Hello Utah AMTA Chapter Members! Welcome to our NEW WEBSITE!
As your Chapter President, I would like to update you on a few things that the Utah Chapter Board has been working on. The Board started this past year with only 3 officially elected members. So, our first items on the agenda were to fill the open positions in order to make our work load more doable. Thankfully, we’ve had a few volunteers who we were able to appoint to the open Board positions and then we have had a few more great people who have stood up to fill the much needed Chair positions.
Once the Chapter Board positions and some of the Chair positions were filled, we were finally able to focus on refining/increasing our communication with you, the membership. Unfortunately, since 2020, there have been several challenges in this arena. We are excited to have this new website up and running, an officially designated email in place, once again, and will soon create FB and Instagram accounts that will be easy to find.
With these, our intention is that you will be able to find up-to-date information on Education, Networking, and Volunteering Opportunities within our state, as well as nationally. We also intend to help keep you informed on any Government mandates, laws or issues that might apply to us.
Other things that have been in the works include planning the 2025 Utah State Convention, Cadaver Lab classes, First Aid and CPR Certification/Re-certification courses, and Open Houses/Networking Opportunities. I’ll give a little detail for each below:
AMTA Utah Chapter State Convention
The AMTA Utah Chapter State Convention will be held this week on April 25th through the 27th.
The Board has gotten a lot of great things for you to take advantage of this year.
We have two great teachers coming: Joe Muscolino and Dan Schmidt.
They are providing a total of 26 hours of continuing education for you.
Joe’s classes will be held the first two days, Friday and Saturday. They are both 8 hours of orthopedic massage therapy techniques for the thoracic spine and rib cage.
Dan is providing his Feldenkrais TMJ and Beyond 10-hour course on Sunday.
We have also procured a photographer so that you can get a professional headshot for your business – on us! (Only one headshot per person.) Come READY for the photo on the first day of classes.
Cadaver Lab Classes
We will most likely have a few dates to offer for this as there will probably be a limit to the number of people who can attend each session. We are currently in negotiations for this and will let you know details as soon as possible.
FirstAid and CPR Certification/Re-Certification
It has come to our attention that this would benefit a lot of people, again! We are also looking into this and will provide more details soon.
Open Houses/Networking Opportunities
Currently, we are planning two of these for 2025. One will be around September and will be held in the Salt Lake area. The second will be in St. George and will held around the time of the St. George Marathon. Come meet other AMTA members and enjoy a few light refreshments!
And, again, look for more details soon!
We also want to make you aware, if you aren’t already, that there has been A LOT of work to do in the government relations area over the past few years. Possible changes in types of licensure have been put on the table by some in the Utah State Legislature. This year’s bill will have been re-written 4 times by the time it is done!
Thank you to those of you who contacted Representative Thurston to help him better understand how licensure helps our clients and ourselves maintain standards of safety in our industry, along with many other important aspects.
Thank you to those of you who were behind the scenes and in the limelight who worked hard to keep our profession going and protected. And, special thanks goes out to two individuals who took the time to sit with Rep. Thurston as they hashed out something that could be accepted by both parties – Roger Olbrot and Bijan Hosseini.
Look for information on licensure changes that will be implemented in the coming year in our Government Relations section of the website this coming month.
What a great year this has been!
I have loved serving with you the past several years and am excited for more service to you in the immediate future! I am especially excited for the AMTA National Convention in Dallas, Texas this year as I was elected to the Moderator Elect position by the Chapter Presidents’ Council.
Speaking of…being that Dallas, TX is so close to home, we are hoping to see a lot of our chapter members coming to the National Convention this year! There are a lot of great classes and they are not all filled up yet – so sign up and please join us! We even host a chapter dinner so that we can get to know one another better!
In conclusion, YES this has been a long message but there has been a lot to fill you in on! It has been a great journey developing a program that has hopefully benefitted the chapter members, and those that are interested in our organization and what it can offer them.
And, if you know a non-member, please invite them and bring them to our meetings or other activities that we have planned. We would love to share our support with them!
If you have questions, concerns or suggestions for education, please feel free to contact any of the board members and we will get an answer back to you as soon as we can. I and the board look forward to seeing you at our annual board meeting and at some of
the board meetings that will be listed on this website (see the updated Schedule soon),
Ivan Thompson
Chapter President
