New Graduate Volunteer Membership Program

Serve and save on your membership fees

At OCA we want to help you through your professional journey. That’s why we offer new graduates the opportunity to volunteer with the OCA, instead of paying for their membership in their first year as licensed chiropractors.

If you graduated within the past year or will receive your Ontario license this year, you’re eligible to participate.

Specifically:

  • You must contribute 20 hours of your time to OCA initiatives between this coming September and June of the following year (after submitting your application to this program).
  • If you’re a new grad who joins the OCA during the second half of the membership year (which runs from August 1 to July 31), you’ll receive pro-rated volunteer hours for your assigned role.

When you agree to this volunteer commitment, we’ll waive your first-year membership fees and offer you immediate access to all our membership benefits.

For a full list of benefits, visit the Member Benefits page.

How it works

When you register for your OCA membership, you’ll be asked to choose between a paid or volunteer membership. If you choose the volunteer membership, we’ll contact you within a month for you to select your top picks from a range of available volunteer opportunities.

You will be required to sign a standard volunteer agreement, including a code of conduct for you to follow when participating in volunteering opportunities. We will coordinate training, scheduling and follow-up at an appropriate time for your chosen opportunity.

There’s absolutely no risk to you. You can switch between a paid or volunteer membership once during your first year of OCA membership, if desired. Any volunteer hours completed by the time of your change will be honoured and the amount charged for your paid membership will be adjusted accordingly.

2022/2023 New Graduate Opportunities

Opportunity Location:  Partially Virtual, partially in their local area
Date Range: November 2022 – June 2023
Volunteer Hours:  20

Opportunity Description

This opportunity will enable you to get hands-on experience with OCA Aspire, our integrated practice management and electronic health record (EHR) solution. Volunteers will assist our staff with the implementation of the software at chiropractic clinics. The role will include multiple touchpoints with the clinic during their onboarding and training to ensure the clinic will be successful when they go live with OCA Aspire.

Volunteer Responsibilities

  • Program Evaluation
    • Administration of surveys to gather feedback from end users
    • Aggregation and analysis of survey responses from end users
    • Recommending changes and areas of improvement to the program, based on feedback from end users

 

Experience / Qualifications

  • Familiarity with OCA Aspire (training and support will be provided)
  • Understanding the value that an integrated practice management and electronic health record can bring to a clinic
  • Willingness to share opinions and constructively debate software features
  • Proven ability to work well in a team environment

Volunteer Benefits

As part of this volunteer experience, graduates will get exposure and experience in the following areas:

  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Member engagement and networking
  • Software development life cycle
  • Project management
  • Training
  • Program analysis
  • Business analysis
  • Written and verbal communication

Opportunity Location:  Virtual
Date Range: November 2022 – June 2023
Volunteer Hours:  20

Opportunity Description

This opportunity will enable you to get hands-on experience with OCA Aspire, our integrated practice management and electronic health record (EHR) solution. The role will act as a chiropractic subject matter expert to project stakeholders to provide clinical perspective regarding software features, functionality and design.

Volunteer Responsibilities

  • Chiropractic Subject Matter Expert
    • Attendance at the quarterly product development meeting to assess and prioritize new features or enhancements
    • Preparation for the meeting by reviewing documents circulated and ready to share your opinions on the feature being discussed

Experience / Qualifications

  • Familiarity with OCA Aspire (training and support will be provided)
  • Understanding the value that an integrated practice management and electronic health record can bring to a clinic
  • Willingness to share opinions and constructively debate software features
  • Proven ability to work well in a team environment

Volunteer Benefits

As part of this volunteer experience, graduates will get exposure and experience in the following areas:

  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Member engagement and networking
  • Software development life cycle
  • Project management
  • Training
  • Program analysis
  • Business analysis
  • Written and verbal communication

Opportunity Location:  Virtual
Date Range: November 2022 – June 2023
Volunteer Hours:  20

Opportunity Description

In this role, you’ll participate in a minimum of eight, two-hour virtual focus groups throughout the year. These focus groups will be held approximately once a month as our strategic initiatives require and have a 15-person maximum. Focus groups will be either held on a first-come, first-served sign-up basis or on a selected demographic group method when the group topic requires. One of our staff members will facilitate the focus group session where volunteers will actively participate in discussions and debate relevant to the topic of the session. Volunteers are responsible for ensuring that they have participated in eight focus groups by the end of the year.

Volunteer Responsibilities

  • Respond to calls for focus groups before the deadline set by the opportunity lead
  • Actively participate in focus groups they are selected for, including:
    • Engaging in respectful discussion and debate with fellow volunteers and OCA staff
    • Sharing opinions, experiences, and feedback relevant to the topic of the session
    • Practising active listening during focus group sessions
  • Arrive on time to focus groups they are selected for
  • Inform OCA staff member, in a timely manner, of any complications or conflicts with the focus group that arise

Volunteer Benefits

Volunteers will gain experience in OCA strategic initiatives and will participate in:

  • Shaping OCA member supports
  • Informing Ontario Chiropractic advocacy efforts
  • Building new OCA member opportunities

Opportunity Location:  Virtual
Date Range: November 2022 – June 2023
Volunteer Hours:  20

Opportunity Description

The Health Care Ecosystem Researcher role is a chance for you to gain a better understanding of our health care system and the role chiropractors play within it. The OCA is aiming to expand the impact of work done on behalf of the profession and share the important work that chiropractors do for their patients with members of the health care system in Ontario and across the country.

This position will help research and identify different organizations that the OCA can connect with as well as opportunities such as speaker webinars, resources pages and communities through which the impact of OCA’s work can be enhanced. Research for connections will include organizations, key contacts and opportunities related to:

  • Health care sector collaboration opportunities research- to identify organizations (e.g., hospitals, care centres, patient networks) both in Ontario and nationally to further the impact of the profession
    • Extended health care organizations
    • Health care professional associations
    • Patient care and support organizations
    • Key contact research for known organizations
    • Community events and opportunities for health care related engagements
    • Chronic pain and manual therapy
    • Centres of Excellence (e.g., Chronic pain, Health care, etc.)
    • Partners of network organizations (e.g., Pain Canada)
  • Extended Health Care (EHC) employers research- Identify organizations and specific individuals to connect with, including
    • Employers providing eEHC benefits
  • Opioid and Pain Reduction Collaborative clinical tool and CMCC course
    • Research opportunities to be shared through professional resource pages, membership newsletters and posts
    • Opioid patient care and support organizations
  • ca organizations
    • Compare and contrast the organizations listed on the various tabs on Centralhealthline.ca
    • Identify program leads and opportunities from various sources

Volunteer Responsibilities

You’ll use Google and other search engines to research opportunities for engagement, collaboration and sharing. This work will include:

  • identifying organizations
  • finding contact information for key contacts
  • providing summaries of the potential opportunity identified
  • fully researching the organization, including complete exploration of organizational web pages to identify opportunities

Volunteer Benefits

Health Care Ecosystem Researchers will have the opportunity better understand the health care ecosystem and the role chiropractors play within it. You’ll also gain the opportunity to learn about professional opportunities for the future, as well as gain a better understanding of collaboration and networks in health care. Through your research, you’ll contribute to enhancing the profession and developing key relationships that the OCA will use to share the important work that chiropractors do.

Opportunity Location:  Virtual
Date Range: November 2022 – June 2023
Volunteer Hours: 20 hours

Opportunity Description

In this role, you’ll complete two positions of approximately 10 hours each. Volunteers will participate in research that informs and develops our Affinity Partners Program and our member programs and supports.

We’re looking to enhance our Affinity Partners Program. This program is a partnership we have with various suppliers to provide products and services to our members at discounted rates.

We’re revisiting this program to see what enhancements and changes can be made to improve the offerings to our members. Participate in a small team with other volunteers and staff of the OCA to evaluate the current Affinity Partners Program and to recommend changes to the program going forward. Help identify suppliers and establish contacts that would be beneficial to Ontario chiropractors.

Member programs and supports is undertaking an environmental scan of the programs and supports that other professional associations in Ontario are providing to their members. You’ll participate in gathering information, comparing, and discussing the programs available to other health care professions and potential new chiropractic programs that the OCA could work on.

Volunteer Responsibilities

Affinity Partners Research Responsibilities:

  • Participate in three to four meetings
  • Review the current Affinity Partners Program
  • Compare with the CCA program to ensure our offerings complement its program and there are no overlaps
  • Make recommendations on the design and development of the program
  • Identify potential supplier partners
  • Help establish contacts with potential supplier partners

Member Programs and Supports Research:

  • Collect information from Ontario association websites’ public areas
  • Review details available on member programs and supports
  • Participate in discussions of available programs and supports
  • Identify potential areas or program types that we can pursue for future member programs and supports

Volunteer Benefits

  • Understanding of what supplier discount options are available from OCA and CCA
  • Influence our Affinity Partners Program’s strategic direction
  • Help deliver new or greater discounts from suppliers for our members
  • Enhanced understanding of the role that professional associations play in Ontario
  • Help inform future plans for member programs and supports that the OCA considers

Our OCA volunteer initiatives are designed to help further our profession while providing you with valuable learning opportunities as a chiropractor and a member of your professional community.