{"id":107,"date":"2010-05-05T14:24:53","date_gmt":"2010-05-05T14:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/?p=107"},"modified":"2010-05-05T15:46:21","modified_gmt":"2010-05-05T15:46:21","slug":"comta-a-contradiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/05\/comta-a-contradiction\/","title":{"rendered":"COMTA: A Contradiction?"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMTA (Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation)<\/a> is in dire need of volunteers, so why did they just get rid of a good one? I\u2019m referring to John Goss, who has served COMTA for 10 years in several capacities, including a stint as Interim Executive Director. Last week, during a meeting he was unable to attend, Dr. Goss was unceremoniously dismissed from the Commission.<\/p>\n

I contacted Kate Henrioulle, Executive Director, and Melissa Wade, the Chair, and they both gave me the same answer: \u201cCOMTA thanks John Goss for his past service and wishes him well in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

A COMTA volunteer who spoke on condition of anonymity said \u201cJohn was known for asking hard questions. They didn\u2019t like that. He was accused of \u201cimpeding the work of the Commission.\u201d That\u2019s too bad. Board members who ask hard questions are usually the ones who demand transparency, who hold other members accountable, and who get a lot of work done. Dr. Goss has, in the words of my source, \u201cgiven a ton to COMTA over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another COMTA insider said \u201cThe Commission is not articulating a vision or speaking with any authority or inspiration; it’s all about doing “stuff” and getting more income from higher fees.\u00a0 What about the stakeholders’ returns on investments (financial or temporal)?\u201d\u00a0 The same person stated that the staff communications at COMTA are an embarrassment, replete with typos, poor grammar, and inappropriate language. \u201cIf I were on the receiving end of one of those reports, I\u2019d be wondering what business these folks have telling me what I should be doing,\u201d stated the source.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m in service on the North Carolina Board<\/a>, and I ask hard questions, just like John Goss. I\u2019m all for transparency and accountability, and I don\u2019t believe in compromising if it\u2019s at the expense of the stakeholders. You can ask the folks at the top of AMTA<\/a>, ABMP<\/a>, the NCBTMB<\/a>, and the Federation<\/a>. Open and direct communication is the way I roll, and I will be a thorn in their side when I don\u2019t get an answer. And when they give me some party line, I call it like I see it.<\/p>\n

It does seem to me that COMTA has been stuck in neutral for awhile. 8 years into their existence as an accrediting body, and they have accredited less than 100 schools. And they are in need, indeed, of volunteers. Henrioulle asked me to pass along this link<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.comta.org\/about_volunteers.php<\/a> and encourage those who would be interested in acting as peer reviewers to get in touch.<\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am currently a candidate for Commissioner for the upcoming COMTA election.<\/p>\n

Laura Allen<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disclosure: I am currently a candidate for Commissioner for the upcoming COMTA election. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16,15,51,21,52,18],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abmp","tag-amta","tag-comta","tag-fsmtb","tag-john-goss","tag-ncbtmb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions\/111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}