Wednesday September 23, 2020

It was great to see some of you at the Maryland Board of Massage Therapy Examiners meeting this morning. Today was Gwenda Harrison's final meeting as a board member, we also share a tribute to her service below.

The 2020 Renewal period continues, and the details are below for those who have not yet renewed. There remains a chance that the deadline for renewal will be extended due to Gov. Hogan's orders. Read on.

Your Maryland AMTA board met last week as well, we spent some time getting to know our members and discussed the volunteer orientation activities with national, government relations updates as well as renewals and took other questions. Our next meeting is on Wednesday October 14th at 8pm. A link and agenda will be sent out to all members the week before the meeting.

A final bit of sad news, Martin Chamberlain has passed away. Details below.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel to reply or visit us on Facebook for more of a discussion - our main page is https://www.facebook.com/amtamd

Take good care,

Amelia Mitchell, LMT, LLCC, BCTMB

Board Member and Government Relations Committee Chair

for David Madon, Mark Hamilton, Molly Farwell, and Chelsea Adams-Cook

Former AMTA-MD president, long term massage therapist, and generally kind, compassionate, and deeply appreciated guy, Marty Chamberlain passed away on Friday, September 11th.

We are very sad for this loss, he was an advocate for our profession for many years and will be deeply missed. He attended Maryland Board meetings, testified at legislative hearings, and took a real interest in massage therapy and his many massage therapist friends.

At this time his family is considering a delayed Memorial service until such time that it is safe for people to gather together. We will share any information as it becomes available.

AMTA-MD sends our condolences to his family and many friends. His Obituary can be found here, we love that it suggests, in Marty's true style that in lieu of flowers paying it forward with Random Acts of Kindness would be appreciated.

We would like to send our appreciation to retiring long term MBMTE Board Member Gwenda Harrison. She has been a strong voice on the Maryland Massage Board for the 4 years since it's inception and she served on the Massage and Chiropractic Board for 8 years before that.

For her final meeting today, Gwenda wore a top with the phrase "Good Trouble" on it. This is a nod to Congressman John Lewis who famously said “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America.” He made this statement on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on March 1, 2020, just months before his death.

There is no better way to sum up Gwenda's career as an LMT member on the state boards than "Good Trouble." She was always willing to ask a hard question, consider alternative points of view, and advocate for the board to meet their mission of protecting the public in ways that recognized the humanity of others.

Gwenda will be missed and we at AMTA-MD send her our best wishes for all the future "Good Trouble" she finds to get into.

Thank you for your service Gwenda.

Now, on to the details of the meeting today.

First there was a presentation from Dawn Hogue, the Executive Director of COMTA which is the accreditation body that specializes in massage, bodywork, and aesthetics. The board invited her to speak so that they could better understand their Endorsed Curriculum program as it is being considered as part of the new standards in the transition to a one tier system. Essentially it is something that schools would be required to aquire and maintain and it looks at their curriculum, the faculty, and that they are accurately disclosing some measures such as MBLEx pass rates, and completion rates to the public in all marketing. The Endorsed Curriculum is a less vigorous process that is significantly less expensive. It is seen to be a reasonable expectation for massage schools to meet these standards. This is part of the ongoing fact finding and discussion on how best to implement a one tier system.

Executive Director Sharon Oliver reported that renewals are going smoothly so far. 525 LMTs and 270 RMPs have completed the process, about 19% so far. See our note below about possible extensions.

The Board amended the bylaws today to allow them to vote virtually for the officers for the 2021 period that begins on October 1, 2020. The new officers are:

Caitlin Thompson, LMT, Chair

Paula Jilanis, LMT, Vice Chair

Kirsten Bodnarchuk, Secretary/Treasurer

Congratulations to all, and we thank them each for their service.

Paula Jilanis has been the Chair for the past two years, and she noted that she wanted her legacy to be improved public relations between the board, the staff, licensees and registrants, and the public in general. There have been many changes during her tenure as Chair, and we can attest that there is a far more collaborative and open communication between parties. LMTs and RMPs are reporting this as well in their day to day interactions with the board. We are grateful for this shift Paula, and know it wasn't only you, there was a concerted effort from many and Sharon Oliver, Executive Director has been a great influence towards this change as well.

In closing, we have had the pleasure of working closely with Paula and with Caitlin Thompson as the Chair of the Advisory Committee, and are confident that the MBMTE leadership continues in good hands.

That is a good overview for today.

The next MBMTE meeting takes place on Wednesday, October 28th, it will be virtual and the links and agenda will be found on the MBMTE website a few days in advance.

Remember that attendance at the meetings earns 1 CE hour towards ethics for LMTs and RMPs.

Also, important to note - the Board does not take questions during the meeting either verbally or via chat - if you have questions please submit them in advance.

As we are now getting closer to the Oct. 31 deadline it is important to mention that if Gov. Hogan's State of Emergency Order is not lifted before Oct. 1, there will be an extension of time before renewal is required. The extension would go to 30 days after the state of emergency is lifted.

Currently the order, which you can read here, reads:

All the information went out to all Maryland LMTs and RMPs via email. You can find all of this information on the Maryland Board of Massage Therapy Examiners web site as well.

Highlights:

Your questions and concerns are always welcome, please feel free to reply to this email or contact Amelia at vp1.amta.maryland@gmail.com