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Laura Allen's Blog Posts Tagged 'AMTA' (52)

Is No News Good News?

I’m wondering if the old adages “no news is good news” and “bad news travels fast” have been responsible for my writer’s block the past couple of weeks. I do tend to report it when things go wrong in our profession, although I occasionally hand out kudos as well.

I started a series on the financial health of our organizations, and it attracted very few comments. The NCBTMB has still not posted their 2008 filing, which I’ve been waiting for with bated breath. The Federation of State… Continue

Added by Laura Allen on December 13, 2009 at 6:44am — 2 Comments

Growing Pains

Massage is my second career, one that I only adopted ten years ago. Some of my fellow bloggers here were doing massage when I was still in high school. They’ve witnessed a lot of changes. As we move toward the New Year, I am reflecting on what has happened in the past decade, and I feel pretty certain that it’s been both the most productive and the most tumultuous time our profession has seen so far.

Rick Rosen, Executive Director of the recently formed Alliance for Massage Therapy… Continue

Added by Laura Allen on December 1, 2009 at 5:04am — No Comments

Thanksgiving Thanks

It’s that time of the year when a lot of people pause to give thanks for those things they are grateful for. I need to throw in my two cents.

A few months ago when I checked in at the AMTA National Convention in Orlando, I was thrilled when I opened my registration packet and found that instead of just my name badge, some kind soul had put the word “PRESS” in big letters underneath my name. To whomever that was, thank you.

Since I have been blogging about the politics of… Continue

Added by Laura Allen on November 23, 2009 at 6:32pm — 6 Comments

The Financial Health of Our Organizations: AMTA

This is a follow-up to my blog of June 19 about AMTA’s fiscal responsibility. In the next couple of months I will be reporting on the financial condition of all our non-profit professional organizations.

Someone from AMTA asked me why I didn’t pick on ABMP, and the short answer is, they are a not a non-profit organization. When an organization holds itself out as non-profit, the membership (and the public) has a right to know. Incidentally, I am a member of both… Continue

Added by Laura Allen on October 31, 2009 at 2:00pm — 3 Comments

My Report from the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards Meeting

I just returned from the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards annual meeting, held at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, TN. I must say that the venue was fabulous--in fact over the top--and miraculously cheap. They gave us a rate of $110 per room, including breakfast and free Internet access. It is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Enough gushing about that--here's what happened at the… Continue

Added by Laura Allen on October 11, 2009 at 9:00pm — 12 Comments

The NCBTMB Election: My Views on the Candidates

Once again, it's time to vote for new officers of the NCBTMB. A lot has happened with the organization since the last election, but I will decline to blame, or give credit to, anyone who was just elected last year with those events...things have been unfolding there for a long time that no newbie could possibly have had control over.

When the ballots came out last year, I personally contacted each candidate by phone or email. I asked their opinions on the downhill spiral that I felt… Continue

Added by Laura Allen on October 6, 2009 at 5:41am — 5 Comments

Sitting on Your Hands?

This weekend while I was teaching ethics to a class of 23 people, I asked how many present have read the Practice Act. As usual, the answer was TWO. I wonder how people think they can comply with the law if they don't know what it is. I wonder if they know they can have input whenever the act is opened, as it occasionally is. I wonder if they know they can attend massage board meetings; that holds true everywhere, not just in my state; a public board is obligated to have open meetings and to… Continue

Added by Laura Allen on September 22, 2009 at 4:48am — 6 Comments

New Blood at the NCBTMB

The NCBTMB (National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork) has announced that Angela Palmier and Christopher Alvarado are joining the NCBTMB as Industry Relations Specialists. In my opinion, that's the first positive action they have taken in a while, and I hope it is a sign of better days to come for the NCB.

Both Palmier and Alvarado have long involvements with the massage profession and with AMTA (American Massage Therapy Association). Both have served as… Continue

Added by Laura Allen on September 1, 2009 at 6:37pm — 15 Comments

Milestones

Reposting today's blog from Massage Magazine:

One week from today, I’ll be turning 50. To me it sounds much more impressive when I say “half a century,” instead of “hitting the big five-OH!.”

I think when most people hit one of those numbers with a zero on the end, they pause and reflect, and I’m no exception. In the previous decade, I married the love of my life, went back to college and attended massage school, and switched careers. In this one, I’ve opened a new… Continue

Added by Laura Allen on August 29, 2009 at 7:30pm — 1 Comment

Elections Here, There, and Everywhere

This past week the North Carolina Board of Massage & Bodywork Therapy, of which I am a member, held our annual elections. Last weekend, at our state chapter meeting of AMTA, we had those board elections, and the national AMTA has also just released their ballots and candidate bios.

To me it is a disturbing fact that the same people seem to cycle through every position at the state and national levels. Several of the national candidate bios said things like "I have been an… Continue

Added by Laura Allen on August 23, 2009 at 7:12am — No Comments

AMTA & ABMP Responses to NCBTMB Announcement

Once again, our professional membership organizations have spoken, and once again, the NCBTMB (National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork) is not paying heed. I reported back on June 25 that the NCB has a new initiative in the works to expand their scope from a certifying body into a membership organization.

ABMP (Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals) was the first to respond, and AMTA (American Massage Therapy Association) has now followed suit in… Continue

Added by Laura Allen on July 12, 2009 at 11:45am — 2 Comments

Defining and Advancing High Standards?

The National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork has issued a press release this week regarding the "premature disclosure" of their plan to create a new membership organization.

I scooped their big announcement on my blog, but in fact, I did not publish that until I had seen a number of comments publicly made about it on Facebook. Les Sweeney, president of ABMP, has now issued a letter that has been shared on the Massage… Continue

Added by Laura Allen on July 5, 2009 at 10:46am — 5 Comments