Page 3 - springconvention

Dear Members,

As your president and on behalf of the Opticians Association of Washington, I would like

to welcome you to the OAW 2018 Spring Convention. We thank you for your support of
the OAW and for your attendance. A special thank you to all our vendors who make this
event possible.

We have a great weekend planned for you, with quality speakers, tremendous vendor

support and an exceptional group of OAW board members ready to serve you.

We are celebrating Earth Day this weekend by focusing on simplicity, reuse and recycle
and bringing awareness to the little things we can all do to be more “Earth friendly”. I trust
you have been informed of our drive to collect used eye wear for donation and have
brought them with you. We will be gathering those for donation to VOSH and Vision of
Hope. We are proud of our many opticians who volunteer their time and expertise to

provide quality vision care in local communities as well as communities world wide.

We gather this weekend to learn from our educators and vendors; network and fellowship
with our peers, and keep current with the optical industry. I would ask us all to be
welcoming to new faces, open to new ideas and willing to give thoughtful and respectful
feedback as we strive to support all optical professionals and grow our association.

I thank you all for giving me the opportunity to serve you in the capacity as OAW
President this last year. It has been an exciting year with lots of learning. We have been
actively exploring new and more efficient ways to serve you, such as the 2017 Fall one
day education event that was very successful. We will continue to be open to new ideas
to grow our membership and best serve our members.

Please personally thank all of our vendors who are here this weekend. Without their
support we would not be able to have this event. Let's respect their time and support by
being fully engaged in the trade show with 100% attendance. They always do a great job
for us and we appreciate them immensely.

Thanks again everyone – lets have a GREAT weekend!

Barbara Demmerly
OAW President