I hope this President's message finds you all well and enjoying the amazing fall season we are having this year. It has been a busy few months since our last newsletter. I’ll use this President’s message to update you!
Many of our leadership and members traveled to Denver, CO for the 2014 National Convention. This year’s convention was the largest ever, the city of Denver was amazing and the host chapter and national staff did an outstanding job. You can check out the YouTube Experience AMTA! 2014 National Convention Highlights here.
Among the many convention highlights was this year’s keynote delivered by Dr Oz. In his address to the membership at the Opening Session, he talked a lot about the importance of personal empowerment in health care. He stated that he believed that we control more than 70% of how well and long we live. He went further to say that there are 5 Life Adjustments that we can all have an impact on. These are:
- Keeping our blood pressure under control
- Exercising 30 minutes/day
- Maintaining a healthy diet that’s easy to love
- Keeping our stress under control and getting enough sleep (which seems like 2 different things!)
- Curtailing addictions
Simple, but not always easy. In fact, the list seems so obvious, but consider how much our lives would be improved if we all committed to these 5 simple ways to adjust our lifestyles. And getting regular massage can and should be a key component of these Life Adjustments! Another takeaway for me from Dr. Oz’s keynote was he stated that doctors are not against recommending massage, they are just ignorant about the benefits of massage-his words! He charged all of us to commit to educating the doctors in our lives and the entire medical community about the benefits of therapeutic massage. If WE don't do it, nobody else will. We need to be activists in our own communities! AMTA has lots of resource to help you with this. Here is a link for the AMTA’s most recent Consumer Survey.
The House of Delegates ran smoothly, with passion and professionalism, not two words always associated with a large democratic gathering! Please find the results and stories from the HOD here, and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact any of our 5 Delegates.
Perhaps the most inspiring convention highlight was that 2 of our members received National Humanitarian Awards! Mary White, our IPP, was presented with the 2014 Humanitarian Award of the Year Award by Performance Health at the Massage Therapy Foundation reception. This was certainly well deserved and we were all so proud not only of Mary, but of the enormous contributions she makes to our profession. And Cynthia Sykes, our MA Chapter Humanitarian award winner, was chosen as the National Humanitarian Award winner. What an honor! Congrats Mary and Cynthia!
Some bittersweet news, we bid our dear friend, NERC, a fond farewell in 2015. It was voted by the NE Chapter Presidents with support from their respective chapter Board of Directors to make the upcoming 2015 NERC the last one. There were financial, attendance and volunteer capacity issues that made this difficult decision the best one for all. As your Chapter President, I promise that the AMTA-MA Chapter will support the final conference and offer help and resources when needed to make this last NERC one to remember. I hope you will join us March 19-22, 2015 at the Sheraton in Framingham as we come together for one last hurrah!
Special thanks to Deb Nugnes, our NMTAW chairperson, for running an amazingly successful Day on the Hill, October 16th, at the Great Hall of Flags at the Statehouse. The event was well attended by legislators and staffers, and really well attended by our chapter volunteers and the students from the Salter School. Another special thanks to Joe Frazier, their fearless leader, for bringing this group of inspiring new massage therapists to our Day on the Hill!
Lastly, I'll mention that the excitement is really building for our newest event, the IDEA 2015 (In Depth Education for All) conference May 1-3, 2015. You asked for it-and we heard you!
We are planning a blockbuster 3 days with concurrent 8-16 hour in-depth classes for you! The lineup includes James Waslaski (Part 1 of his Orthopedic Massage certification), Ruth Werner (a pathology/research class that will fulfill the new research requirement), Michael McGillicuddy (a fantastic Multi Modality approach to sports therapy and pain management ), Dale Grust (Core Stones®), Michael Whiteley (Special Needs Massage certification) and soma system® (self body work), among others. It will be value priced for the whole event! IDEA 2015 will include an exciting vendor hall and our popular complimentary lunch, ethics class and Annual Meeting on Sunday May 3rd. Save the Date!
I want to repeat one of the messages from Dr Oz- We need to be activists in our own communities! There are so many ways to join our Chapter and your fellow members in advocating and being an activist for our profession and for our individual practices. Please attend a Chapter meeting and meet some of our leadership and program volunteers! I look forward to seeing many of you in December in Hyannis and/or February in Natick. And if you are planning to join us in December, please bring along some unwrapped warm accessories like mittens, scarves, hats and socks for the kids at the Hyannis West Elementary School. For the second year in a row, we are planning a ‘warmer recess’ for these deserving little ones!
It is my honor and privilege to serve you all and I welcome and look forward to hearing from you with both joys and challenges! Please dont hesitate to email me at lisaparenteau@gmail.com.
Here’s to a peaceful and delicious holiday season!