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Last week, the AFMTE released a position paper authored by Executive Director Rick Rosen, “Alliance Offers New Vision for National Certification.”

 

The AFMTE also recently announced that it is partnering with the FSMTB in their initiative to begin approving continuing education.

 

Both of these have attracted quite a bit of discussion on the various social media sites. And like any discussion, people agree, disagree, and agree to disagree.  I’m glad to say there hasn’t been any mudslinging of the nature that goes on at times in some of these venues. I think these discussions are useful and informative.  They sometimes bring to light a lot of misconceptions that people have about which entity does what, and how they do it.

 

I encourage everyone to read Rosen’s paper in its entirety, but to make a long story short, it is a plea to the NCBTMB to reorganize, and get out of the continuing education business and the entry-level exam business. The FSMTB has been stating the opinion since their founding 5 years ago that NCBTMB exams are inappropriate for licensing purposes, and encouraging the states to drop those exams and use the MBLEx exclusively. That hasn’t happened.  If the map on the FSMTB is current, 33 member boards are using the MBLEx. If the map on the NCBTMB website is current, 38 states are still accepting their exams, meaning the majority of states are accepting both, and offering their licensees a choice. The AFMTE is also supportive of the Federation’s stance, as is AMTA and ABMP. Still, the facts show that either the 38 states are doing the wrong thing, or else they are exercising their undeniable right to conduct their business the way they want to.

 

I haven’t been in this profession nearly as long as Rosen or some of the other players here. I became a massage therapist in 1999, and it seems like I joined at a time when everything was just really starting to swirl. I was in the first wave of licensees in North Carolina.  Mr. Rosen actually has license #00001…first person licensed in our state. He has seen and been instrumental in a lot of things happening. I would never try to minimize the contributions he has made to this field. I won’t criticize his career, his integrity, or his belief that he is suggesting something for the good of the profession on the whole.

 

My criticism is this, and it isn’t directed entirely at him; it’s directed at the concept of any organization trying to mandate to another organization how to run their affairs. We get enough of that from the feds, don’t we?

 

I believe that the FSMTB and their mission of public protection is a great thing. The member boards come together for the purpose of discussing common problems and looking for workable solutions. Anytime people sit at the table together to try to solve a problem, that’s wonderful to me. I also believe that the AFMTE was started with the noble intent of acting as the voice, advocate, and resource for massage schools and educators. What I don’t believe is that either one of them can unilaterally force the NCBTMB to change their way of conducting business, nor do I think they should have that right.

 

The FSMTB is developing a model practice act, in addition to developing a CE approval program. They can and do suggest to the member boards that their exam is the appropriate exam, their CE approval (will be) is the appropriate approval, their model practice act (will be) the premier example of an appropriate act, and so forth.  It’s part of the quest to streamline things  in a uniform fashion and promote portability.  READ MORE...

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Comment by Laura Allen on May 9, 2011 at 5:40pm

There have been many comments made about this on the AFMTE's page on LinkedIn and on my blog as well, including a response from Paul Lindamood. I am well aware of Rick's impressive career and as I said, I'm not criticizing it. I obviously think his opinion is important or I would have ignored the whole thing instead of spreading it all over my networks and bothering to respond.

 

The other folks who have responded to the discussion on LinkedIn etc have careers that are also long and impressive. The good thing about discussion is that as I said, people can agree, disagree, and agree to disagree. It warrants discussing and that is happening, so that's a good thing.

Comment by Emmanuel Bistas on May 9, 2011 at 8:13am

Laura, I don’t understand why this is a big issue.  

 

Someone who has been in the profession for 30 years, was past president of  NC’s AMTA chapter, ran a school for many years, and was instrumental in establishing the NC licensing board and the FSMTB, had a vision about how NCBTMB would fit well in the massage therapy profession.  He shared the vision with the NCBTMB and never heard back. 

 

Later on, when he was the Executive Director of AFMTE, the organization took on that vision and issued a position statement.  What’s so wrong about that? Nobody is forcing anyone into anything, it is a matter of putting something out there so that NCBTMB and people can take a position on the content.  AFMTE is not in a position to force anyone into anything, but they can certainly share a vision on how credentialing and certification could work. 

 

It would be good for NCBTMB to also take a position on how they see their organization and what role it plays in the profession given the new  alignment of organizations.  NCBTMB was  established to set and uphold professional standards through certification, but the certification became convoluted when the certification exam began being offered in non-certification option.  

 

I agree that organizations should run themselves how they see fit and I agree that a discussion needs to take place, but some opinions, especially when they come from someone like Rick Rosen, are very important.

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