Letter from the COMEJC Chair
Dr. Christopher Murphy
The Council on Membership, Ethics & Judicial Concerns (COMEJC) convened for their annual in-person meeting in January.
NESO’s representative, Dr. Chris Murphy, concluded his term as Chair of the Council. Dr. Shawheen Saffari will assume the role of NESO representative following the AAO’s annual session.
COMEJC will be submitting multiple resolutions to the 2026 AAO House of Delegates in Orlando FL. These include amendments to financial polices to formally recognize & categorize dues amounts for Life Active Academic Members (this is intended to put practice into policy, as Life Active Academic dues are not formally documented) & to make Service Member dues a percentage of Active dues, rather than a flat dollar movement.
Membership data & trends were evaluated. Through January 2026, 93.8% of Active members have renewed. This is down from 95.6% at the same in 2025. The key drivers behind this decline are new & younger members (0-9 year in practice), mid career members (10-19 years), both men & women, and members in OSO’s. Despite a renewal decline among Active members, most other prominent member categories have improved year over year; life active, student, international & international student.
AAO market share as of May 31, 2025 is 84.6% among US orthodontists (down from 85.8%) & 48.4% among Canadian orthodontists (down from 83.2%).
In response to growing membership challenges, COMEJC has submitted a motion to the Board of Trustees to establish the Membership Ambassador Program (MAP). The goal of the MAP is to drive grassroots engagement, and ultimately recruitment and retention, among volunteer leaders through a defined structure & roles. If adopted, the program will launch as a pilot program for NESO & SWSO for the 2026-2027 membership year.
COMEJC has formed a subcommittee to investigate whether changes are needed to the current dues/assessment amounts paid by Canadian members. Currently, Canadian members receive a 20% reduction on dues and assessments compared to their US counterparts.
COMEJC continues to oversee the Resident Vitals & Financial Management for Residents presentation offered to residency programs annually. Through January 2026, 27 accredited orthodontic programs have scheduled or hosted the resident vitals presentation, up from 12 for all of 2024-25 & 18 for all of 2023-24. In addition, 21 programs have scheduled or hosted the Financial Management for Residents presentation, up from 8 for all of 2024-25 & 15 for all of 2023-24. In total, 41 of 75 accredited programs (55%) have hosted at least one of the AAO’s three presentation offerings, including the AAO Legal Course in 2025-26. AAO is currently piloting the “AAO in a Day” concept where programs host all three AAO presentations in a single day. To date this year, the University of Puerto Rico & University of Toronto have participated. Programs may request presentations thru the AAO.