Important Links:  Issue, Survey Results, Action Response

Please click here for Board Calendar Website  meeting time updates and locations.

Latest Updates

Next meeting is scheduled for 9/18/09. It is highly recommended that you attend and watch this board closely. It is inconsistent and continues to reflect an agenda that is in the interest of the board members and not the massage profession. 

12/18/09 - Cancelled

12/04/09 - Last meeting scheduled for 2009.

11/20/09 - Cancelled

10/16/09 - Cancelled

9/18/09 - Board is increasingly concerned with establishments not being licensed and has recommend fines. All establishments must get licensed. Also trying to deal with issue of license renewals, responsibility for reporting if the establishment does not have a license and retaliation by employers in these situations. No resolution.

8/21/09 - Board does a curriculum review for Spa Tech for meeting standards for May 2010 standard for individual licensure. The 650 Hour Therapeutic Massage Career Program was approved. The Holistic program was sent back for more information. The Board is trying to ensure that there is no bodywork in the programs. One Board member tried to table the approval stating that Spa Tech should wait until the school approval process is in place.  The precident for approving programs was already set on 7/17/09 so the Board had to move forward. 

8/7/09 - Board introduced new member. Still has not approved minutes from prior meetings since March. Started to address reciprocity issues. Since MA is the only state that does not recognize Bodywork, reciprocity will be an issue. 

7/17/09 - Bourne Technical Institute a.k.a. Southeastern Technical Institute, program approved as meeting the standards for indiviciual licensure for May 2010 standard. This opens the door for other schools to submit programs for approval by the board. School regulations table. The Board had rallied schools that currently offer programs in excess of 650 hours to come and speak in support of the changes. All who spoke raised the issue of not recognizing Bodywork as a problem. The Board continues to stone wall on the issue of recognizing bodywork. The issue was presented by Spa Tech that given the position of the board it means that all licensed practitioners in the state who do Bodywork are practicing outside of the scope of their license. This creates the serious issue that the practitioner's insurance might be invalidated if a claim was made for an injury during bodywork. The Board seems unwilling to listen to the public comment.

7/10/09 - Board Reports and approvals. No additional school regulations due to issues being raised about the boards authority.

6/19/09 - The meeting has once again been cancelled. The next meeting is scheduled for July 10th.

5/29/2009 - Meeting has been cancelled. Next meeting is scheduled for 6/19/2009 but in the past the board has posted additional meeting times without prior notice.  Please click here for Board Calendar Website  meeting time updates and locations.

5//15/2009 - Meeting cancelled.

5/8/2009 - New meeting added in Springfield. The only Board members were Bernadette and Tak. The meeting turned out to be only focused on School Regulations, in particular requirements for administrative staff and teachers. The participants from several schools were told in the beginning that no comments would be allowed until the board had completed their discussions. The public comment was limited to a short time at the end.

The board is seeking to create new licenses for massage therapy teachers as well as Directors of Education (neither of which were ever intended in the original law). These fees would be on top of the massage license fee. This means that a director of education for massage would have around $450 of license fees annually. A part-time teacher of massage would have over $500 of fees and insurance annually. This is crazy.

The board is looking at regulating the teachers and administration of the school with punishment for a wide range of responsibilities, including student conduct. The over regulation of schools will increase the cost of providing education, a concept that is not understood by the board or the lawyers for the department. Mary Jayne Fay from the MA DOE was asked to attend but the board and lawyers ignored her and did not seek her input.

After over 2 hours of listening to the board deliberate, public comment was allowed. The public comment was consistently opposed to the licensing of teachers and administrators, opposed to the level of regulation being proposed and opposed to the elimination of bodywork from curriculums. The general consensus was that the board is continuing to ignore public comment in the process. More public participation is needed to influence the board.

4/24/2009 - All board members were present and representatives from over 6 schools. The board started to work on school regulations as well as attempted to get approval of a program that is run by one of the board members. Mary Jayne Fay as well as the lawyers clearly stated that the board could not approve a program without taking responsibility for approving all programs. The board pushed for an exception for the board member's program but were unable to get signoff by the lawyers. 

The meeting was very contentious with the Chair attacking members of the public who were opposed to the change in regulations to 650 hours and the exclusion of bodywork and then would not allow the members of the public to respond. The Chair also misrepresented that there was no opposition to the change in standards to 650 hours and the elimination of bodywork from the requirements. The lawyers did not agree with these statements but the Chair glossed it over. Representatives from multiple schools opposed the elimination of bodywork from the new regulations but the board appears to have made up their mind and are defending their position instead of listening to the public. 

The most important statement of the meeting was when the Chair stated "The Board can change their mind" regarding another issue that was being discussed. 

There was also discussion of accepting the MBLEX exam as well as or instead of the NCETMB. However, the MBLEX only has a Massage and Bodywork exam and the NCETMB has both. The discussion was table while getting additional information on security issues.

4/17/2009 - Cancelled

3/20/2009 -  Preliminary discussions about regulating schools. Looking at North Carolina Regulations. Board decides that they will not regulate personal development massage classes of less than 24 hours but will have jurisdiction over programs offered at colleges and within other schools models. 

Final item in minutes about Board recognizing a request from the Bourne Technical Institute. Don Cordoza recused himself since he is affiliated with school. Board voted to approve contingent upon listing the category of required hours? Not clear what this was about but it appears to be related to the issue that came up again on 4/24/2009 meeting seeking approval of a similar program that Cordoza is affiliated with.