Formation 1983 Membership 55 (2010) | Location United Kingdom Website www.northernoptom.com | |
Type professional association Affiliations Association of Optometrists, General Optical Council | ||
The Northern Optometric Society (NOS) is a not-for-profit, joint academic and professional group providing continuing education to optometrists, optical professionals, and academics. Based in Manchester, north-west England, the society is a local affiliate of the UK Association of Optometrists (AOP) and meets at the Manchester Conference Centre every second Monday from October through to March.
Contents
Manchester University Faculty of Life Sciences recommends its undergraduate Optometry students, for whom NOS membership is free of charge, to attend NOS fortnightly continuing education lectures.
Continuing Education Lecture Programme
Each winter NOS hosts a series of fortnightly evening lectures on a wide range of optometric topics designed to appeal to optical students, academics, and professionals.
Topics for the 2010-11 lecture programme include surgical disease management, diagnosis and contemporary research on various conditions, therapeutics, laser treatment and dispensing.
NOS is a certified training provider for the General Optical Council with attendance at each NOS lecture earning 1.5 continuing education training (CET) points.
Membership
There is no formal membership to the NOS. Lectures may be attended on a one-off basis or at a discounted rate for the full season.
Membership is free for undergraduate and pre-registration Optometry students.
History
The NOS was founded in 1983 when the British Optical Association (Northern Society) amalgamated with the AOP Manchester Branch to create the Northern Optical Society.
The BOA (Northern Society) had been founded in 1921, developing out of the Northern Optological Society started in 1905. The BOA ran annual “refresher” courses at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST).
The AOP Manchester Branch first became active in 1972 (the AOP itself having been created in the late 1950s). The Manchester branch held regular "optico-political" dinners during the winter at the Cresta Court Hotel in Altrincham.
The Society changed its name to the Northern Optometric Society in 1987 following the prior name change of the British College of Optometrists, and in line with the move from the term "Ophthalmic Opticians" to "Optometrists" in the profession at large.
The founding Chairman of the NOS was Robert Quinn who was also National Chairman of the AOP in 1973.
Previous Chairmen also include Shehzad Naroo and Philip Morgan.