ARBO - Association of Regulatory Boards of Optometry 2009

The Association of Regulatory Boards of Optometry (ARBO) is the federation of state, provincial, and territorial boards of optometry throughout North America. Boards of optometry serve as the licensing and regulatory arm of the optometric profession by formulating rules, or regulations, that govern and enforce the laws that grant the privilege to practice optometry, which are enacted by state legislatures.Most organizations are created due to meet the needs of a group with something in common. The first ARBO President, W.S. Todd of Hartford, Connecticut, had been talking to other leaders of the profession since 1913, and believed in the need to address the quality of optometric education and assure more uniform licensure by jurisdictions. But it wasn't until 1919 that ARBO was formally organized as the International Board of Boards (IBB) by twenty-seven people representing nineteen U.S. state boards and two Canadian provincial boards at a meeting in Rochester, New York. Even though ARBO has played a significant role in obtaining solutions for Dr. Todd's two issues of 1919, the profession itself has continued to expand over the years. ARBO has grown with it, incorporating two name changes along the way, the first in the late 1920's to the more encompassing International Association of Boards of Examiners in Optometry (IAB), and the second, in 1999, to its current name, ARBO. Both changes were designed to closely align the organization with its evolving mission, and communicate a concise and clear identity to both the general public and the optometric profession.