Surgeons pay dues, check their certification, and reach the exam with one login

A surgeon's relationship with the board lasts a whole career

The American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery certifies surgeons, and certification is the start of a long relationship. There are dues every year, certificates and plaques to order, certification dates to keep an eye on, and for some members, committee work on the board's behalf. The board's own sign-in page sums up the members' area in one line: "To purchase certain products, pay dues, update your profile, access committee materials, and more, please log in below."

The person on the other side of that page is a working surgeon who visits a handful of times a year, usually between patients, and may not remember the password from last time. The person who hears about it when something goes wrong is a member of the board's small staff, who also keeps the membership records, sends the dues notices, and answers the phone.

We built the members' area, and we connected it to the yearly exam so that one account opens both.

Two websites, two copies of every member

The members' area lives on the board's main website. The yearly exam runs on a separate site. For a long time the exam site kept its own copy of each member's account and standing, refreshed from the main site on a schedule.

Most days that was fine. The trouble came in the gaps. A surgeon could pay their dues on the main site, go to the exam site soon after, and be told their dues were not current, because the exam site had not heard yet. Two copies also meant two passwords that could drift apart. Each time, the surgeon had done everything right, and the fix was a call to the board office.

Staff had their own version of the same problem. The board keeps its master membership records in its own system. Every list that lived somewhere else was one more list to keep in step by hand.

What we built, and who each decision was for

One account, checked at the source. The main website is now the only place a member's sign-in is checked. When a surgeon signs in to the exam, the exam site asks the main site in that moment and gets back the member's current standing. A surgeon who pays dues at lunch can start the exam after lunch, with one password to remember.

Paying takes a minute. Dues, certificate and plaque orders, brochures, and gifts to the President's Fund all go through the members' area. Each payment lands on the member's own record, where they can see their purchase history, and dues standing updates the moment a payment goes through. When the board sends its annual dues notice, each surgeon's email carries a personal link that opens the payment form with their details already filled in, so nobody retypes an office address to pay a bill.

Members see what the board sees. A signed-in surgeon can check their certification dates, their maintenance of certification dates, and whether their dues are current. They can also update their own contact details, which are the same details patients find in the board's Physician Finder.

Committee pages open to the right people. Staff can set any page in the members' area to be open to every signed-in member, or to named people only. A committee member's menu lists the pages opened to them, such as agendas and assignments, and leaves out the rest. Staff manage this from the page's own edit screen, so a change in committee membership never waits on a developer.

Staff's records stay the truth. The board's staff export from their own membership system and upload the file. The site updates every member to match and hands back a report of exactly what changed, so staff keep one master list and can see what each upload did.

What a member's visit looks like now

A surgeon signs in a few times a year. They pay dues from the link in the board's email, glance at their certification dates, order a certificate, and move on to the exam with the same account. A committee member finds the agenda where they expect it. Nobody has to think about which website knows what.

For staff, the websites follow the list they already keep, and a member who pays is current everywhere at once. We look after the hosting and the updates underneath, and we hear from staff when the board wants something to work differently.