More than 60 massage therapists gathered in Natick on February 8 and 9, 2014 for education with Ben Benjamin and an AMTA-MA Chapter meeting.
President Mary White introduced herself and board and committee members present. She welcomed everyone and thanked all for attending. She reminded everyone that the meeting was also a fundraiser for Kristen Lutz who is representing the AMTA and MTF in the John Hancock Charity bib program in this year’s Boston Marathon 2014. She explained the money raised goes to the Massage Therapy Foundation. The meeting raised $751 towards her fundraising goal of $10,000. You can donate to her team here.
Kristen spoke to the attendees about her desire to run the marathon,and thanked everyone for their support. She also mentioned that she will be holding other fundraising events in the Copley area. You can read more about Kristen here.
Mary spoke about the Community Service Massage Team. She thanked Gail Dobinsky and Lisa Curran-Parenteau for getting the team started and introduced Gordon Pilotte as the new committee Chairperson. Gordon explained the two parts of the team; charitable and emergency. He introduced several other people that are helping out. There will be requirements to work some of the charitable events to continue to be on the emergency team. Mary explained that they will be reviewing what parts of the state have therapists interested to decide where to hold future trainings. Gordon showed the deployment bags and explained that they will be located in different areas of the state.
AMTA NERC representative Jessica Meltzer spoke about the 2014 New England Regional Conference which will be March 20-23 n Framingham. The cost is $429 which includes 18 CEs and all six meals. There will be an exhibit hall and the AMTA-MA Chapter will have a state table for members to visit. Information and registration for NERC can be found here.
Mary announced that the Annual Meeting and Education weekend will be May 3 and 4, 2014 in Needham. Laura Allen will be presenting “One Year to a Successful Massage Practice” on Saturday and a 3 hour CE Ethics course on Sunday after the meeting. There will also be a CPR – AED Certification class on Saturday and the Red Cross will be offering a disaster readiness course which will also be free. Saturday will wrap up with a Meet and Greet cocktail reception for attendees, presenters and vendors.
On Sunday, vendor tables will be open 9am to3pm, Annual Meeting will be 12pm to 2:30pm. Details are available here and registration will open in late February. There are three Board positions open for election, President, 2nd Vice President, and Secretary. Information about these roles and candidate applications are available here. Mary spoke about awards and asked that anyone who knows someone that deserves the Humanitarian Award to please fill out the form on our website here.
Mary introduced Education Chair Deb Baker and committee members Kate Peck and Regine Ryder. Deb noted that meetings and education events are scheduled for September 7 and 8 in Northampton and December 6 and 7 on Cape Cod.
Mary introduced the Online Marketing Manager Allissa Haines and Noreen Chase our new volunteer on the Marketing and Communications committee who also blogs for the MTF. Allissa reminded the group that the AMTA-MA Chapter is present and active on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and encourage the members to be active as well. She reminded everyone that there are articles posted on Facebook that are useful to share with clients and market one’s practice.
Mary spoke about National AMTA’s change of policy regarding chapter fees that began this year. She introduced a new feature to the website allowing people to contribute directly to the chapter here.
Mary introduced member Cindy Gillan who spoke about the Pan Mass Challenge. Gordon is also involved in the Pan Mass Challenge which is a 2 day fundraising ride each year. She is looking for more MTs to volunteer and meet their goal of 200 MTs. They recently started a special area for Oncology massage since many riders are cancer survivors. Go to www.pmc.org to volunteer. Cynthia Sykes spoke about volunteering for the Best Buddies Challenges. It’s a great annual event and volunteers are treated like royalty. More information is available here.
Mary White closed the chapter meeting reminding everyone that chapter information is updated frequently on the website at www.massamta.org.