CAMTC Statistics through 5 December

I received a weekly update today on activities of the California Massage Therapy Council (CAMTC), the private nonprofit created under state law (SB 731) and legislative review to certify massage practitioners and therapists within California. The certifications exempt those certified from local licensing laws.

As of 5 Dec, 9581 applications were received and a1621 certifications have been approved and mailed..

In the week from 28 Nov to 5 Dec, CAMTC received 392 applications and mailed 170 certifications.The weeks from 11/2 through 12/5 have seen: 459, 440, 448, 332, and 392 received applications.

There are now, to the best of my knowledge, 15 staff members processing applications and handling phone calls about certifications. That's an increase of 9 from those initially on board.

CAMTC has been in the position of the sailor who wanted a good strong wind and got a hurricane before the crew was out a day. The estimate I'd seen in earlier minutes was an expectation of 3600 applications in 2009 and about 10,000 in 2010. As noted above, by 5 December we've received 9581 applications. Combined with having to create procedures for application review, procedures and policies for application denial, a committee to review red-flagged applications, and responding to "balking" cities, the "caulking" on the hull has taken a beating. CAMTC is, however, afloat, "bailing out the backlog", and trying to catch up as soon as possible.

I mentioned this rate of applications at dinner, prompting my younger son to start thinking about application rates. Given 400 applications per week and a 40 hour work week, CAMTC has been receiving applications at about one per every six working minutes. This doesn't count the number of phone queries, which have been substantial.

Extending the above thought of one CAMTC application per 6 working minutes to a staff of 15. To keep up, the staff would each have to process one application per each 90 minutes of the working day, including juggling any phone calls that came in. That simply can't be done while giving each application the necessary verification and review and even more staff can't be hired and trained instantly. Please be nice to our staff. I've got a feeling each and every one could use a massage.

Just so you know.