How long does the CAMTC take to mail certificate after approval?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Noel Norwick on May 5, 2010 at 9:36am

FYI - it took 4 months after the DOJ cleared me for CAMTC to advise me that I needed to repeat the LiveScan in order to get FBI fingerprint clearance. Once that was done, it took about 4 weeks for the certificate to arrive. In the meantime, the announcement that you were approved should show your certificate number. With your name and that number, anyone can go to the CAMTC website to verify that you have been issued the certificate. Like you, I was frustrated at the seemingly endless delays.

For what it's worth, please note that CAMTC is not a State funded operation and its sole source of funds is our application fees. Its volunteer board had to get loans to start up and it now has to operate the certificate program on a very tight budget as well as defend itself (and us) against AB1821 (see http://www.massagetoday.com/mpacms/mt/article.php?id=14216) .

Permalink Reply by Lea McGeever on May 5, 2010 at 11:13am

Thank you so much!

Noel Norwick said:

FYI - it took 4 months after the DOJ cleared me for CAMTC to advise me that I needed to repeat the LiveScan in order to get FBI fingerprint clearance. Once that was done, it took about 4 weeks for the certificate to arrive. In the meantime, the announcement that you were approved should show your certificate number. With your name and that number, anyone can go to the CAMTC website to verify that you have been issued the certificate. Like you, I was frustrated at the seemingly endless delays.

For what it's worth, please note that CAMTC is not a State funded operation and its sole source of funds is our application fees. Its volunteer board had to get loans to start up and it now has to operate the certificate program on a very tight budget as well as defend itself (and us) against AB1821 (see http://www.massagetoday.com/mpacms/mt/article.php?id=14216) .

Permalink Reply by Keith Eric Grant on May 5, 2010 at 12:31pm

If you've already received notification, it was likely that your certificate got delayed in a hold placed on mailings a couple of weeks ago by the CEO to ensure that all procedures were being followed. No certificates were mailed two weeks ago and only 99 this past week. That leaves 464 ready to mail as per the last weekly report. The same report had 15,889 received,
9011 certificates mailed, 4612 held due to schools (some 20 schools have been flagged), and 1802 waiting applicant response or further information from the applicant.

There's a list of flagged schools online. Transcripts from flagged schools are not considered to be sufficient proof in themselves that the education claimed was taken. Applicants graduating from these schools are required to provide addition information/proof of knowledge.

It is unfortunate but direct access to the management company's processing staff was cut off. Particularly with schools being investigated, staff was not able to provide new information and people were calling daily to the point that processing of applications was being significantly impacted. It's worth remembering that the CAMTC process was set up as a voluntary certification, not mandatory licensing, and that early estimates were for 3600 applications by the end of 2009 versus more like 12,000 received.

There is a major fight right now to keep regulation at the state level. Noel gave the link to the recent Massage Today article. There's been more recent discussion on a Facebook group opposed to AB 1822.

Permalink Reply by Lea McGeever on May 5, 2010 at 12:34pm

Wow, this has been really helpful. Thank you so much!

Keith Eric Grant said:

If you've already received notification, it was likely that your certificate got delayed in a hold placed on mailings a couple of weeks ago by the CEO to ensure that all procedures were being followed. No certificates were mailed two weeks ago and only 99 this past week. That leaves 464 ready to mail as per the last weekly report. The same report had 15,889 received,
9011 certificates mailed, 4612 held due to schools (some 20 schools have been flagged), and 1802 waiting applicant response or further information from the applicant.

There's a list of flagged schools online. Transcripts from flagged schools are not considered to be sufficient proof in themselves that the education claimed was taken. Applicants graduating from these schools are required to provide addition information/proof of knowledge.

It is unfortunate but direct access to the management company's processing staff was cut off. Particularly with schools being investigated, staff was not able to provide new information and people were calling daily to the point that processing of applications was being significantly impacted. It's worth remembering that the CAMTC process was set up as a voluntary certification, not mandatory licensing, and that early estimates were for 3600 applications by the end of 2009 versus more like 12,000 received.

There is a major fight right now to keep regulation at the state level. Noel gave the link to the recent Massage Today article. There's been more recent discussion on a Facebook group opposed to AB 1822.

Permalink Reply by Jessica Wilson on May 5, 2010 at 2:55pm

I submitted my application in mid January, and have still heard nothing back. It is going on five months now, the check has been cashed, and the status of my application shows that it has been received. I have sent them countless emails, and tried calling their office, the city hall where they are located, and the state, but nobody has been able to be of any help. I am starting to think they made out with my money. Of all the people i have spoken to, five months is unusually long. I think my next step is to contact the Better Business Bureau or a newspaper to get some attention drawn to this, since nothing seems to be working. It has been so frustrating! so just don't let it go too long before you start to look further into it.

Permalink Reply by Lea McGeever on May 5, 2010 at 4:02pm

Oh my! That is a horribly long time! The only other thing I would try is to send a physical letter since you know they do receive their mail. But other than than.... yeah, it's tough. I hope it all gets straightened out quickly for you!

Jessica Wilson said:

I submitted my application in mid January, and have still heard nothing back. It is going on five months now, the check has been cashed, and the status of my application shows that it has been received. I have sent them countless emails, and tried calling their office, the city hall where they are located, and the state, but nobody has been able to be of any help. I am starting to think they made out with my money. Of all the people i have spoken to, five months is unusually long. I think my next step is to contact the Better Business Bureau or a newspaper to get some attention drawn to this, since nothing seems to be working. It has been so frustrating! so just don't let it go too long before you start to look further into it.

Permalink Reply by Keith Eric Grant on May 6, 2010 at 6:44pm

Jessica, having an application pending since January is too long, unless a problem has been identified to you. Such problems include transcripts from a flagged school, incomplete applications, or problems in getting background checks back from the DOJ or FBI. As of April, CAMTC now has an executive director to work both on political battles, such as AB 1822, and on oversight of processing. I've forwarded a link to this discussion to him.

By June, there will also be Chief Operations Officer taking on oversight of the day to day logistics and problems. While the new COO does not come in with familiarity with the California massage profession, she has considerable experience in nonprofit management and impressed us as being sharp, productive, and an extremely fast learner.. While the management firm has made every effort to provide good service to CAMTC, the board has recognized some ongoing problems and we are taking steps to correct them, a number of which have been months in the planning and implementation. One of those went into place today. There's a much better designed and hopefully more informative website that went up this morning.

Permalink Reply by Keith Eric Grant on May 7, 2010 at 1:09am

I heard back tonight from Ahmos Netanel, the CAMTC CEO tonight, after he spent a very long day moving up and down the state to various meetings with local agencies. He has both confirmed that the delays in communication have to and will change and forwarded the link here on to the head of the management firm. Ahmos also stated he wants phone answering to start happening again. Just to let you know you are being heard!