Roundup: 2015 Annual Meeting & Elections

Thank you to everyone who attended the 2015 AMTA DC Chapter Annual Meeting and Elections! We missed those of you who couldn’t join us and you missed some yummy food from Café Ole and nice door prices from Sacred Earth and Massage Warehouse. Congrats to Kitty Southworth for winning the drawing for a lovely collection of bodywork products and we hope she enjoys using them in her practice. Thanks also to Kitty, Cary Bland, Jaime Bernardo and Jessica LaGarde for helping to set up for the meeting and to Bintou Kouyate and Pavel Mitryaev for helping to finish the clean-up. (They got to take home lots of leftovers…for those of you who need a little incentive to hang out a bit later. And thanks for my care package, Bintou – it made a great lunch the next day.)

Welcome Our Chapter Board for 2015-16!

First, a BIG THANK YOU to our returning board members and volunteers: 1st Vice-president Jaime Bernardo, 2nd Vice-president Cary Bland, 3rd Vice-president Jessica LaGarde, and Secretary Elizabeth Shrader. As chapter President, I have really enjoyed working with you all over the past 2+ years and I think we are really hitting our stride in terms of serving the chapter and strengthening our massage community.

A huge thank you, too, to Annie Roberts for her eight years of service as treasurer to the AMTA-DC Chapter. We are so grateful for her historical knowledge and availability with the financial workings of the chapter; she helped ease the transition in my first year as president and I couldn’t have done it without her. As Annie transitions out, Emily Jacobs will be stepping in as our newly-elected treasurer. Emily assumes a more stream-lined chapter treasurer role where all accounting will be done in-house at the National office.

We also welcome Alternate Delegate Bintou Kouyate who will assist current Delegate Jaime Bernardo to reach out to members about the recommendations and position statements that will be presented and debated at the National Convention in Pittsburgh, August 19-22, 2015. Jaime and Bintou will both attend the convention to participate in the House of Delegates.

We also want to thank Bintou Kouyate, Jessica LaGarde and Emily Tellez for stepping forward to support our Chapter Secretary with note-taking duties during chapter board meetings and the chapter retreat. We are still looking for volunteers to help take notes, type them up, and email them to the Chapter Secretary, who will make final edits and forward to National.

Appreciation for our Committee Volunteers!

As we move into 2015-2016, the chapter has two main priorities for our chapter:

  • Communicating with the members and encouraging members to connect with one another.
  • Providing high-quality, accessible, affordable continuing education and networking opportunities for members.

We will therefore focus our energies and resources on the three committees most closely aligned with these priorities: Communications; Continuing Education; Membership.

Elizabeth Shrader is stepping solidly into the chair position of the Communications Committee. If you have any interest in what the chapter communications look and sound like, please reach out to Elizabeth. Volunteering to work on this committee is a great way to acquire skills in business marketing, public relations, and social media outreach. The Communications Committee handles the website, e-blasts (emails from the chapter), surveys, Facebook postings, interactive social media, and other aspects of chapter communication.

Kelly Bowers has stepped up as chair to move the Continuing Education Committee forward. Kelly is the point person for this committee and welcomes your suggestions and insights. One of Kelly’s first tasks will be to determine our membership wants/needs and research viable venues for upcoming CE events. We need two things from YOU as members: What do you want the chapter to provide as affordable, accessible continuing education and WHERE do you want these events held in DC?

We have a few priorities in choosing a venue:

  • accessible via public transportation
  • availability of parking
  • allows food/drink service
  • allows chapter to collect attendance fees

Kitty Southworth will continue heading up the Membership Committee with assistance from Jessica LaGarde, providing a warm welcome for new members, managing the membership roster and arranging for mentoring for current members.

Asks

We need YOU to step up and share your ideas and experiences, make the connections, and help build the network of AMTA-DC massage therapists.

Keep an eye out for emails from amtadc.massage@gmail.com, look on the website (www.amtadc.org) and the AMTA DC Facebook page for news about chapter/national events, local regulation of our profession and how YOU can most benefit from your AMTA membership.