 16+ years of tenure. Fifteen of the 24
participants were based in California.
Defining PCSO's Unique Value
LRC started each discussion by asking for words
or phrases that best describe PCSO; most results
were consistent and related to a sense of community or being a voice of the profession. These
themes help to define PCSO's unique value as a
constituent society. Often, PCSO is perceived as
stuck in the middle between the AAO and state
level societies, and members may be unaware of
the vast amount of available resources that are
relevant to their particular needs. Many participants had no expectations of the society, but
suggested that PCSO has a responsibility to bring
its members' specific concerns and challenges to
the national level. Specifically, market saturation
in orthodontics, as well as competition from corporate dentistry, are prevalent in the states that
comprise our society; therefore, the society
should work diligently to be at the forefront
of these issues.

Winter 2017  PCSO Bulletin

Continuing education is an area in which PCSO
can seek to increase member engagement by
providing more intimate lectures to facilitate
group discussion, as opposed to the larger venues often provided by the AAO. In addition, PCSO
can provide topics and lecturers that are unique
to the concerns of its members, and leave the
AAO to provide nationally recognized speakers.
The participants expressed an interest in more
clinically based topics that relate to what they
face on a daily basis in their private practices.
Participants also spoke of the value of an ondemand PCSO online archive, comprised of
current and relevant data.
Efficient Communications
Communication type and frequency was another
topic that surfaced regularly. Members are inundated with communications via email, mail, text,
Facebook groups, and mobile apps, and these
come not only from PCSO, but from all affiliations. As such, members prefer brief, succinct
communications that direct them to another
resource for more information. Most members
prefer email as their communication modality,
as long as the frequency is once a week or less
and the content is highly relevant. Participants
suggested a "welcome to PCSO" email to
acquaint new members with resources and upto-date information. Relevant closed Facebook
groups (PCSO page and PCSO NYM page) were
also suggested, again with limited notifications.
A PCSO mobile app was also suggested. In addition to being useful for Annual Session or CE
updates, the app could include a chat room or
community function as well as an online library
of educational resources.
Participants spoke of volunteer opportunities as
they relate to time constraints. The focus groups
contained mostly newer members, for whom
career and family obligations leave little time for

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Winter 2017