Weekend Update

A lot has happened this past week. First of all, the massage world lost a wonderful person with the passing of Dan Barrow. He was the long-time moderator in the AMTA House of Delegates, among his many other accomplishments, and was just one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. He will be missed. My sympathies go out to his lovely wife Virgina and his family and friends. You can read his complete obituary here.

One good thing happened this week. Steph Lasch was arrested at the Minneapolis-St.Paul airport after she had boarded a plane bound for Beijing, China, with her husband and her son. This has been a long road for a lot of massage therapists. In case you don’t know the background, you can read it here.

Since last fall, I have been communicating regularly with the Lino Lakes Police Department to keep up with what has been happening in her case. I had provided them with numerous pages of FB conversations and other print items where she claimed to be a certified public accountant, a certified fraud investigator, a third-year law student, a tax expert, a marketing expert, and everything except the president of the United States.The dozens of massage therapists who reported her to that department, and also to the FBI, the Attorney General, the Better Business Bureau, and everywhere else they could turn to will hopefully get some justice now. People may never get their money back, but it is my big hope that her actions do not go unpunished.

Although she never got any of my money personally, I had appeared, along with three other women, as a blogger (about professional ethics, at her request) on a massage coaching website she had going on. She had announced far and wide that I was her mentor, and I felt compelled to just keep trying to spread the word about the avenues people could use to complain on account of that. The police report actually focuses on the money she defrauded massage clients of at her business location, and not the dozens of therapists she stole from. In any case, she’s currently in jail. I’d love to attend her trial. You can read about it here. My last piece of advice to her was to get her act together for the sake of her child. I contacted the LLPD again this evening and they told me that her son was handed over to her husband; they were on the plane with Steph but her husband was not charged with anything.

Champ and I attended the NC AMTA Convention in Statesville this weekend. We had a good time visiting with people we don’t see often enough and both of us enjoyed our continuing education. Champ took an ethics class with Felicia Brown and I took a class in teaching and classroom management from Dr. James Zarick. One of the best classes I have ever attended. Desiree Sawyer was elected as our new chapter president. I spent this morning visiting with Mike Hinkle, founder of the World Massage Festival. I am honored to be the keynote speaker at this year’s Festival in Las Vegas. I guess I’ll just try to make as few people mad as possible!

I spoke up at the business meeting about AMTA national office decision to do away with chapter fees. I want it to go on the record that I think this is the worst move this organization has ever made. In my opinion only, this move was designed to make AMTA’s membership fee more competitive with ABMP. The fact is, ABMP has a different business model than AMTA. ABMP does not have state chapters to support. They don’t have hundreds of volunteers. Personally, I think they’re a fine organization with fine people at the top, and they just operate differently. I think AMTA needs to quit worrying about ABMP and focus on doing the best for the massage profession. This is impacting chapter budgets, and while they have rolled out some additional benefits for the chapters, I don’t think it offsets what they’re losing. I’ve seen the budgets from three different states in the last few weeks and it is having an impact, and not a good one. I think they will regret this move in the long run. I’d like to see a massive letter-writing campaign to the Board of Directors describing the negative impact this will have on the chapters’ ability to provide top-notch education experiences on a state level and on chapter donations to the Massage Therapy Foundation. Please do that here.

I’ve had an emotional week myself. I implemented some changes at my business, which never happens without a few growing pains, and the death of an old friend whose funeral I had to miss in order to attend the convention have made me a little whacked out this week. Then hearing the news about Dan Barrow, followed by the news about Steph Lasch, and it has seemed like a roller coaster. The world just keeps turning.

Peace and Prosperity.


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