Message from the Director - Mary McCluskey - 8/19/08

Here is the link for our new licensing law.  Please take a look at it and get behind it: http://www.amtawi.org/

If you like what you see in the new law and you want to help get it passed in this upcoming year when it gets presented to the legislature we need your help now!  This next few months will be crucial to getting the groundwork laid to pass this bill.  Your legislators need to hear from you.  As a constituent they are keenly aware that you put them into office and keep them there.  They want to represent your interests, but they need to know what you think about issues. If few massage therapists contact their legislators about this issue they will not perceive it as important and they may let it drop.  It is so easy to do!  Log on to:

               www.legis.state.wi.us/waml/

This site lets you easily find out who your legislators are by putting in your home address.  It's a nifty way to have easy access to the men and women representing you in Madison and Washington.  Once you know who they are it is a breeze to jot a quick note to let them know you are in favor of this legislation coming up in January.  In addition, you could offer other help to get to know your representatives such as:

• Offer to do a "lit-drop" in your neighborhood for your candidate.  It involves distributing campaign literature, usually at your convenience and it typically takes less than an hour.
• Invite your representative to a neighborhood block party or other social gathering.
• Offer to display a lawn sign at your home or business. 
• Write a short letter to your local newspaper about the excellent work your representative has done on some issue (check their website for ideas.)

These ideas help you and your representative develop a relationship which helps tremendously when they are trying to decide the merits of new legislation.

By the way, in case you are wondering, the merits of this new legislation as I see it are that, first of all, the public will be better protected.  There are many people in the state doing massage work who are not certified.  Their levels of training and professionalism vary greatly.  The average citizen of the state doesn't know that if a person calls herself a "massage practioner" she may be legally providing a massage without any training whatsoever.  For this the citizen may pay the exact same fee and give the person the exact same confidence that they would a certified therapist.

In addition, full licensure will elevate our profession from a fluffy fringe spa treatment to its rightful place in the continuum of medical care.  We all need to take this new law seriously and help to get it passed in any way we can.  Let me know if you have comments or if you need help with any of the above steps:  info@wsmt.org.

Now for some other things that have been happening with WSMT.  At the end of July we participated in the Washington County Fair.  It was a fun week of providing chair massage for the public in our booth at the new commercial building on the fairgrounds.  The quiet and air conditioning were greatly appreciated and the massage work earned our new scholarship fund $500.  What a great start!

We have also been learning about posture analysis; how to look at how a person stands in gravity and see the distortions which contribute to pain patterns and to find the likely muscles which need massage work in order to begin the corrections.

How does your posture look?  Come in for an analysis as part of your massage session at the school!  Call 262-250-1276 for more information.