MTBOK Stakeholder Input Session was a huge success!

You may know that on Thursday, September 24th we held an MTBOK Stakeholder Input Session open to the public in Orlando, FL. We filled a double room, and senior representatives from all of the MTBOK Steward organizations (AMTA, ABMP, AMTA COS, FSMTB, MTF, and NCBTMB) were present.

The idea of holding ad open to the public meeting at the AMTA convention site gave a lot of massage therapists the opportunity to participate just as we had hoped. I did see a number of name tags with the "Public" identifier on them and I talked to one attendee who had come a long way to attend - so I'm happy that we got outside attendance.. We also were told that more than 40 attendees had returned their registrations for CE classes to attend, so we know we had interest!

I wish I had exact attendance, but I don't. ... I do know we had more than 100 since all the chairs were occupied, and we had some standing, but I don't have an exact count. Its not bad that we could get a number nearly 10% of the total convention attendees! I think the work is very important, and I'm glad that we have so many people willing to tell us what they think.

All of our Task Force members (see "Who we are" at www.mtbok.org) were present, and after a brief introduction, we broke into 4 large groups with 2 Task Force members recording and facilitating the stakeholder input at each group.

We came away from the session enthused and energized, and from my perspective moving around the room, I suspect that a lot of the attendees felt the same.  The positive energy and interest was palpable, and the interaction was great.

What we got out of the session far exceeded our expectations, and we couldn't be more delighted. We spent the next morning (and some of that night) organizing and going over the notes from the sessions. The Task Force facilitators presented each of the notes they took, we discussed each, and talked about how of the comments would impact the MTBOK itself.

In the end, we have a list of updates we are making, and several items that need to be further researched and/or discussed before we take final action.

We also shared a number of less specific thoughts from the meeting - how the participants seemed to feel about the job thus far, and what "themes" we saw as a result of the discussion. 

If any of you reading this were in attendance, Id love to hear what you thought.  Everybody keep in mind that although this was our only scheduled in-person input session, we have a simple and easy way to comment on the MTBOK itself via an online form.  Both the MTBOK itself, and access to the comment form are available at our website: http://www.mtbok.org.

Im working now on organizing and tracking the comments and changes we receive.  Over the next week or so Im hoping to catch up on responding to comments we have already received.  Our intention is to respond to all comments... at least as long as the volume of input can be managed. So if you have provided input and haven't heard back in the next couple of weeks - let me know.

Some MTBOK Clarifications

Im pleased that we've begun to get responses already on the draft MTBOK, and its just what we are hoping for.  Its also clear that the respondants are passionate about the profession, and have given thought to their responses. 

As a task force of 8 trying to represent such a broad complex profession, we think its vital that we get feedback from the community.  Thats why we have tried to make it easy to do so, why we have scheduled two drafts for review (the next update will be just after the first of the year) and why we are holding a public input session in Orlando, FL next week.

In reading over your comments though I can tell there is some misunderstanding about the approach we have taken and the impact of the MTBOK (at least in the near term).  So I thought I would clear some of that up. Please keep in mind that Im going a little out on a limb here because Im not actually a member of the Task Force... but if they take issue with what I say here, I will relay that back to you as well.

• First, the MTBOK does not, and will not have force of law or regulation.  Which means that whatever the final product includes will not change any State or local laws or regulations, at least in the near term. Over time we believe that the educators and regulators, etc will come to value a single, profession wide body of knowledge built by and for the profession as a valuable single source of authoritative information. We also believe that the reason for the wide range of requirements for certification/licensure across the country is a direct result of organizations individually trying to cope without a comprehensive, profession-wide adopted standard. We think the establishment of the MTBOK will help over time resolve a lot of the inconsistencies that you experience from jurisdiction to jurisdiction across the country.
  
• Some people have expressed concern that the required knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) are too much for an entry level massage therapist. The Task Force believes that the MTBOK needs to grow with the knowledge and science that supports the profession, and has included some new areas that we believe therapists, even at the entry level, need to be exposed to.  As in most of the knowledge areas, entry level therapists would not be expected to have in depth knowledge but would be expected to know what it is and what the general impact is on their work. This helps position a Massage Therapist to better guide their career and continuing education over time.
• The MTBOK is to be created by and for the profession.  Which means that it is supposed to represent what our profession believes is the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to perform their work. We want and need your input.  Id suggest that as you look through the document, your approach should be to consider whether or not individual KSAs should be something that all therapists need to know and or do, not the details of implementation. If you disagree on something, tell us about it and why using the comment form.
• The task force is trying to be sure that the variety of work that is being performed by massage therapists is included in the scope and KSA requirements. Our field is broad, and the MTBOK hopefully represents that well.  We are focused on Massage Therapy, and there is no attempt to try to bring other allied professions under the MTBOK.  In fact, we have tried to invite non Massage Therapy organizations to comment so that any issues may be resolved before it is finalized.  Since one of the ways a profession gets widely recognized is through the development and existence of a Body of Knowledge, we would encourage other allied professions to develop their own.
•  Finally, the specific competencies (in terms of Knowledge Skills and Abilities) in the draft version of the MTBOK are for entry level therapists, and do not include the additional KSAs that are required as a massage therapist advances or specializes.  The method of documenting these are not addressed in phase 1 of the MTBOK at all, and this work will be done later as appropriate.  Phase 1 specifically notes that some of the work performed by massage therapists requires additional knowledge, certification and/or licensure.  So, for example, although we believe all massage therapists should be exposed to non-western energy theory and the existence of meridians and points associated with these, it does not mean that this is adequate for a massage therapist to practice reflexology or acupressure without the appropriate additional study, certification and/or licensure.

I hope you will keep these points in mind as you read the draft MTBOK and that you do let us know what you agree or don't agree with.The effects of this wont be immediate, but I hope you will agree that the end result will significantly strengthen the foundation on which our amazing profession is built.

First Draft of the MTBOK Released

Today we released the first draft of the MTBOK content.  Its in a downloadable pdf document available at http://www.mtbok.org. Our press release is also available there.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that the MTBOK is intended to be by and for our community, and we want to hear what you think and hope you will provide us with focused comments.

Because there are lots of potential comment-ors out there, and only 8 n the Task Force, we developed an automated comment/suggestion collection form that we think will make it easy for you to give us comments and still allow us to manage the volume of comments we get in.

We do want to hear from you.  Although we ask that each comment be as focused as possible on specific areas in the document, you can submit as many as you need, and I think its pretty quick to do it.  The link to the collection form in in the MTBOK pdf itself right on the first page.

I think its a great document, and I hope it generates good feedback so that its not only better, but truly represents our wonderful profession.

thanks.

Stakeholders Event and Flyers

In case you'd like the flyer for our September 24th Stakeholder input session, you can download it here: http://www.mtbok.org/downloads/MTBOK_Flyer_9_20091.pdf

By the Way, in case anyone isnt clear about who our "Stakeholders" are, it is anyone who is involved in Massage Therapy: practitioners, schools and educators, businesses, associations, allied health care professionals etc... so if you are reading this, you most likely are one!

While this session is a great opportunity to meet and talk with the full MTBOK Task Force, you will be able to provide comments on the content as it develops via an online form and other means. We are hoping to also be together at the Highlighting conference in Seattle next year, when Phase 1 of the MTBOK is finishing up

Stakeholder Input Session in Orlando, FL

Just a clarification - you DONT have to be an ATMA member or actually attending the convention to get into this session.

Flyer for upcoming opportunity to meet with the MTBOK Task Force

Im proud that the MTBOK is  under the joint stewardship of six of the major professional organizations relating to Massage Therapy.  I think its unprecedented, or at least rare, but it is great that these organizations all recognize the importance of the MTBOK.

All of them also help us in many ways, and we try to take advantage of this to help without appearing to favor one or the other - every one of the Steward organizations is an important part of the MTBOK.

Weve decided to take advantage of the large gathering of MT professionals at the convention in Orlando, Fl at the end of this month.  As you may have read before, we have an event scheduled for 9/24/09 from 4:00-5:55pm at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort at the AMTA National Convention in Orlando, FL.

I hope that if you are at the convention you will set aside this time to meet with the Task Force, get an overview of the project and to provide input to the MTBOK content which will be released in a first draft on September 15th.

Countdown to the first draft release!

Watch for the upcoming release of the MTBOK first draft on September 15th!

This will be a draft all set up to make focused comments easy for you and easy for us to work with all your comments.  Remember, this will be your chance to participate and help bring life to the MTBOK.

We will be publishing a link to a site where you can provide your comments on the document.  You will be able to submit as many comments as you like, but we will ask that each comment is focused on either a particular part of the document or a specific content item.

We also intend to provide a fillable pdf form as an alternate to the online collection instrument.

I look forward to hearing from a lot of you!