Life Member Designation - Request for Feedback

We want to hear from you on whether the College should continue recognizing long-serving opticians after retirement.

Overview of the current process

Currently, the College recognizes service to the profession through the Life Member designation.

Life Membership is available to registered opticians (ROs) who have retired permanently from the profession.
There are no fees to apply for or maintain this status.
Life Members retain voting rights in the College's elections and continue to receive communications from the College.
Opticians can also keep their Life Member designation if they decide to return to practice.

Issue at hand

The Registration Committee is exploring whether there is a strong public interest rationale to keep recognizing service and dedication to the profession in some way.

The College’s core mandate is to protect the public. As a result, things that benefit opticians first and foremost would typically be considered to fall outside the College’s mandate. Life membership could be considered something that primarily benefits opticians, rather than patients or the public. Accordingly, even though there is value in honouring long-serving opticians, the College may not be the appropriate body to do this.

In addition, the Life Member title creates public confusion about who is actively registered and eligible to practice. Calling someone a “Life Member” may give the impression that they hold a special, ongoing registration status with the College or that they are entitled to practice the profession “for life.” This is not the case, and it could mislead the public into thinking someone is still active and qualified to practice when they may not be.
Many health regulatory colleges stopped offering that type of honorific recognition for these reasons. Among regulators who no longer offer life membership are:

Ontario College of Pharmacists
College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario
College of Nurses of Ontario
College of Respiratory Therapists of Ontario

Proposed Alternative Model

Due to these recent changes to the Registration Regulation, if the College chooses to continue offering an honorific designation for long-serving opticians, it must do so differently than before. This is because the new regulation requires the College to automatically revoke opticians after 3 years of non-renewal.

Accordingly, the Registration Committee has been exploring alternative models that could be offered to opticians who voluntarily resign their registration with the College as a result of retirement.

The Committee is proposing the following model:
1. Replacing “Life Member” with “Honorary Retired Status” to clarify its nature and avoid implications of ongoing registration.
2.   Granting the title upon voluntary resignation due to retirement, where certain other criteria are met (e.g. minimum years of service, clean conduct record, etc.)
3.   Removing the designation from the public register and instead creating a dedicated webpage listing Honorary Retired Status holders with an explanation of the title’s purpose.
4.   Removing the voting rights to align title holders with other non-registrants.

Why is the College requesting feedback on this issue?

The regulation changes necessitate action regarding the Life Member designation. Stakeholders are encouraged to provide input to help the Registration Committee determine the most appropriate course of action.

How can I provide feedback? Complete the survey.

To complete the survey, please click here. The survey will be open until February 9, 2025. Thank you for taking the time to provide your valuable input.