AMTA: Questionable Behavior and Unanswered Questions

[massageblog]

It just pains me to write this blog. I’ve been an AMTA member for over ten years. I love my state chapter, and all the state chapters I’ve ever visited. I look forward to attending the National Convention every year and hanging out with a thousand or so friends and colleagues. It’s like a family reunion.
However, I’ve heard some distressing news concerning goings-on at the national level that are causing me to ask the question: “What were they thinking?â€
This story begins with the state of New Jersey. There is a loophole in their massage practice act, and they’re trying to close it. The condensed version is that the statutes should say that in order to be eligible for a license, you must have completed 500 hours of in class study and successful completion of a written exam approved by the Board. Instead, the and was replaced by an or. Unfortunately, you can’t just hit auto-correct for that. It requires legislative action.
For those who don’t know the ins and outs of governance, state boards are not allowed to lobby. AMTA and ABMP both have lobbyists at their disposal, and governments relations people on their staff. Many state chapters of AMTA pay a lobbyist to watch out for their interests, in addition to having a government relations person or committee. The NJ Chapter has been working closely with their lobbyist to try and get this error of the law corrected for quite some time. READ MORE…
Tags: AMTA, Bill Brown, FSMTB, Joe Roth, MBLEx