Have you noticed the increased activity in our forum since the conference? THANK YOU to all the members that are actively using Topicbox (a.k.a. the SOMSA forum) to continue networking post-conference. We thought we could share a few “Tips for Topicbox” for new and existing members, so we will be sending out bite-sized emails with just one Tip for Topicbox per message.
The SOMSA Topicbox forum/listserv is the online community provided exclusively to members of the Society of OMS Administrators. SOMSA encourages all members to share successes and challenges, contribute constructive feedback, bring questions, and provide perspective in all aspects of OMS practice administration. Participation in this forum indicates agreement to abide by rules of etiquette.
Make it your own! You can get exactly the level of notifications you want, and you can adjust them for each Topicbox Group you are in (for example, OMS Practice Questions or your regional group), you get to decide how you would like to receive delivery of new posts and replies to current threads. You have three options:
To adjust your settings, click on the forum from Topicbox home page, then Click “Edit delivery options –>” in the right-hand menu. Select your notification level, outlined above.
Are you signed up for all the Topicbox channels? See list below to see if you should subscribe to any new topic-based groups!
When you’re ready to create an account and post, click the “Join Here” link below for the forums you’d like to participate and receive notifications about. We have created several topic-based forums and their join links are listed below, as well as the general forum.
We are making sure that the people who join are current SOMSA members, so be sure you have renewed and use your real name and email address you use with SOMSA. If you need help renewing, please reach out to Linden at linden@somsa.org or 417-319-1130.
We also have four regional forums (view SOMSA regions), so you can request to join your region, if you haven’t already been added.
The subject of your thread or your email will be the title of the thread, so don’t “bury the lede,” or put the most important information at the end of your post.
Also, don’t change the subject if you are replying to a Topicbox email! This will start a new thread in the forum, which will put related information in two separate places… no bueno!
Instead, if you are starting a “new topic,” fill in the title box (or your subject field, if submitting by email) with a clear description of what you need help with so other members know right away if they can help you. Here are a couple tips for crafting a descriptive subject.
Remember:
NOTE: If you reply in a browser or in the app, you do not need to worry about deleting previous replies: just enter your reply and send.
We host this forum to facilitate real-time, meaningful conversations around issues OMS practice administrators face every day in practices all around the country. Everyone is polite but sometimes what is polite in the real world can have unintended consequences online. If too many messages sent by our forum are just “Thank you!” then some members will begin ignoring emails from the forum, which in turn decreases participation–the opposite of what a thriving network of professionals needs.
We all agree to remember that we are grateful for the help we provide and to show that thanks by not only asking for help but giving it whenever we can.
Note: This applies to other short responses too. Instead of “Why?” or “Yes.” Or “We use Five Lakes.” always do your best to couch replies in context. “Why do you use that product? We’ve used the competitor for 4 years and they’ve always been very reliable and they seem cost-effective.” Or “Yes, we do have to call them back each time, but it is working. Our acceptance rate has increased in the 3 quarters we’ve be doing this.” or “We have used Five Lakes for a year now and they’re helping us in x, y, and z ways.”
One of the many reasons we chose Topicbox for the SOMSA forum is the many ways each member can choose to participate. Whether you prefer to interact with other members through email (like a listserv), post from the web, or reply from your phone–or any combination of the three–that’s up to you!
Thank you for participating in the SOMSA online community. To ensure the best possible experience for all of our members, we have established these basic guidelines for participation.
If you believe someone is violating any of our Forum Etiquette guidelines or general behavior expected from professionals, the best thing to do is forward the post to Linden or a board member and let us handle the situation.