CEO Update, June 2026

“Not all peer pressure is bad. If you have peers who are pushing you to go further in life and believe in your dreams. Man, you got it made!” — Jeff Moore

If the World Cup has taught us anything, it has taught us we can learn so much from each other with direct interaction.  Where do I sign up for the Tartan Army or buy the blazing orange to join the Oranje Fanwalk? While the players are good, the fans are inspiring!

The realization that we all have something to share and we can all learn is also driving your AAOA leadership. The core purpose of any member association is joining like-minded folks in a shared purpose. For us, it is otolaryngology, allergy and inflammatory disease, and delivering our best care. How do we improve? By sharing our experience and learning from our peers. Networking is more than a shared cocktail at a reception. Effective networking is akin to mentorship. Harnessing your knowledge for good to help a peer. This networking is core to our culture and what you report as the reason why you show up.

To carry this further and help expand your network and our’s, AAOA is rolling out a new opportunity. Tagged “Bring a Colleague,” we are encouraging each AAOA Fellow to bring a friend to a meeting. This could be our upcoming Annual Meeting in September in Tucson or our next Explorers Course in Vail.

How does it work?  We are offering two pathways.

Bring a Colleague:

Fellows of the AAOA can bring a physician colleague to the meeting for free.  So for the price of one registration you and your physician colleague both gain the educational and networking benefit. For Annual Meeting, this is a $0 cost opportunity since the meeting is free with your Annual dues.

Does the physician colleague meet any qualifications?  Just a practicing physician (not even limited to ENT) who you think would benefit.  This could be one of your partners, someone from residency, your spouse who may be an MD but not necessarily an ENT, your fellow in training, any practicing physician qualifies. The goal here is to expose more physicians to AAOA, our culture, and our education programs. If your colleague is an ENT, we hope the opportunity convinces them to join, expand their scope to include allergy, and more. 

So why offer this opportunity to non-ENTs?  Perhaps offering this options gives your physician spouse access to CME credits needed or a reason to accompany you to the AAOA meeting or just insights into what is new in ENT that may impact their practice.  Same for any non-ENT physician colleagues.  It is all about networking and sharing.

No matter what they practice, if they participate and complete the evaluation, they can earn CME credits and ABOTOHNS continuing certification credits.

The second pathway is in support of your staff.  Fellows can bring their APP with them to the Annual 2026 or Explorers 2027.  Medicine is all about team work. By offering this path to bring a colleague, we are hoping it helps our Fellows in their practice strategy and how they deploy staff for their allergy service line and more.  As active AAOA Fellows, you APP staff can also join AAOA.  This “Bring a Colleague” pathway is a great way to expose your staff to the AAOA, and encourage those who are not members to take advantage of membership opportunities.

We hope you take advantage of this opportunity to share the AAOA with your colleagues.