Is AMTA Passé?

[massageblog]

Maybe or maybe not. But their method of selecting members and officers for the National Board of Directors sure is.
AMTA’s annual online election process just wrapped up on November 30. According to their official report, the number of members who voted during the month-long window hit an all-time low of 2.53%, or just 1,398 out of 55,276 members. That’s down from a whopping 2.66% participation rate in the 2013 and 2012 elections, and 2.83% in 2011.
These numbers sound pathetic, but how to they stack up in comparison to other organizations? In a 2012 study conducted by Votenet Soutions of election and voting trends in 239 non-profit professional and trade associations, the average voter turnout was 32%. That’s more than ten times the involvement of AMTA members over the past four years.
You might think this is a case of “Who cares about these positions–it’s just a bunch of massage people who like to get free trips to out-of-town hotels where they have meetings and party and get to feel important.†Well, AMTA is the largest non-profit in our field, and their Board of Directors controls an annual budget of more than $14 Million Dollars. That’s a lot of green that can* benefit the profession if it is spent wisely. Or, it can continue to be used (as most of it has gone) to keep sending elected officers and committee chairs to national and state meetings where little gets done.READ MORE…