It’s that time of the year when a lot of people pause to give thanks for those things they are grateful for. I need to throw in my two cents.
A few months ago when I checked in at the AMTA National Convention in Orlando, I was thrilled when I opened my registration packet and found that instead of just my name badge, some kind soul had put the word “PRESS” in big letters underneath my name. To whomever that was, thank you.
Since I have been blogging about the politics of the massage and bodywork profession, I have seized the opportunity to contact people at the top of some of the entities I’ve written about…I like to present all sides of an issue, when possible, and give the representatives of those organizations a chance to respond, when they will. I’m happy to say that most of them have taken me up on it, in spite of the fact that I have as often as not been hard on them on the blog.
I try to keep my finger on the pulse of all the organizations, participate in a lot of discussion forums, and read as many of our publications, relevant research and articles, and other people’s blogs as much as I can. One thing is clear to me, we do have a profession that cares, and an industry that supports that profession in too many ways to count. Even when I disagree with the actions of some of our organizations, I respect the people who are trying to do their jobs as leaders; I recognize that they have a huge responsibility, and you can’t please all the people all of the time.
I do want to thank some people personally.
I’m going to start with Paul Lindamood, CEO of the NCBTMB. I have criticized the NCBTMB and many times, him personally, for more than two years. I met Mr. Lindamood in person in Orland a few months ago, and he politely listened to me rant about what I perceive to be the shortcomings of the NCB for the better part of an hour. I have since had the occasion to correspond with him, and other people at the NCB, about various concerns of mine, and they have been very timely in answering, which is a big improvement over recent years.
Elizabeth Langston, the exam development director, has taken a bunch of flak from a lot of people over the advanced certification exam project, and remained gracious and polite about it, as have Angie Palmier and Christopher Alvarado. I have to admire that.
Debra Persinger, executive director of the FSMTB, along with the Board of Directors of that organization, has done an excellent job, not only in getting a fine organization off the ground, but also in communicating with the state boards and test applicants they serve. Whenever I’ve had a question, they’ve been very quick to answer. The Federation is definitely operating in an atmosphere of transparency, and that’s the way it should be. Kudos to them.
Rick Rosen, executive director of the recently formed Alliance for Massage Therapy Education, is a fellow North Carolinian, was the first chapter president of AMTA in our state, was the first chair of the North Carolina Board of Massage & Bodywork Therapy that I now serve on, and knows the law better than most lawyers. I’ve encouraged him to run for governor, but he’s too busy serving our profession. He has answered my questions about the law many times, and more recently about the AFMTE, and I wish him luck in that endeavor. I’ll be publishing my interviews with him and our other professional organization leaders soon.
I have called on Judy Stahl, president of AMTA, and Liz Lucas, executive director, several times for clarifications when I was writing something about AMTA, and I appreciate the fact that they have been very open and forthcoming with information. Ron Precht at the AMTA office also deserves my thanks.
Kate Ivan Henrioulle, the new executive director of COMTA, doesn’t know me from Adam’s house cat, but she recently granted me an interview as well. Thank you.
Les Sweeney, fearless leader at ABMP, fellow massage therapist, musician, and comic force, deserves my thanks, as does Jean Robinson, ABMP’s government relations representative.
Lara Evans Bracciante of the massageprofessionals.com website, thank you.
Karen Menehan, editor of Massage Magazine, and Jennifer Whaley, editor of the massagemag.com website, along with Manuel Lirio, technical guru, thank you for publishing my articles and my blog. They have provided the platform for my diatribes and I appreciate it.
Leslie Young Giase, editor of Massage & Bodywork Magazine, thank you.
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, especially John Goucher, Linda Francis, and my free-lance editor Betsy Dilernia, thank you.
Mike Hinkle of the World Massage Festival, thank you.
Sally Hacking, the Undisputed Queen of Government Relations, thank you. I want to be just like Sally when I grow up.
Jan Schwartz, Jan Kempster, Judith McDaniel, and Susie Que of Education Training Solutions, thank you.
Ryan Hoyme, Bodhi Haraldsson, Keith Eric Grant, Christopher Moyer, Paul Ingraham, and Michael Reynolds, thank you for all you so graciously share with the rest of us.
To my awesome network of massage therapists across the country and the world, thank you. Many of you keep me up to date on what’s happening with massage in your neck of the woods. You are the family of hands. We hold each other up.
To those who read my blogs and articles and buy my books, follow me on Twitter and FB, and argue with me on the forums, thank you!
I’ve probably forgotten someone. I hate it when that happens! Happy Thanksgiving to one and all.
Peace & Prosperity,
Laura Allen
This is the second in my series on the financial health of the non-profit massage therapy associations.
What a difference a year has made to the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards. In the 2007 fiscal year, the FSMTB’s Form 990 showed gross receipts of just over $43,000. The 2008 shows those revenues as exceeding $355,000. Looks like it was a good year, and the expectation is that income will continue to grow as more boards join (there are currently 33) and more students take the MBLEx.
2007 income for the Federation was below the upper limit for filing Form 990-EZ, a shorter, less detailed form, so some line-by-line items appear on the 2008 filing that were not on the earlier form.
As expected, when business grows, so do expenses, but there’s nothing earthshaking there. The FSMTB has to date had only one paid staff member, Debra Persinger, the Executive Director. When I attended the FSMTB annual meeting last month, it was announced that an employee was going to be added now that finances permit, and that Persinger was going to receive a well-deserved raise. Persingler’s 2008 salary was reported as $105,000, plus $13,000 in contributions to an employee benefit plan.
Board members are volunteers and are not compensated for their services, other than reimbursement of expenses such as Federation-related phone expenses and travel.
Treasurer Susan Beam, also a North Carolina Board member, reported at the annual meeting that the finances of the Federation were in great shape, and that a payment of $200,000 had been made towards repayment of the principal of the startup loan.
I reported in the first of this series that AMTA had taken a big hit in their investments due to the decline of the economy. The FSMTB, as the young organization that it is, has not yet grown financially to the point of having property or investments, other than about $5000 worth of office equipment, so unlike many non-profits, they haven’t lost any assets due to the recession.
The tax information of the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards and other non-profit organizations can be found at www.guidestar.com
Peace & Prosperity,
Laura Allen
Although the official election results have not yet been announced by the NCBTMB, the grapevine has it that Monica Reno has retained her certificant seat on the Board, and the new public member is Ronni Burns.
I’m very pleased to hear about Ms. Burns, and less than pleased to hear about Reno. As I’ve stated on a previous blog or two, she is in my opinion part of the Old Guard That Needs To Go. The NCB seems to be making some good strides forward here lately, and I think the more they distance themselves from the problems of the past, the better their chances.
Now that we’re stuck with her, not to mention another year with Delaporta at the helm, we can only hope that those two have had a wake-up call. Maybe they’ll both exhibit enough common sense to check the expiration dates on their certifications instead of waiting for someone to tell them they’ve expired. Maybe they’ve both come to the painful realization that the certificants deserve better than maintaining the old status quo that has previously plagued this organization. I certainly hope so. They have both had their share of responsibility in those problems. I’ll be watching to see what they do, and reporting on it. You’ve got another shot here, Ms. Reno, so don’t blow it.
Burns has an impressive resume, and as a public member, nothing vested in this profession except her willingness to serve on the Board. I hope she will distance herself from the political trauma and drama and focus on what is best for the stakeholders.
At the same time, I hope she goes to the trouble to educate herself about the past history of the NCB and its problems, so history will not repeat itself. I suggest she does a lot of reading of past Board minutes, although from where I’m sitting, the minutes from the Feeley administration read like some bad fantasy novel.
I think it’s very telling, and a wise move on their part, that the Immediate Past Chair position has been removed. Normally, an immediate past chair serves by helping to acclimate the new one, and it’s a pretty serious move to get rid of that position. It’s rather sad that it came to that, but I’ll give them a pat on the back this time for making that decision.
Peace & Prosperity,
Laura Allen
In my last post about Whitney Lowe’s departure from the NCBTMB Task Force, I reported that CEO Paul Lindamood had made the promise to keep certificants informed about the Advanced Certification project.
That was put into action today with the launch of a new blog on the NCB website, authored by Elizabeth Langston, the Director of Exam Development for the NCB.
Langston’s post reads, in part, ” One of the questions I’ve been seeing a lot is “Why? What makes you think we need or want an advanced certification?” The desire for such an advanced certification has been verified through various projects and studies over the past twelve years (based on information gathered from peer groups, past Job Task Analyses, Task Force reports in Board minutes and other empirical evidence.) In 2009, after review of these past efforts and confident that the desire for such a credential was evident, NCBTMB’s Board of Directors decided to proceed with the creation of an advanced certification credential and exam. And here we are.”
As with this blog and others, there is the opportunity for public comment on the blog page. I’ve passed along the many comments I have received on my various networks to them, and I feel safe in saying they’ve realized they have to listen. I urge you to visit the blog and make your comments.
Peace & Prosperity,
Laura Allen
