Join AOSA
Value of Membership
AOSA was established to represent, serve and advance the needs of optometry students. As a member of AOSA, you have the power of organized optometry at your fingertips. Membership gives you a voice and a chance to be part of a strong network of peers working toward the common goals of improving the profession of optometry.
Organized optometry is optometrists and future practitioners joining together to further their professional interests. Thanks to organized optometry, there are loan programs tailored specifically for optometric students, and opportunities to network and develop relationships with local, state, and national leaders in the optometric community. Membership gives you exclusive access to these advantages as well as other benefits such as group insurance plans, Optometry Journal and AOA’s Optometry Career Center.
Types of Membership
Active Members
An optometry student who is a member in good standing of an affiliated local chapter and whose dues are received from each student, shall be an active member of this Association. Each active member is entitled to full privileges of this Association and there shall be no discrimination on the basis of race, creed, or gender.
An optometry student may contact an AOSA Trustee at the respective school or college of optometry for a membership application. An optometry student may attain full membership upon receipt of a membership application and dues at the AOSA office in St. Louis, Missouri.
Special Members
Special member status without voting rights may be granted to those individuals who are of assistance to the Association and to student chapters for such time as determined by the AOSA Board of Trustees. Special member status may be also be granted to a college student contemplating a career in the profession of optometry upon receipt of the nominal fee paid by active members.
Special members dues shall be the same as Active members dues. These dues are maintained or revised by the AOSA Board of Trustees.
Student Paraoptometric Membership
Student paraoptometric personnel membership shall be available to students of paraoptometric programs, and will afford such members with non-voting privileges of the Association. Paraoptometric students may contact an AOSA Trustee at the respective school or college of optometry for a membership application. A paraoptometric student may attain membership status upon receipt of dues at the AOSA office at St. Louis, Missouri.
Student paraoptometric membership dues shall be $10.00 per year. These dues are maintained or revised by the AOSA Board of Trustees.
New OD Graduate Members
A new graduate of an accredited school or college of optometry accredited or pre-accredited by the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education, who is a member in good standing of the American Optometric Student Association upon graduation, may continue membership until the end of the same calendar year in which such member has graduated and been licensed to practice, or until he or she has completed a qualified residency or internship, provided that such membership shall not continue for a new graduate who is not a resident or intern and who has not been licensed as an optometrist for more than eighteen (18) months after graduation. New OD graduates may fill out the “residency membership form ” or contact an AOSA Trustee at the respective school or college of optometry for a membership application.
Sustaining Membership
Sustaining membership shall be made available to optometrists, other individuals and optometric groups who wish to help finance activities undertaken by the Association on behalf of all optometry students. An annual sustaining membership drive takes place on October 1 each year. Membership begins the next calendar year, starting on January 1 and ending December 31.
Individual sustaining membership dues shall be $40.00 per year. Group sustaining membership dues shall be $130.00 per year.