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August 2003

Entire August 2003 newsletter in Adobe Acrobat
- New Board Members Sworn in at August Board Meeting
- AU REVOIR ILLINOIS, BONJOUR PENNSYLVANIA!

New Board Members Sworn in at August Board Meeting
Patricia J. Benjamin, Ph.D., will be the new 1st Vice President (and soon Chapter President), and Angela Palmier will be the new 3rd Vice President. Pierre DeBar was appointed by the Board in April to complete the remainder of the term for 2nd Vice President, filling the vacancy left after the resignation of Allison Ishman last January. Sue Gibson continues as Immediate Past President and Jerry Blackburn continues as Member-at-Large.

Patricia Benjamin is known to many as the author of a continuing column in the Massage Therapy Journal on the history of massage called “Looking Back.” She graduated from the Chicago School of Massage Therapy in 1984, and has subsequently gained experience as a massage therapist, massage school administrator, author, lecturer, and AMTA volunteer at the state and national levels.

Pat served as an AMTA-IL Chapter Board member and member of the first House of Delegates in the late 1980’s, and was National AMTA Education Director in the early 1990’s. Pat is looking forward to leading the Chapter when she succeeds Dr. Leena Guptha, who will step down as chapter President later this summer. Pat is excited that the Chapter Board will be able to focus more on long-term strategies for improving member education and communication, chapter governance and government relations now that Chapter administration is more stable.

Angie Palmier is co-owner and assistant director of the Midwest Institute of Massage Therapy in Belleville. She has been an Illinois Chapter Delegate and a member (and now chairman) of the national AMTA Nominations & Awards Committee. Her school is one of two providers of classes for the Southwestern Illinois College Massage Therapy Program. She is particularly interested in fostering greater coordination between the Illinois Chapter and massage schools and training programs in Illinois. She also wants to help the Chapter broaden its continuing education offerings and involve more members in the planning of these.

Pierre DeBar is the Director of Continuing Education and is on the faculty at the Chicago School of Massage Therapy. Pierre graduated from CSMT in 2001 and was credentialed in hypnotherapy in 2002. He has been active in his own practice working with athletes, using both massage and hypnotherapy. He is looking forward to putting his energy towards recruiting new members, enhancing member education, and speaking to the public on the benefits of massage.
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AU REVOIR ILLINOIS, BONJOUR PENNSYLVANIA!

AU REVOIR ILLINOIS, BONJOUR PENNSYLVANIA!
by Leena Guptha, D.O., Ph. D., AMTA-IL President

The last year for the chapter has been one filled with change, evolution, integration and advancement.

Whilst moving at lightening speed to revolutionize chapter operations and board procedure, we have still maintained the core priorities to: secure our licensure, to acquire grant monies for 2003/2004 for legislation, to offer a range of continuing education from Neuromuscular to Feng Shui, to steam-line our financial operations, to seek out and attract a diverse group of volunteers to serve the membership, to advance our daily management through Solutions for Associations, to be far more visible at AMTA HQ Evanston, to have an impact at the National level and ultimately offer better services to you – our members. This is just the beginning of a path that can enable the chapter to rise to great heights with new blood, new vision, new energy.

I am sad to leave the chapter at this exciting time, with the chapter poised to be a greater success than ever before and a flagship to all other chapters but at the same time my heart sings with joy to know that I leave behind a legacy for life in the wonderful State of Illinois. Whilst leaders are born with a natural instinct for vision, mission and core purpose, none of these can be actualized without the full backing of the organization to be willing to work as a team, to capitalize on strengths, to recognize the strength of diversity and to move forward as one. This is exactly what your chapter board has done over the last year. I am proud of the willingness of the Chapter Board to travel a journey of growth, awareness and knowledge, to put the organization ahead of themselves, to recognize the needs of members and to respond accordingly and ultimately to learn how to serve you more.

In order to reach this pinnacle, I owe a great debt of thanks to the Chapter Board, who welcomed me with open arms, to the Chapter Board who continually supported me as I brought forward on a monthly basis new policy, new procedure, new priorities and to the Chapter Board who kept me motivated as the role of president at times appeared as a full time job, and my practice seemed like volunteerism, I continued to hypnotize myself that it was all for the greater good. I would like to personally thank Sue Gibson for bringing me up to speed with chapter functions and needs, Roxanne Connolly for her ability to adapt to this ever changing environment, Pierre De Bar for his constant support and energy, Jane Neumann for all her hard work and dedication, Jerry Blackburn for keeping everything in perspective and Cindy Semet for her contributions to chapter education. Thank you all for making it possible to bring dreams into reality.

Now as we look to the future, I am very proud to be able to hand over the reins to Pat Benjamin who was recently sworn in as 1st Vice President at our August meeting. In view of my move to Pennsylvania and resignation as president, in accordance with our by-laws, she becomes your new President to serve out the remainder of my term. Pat Benjamin has kept abreast throughout my tenure as to the new innovations and projects that have been ongoing within the chapter. It has been a joy to have her attend chapter board meetings and I trust that the Chapter Board, the delegates and the membership will offer to her the support and devotion that I received. It is a great honor for the chapter to be now led by Pat Benjamin. I wish her every success and know that she will do an outstanding job.

As for my plans, I intend to pursue my interests in health policy and my passion for advancing training education and research in Medical Massage in Pennsylvania as well as return back to Chicago once a month to continue teaching hypnotherapyand massage therapy at the National University for health sciences and at my former Chicago office. Finally, as I draw to a close I want to highlight that a chapter can only be as good as the volunteers that drive it—so please consider contributing to the advancement of your profession by contributing to your state chapter.

Bring your dreams to reality and Thank you Illinois for the joy, the happiness and the memories.

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