President's Welcome...
From the President of AMTA-Vermont
November 2011
This autumn was a whirlwind! In less than a month, our chapter was at the AMTA National Convention in Portland, Oregon, at work in Vermont promoting massage during National Massage Therapy Awareness Week (NMTAW), and then presenting our Annual Educational workshop and holding our chapter membership meeting. Whew! I owe a huge thanks to all of our volunteers and Board members who made it possible!
Chris Widlund receiving National Government Relations Activist Award from Glenath Moyle, AMTA President
I am so pleased to report that, at the National Convention, our own Chris Widlund was honored as the National Government Relations Activist! As many of you know, her hard work with AMTA and the Vermont Initiative for Massage Standards (VIMS) obtained a grant to pursue regulation of massage in Vermont, created a 1000-page Sunrise Application, and led us through a hearing with the Office of Professional Regulation in Montpelier. I’m so thankful for her leadership through this monumental stage in our history, and I’m looking forward to working with Michelle Robbins as our Government Relations chair this upcoming year.
AMTA-Vermont awards from 2011 AMTA National Convention
It was also so exciting to receive every award given to small chapters at the National Convention! We were recognized for our work on the chapter website, newsletter, government relations, community relations, and sports massage. We also received an overall award of excellence called the 5-Hands Give Chapters a Hand Award. What a wonderful team we have! I love that our efforts have been recognized, but as we become more active, we want – and need – to welcome more of you into our crew of volunteers. Our goal is to have more AMTA-VT members share the limelight with only small commitments of time that also enhance your massage practice!
-
-
Laura Bull doing chair massage at WBTN’s Massage-a-palooza fundraiser
So many of you are already involved with outreach in your communities, and I hope youchose to promote yourselves, your practices, massage, and AMTA during NMTAW. This is our special time of the year to concentrate on promoting massage to the public, and I’m so thankful for Laura Bull’s leadership as Public Relations chair and all of her good work in Bennington. Some outreach events can take only a few minutes to plan, but many of Laura’s ideas and plans took shape several months in advance. Please read her PR report for great photos and a recap of her efforts! I’m looking forward to seeing her share her plans with us over the next year and helping all of us with ideas – big and small – to get our names and profession in front of more eyes in our neighborhoods!
Finally, it was great to see some of you at our annual meeting in November! I can’t believe what an amazing new set of skills (and cups!) I have from the workshop on therapeutic massage cupping by Shannon Gilmartin of ACE Massage Cupping. I’m particularly pleased to announce that LJ Stewart has volunteered as our new Education Chair for next year and you have an opportunity to vote on our upcoming educational option for next November. Please take a moment to let us know what would be most interesting and useful to you!
