Hunter to leave as AOP seeks to forge closer links with FODO

News of his departure was contained in the 2003 AOP annual report published last week, which also announced that the AOP was working more closely with FODO.
Head of communications, David Craig, said the statement should not been seen as a lead in to a merger of the two organisations, more that there was common ground between the two bodies.
Bob Hughes, executive director of FODO, agreed the two organisations had common ground, and by working together they could achieve much more.
The AOP report revealed the association was in deficit, though 2003 had been a successful year with rising membership and positive results from its members' survey. 'Members still felt that the AOP was providing better value for money than at any time in the last four years,' said Craig.
However, the AOP ran an operating deficit of £327,745 during the year. This shortfall was blamed on the high cost of professional insurance and the cost of services to members. In the year under review the association had 10,427 members providing an income up £233,500 at a shade under £3m.
The report said the defence department continued to see increasing numbers of members wanting help, particularly in cases where employees wanted advice on relations with their employer. The total number of defence cases jumped from just over 150 in 2002 to just under 250 in 2003.
In his report statement Hunter said the estimate for malpractice insurance had been underestimated by £175,000 due in part to a last-minute claim against an individual member in December 2002.
The rest of the shortfall was put down to increased production costs for the AOP's in-house magazine, Optometry Today. The number of copies of OT printed each fortnight is now over 16,000 pushing the bill for OT up by £121,588 during the year.
The annual accounts state the amount payable to Words & Images, owned by the editor of OT, Maureen Hunter, in respect of OT amounted to £649,505 an increase of 23 per cent on 2002.