All Blog Posts Tagged 'Les' (12)

I just returned from attending the World Massage Festival in Las Vegas, and what a blast! I’ve been attending this annual event for several years, and this was the best one yet. My husband, Champ, accompanied me, and we really had a fabulous time. This event is like a family reunion every year, so I really enjoyed seeing so many people I know and don’t get to see often. The Festival was held at the…

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Last week, the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards presented their long-awaited proposal for a new national continuing education approval program. They are calling it Maintenance of Core Competencies – or MOCC for short. As I indicated in my previous post, this proposal not only failed to deliver on the original promises made by FSMTB, it has turned the entire…

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Last week, the leaders of all the major organizations representing the massage therapy profession came together in St. Louis for a Massage Therapy Leadership Summit.

I have personally prayed for this to happen for a long time, and was thrilled that it took place. Rick Rosen, Executive Director of the AFMTE, shared this photo on my Facebook page. I of course spread it through my networks, and it prompted a question from…

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One of my fondest dreams is coming true! For several years I’ve been preaching the sermon on my blog that I wanted our national massage organizations to play nice together and it is happening! Earlier today I got the news that all seven of our major organizations will come together for a summit meeting in St. Louis on Sept 13-14. St. Louis is centrally located, and it’s neutral ground. None of the groups involved are headquartered there.

The…

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spent the weekend with over 1000 massage students and therapists, plus all the great vendors and support staff in Atlanta this weekend at the inaugural American Massage Conference. I’d have to say they definitely batted 1000! A good time was had by all!

There were just too many good moments to talk about them all, so some of my personal highlights:

Teaching my exam prep class Friday and ethics on Saturday, great… Continue

There have been several developments in the regulation of massage in the past few weeks that I personally find distressing. Earlier this week, Florida Senate Bill 584 moved a step closer to passage. This piece of special-interest legislation would amend Florida's massage therapy law to allow graduates of certain board-approved schools to obtain a temporary permit and practice for six months without a…

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The saga of the now-defunct IMA (International Massage Association) continues. Back in July, Will Green, owner/founder of IMA, basically admitted to sabotaging his own company by failing to turn over $600,000

in insurance premiums paid by massage therapists to the insurance

company.

Markel, a respectable insurance company who had been underwriting IMA’s policies since Feb 1, 2008, discontinued writing policies for IMA on April 6, 2010 due to Green’s non-payment of premiums.…

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I would like to thank everyone for their participation in this year's Fest. There were challenges, like when I found out the handball courts opened into each other, as did the sound. The teachers were troopers and worked their way through. They proved it is not just students that are able to be versatile and adapt. Professionals all!

Distance between locations proved a challenge and so did the exercise to get there. We made it…

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This is the second in my series of interviews with the leaders of our professional associations.



Les Sweeney is the fearless leader of Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP), a national membership association that provides comprehensive liability insurance and practice support for massage/bodywork practitioners and students. Founded in 1987, ABMP is now the largest massage therapy membership organization in the country with more than 70,000 members.



LA:… Continue

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… Continue

Once again, our professional membership organizations have spoken, and once again, the NCBTMB (National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork) is not paying heed. I reported back on June 25 that the NCB has a new initiative in the works to expand their scope from a certifying body into a membership organization.



ABMP (Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals) was the first to respond, and AMTA (American Massage Therapy Association) has now followed suit in… Continue

The National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork has issued a press release this week regarding the "premature disclosure" of their plan to create a new membership organization.



I scooped their big announcement on my blog, but in fact, I did not publish that until I had seen a number of comments publicly made about it on Facebook. Les Sweeney, president of ABMP, has now issued a letter that has been shared on the Massage… Continue