Change has a bad reputation in our society. But it isn’t all bad – not by any means. In fact, change is necessary in life – to keep us moving, to keep us growing, to keep us interested. Imagine life without change. It will be static, boring, dull.”
~ Dr. Dennis O’Grady
The last eight months has brought a lot of change to the Alliance.
As the world emerges from the pandemic, our organization has transformed – new faces and new programs. We are at an inflection point as an organization, and we are very excited to share our new direction with you.
As of April 1, I took over the reins as President of the Alliance when Michele Renee stepped back for personal reasons. Serving under Michele was an honor, I benefited from her leadership. If you don’t know me, I have been a board member for a couple of years now. I am the owner of a massage school, with campuses in Washington State and New Mexico.
This change led to a shift in board members and a new Executive Committee. Kim Alexander serves as the Vice President, MK Brennan as the Treasurer and Sandy Mason as the Secretary. I am excited to serve with this dynamic team.
Saying goodbye to some of our long serving team was tough – several were with the Alliance for many years. But, as the quote above says, change is necessary in life. And for the Alliance, we see this inflection point as an opportunity to grow.
Though we lost historical context to HOW the Alliance did things in the past, we’ve gained new ways of doing business. New board members bring new blood with lots of good ideas.
2020 saw the Alliance incorporate technology in new and innovative ways as the pandemic caused many education programs to go remote. We led the way with our webinar series for educators as they learned how to teach online.
2021 saw us creating our first virtual educational conference in the midst of worldwide uncertainty with COVID19. Leaders in massage education taught us more about adapting in this new world – this massage therapy on the threshold world.
2022 is our big pivot year. We’ve learned to adapt. Our virtual conference this year will carry the baton from last year and teach us more about the evolving world of massage therapy education. The baton will then be passed on to next year when we plan to meet in person again!
We are building off the success of our webinar series with new topics, new speakers and fresh ideas. This year will see the development of our Teacher Training program and the Certified Massage & Bodywork Educator (CMBE) initiative.
Through these changes, we ask that you be patient with us as we update information on our website.
Not a dull moment here at the Alliance.
And it’s a good thing.
If you’d like to join our journey and be a part of the evolving changes, click here. We are looking for new ideas to help us as we continue to grow. With you on our side, our community thrives– and the massage education industry is better for it.
Shari Aldrich, LMT
AFMTE President