Empowering Nevada Massage Therapists

My 2008 Chapter Volunteer Orientation Program Experience

David Otto, LMT NCTMB

The sixth annual training for chapter volunteers was held in Evanston, Illinois, this year, July 10th through the 13th. I fully expected to attend and learn what other chapters and the National office were experiencing in the area of association management and to learn of new ways to maximize the efforts in order to bring them back to our Nevada chapter – I was not disappointed.

This had to be one of the most well-thought out and –planned training events I’ve been to in quite some time. The high level of expertise and willingness to give information that will help chapters be successful in providing service for their members was astounding. All the National staff involved was there every day to answer questions, have quality conversations, and be there to support our learning and ability to understand where everyone stood in the objectives of the Association.

Day 1 – The Arrival, July 10th, 1 AM
I arrived at O’Hare International Airport to find a comfort of home – a Starbucks – in the airport. I caught my latte and taxi for a 45-minute ride to Evanston, where I checked into my hotel room at about 1 AM.
Very pleasant arrival to find the most comfortable bed in the world and a welcome letter inviting me to register at the AMTA CVOP table in the meeting room area at noon. I was relieved to not have to get up so early!
When I registered and met David and Angie from the Illinois Chapter, I got all my paperwork and found a few friends at a table in the main meeting area, where I set up camp for the afternoon. Our welcome session was only 2 ½ hours and included our MC Chris Voltarel’s (CA) introduction, history, and agenda for the CVOP this year. We also listened to an internationally-acclaimed organizational speaker Darryl Harris, focusing on this year’s CVOP theme: Remember the Member. He was very energetic, humorous, informative, and his style poked at the heart of how our association means to operate. Also, President-Elect Judy Stahl (AZ) spoke, thanking us for being here and challenging us to use this opportunity to achieve excellence on our chapter levels.

I retired for the evening to visit downtown Chicago, taking the “El” (elevated) train, my target vista being the Hancock Observatory, a kin to the Sears Tower landmark in height and is positioned at the north end of the skyline for excellent views of the city and Lake Michigan. Rain and lightning eventually slowed my travels, but did not daunt them, as I did get to have my $9 drink on the 95th floor overlooking the orchestrated clouds and lightning over Chicago at dusk.

Day 2 – The Meat of It, July 11th, 8:30 AM
After a wonderful buffet breakfast and picking up our per diem (what a nice bonus!), we all settled into our first meeting about what drives our membership and how we can improve loyalty to the association. Jill McCrory and Steve Swafford of Leadership Outfitters Inc. coached volunteer leaders in the morning and early afternoon sessions regarding Association Basics, Risk Management, Leading Effective Meetings, and Creating Memorable Member Experiences. During lunch, about half the attendees walked down to Davis Street, the location of the “mothership’s” operations. What a trip! Now, when I call, I will end the conversation with a coy, “Have a great day looking out the window at your AWESOME view of Lake Michigan!”

What a great location: neat, clean, modern, big, and every office with a door has a window view! No wonder everyone was so happy there! The later afternoon hosted individual (optional) consultations with governance, legal, and association representation for each attendee, and additional Massage Therapy Foundation, Meeting Planning, and mental model presentations. During the Program Fair, every department you can imagine (and call!) in the National office had a table, at which they presented who they were (many executives participated), what they do, and asked how they could help me! Much information was given and contact names were put with faces – I saw a few that I remembered meeting before and put some new faces with names for future reference! Oh, and I am planning on learning more about web managing from Dan Hickey, the National site’s Web Manager!

This evening, I decided to let my brain reform into a recognizable representation of the gray matter it had started as that morning by going to a movie within a stone’s throw of the hotel in downtown Evanston. I saw “Hancock” (ironic, isn’t it?) and let Will Smith entertain me as the kind of superhero(ine) that we all want to be. I crashed early in order to be up early the next morning for a run to the lighthouse down the street on Lake Michigan.

Day 3 – Breakouts and the Departure, July 12th, 8:15 AM
I was up at 3am, Las Vegas time, to take my run to find lightning flashing and thunder blasting and rain pounding outside my room’s window. Well, so much for that, but the Farmer’s Market vendors were starting to set up for their day, starting at 7:30. I finally went downstairs to another scrumptious buffet breakfast and we started our breakout group sessions. Each group of about 24 volunteers heard presentations from Chris Voltarel, Jill McCrory, Steve Swafford, and Monica Love & Melissa Spani about Chapter Budgeting & Planning, Leading Volunteers, Conflict Management, and Community Outreach. All excellent presentations – lots of information and ideas were shared. And, at the end of the day, a group photo of the 6th Annual CVOP!

After the photo, I immediately started my journey by cab to O’Hare and arrived back in Vegas at 9:45 pm.

On top of the many opportunities to network and set up meet ups for the Convention with other chapter volunteers, I gained a lot of insight into where the AMTA is going in how it treats and trains its member volunteers. The AMTA National staff was VERY accommodating, informative, energetic (everyone!) and willing to be there if I (or any member) has questions they can answer or get answered – just like I imagine I appear to my massage clients.
I was a little sad but more excited to have to leave such an educational, supportive, and inspiring environment – an environment I hope to bring back to Las Vegas for our Nevada Chapter members!

2008 AMTA National Convention & House of Delegates Report

David Otto, LMT NCTMB

I am so excited to share with you my experience at the 2008 AMTA National Convention in Phoenix that I don’t know where to start! I will say that you’ll get a Delegate’s Report of the House of Delegates’ (HOD) actions taken in this year’s session along with a very emotionally-charged, and hopefully, accurate picture of what you can expect happened at this year’s convention in its entirety! It really flew by, and, just as soon as I arrived, I was departing…but, here’s what I recollect about the whole AWESOME event!

What the…? Well, let’s start off by saying that I was REALLY excited that the convention was in Phoenix, my teenage stomping ground, and only 5 hours drive away. I was so ready for a road trip…I stopped in Sedona for breakfast before hitting the convention registration booth on Wednesday. The registration process in the Phoenix Convention Center was so easy, and I got all my coupons for events and classes laid out for me – ‘cause I needed some point of reference, and this system helped keep me on time for everything I had planned to do!

During that day… before the HOD orientation, there were leadership meetings and trainings going on where Board Members and Volunteers in chapter leadership from throughout the country learned how the Association works, how to communicate better for more effective leadership and getting results, and what was going on in other states and jurisdictions. I met Pete Blandford (NV, President) and Shari Mirgon (NV, Immediate Past President) at the end of their afternoon session – they were just having a grand ole time!

The first order… of business was to attend a HOD orientation. For those of you not familiar with the HOD, it is like the U.S. Congress, where each state is represented by an appropriate number of Chapter Delegates – larger states have more Delegates. Each Delegate represented approximately 500 members. In the case of Nevada, it was just me this year, but next year we have two Delegates attending because we’ve grown so much!

So, the HOD orientation lasted about 2 hours, with Dan Barrow (NM) going over Robert’s Rules (parliamentary procedures): how we all would have a common way of communicating during the next day’s session. We had a little fun with a couple of mock proposals (like the format we’d be seeing the next day) and really learned a lot about how to make things smoother/less painful when actually conducting the session where we’d vote on forming the whole Association’s goals , objectives, stances, and attitude. It was liberating to not only witness, but to also participate in such an important process that forms the industry to which I have dedicated my career.

After the orientation session,… and that evening, there were some welcome “meet-and-greets” hosted by the Arizona Chapter and the Exhibitor’s Hall. It’d been a long day for me, so after trading pins and plotting and planning my conquering the exhibit floor, I went to check into my hotel and chill out.

The next day… Thursday, I went to several of the Convention activities. I heard the opening ceremony was phenomenal and Judith Aston (NV, member), Keynote Speaker (of Aston Patterning, in Incline Village, NV!) was a big hit! The First-Timer’s luncheon, well-orchestrated and well-served at the Hilton across the street from the Convention Center, had about 270 attendees out of approximately 1,100 registrants – that is an amazing figure – almost 25% of the total attendees were attending their first convention! It was an excellent meal and excellent company with 9 others from around the U.S. sitting with me. I saw Carlota Borromeo, NV member, at this luncheon for the first time during the Convention. I met Trisha Pennell (ID, President) and finally put a face to her name (remember her chapter’s invitation for NV members to attend their state convention this year?) – a very cool and spirited person. I will definitely consider their Chapter’s invitation to next year’s ID State Convention just to visit with her again! I also met (for the first time) some other NV Chapter Members, Susan Sybert and Lisa Ruiz – it was awesome to chat outside the First-Timer’s Luncheon, but I had to run to the HOD session! (See you guys at Chapter Lunch tomorrow!)

Then, MK Brennan (President) “gently reminded” all the first-time attendees that were Delegates to leave the lunch early to be on time for the HOD session. Based on the response in the HOD orientation and the fact that so many people got up to leave, I would have to guess that there were approximately 40% of the HOD that were new delegates, first-time conventioneers, and also had to empty out half the room to attend the HOD session. It was a mass exodus! Before leaving, my chapter pin kitty was up to about 15 – I wish I had more Nevada pins to trade!

We all met, checked in, and were seated (by threat of elimination of a Delegate who was late being seated) by 1 pm. We got to use some high-tech voting equipment to check in, by just pressing a button on our voting pad. We communicated votes for non-actionable and actionable votes through this method and we were all in sync at the HOD session because of our successful practice at the orientation the night before. I didn’t lose any important brain cells from my first night at the convention, so I was in good shape. The keypad that looked like a(n older style) mobile phone made it easier with its “caller ID” that told me what to press for the way I wanted to respond to the voting item.

In brief… There were 4 Recommendations and 4 Position Statements. During the 4 hours in session, we heard all the Recommendations and Positions Statements and made arguments, pro or con for each, and finally voted. In a situation where new information about the item being voted on (and already having been discussed and voted on at the state Chapter level) was brought to the floor of the HOD, the discussion about the item got really heated. It is the trust in the Delegate that you elect that is capitalized on when opinions are stated by the Chapter Delegate on the floor of the HOD. It is also the prudence of the Delegate that you elect that determines whether the Delegate will speak elegantly and effectively and then vote appropriately, according to the home Chapter’s wishes. Your Delegate(s) need to represent as well as think on their feet with new information that was not talked about on the Chapter level, and this happened on several occasions throughout the session.

Here is a Synopsis of items presented and acted upon:

Here are the major arguments for Cons of the Failed items:

PS 4: “Use” is not a rationale. Improper reference notations. AMTA-self reference is dangerous (conflict of interest).

R 1: National Board meetings have actionable items that are not up for discussion at that point of vote that are not subject to discussion outside the Board determinations for grounds of voting for or against that item. There are already vehicles and processes in place to address Chapter concerns for Board items before the Board votes and interaction with the National Board on behalf of the Chapters would delay action and further disable Board from acting. Note: even though the vote was a majority in favor (83 For, 55 Against), this vote had to achieve a 2/3 weight, of which it narrowly fell short.

Interesting side notes:

R 2: a Caucus was approved for 5 minutes in length where Delegates could confer amongst themselves in order to come to a conclusion and vote on the item – this was a hot item, since the new information was that there were other states that still are fighting for regulation and have no licensing requirements that would fit under the proposed bylaw recommendation.

Recommendation #5: presented at the NV State Annual Meeting, this was a Recommendation by California to allow the individual AMTA Chapters to form PAC (Political Action Committee) relationships to further lobbying efforts. This was a direct conflict with the Federal definition of a 501(c)6 class (non-profit) organization structure, like the AMTA. The AMTA can lose its business non-profit category if associated with PACs. It was explained that California voluntarily withdrew its Recommendation for further review, so the HOD did not discuss or vote on that Recommendation.

Also, three HOD Operations Committee (HODOC) members’ terms are expired, so we heard from and voted from about 10 candidates for those members who want to serve on the HODOC for the next 2 years. The winning candidates are: John Combe, Shirley Cooper, and Pat Malone. Shirley and Pat have been on the HODOC for some time, and John is the new, inexperienced blood. The HOD apparently decided this is a good choice for leadership when organizing the HOD, its items and policies, and facilitating its yearly sessions.

After session,… it was off to the Exhibit Hall. I visited it while it was being set up Wednesday afternoon, but found many more vendors than I expected, and ones that I was very familiar with – Soothing Touch, Soundings of the Planet, Biotone, Oakworks…and several new ones, like: Let’s Do Tea, Massage Today, & Massage Envy. I spent so much time (& money!) there buying the supplies I need and learning about new products for my practice, that I almost forgot about the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game I bought a ticket to go see!

Actually, it was more for the socializing opportunity to see people I had met but didn’t really get to chat with. I walked several blocks from the Convention Center down to Chase Field, where the game was already about half over. I limped in to get my frosty $10 beverage and met up with Kristie (NE, Delegate) that I sat next to in the HOD. She and her massage friends were fun to hang out with and watch MK Brennan (AMTA President) shoot pool and celebrate Chris Voltarel’s (CA , AMTA Chapter Relations Committee Chair) birthday with cake and candles! Very fun…then I drove back to the hotel & crashed!

TGIF!... because classes started for me. I signed up for two classes this day: Tax & Recordkeeping for the Self-Employed with Margo Bowman, LMT LTC EA, and Acupressure’s Potent Points with Michael Reed Gach, Ph.D. I heard information I was familiar with and some new information in the tax & recordkeeping class that I hadn’t heard before. There were many anecdotal questions and situations, but all lent a sense of where I am going in my private practice: filing for a single-member LLC and filing taxes as an S-Corporation. Complicated stuff, but it all seems to save my business money, and I am all for that!

Between Classes… lunch was exquisite because…Pete, Brad Enerson (NV, Chapter Treasurer), Shari, Susan Sybert (NV, member), Carlotta Borromeo (NV, member), and myself gathered for food, chat, and fellowship in that we all were able to find the restaurant in this huge, downtown convention area! Pete set it up: reservations, food, and fun – all in a 45-minute window!

Michael Gach’s afternoon… presentation was awesome since he’s run his acupressure school in Berkeley, CA, for about 15 years and being the founder, it lent an expertise that is rare to find in the CE field and that he was live and only 8 feet from my seat only confirmed his Star Power in my eyes. I am a fan of his book Acupressure’s Potent Points because it is accessible and detailed and of his “purple” acupressure wall chart of all the meridians, descriptions, and acupressure’s potent points.

After classes, IKEA… They were having a sale – what can I say! IKEA is my all-time favorite furniture store, and, until they build the one in Henderson they’re planning (or were planning), I’m just gonna have to resort to getting my fix whenever I can – Tempe was cool! It was my only shopping trip, outside the Exhibit Marketplace – believe me, there wasn’t much time to do anything else!

Saturday… was really the highlight of my educational expectations in my convention schedule. It all started off good with Starbucks – I had to start my day with a cup o’ Joe and some instant sugar rush. After packing up my breakfast, I moved inside to hear Ben Benjamin talk about Creating Relationships That Work. It was interesting that this course was not just designed for massage therapists and their clients, but was more to the point of the techniques being taught to be available in all relationships. A lot of the examples were directed toward our field, but overall could be applied to improve communication at any level or in any relationship by using the SAVI® Communications model. I really appreciated that, since I learned a lot about myself and what the difference is between effective communication and what I thought was good communication. Ben Benjamin and Amy Yeager were a great teaching team and kept my intense interest, since I was originally inspired by Ben way back in massage school. His writings really helped me understand the complicated nature of touch relationships. I have yet to read the Ethics of Touch in its entirety, but it’s on my list!

It is really funny… who you can run into at a convention – you just never know where your picture or name will show up in someone’s mind that is just passing you in the hall. Jenn Sommerman (NY, member, educator, SSME featured writer) and I finally met face-to-face in the Convention Center hallway as I was leaving to head back to Vegas. What a co-incidence – it was really another pleasure talking briefly and making a connection that will benefit not only me in my relationship with her, but also for the members that enjoy reading about running a massage business. Look for more of her articles online and in future newsletters!

That evening… I was scheduled to go to the finale of the convention (before the post-convention workshops) – the kind of “farewell” that the conventioneers were to say their good-byes and hellos to new cross-country and cross-profession relationships that were sparked in our time together. Fortunately, the “good work” was calling and I returned that evening to Las Vegas to pay the bills. One regret I have about the convention is that there were only 24 hours in a day to take advantage of ALL the events and relationship-building that was available. I gracefully bowed out of several pre-arranged meet-ups at the dinner-dance that was held Saturday evening in the Convention Center – I know myself better and was saving my energy for the drive home and for my clients the next day.

I cannot express the joy of knowing that I will be at next year’s AMTA Annual Convention, September 23 – 26th, 2009 – and in ORLANDO, FLORIDA…of all the fun places to go! What to do, what to do…I’m going to put my proposal in NOW to increase the number of hours in a day to 28 – think it’ll Pass? See you there!

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