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The Financial Health of Our Organizations: AMTA

This is the fourth year that I have reported on the financial status of the non-profit organizations that represent the massage therapy profession. I am not an accountant or a financial expert. The information is taken from Guidestar, a clearinghouse where you can look up the financial filings of non-profits.

This blog has been revised–after I posted the original blog, Guidestar posted AMTA’s latest 990. Since non-profits have a different filing schedule that the rest of us, it is not unusual for the “latest” 990 appearing on the website to be a year old or more. This revision reflects the 2012 filing. It was signed in October of 2012 and just made it to the Guidestar site within the past week. Thank you to Rachel Mann, VP of AMTA Board of Directors, for bringing it to my attention.

The American Massage Therapy Association is showing a net revenue of over $419K, compared to their loss for the previous year of almost $110K. Glad to see they’re out of the hole.

The revenue increased over $600K from the previous year.

AMTA compensates the members of their elected Board of Directors, in amounts ranging from $5000 for members-at-large to almost $40K for the President (during this filing, that was Glenath Moyle.) Executive Director Shelly Johnson was paid almost $261K–a drastic cut from the $316K plus almost $10K in “other” compensation that was paid out on the 2011 filing to the immediate past ED, Elizabeth Sublewski (aka Liz Lucas).  Sublewski also received severance pay of over $82,000 on the 2011 return. On the 2012 return, she received almost $260K….apparently, it was quite expensive to the organization to get Sublewski off the job. My hope is that in the future, AMTA will negotiate executive contracts that are more favorable to the organization. Total salaries accounted for about 3.5 million; that is actually almost $500K less than they were the year before.

Over $11 million dollars worth of AMTA’s revenue came directly from membership dues. The remaining revenue is derived from sales of literature, convention sponsorships and booths, advertising, and investments.

AMTA has the same kind of expenses that any other business or organization does–office supplies, information technology, advertising, postage, banking and credit card processing fees, and so forth. None of it looks out of line, considering the size of the organization. AMTA represents over 57,000 members. They’ve seen recessions come and go and have survived them all. As a long-standing member myself, I have never seen service suffer in any way, whether it was a fat year or a lean year.

As an aside, I hear that Executive Director Shelly Johnson is stepping down later this spring to spend more time with family. She has done an excellent job during the 8 years she spent as Deputy Director, and since she stepped up into the ED position in 2010. She will be missed by the organization, and I wish her the best of luck.

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AMTA Pledges $100,000 in Matching Donations for MTs Affected by Hurricane Sandy

The American Massage Therapy Association announced today that the organization is pledging a matching donation of up to $100,000 to help massage therapists who were affected by the storm in NY, NJ, and CT. In the press release issued earlier today, in addition to the matching donation, member therapists will also be given a payment plan for their membership dues, and provided with free continuing education.

In the next few days, there will be a page on AMTA’s website where you can make a donation electronically. In the meantime, donations should be sent to AMTA, 500 Davis Street, Evanston,IL 60201 and mark on the check that it is for the Hurricane Sandy Account.

AMTA chapters throughout the U.S. are encouraged to provide assistance to massage therapists through AMTA’s Hurricane Sandy account.

AMTA members and all massage therapists also can contribute to this account. (Note that contributions to AMTA chapters or to the Hurricane Sandy account are not tax-deductible, as AMTA is not a charitable organization)

Contribute directly to those agencies and groups established to accept charitable contributions and ensure that they reach those most in need. http://www.serve.gov/sandy/

For several days after the hurricane, AMTA reached out to learn more about the impact of the storm on massage therapists. Lack of electricity and communications in most of the area dramatically slowed the ability to learn who was affected. Once we established contact with chapter presidents in the Tri-State area, the AMTA Board was better able to determine what it could do as a professional association to benefit massage therapists and the profession.

There have been some grassroots efforts going on in the interim, and no one is minimizing those efforts. Friends have helped friends–and perfect strangers–and neighbors have helped neighbors. I’d like to say, though, that double the money is double the money–so I encourage you to give where it’s going to be doubled and do twice the good. AMTA has the safeguards in place of having a bank account strictly dedicated to this cause set up, and complete accountability of the funds coming in and going out.

Blessings to all those who have been affected, and all those who are doing what they can to help. Now let’s get this $100,000 raised so we can turn it into $200,000.

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North Carolina Rocks the AMTA National Convention!

My husband Champ and I attended the AMTA National Convention in Raleigh this week, and a good time was had by all! Congratulations to all our colleagues in the North Carolina Chapter for pulling off a fabulous event! I’m not going to take any credit because other than teaching and sitting in the House of Delegates, I am afraid I didn’t have the time to do much else. Champ was all over the place helping out….lifting and toting, working in the massage room and whatever else he could do to be useful. Thanks, honey!

On Tuesday, I attended the Board of Directors meeting. Those are open to everyone, and I wish more members would attend so you can see the Board at work. It’s worth the effort. I sat beside Leena Guptha, a past National President, and one of the funniest and warmest people in the world. We had a nice little visit.

Wednesday morning, the Opening Ceremony was fabulous. President Cynthia Ribeiro is a very engaging speaker and her Portugese accent just makes her more so. The keynote speaker was Molly Barker, founder of Girls on the Run, and she was one of the best speakers we’ve ever had, in my opinion. Wednesday afternoon, we had the preliminary meeting for the House of Delegates. I have been honored to serve as a delegate for the past two years, and it is a wonderful experience. During the preliminary meeting, there is always a mock position statement and mock recommendation put forth so new delegates can get the gist of what goes on during the actual meeting. Ken Swenson, Iowa delegate, facilitated the fake recommendation that we should be required to sing a song before every massage, by performing “Rub it In,” and it was the high point of the meeting. You can watch that here.

Wednesday evening, Champ and I attended  the annual author’s dinner hosted by Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, my publisher. We sat with the ever-entertaining Diana Thompson, former President of the Massage Therapy Foundation, and Mary Beth Braun-Hanson, former President of National AMTA. Also present was Ruth Werner and her husband Kurt, Celia Bucci, Joe Muscolino, Leslie Young Giase, a bunch of LWW folks, and I hope I am not forgetting anyone but I probably am! Ruth shared that someone had called her husband Champ earlier that day–they’re both good-looking, so it was an honest mistake!

Thursday was the House of Delegates meeting, ably facilitated by the awesome Dan Barrow, and John Combe of Oregon did a great job as the leader of the House. Ann Blair Kennedy of SC authored three position statements that passed muster and were officially adopted by AMTA. They are: 1) It is the position of the AMTA that massage therapy can be effective in reducing low back pain, 2) It is the position of the AMTA that massage therapy can be a beneficial part of an integrative treatment plan for those who suffer with fibromyalgia syndrome, and 3) It is the position of the AMTA that massage therapy can help improve sleep. Congratulations to Ann!

Thursday night, the Bloggers had a meetup thanks to the organizational efforts and generosity of Allissa Haines, author of Writing a Blue Streak. Michael Reynolds, Kelli Wise, Katherine Mayerovitch, Lisa Santoro, Christopher and Xerlan Deery, and Champ and I had a big time eating, drinking, and being merry.

Friday morning, I taught Using Research to Market Your Massage Therapy Practice. Friday afternoon, I taught One Year to a Successful Massage Therapy Practice. It was my first time teaching at the National Convention, and I totally enjoyed both classes. Both were very interactive with students sharing a lot, so it was just a great experience.

Friday night, I attended the reception for the Massage Therapy Foundation. I had to duck out early, but I did stay long enough to see the awesome Tina Allen receive the Humanitarian Award sponsored by Biofreeze and Performance Health. A $2500 donation was made to the MTF in Tina’s name. If you haven’t met Tina, she’s dynamite in a small package and the founder of the Liddle Kidz™ Foundation. Please watch this video about her work in Japan, and you’ll see why she is deserving of this award.

I left the MTF reception and went to the NC Chapter BBQ and Beach Music Blast! The National Shag Champions were there demo’ing how to do the shag. The food was good, the music was good, and the fellowship was good. People were dancing out on the sidewalk! I had a great time visiting with friends from all over.

The one black mark on my visit was the fact that Friday morning, I woke up with terrible low back pain, something I actually never have. Usually my aches and pains are in my shoulders, but I was in terrible condition, and I had to teach all day wearing a happy face! Saturday morning, Kathleen Gramzay of Kinessage® Massage through Movement worked on me for about an hour in the exhibit hall, or I probably would not have made it to the dinner dance. She was a great help!

We sat with the other NC folks but of course I had to get up and socialize. I saw a lot of my favorite massage people this week and only got to spend a minute or two with most of them, but I’m so grateful to have seen them all and to have met so many FB friends, a lot of whom were in my classes.

I ran into Jaime Huffman, former President of the North Carolina Board of Massage & Bodywork Therapy. I served on the Board with her for five years and she is the newly elected President of the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards. I also took the time to stroll up the street to the North Carolina Board offices, since my last Board meeting was in 2010 and I hadn’t seen my friends there in a long time. I had a good visit.

I also spoke with Bob Jantsch, the delegate to the Federation from Pennsylvania, who attended the FSMTB annual meeting in New Orleans just before coming to AMTA. Bob introduced the amendments to restore the original bylaws–and subsequently the balance of power–and although the were defeated this time around, I personally applaud Bob for having the guts to get up and start the ball rolling. The opera ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings, and I can just about guarantee that this one isn’t over. Bob is also in the AMTA House of Delegates, and I must say he knows the drill! Bob has served this profession in many ways over the years and kudos to him.

All in all, this was one fabulous week. I’ve attended about ten national conventions, and this was one of the best. Thank you so much to all the folks who came from far and wide to attend–we hope you enjoyed North Carolina, and we all enjoyed having you!

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I’m in Pain

Yes, I’m in pain. Believe it or not, it pains me to write negatively about the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork. I am personally acquainted with many of the people who work there, from the CEO, Mike Williams, on down, to Board members, staff members and volunteers. I count some of them among my friends. I know for a fact that they are dedicated and hard-working people.

I’ve been NCTMB since 2000 and an approved provider of CE since 2002. I’ve seen the ups and the downs of the organization: the days of great service, and the days of bad service. I’ve seen the leaders who had the best interests of the profession at  heart–and one or two who were on a personal mission to bring down the organization with their wild spending and lack of professional ethics. And I’ve seen–and even been a party to–some of their missteps. A couple of years ago when they announced an advanced certification exam, I signed right on. I even appeared in an advertising campaign for it, along with quite a few other well-known massage therapists, educators, and even some illustrious physicians. The failure of that project, I believe, was because it was a general thing, and not a specialty certification–which the profession has been requesting for quite some time.

CEO Mike Williams responded to my Wish List blog last week. I met Williams at the AFMTE meeting a couple of months ago and spent a very enjoyable couple of hours talking with him one-on-one. I hear (from other folks, he wasn’t bragging) that he has a proven track record of helping floundering organizations get back on track. He even joked to me that he had learned everything he needed to know about the NCB from reading my blog.

You can’t please all of the people all of the time, and I know that just from the comments I receive on this blog. However, distress at their latest action seems to be shared by more than a few people. The NCBTMB sent out an application for a new assigned school code to massage schools this week. Now, the organization has required a school code since the beginning; it’s just a number that students must include on their application to sit for one of the NCB exams, and it is supposed to demonstrate that the school is legitimate. That’s good in theory; and I think the original intent was to keep schools and/or individuals from falsifying diplomas and transcripts.

A number of school owners went up in arms this week when they received the application. True, it is just seven pages long, and that’s way less than what is required for a state board school approval or COMTA accreditation…but therein lines the issue: except for the schools in the few unregulated states, these schools have already been approved by their state boards, and in some cases, one or more accrediting bodies as well.

One school owner on my FB page said “We are opting out. The list of required paperwork is oppressive. Our school is now sending them all off to the Mblex. It’s moves like this that, in my opinion, will seal the deal of completely making the NCBTMB irrelevant. We had a school code with them, we maintain state approval which can be verified easily on the state website. The additional hassle which this organization seems to thrive on is over my tolerance level.”

Another sore point is the human trafficking angle. Now, I don’t think anyone is in favor of human trafficking except the people who are making a living off of it. As background, there has been legislation introduced in a few states requiring massage establishments to post notices about human trafficking–something that isn’t required in a convenience store (in other words, they’re picking on us again, supposedly because massage is a business in which it’s a big problem). On their 2010 990 filing, the NCB reported giving a $5000 donation to the Polaris Project, which fights human trafficking. They also started publishing brochures about human trafficking and selling them (at 2.50 for 25 of them, I don’t think they’re getting a big revenue stream off of that).

On the application that came out this week, school owners are being asked to sign a pledge about not participating in human trafficking, and doing whatever they can to stop human trafficking. I got calls from a few people that were upset about that; they stated to me that the NCBTMB was overstepping its boundaries and giving a false impression of having regulatory or law enforcement authority. Personally, I think any entity donating money to the Polaris Project and doing their part to fight human trafficking is admirable, but as someone on my FB page pointed out, is there really any school actually participating in such a thing that wouldn’t just sign the pledge anyway? It’s like asking people if they use illegal drugs on a job application. No one is going to write down that they have a cocaine habit, are they?

On the NCBTMB website, there are a couple of dozen schools listed as having their school code suspended, revoked, or denied. The reasons are not given, so one doesn’t know whether they were found to be participating in human trafficking, running a diploma mill, or what.

In his response on my blog, CEO Mike Williams talked about the forthcoming improvements from the NCB. Let me say, as much as it pains me: different singer, same song. I must make it clear that I have wanted this organization to survive, and thrive, but I am very concerned. And as Angela Palmier pointed out in her comments, people laughed when there was talk of another entity creating a licensing exam. In the meantime, the MBLEx has proceeded to saturate the market and it will just continue to get bigger and bigger–even if the NCBTMB steps in to challenge the states’ right to choose, like they did last week in Tennessee. They did actually prevail there, but at what cost? The Board members were upset, the GR rep from AMTA was upset, and in the end, the decision for the Board to acquiesce was based on their desire not to see their other impending legislation get scrapped in the crossfire.

In addition to the FSMTB sticking their toe in the water to test the profession’s reaction to their CE plan, I’ve recently been contacted by several people about starting (yet another) CE approval body. It wouldn’t happen overnight, but there’s no reason to think it can’t be done. For that matter, there is nothing to prohibit another entity from starting another certification agency….just like there are numerous accrediting agencies besides COMTA. It could happen.

I don’t doubt that the NCB has good intentions–but as we all know, good intentions are sometimes misguided. Placing an additional and very unnecessary burden on school  owners is misguided and the perception is that it’s one more example of duplicated efforts in this profession. Challenging state boards is misguided. The NCB needs all the public support they can get, and that isn’t winning them any friends. It is creating ill will, period. Hanging on to entry-level licensing instead of focusing on  becoming the one true certification agency is misguided. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

 

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It’s All About Me

It’s all about me, so here’s my wishlist for the profession. It’s difficult to place these in order of importance, because some of them depend on each other, and in my little corner of massage, they’re all important. It’s election time–aren’t we all just about sick of hearing about it–candidates mudslinging and making campaign promises? If I was the President of Massage Land, here’s what I’d do:

The Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards would sit down at the table with the National Certification Boardand hammer out an agreement to a) help ease the NCBTMB out of the entry-level test market, b) contract with them to collaboratively administer continuing education instead of trying to take it over and c) forget their MOCC-ERY plan.

The NCBTMB would a) graciously accept that it’s time for them to get out of the entry-level test market, b) focus on cleaning up the CE approval program, and c) get it together with their new plan of raising standards of certification.

Both of these entities would cease and desist in sending out Job Task Analysis Surveys that are flawed from the get-go….they both supposedly pay psychometricians to help them out with these things, and still they are falling way short of the mark in ascertaining what they really need to ascertain. Stop worrying about how many times a week we give a massage, and stop ignoring the relaxation benefits of massage as if they don’t exist.

There will continue to be Leadership Summits. They will stick to the agreed-upon agenda at their meetings and not allow major surprises  to slide in from any of the organizations, and they will practice complete transparency and stop sending out press releases that contain no more information than an invitation to a baby shower.

Every one who is involved in massage therapy education will join the Alliance for Massage Therapy Education.

The profession will come to a consensus on what constitutes required core competencies for entry-level education, while still giving school owners the autonomy and individuality to rise over and above that.

All unregulated states will get state-wide regulation and all localities will honor those and not place ridiculous additional burdens on licensed therapists.

All massage schools will be required to teach research literacy to their students, and will only hire instructors who are capable of doing so.

The NCBTMB will stop approving woo-woo courses for CE credit, and all entry-level massage schools will stop teaching it. I don’t care if you study Interplanetary Voodoo with the Archangels, but you don’t deserve any credit for doing that.

Our professional associations will conduct annual surveys that have NOTHING to do with a Job Task Analysis–the sole purpose of it will be “Tell us what you think we are doing wrong and give us your suggestions for how we could do it better.”

The Alliance for Massage Therapy Education will develop a program to offer instructor training to the masses that will be accessible and affordable–perhaps online.

Board members of all representing organizations will recognize their responsibility to not blindly follow the leader; to avoid not only conflicts of interest, but the appearance of conflicts of interest; will not put up with any cover-your-ass type behavior within their organizations; will hold their hired leadership accountable, and will have enough gumption to get rid of them if and when such behavior occurs.

All massage schools would seek COMTAapproval. If your school can’t afford that or doesn’t qualify because of not meeting the hour requirement, may I say that their standards are on their website for all the world to see for free, and you could still go about the self-study process and getting things up to snuff, even if you don’t formally seek the accreditation.

All school owners would be bound to have their school bonded, so that no school goes bankrupt and leaves students in the lurch in the middle of their program.

All schools would be required to post their pass rates on the licensing and certification exams on their websites and in their catalogs.

No school owner will be allowed to say to a potential student “Don’t worry, your criminal record won’t keep you from getting a license.” It should be mandatory for it to be disclosed that they may not receive a license. The state of Texas has a non-binding review, where for $50 a person seeking a career in any licensed profession can submit their criminal record for review prior to spending their time and money on pursuing education. Every state should do the same.

There should be a national exam for instructors to prove they are competent in teaching methodology and a subject matter expert in whatever area they intend to teach.

Each state should require a jurisprudence exam. Your licensees can’t adhere to the law unless they know what it is, and the percentage of applicants who actually read your practice act in its entirety is probably less than 5%–I’m basing that on asking that question in all the classes I teach. Hardly anyone reads them, but if they had to pass a test on it, they would.

The Massage Therapy Body of Knowledge would be about massage.If you want to have an energy work body of knowledge, create that.

Everyone involved in the profession would give financial support to the Massage Therapy Foundation. Give $100. Give $5. Give $1. Give whatever you can afford to give, just do it.

 

I could probably go on for days, but I have other chores to get to today. I invite my readers to add what they will. What’s on YOUR wishlist? What’s on mine that you object to, and why?

 

 

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If at first you don’t succeed….

Try, try again. That’s what the regulatory board in my home state of North Carolina is recommending when it comes to getting the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards to do something about the confusing status of continuing education approvals.

Two years ago, the NC Board of Massage & Bodywork Therapy introduced a resolution at the Annual Meeting of the FSMTB (which was held in Puerto Rico). This document instructed the Federation’s Board of Directors to “begin the process of developing a new national approval program for continuing education providers and courses.” The organization’s leadership responded positively to the resolution, and announced to the profession in the Spring of 2011 the launch of a comprehensive project to do just that. They also invited AFMTE, AMTA and ABMP to work with them to provide input that would help shape the project.

In spite of this clearly stated intention to develop a “centralized quality assurance process for all courses taken by massage and bodywork therapists for the renewal of State licensure or State certification” (quoted verbatim from the FSMTB press release dated 3/29/11), the outcome of this process missed the mark by a country mile. The MOCC Proposal, which stands for Maintenance of Core Competencies, failed to deliver what the state boards asked for, and what FSMTB promised.

To remind you, the MOCC Proposal was based on a new (and unproven) concept of separating continuing education that relates to “public protection” from all other CE that is taken for “professional development”. MOCC recommended that only CE related to “public protection” be required by state boards for renewal of licensure, and everything else be put into the voluntary category, to be regulated by… well, the proposal didn’t even mention NCBTMB. If this all weren’t bad enough, FSMTB would become the exclusive provider of coursework needed to maintain “core competency” in the subjects related to “public protection”.

For more background on the MOCC issue, refer to my blog posts of 3/14/12 and 4/15/12. It’s also illuminating to read the press release AMTA issued on 4/23/12 which contained a complete repudiation of the Federation’s proposal.

In a friendly game of golf, you can take a “mulligan” every now and again–a “do-over”. My colleagues at the NC Board are giving the FSMTB leadership an opportunity to take a mulligan on this vitally important CE approval issue. They have recently submitted another resolution to be discussed by Member Boards at the upcoming FSMTB Annual Meeting in New Orleans on September 27-29. This resolution is much like the original from two years ago, and its appearance at this point in time indicates that the need for a single-source national CE approval program has not gone away.

The primary rationale is contained in this statement from the new resolution:
“Reliance upon the NCB Approved Provider program has been problematic for state boards because (a) NCB is a private, non-profit corporation that lacks oversight from and accountability to state regulatory boards; (b) its program has not adequately evaluated the quality or relevance of CE courses; (c) administration of this program has had notable service delivery problems over an extended period of time.”

That’s all true, but the opera ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings. The NCBTMB has the infrastructure already in place–and this will be nothing more than another case of duplicated efforts if the Federation steps in and tries to take it away without consideration of the NCB’s position in that marketplace. I think a collaboration would be more appropriate; by contracting with the NCB to administer CE approvals, FSMTB could establish the accountability structure that state boards must have with NCB, and FSMTB wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel. They could just improve upon it.

Yesterday, I conducted one of my Scientific Facebook Polls, and asked the questions: How many MTs REALLY care what is happening with our professional organizations and what they are doing? How many people care about the MTBOK, the ELAP, the MOCC (don’t y’all love all these acronyms) or even know what they really are? How many people care about the legislation and regulation of massage? How many people care that there are initiatives to raise standards for teachers of massage therapy and for massage education in general? Do you care about all those things, or would you rather just be left alone to do massage?

I got 75 replies in a 24-hour period, and one thing is apparent: to the average massage therapist trying to make a living, many perceive our organizations to be all about politics and all about money. To some extent, that’s true…the one with the most money wins. The perception is also that they all have their own agendas. Actually, recently some of them seem to have the same agenda, but they’ve wasted time and money in duplicating efforts, or opposing each other’s efforts, and scrapping over turf wars. In a recent blog I urged the NCBTMB to take themselves out of the entry-level exam market and suggested that the FSMTB assists them financially in return for their doing so. Earlier this week, in a piece published in Massage Today, Ralph Stephens called on AMTA and ABMP to offer “substantial and ongoing financial support” to COMTA and AFMTE, to further their important efforts to improve the quality of massage therapy education.

FSMTB and the NCB have recently conducted new Job Task Analysis surveys, both of them seriously flawed, in my humble opinion. These surveys show a strong bias towards the clinical/medical side of massage therapy, and contain virtually nothing about the KSA’s related to delivering massage therapy as a primary means of facilitating well-being and integration. From my perspective, the latter is of equal or greater importance.

In addition, the FSMTB survey has a special add-on section to gather data for the Entry-Level Analysis Project (ELAP). This dual-purpose survey does ask lots of questions about specific medical conditions, but it contains nothing about the client/therapist relationship. The word “relax” does not appear anywhere, and the word “relaxation” shows up just once.

There’s also an over-focus on the huge number of modalities that are marketed in this field. Many of these listed are obscure and little-understood. It’s wrong to ask a therapist to define themselves by a single named modality. Practitioners typically use a broad range of methods with clients. The modality is not the treatment — it’s the totality of what a practitioner brings to the session.

Finally, this Federation JTA is similar to the recent JTA from NCBTMB: another duplicated effort that still falls short of giving an accurate picture of what happens in the real world of massage therapy. You can count how many times a week we give a massage or take SOAP notes, but that’s not what it’s really about. It’s about our rapport with the client, and what kind of results we are able to produce, and what kind of trust we can inspire in our therapeutic relationships. The MTBOK generally missed the boat on this as well, although I have high hopes that the line-by-line analysis and re-mapping of the MTBOK that was conducted by AFMTE will give us a usable body of knowledge.

As a result of these large-scale projects, it’s likely that the kind of incomplete and disjointed training that is typical in our field will get further enshrined as the baseline for education. Skewed survey questions produce skewed data. Using that data to build a new standard for the entire field is not just wrong, it’s a crime against the lineage of massage therapy. Just look at what has happened to the other health care professions who have organized themselves around the mechanistic/reductionistic model. People are treated as parts, and no discipline ever looks at the whole person. Massage therapists still have the ability to treat holistically. Relaxation is being relegated to a lower-class status of therapeutic effect, when it’s one of the most valuable aspects we offer with this work.

This whole scenario illustrates one thing: the time has never been more ripe for getting our act together, and that isn’t going to happen while there’s all this push and pull and one-upmanship going on with the organizations. When the leaders of the seven primary stakeholder groups sat down at the table for the first time last September, the ELAP proposal appeared out of nowhere–it wasn’t even on the agenda and it got slid in anyway. I would like to see them sit down again, and take a serious look at these issues. Put ego and profit aside. Take a real look at the flaws in your information-gathering processes. If you want to see what massage therapists really think, sign on to my Facebook page and you might get a rude awakening at their opinions of you. You wouldn’t exist without us, and what we think does matter. A Job Task Analysis survey asks what we do--and frankly, it isn’t near as important as what we think. Consider that.

 

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Report from the AFMTE Annual Meeting

I spent last weekend in toasty Tucson, AZ at the Alliance for Massage Therapy Education annual meeting, and for the third year in a row since this organization started, it was one of the best things I have ever attended. There were quite a few new people attending this year, and attendance was up slightly from last year. The meeting was held at the El Conquistador resort, a beautiful venue with gorgeous mountain and desert views.  I was late getting there and unfortunately missed the opening ceremony and the keynote presentation by Benny Vaughn, which I heard was fantastic.

As usual, there were great continuing education offerings…I attended Tracy Walton’s class on “Busting Myths and Critical Thinking Skills,” which was informative and entertaining, and I heard nothing but praise from attendees of the other classes, which included offerings by Stephanie Beck, Martha Brown Menard, Susan Beam, Cherie Sohnen-Moe, Terrie Yardly-Nohr, Nancy Dail, Pat Benjamin, and Ben Benjamin. Bear in mind, these classes aren’t your average CE class–they are directed at massage therapy educators. When these great teachers weren’t teaching a class, they could be found attending someone else’s class. That is one of the most wonderful things about this gathering to me; it is attended by some of the most well-respected and well-known educators in this profession–and they all have the attitude that they’re not finished learning. Kudos to every one of them.

Nancy Dail organized a “Meet the Authors” gathering, and it was amazing. I was humbled to be included in such awesome company. I doubt if I can name all these people   in the correct order in the picture so I won’t even try. Mark Beck was out of the room when the picture was taken but he was present as well. The group included (in alphabetical order) Timothy Agnew, Sandra K. Anderson, Pat Archer, Ben Benjamin, Pat Benjamin, Andrew Biel, Celia Bucci, Iris Burman, Nancy Dail, Sandy Fritz, Julie Goodwin, Martha Menard-Brown, Carole Osborne, David Palmer, Cherie Sohnen-Moe, Ralph Stephens, Tracy Walton, and Terrie Yardley-Nohr. Also absent was David Lauterstein, who had an airline travel nightmare, but his book was present along with the others authored by these amazing people. I don’t know when I have ever seen such talent present in one room.

All the major organizations had representatives in attendance, with the exception of ABMP. I’m not sure if they were making a statement by not showing up or not. I had actually spoken to Bob Benson, the Chairman of ABMP, a few days before the meeting and asked him if they would be in attendance, and he did not make any mention of political reasons for staying away…of the likely candidates that would have attended, several were on vacation, one was attending a family wedding and so forth. Still, their absence was notable, no matter what the reason. AMTA, the FSMTB, and COMTA were all in attendance. There was also chair massage offered at the meeting to benefit the Massage Therapy Foundation, and thanks to the efforts of Taya Countryman who organized that effort, over $900 was raised for the Foundation.

Elections were held, and the standing officers were all re-elected. Two new board seats were also added. The AFMTE Board has let go of their management company and are handling it themselves, and the two new board members are needed to help with the many tasks of the organization. Stephanie Beck and Heather Piper were elected as members-at-large.  I agreed to serve on the marketing committee….I don’t do boards anymore of any kind, since that would interfere with my blogging, or at least the perception thereof, but I’m glad to serve the organization on this committee.

Breakout sessions were held to discuss numerous topics of interest to educators, including all the various projects that are going on at the moment, not the least of which is the Teacher Education Standards Project. Other breakout sessions were to talk about the MOCC proposal from the FSMTB, the new policies announced by the NCBTMB, and other issues facing the profession.  There weren’t any formal votes in any of the discussions I sat in on, but a number of people I talked to all said the same thing–that there are a lot of duplicated efforts going on, which is a waste of time and resources. John Weeks, Executive Director of ACCAHC, also gave a keynote address where he stated that we have a tendency to get ourselves trapped in whirlpools–and how much influence we could have because of our sheer numbers, if we would just get out of them.

During the business meeting, President Pete Whitridge announced that the organization has no debt. That’s a fabulous position to be in, but I would like to state that we need and welcome corporate sponsors, as well as individual members. The Alliance has worked very hard to keep membership fees reasonable–and to hold our meetings in reasonable places. Although the El Conquistador is the lap of luxury and a beautiful place, we got a room rate of $99 per night. Many meals were provided as well, so financially, it’s a bargain to join. Please visit the AFMTE website to find out about the many benefits available to you as a member. There are also vendor opportunities and sponsorship opportunities at the annual meeting. Thanks to exhibitors Biotone, Bon Vital, Books of Discovery, the Center for Embodied Teacher Education, F.A. Davis, the International Association of Massage Business, Massage Envy, the Massage Therapy Foundation, Massamio, the National Accrediting Commission of Career Arts & Sciences, Performance Health/Biofreeze, Wellx, and Wolters Kluwer Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Thanks also to sponsors of the meeting, Massage Today, Massage Magazine Insurance Plus, the Florida State Massage Therapy Associaton, Massage Envy, Books of Discovery, Pearson, Biofreeze, and SOAP Vault. Soothing Touch , Oakworks, and Massage Warehouse, along with many others also donated door and raffle prizes.

On a personal note, I had a big fat time socializing with so many friends and making a few new ones. I had dinner the first night with Julie Onofrio, Kathleen Gramzay, and Karen Hobson. I met with Mike Noble, the new acquisitions editor at Lippincott, and Shauna Kelley, their marketing manager, for dinner on Friday night to discuss a couple of projects, and Saturday night, I had a blast with the team from Massamio and a bunch of other friends–both FB friends and the real variety. I went to lunch one day with Allissa Haines and Gregory Hurd…we went sneaking out to the In-and-Out-Burger for a junk food fix. I spent a couple of hours talking with Ryan Hoyme (aka The MassageNerd), and just in general enjoyed myself and enjoyed seeing everyone. I tried to sit with someone different at every meal and every class so I could visit with as many people as possible, and wish I could have personally talked to everyone there. I did have a few good but short conversations, with Sandy Fritz, Sue Toscano, Susan Beck, Mark Beck, and other good folks. As usual, there just weren’t enough hours in the day.

The biggest thanks, and deservedly so, goes to Cherie Sohnen-Moe. Tucson is Cherie’s home town, and she really went over and beyond the call of duty in helping to organize the event. She’s probably ready for a vacation!

I urge you to join the Alliance for Massage Therapy Education. We are hoping to accomplish some great things, and we need your expertise and your input. We are a non-profit organization and of course donations are welcomed, but what we’d really like is your membership fee–AND your participation. We want and appreciate active members! There are a lot of things going on in our profession right now, as I have reported right here. We need to be sure that education evolves in a way that serves the highest good of the profession, in total transparency, and that our membership gets plenty of input. That’s one thing that is very evident about this group of people–they do want to hear what the members think….and here we have some of the best and brightest minds in the business. You could almost get star-struck at this meeting–but there is not a standoffish person in the bunch. Don’t wait until the next meeting; join us now, and get involved. If you are an educator, school owner, administrator, or industry partner, we need you. And I’m going to shamelessly use the same quote that I used from Jan Schwartz at last year’s meeting: “If you’re not at the table,  you’re on the menu.”

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ELAP Work Group Members Announced

Anne Williams of ABMP has confirmed to me today the members of the group that are working on the Entry-Level Analysis Project that I have been blogging about for the past few weeks. Since the secrecy surrounding this project has been my main complaint about it, I will share that information here.  The members are:

Cynthia Ribeiro, President of AMTA (National), educator, and school owner.

Tom Lochhaas, University-level educator, author, editor with 24 years experience in developing college-level textbooks and ancillaries.

Elan Schacter, Massage therapist, instructor, text reviewer, contributing author.

Clint Chandler, Massage therapist and instructor, experienced in curriculum development.

Rick Garbowski, Massage therapist and instructor, experienced in curriculum development.

Jim O’Hara, Instructional designer.

Anne Williams, Director of Education for ABMP.

Williams stated that she was in the process of compiling the comments of those who were present at the Leadership Summit; that everyone present was now in support of it, and that much more information about the project would be forthcoming in the next two weeks. She further stated that this was intended to be a research project, and that what people do with the information will be their choice. As I said in my last blog, neither ABMP, AMTA, or any of the other organizations present at the Leadership Summit are regulatory organizations, and none of them have the power to dictate legislation. (Clarification: the FSMTB is an organization of regulatory boards, but is not regulatory in and of itself).

I am acquainted with several of the people on the work group. Cynthia Rebeiro, Pat Archer, and Elan Schacter do good work in all they endeavor to do. I would have liked it if this information had been put out there immediately, along with the rest of the details, but you don’t always get what you want. And actually, the fact that you don’t always get what you want is sometimes a good thing. As I also previously stated, the wheels of legislation turn very slowly…and just because our organizations want something to happen doesn’t mean it’s going to. If the evidence produced by this project turns out to show that 750 hours ought to be required for entry-level education, it will take many years for that to happen in every state. That’s my prediction, and I’ll be glad to take any bets on that.

I’ve been reviewing COMTA standards for the past couple of days in preparation for a site visit, and it would be great if those were a requirement for every school. I think the quality of education would increase exponentially if every school had to jump through the hoops to prove they’re doing things diligently and going beyond what most of the state boards require. I’ve also been revisiting the MTBOK, and while I still have a few issues with it, I certainly hope it is taken into consideration.

I personally still think that education should be about quality, and not quantity. 500 hours is arbitrary to me–and so is 750. Look at some of the Canadian provinces…their required hours are 4 digit numbers. Those are arbitrary too, when it comes down to it. It should be about competency, not about hours. From my own experience, and someone has made this comment to me before–in entry-level massage school, you learn what not to do. It’s when you begin practicing that you begin knowing what to do. My real education started when I walked out the massage school door, and it’s been that way for a lot of us.

This project is going to be released for comment in a couple of weeks, according to Williams. I urge everyone to take the opportunity to comment–beyond any job task analysis survey that gets spread around. Those show tasks, and don’t reflect opinion. This is of too much magnitude to the profession for opinion not to be considered. School owners in particular need to speak up. If you run a 500 hour school, how many of you can afford to increase that be 250 hours? How many would just fold? I advise you not to sit on your hands.  It’s like an election. If you don’t vote, you can’t complain, and complaining after the fact doesn’t have any impact. Express your opinion.

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Top Secret Standards Project: No News is NOT Good News

I’ve been on vacation…I took a deliberate ten-day break from the Internet and from all the politics of massage while I was enjoying my annual sojourn in Ireland. I didn’t visit any Internet cafes. I didn’t read the paper and I didn’t watch the news. I left my cell phone at home, too. It was quite refreshing and restorative to be unplugged for that period of time, but now it’s back to the grind. From the look of things, it would seem that the powers that be are enforcing a news black-out as well. They have apparently been sworn to secrecy. It looks like a covert operation from the CIA.

The press release from the Leadership Summit, held in Chicago May 1-2, and attended by the leaders of our national organizations, was released May 9. I was expecting a white-washed version of the events, and I was not disappointed.

Out of nowhere, the press release mentions casually: “An ongoing discussion of the Entry-Level Analysis Project (ELAP) occurred and input from the leadership organizations was discussed.”

Wait just a minute… isn’t this the very first public mention of this project? No one outside of the inner circle of secret-keepers knows what the ELAP is, who the driving forces are behind it, and what its real purpose is. They can’t just drop a profession-altering project onto the landscape like it’s a known quantity, wave a little flag that promises us some future opportunity to have input into the project, and then expect us to salute the results whatever they may be.

The Leadership Summit press release mentions that massage therapists are going to get some input into this project—through a “companion” survey to the FSMTB Job Task Analysis. That may sound promising, but let’s remember that FSMTB is an exam provider, and their major focus is on the MBLEx. The Job Task Analysis survey is not necessarily the best way to determine what an entry-level massage therapist needs to know.

The big problem with the use of these and other surveys in our profession is that many therapists received insufficient education in their entry-level massage training programs. It’s unfortunate, but these folks don’t know what they don’t know. Asking this group what constitutes safe and effective massage therapy practice is barking up the wrong tree.

If all you’re looking for is a snapshot of the hours per day one spends doing massage and performing the laundry and other mundane chores that go along with that, it will suffice. But what about seeking opinion and honest-to-goodness input? What about addressing the concerns that the people who will be affected the most by whatever plan comes down the pike? Primarily, that will be small school owners, many of whom are already struggling to survive.

There are still so many things I find disturbing about this whole process, not the least of which is that none of our massage news outlets is saying anything about it. You’d almost think I’m the only one who cares. With the possible exception of a surprise birthday party, I tend to mistrust anything that has to be carried out in secret. So the nice sentiment (which I am glad to see has replaced the “we aren’t seeking input” statement that I found so offensive in the original document) that “A key component to the success of this project will be broad input by the massage profession” notwithstanding, I’ll repeat the call to action from my last blog:

A really good first step would be for ABMP, AMTA and FSMTB to release a full description of the project, including what they plan to do, how it will be done, who sits on the new workgroup, what the timelines are, and what money will be spent. And most importantly, we want to know what they intend to do with the “evidence”. When organizations that represent us are making major decisions that affect us, we deserve to be involved in the process.

In spite of my objections to this whole cloak-and-dagger scene we’re being subjected to, I am comforted by one thought…and that is that the wheels of government turn slowly. Whatever plan the ELAP work group comes up with is just that: a plan. I don’t visualize state lawmakers running to the legislature floor intent on helping them get it off the ground. AMTA is not a regulatory body, and neither is ABMP. For that matter, the FSMTB isn’t either. The individual member boards are regulatory bodies, but the organization in and of itself is not. They don’t have any law-making power.

I don’t know what’s happened to the transparency that we should expect from our organizations, but it seems to have gone to hell in a hand basket. Frankly, I think that would be a good topic for the next leadership summit. The peons like me who pay your membership dues deserve it.

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A Betrayal of Trust

Any time one of the major organizations in the massage field tries to fire up a project that will “advance the profession”, I get awfully suspicious. When a group of them get together to do something on the big scale, I go on full nuclear alert. That’s the case right now with a dubious education standards project introduced by ABMP in September 2011 at the Leadership Summit in St. Louis, which I detailed in my previous post, Behind Closed Doors.

As the title of that blog suggests, 100% of the activity surrounding this project has taken place in secret, with no information about the project being released to the massage therapy community—and no opportunities for review or comment before time, money and human resources are thrown at solving a perceived problem.

AMTA and FSMTB have signed on to this project, which will involve gathering information from the Federation’s upcoming Job Task Analysis survey, to use in a process that will “identify the rudimentary knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to pass a licensing exam and provide basic, but safe, massage in an early massage career.”

That doesn’t sound like a such bad thing—in and of itself—but the group intends to use this data to create an “evidence-based minimum educational requirement” for state licensing. This would be used as a rationale for changing state laws, and would likely be used to drive the curriculum standards for entry-level massage programs—basically telling schools what to do.

Goodness knows, there is a lot of inconsistency in massage education and regulation, but there is no problem in our profession that justifies one or a group of our so-called “stakeholder organizations” seizing the ball and marching down the field without our input or permission. I don’t give a rat’s you-know-what if they claim to be doing this in our best interests; this power play is a gigantic betrayal of trust. And I might add that I am personally in favor of the evidence-based practice of massage, but I don’t think one tiny group of people should get to decide what that is.

I’ve not yet been able to confirm the status of NCBTMB, Massage Therapy Foundation, AFMTE or COMTA as it relates to this project (mum’s the word all around). These four organizations, along with ABMP, AMTA and FSMTB just gathered on May 1-2 for another Leadership Summit—this time in Chicago. I’m taking bets that they will issue another sanitized press release that gives us regular folks in the bleachers little substance about what really happened in this meeting that has the potential to alter the very nature of our profession.

The only other info I’ve been able to glean is that ABMP, AMTA and FSMTB hand-picked a new workgroup of massage educators and other “experts” in instructional design and curriculum development to start this project on May 3-4, right after the completion of the Summit. Are you kidding me? Where was the public notice of this opportunity to serve on a panel that will influence the future of massage therapy? Who gave these organizations the authority to do this on our behalf?

No one. They took it on themselves, and that’s what stinks to high heaven.

In stark contrast, the Massage Therapy Body of Knowledge project had both fans and detractors, but it was carried out with a reasonable amount of transparency. The majority of the dissent on the project concerned the inclusion of energy work in the document and dissatisfaction with the way objections were handled—or not handled—in favor of evidence-based practices. The five organizations that comprised the MTBOK Stewards (ABMP, AMTA, FSMTB, MTF, NCBTMB) did a good job of not interfering with the project once it was launched.

Right now, we have a genuine crisis on our hands. The problem is that hardly anyone knows about it. This blog only goes so far. I never set myself up to be the New York Times of the massage field, but it seems like the major massage publications are afraid to get their teeth into the real breaking news that affects the practitioners, teachers, CE providers and schools that make this profession possible.

Friends, it’s up to YOU to let these organizations know that it’s not OK for them to act in your interest without your permission. As long as these “leaders” think they can get away with it, they will. Trust has been blown out of the water, and it will take a concerted effort to rebuild it.

A really good first step would be for ABMP, AMTA and FSMTB to release a full description of the project, including what they plan to do, how it will be done, who sits on the new workgroup, what the timelines are, and what money will be spent. And most importantly, we want to know what they intend to do with the “evidence”. When organizations that represent us are making major decisions that affect us, we deserve to be involved in the process.