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I received a weekly update today on activities of the California Massage Therapy Council (CAMTC), the private nonprofit created under state law (SB 731) and legislative review to certify massage practitioners and therapists within California. The certifications exempt those certified from local licensing laws.

As of 5 Dec, 9581 applications were received and a1621 certifications have been approved and mailed..

In the week from 28 Nov to 5 Dec, CAMTC received 392 applications and mailed 170 certifications.The weeks from 11/2 through 12/5 have seen: 459, 440, 448, 332, and 392 received applications.

There are now, to the best of my knowledge, 15 staff members processing applications and handling phone calls about certifications. That's an increase of 9 from those initially on board.

CAMTC has been in the position of the sailor who wanted a good strong wind and got a hurricane before the crew was out a day. The estimate I'd seen in earlier minutes was an expectation of 3600 applications in 2009 and about 10,000 in 2010. As noted above, by 5 December we've received 9581 applications. Combined with having to create procedures for application review, procedures and policies for application denial, a committee to review red-flagged applications, and responding to "balking" cities, the "caulking" on the hull has taken a beating. CAMTC is, however, afloat, "bailing out the backlog", and trying to catch up as soon as possible.

I mentioned this rate of applications at dinner, prompting my younger son to start thinking about application rates. Given 400 applications per week and a 40 hour work week, CAMTC has been receiving applications at about one per every six working minutes. This doesn't count the number of phone queries, which have been substantial.

Extending the above thought of one CAMTC application per 6 working minutes to a staff of 15. To keep up, the staff would each have to process one application per each 90 minutes of the working day, including juggling any phone calls that came in. That simply can't be done while giving each application the necessary verification and review and even more staff can't be hired and trained instantly. Please be nice to our staff. I've got a feeling each and every one could use a massage.

Just so you know.

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Comment by Angela Palmier on December 13, 2009 at 10:31pm
Thanks for posting this Keith---KUDOS to CAMTC for working so hard and getting the job done. It is very impressive to see the commitment to this certification in California.
Comment by Noel Norwick on December 10, 2009 at 11:24am
Keith: Thanks for the update. FYI - The other day, I sent CAMTC, (copy to Paul Simmons) an email asking what seemed to be delaying the FBI response to my LiveScan, given that my DOJ results had been received by CAMTC on 9/14/09 and everything else CAMTC appears to need is in their hands. While I understand the need to register & track applications entered into the system, I suggest they might also track/report to you a similar dated backlog on issuing certs.
Comment by Keith Eric Grant on December 8, 2009 at 10:26pm
As our chief staff person commented back to me tonight, "Yep, it's a lot. . . but we're moving fast.".The CAMTC website notes that we are now entering applications received on 30 November, which is not so far back, all things considered. In mid-November, staff was entering applications from mid-October. So, they have managed to shrink the latency gap substantially.
Comment by Tony Poland, CMT on December 8, 2009 at 9:12pm
Thank you very much for the update, Keith. I haven't submitted my application yet, but it gives me food for thought as to the time frame expected.

Be well,
Tony

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