{"id":597,"date":"2012-04-18T13:08:20","date_gmt":"2012-04-18T20:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ramblemuse.com\/rmtp\/?p=597"},"modified":"2012-04-20T17:12:13","modified_gmt":"2012-04-21T00:12:13","slug":"slamdunk-how-a-good-idea-for-outreach-was-soured-by-yellow-journalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ramblemuse.com\/rmtp\/2012\/04\/18\/slamdunk-how-a-good-idea-for-outreach-was-soured-by-yellow-journalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Slamdunk: How a Good Idea for Outreach was Soured by Yellow Journalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nMuch of the impetus for the collapse of the top newsroom managers was credited to the Internet on which many of the Times<\/em> employees posted the complaints that had been ignored. Staff members who used the open architecture of the new medium to become “the outside voice” provided a check on internal behavior. Along with others, they realized that the Web had assumed an important role in opening new channels through which values and standards could be questioned and judged by a large communikty that depends upon the integrity of the press. In the end journalism is an act of character. … <\/p>\n

As Chicago newscaster Carol Marin told the Committee of the Concerned Journalists at its first forum, “I think a journalist is someone who believes in something that they would be willing to quit over.”<\/p>\n

—Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel: 2007. The Elements of Journalism<\/a>. pp. 229-232.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

First, a disclosure, I am a massage educator, a retired physicist, a freelance science writer, and a current member of the board of directors of the California Massage Therapy Council<\/a> (CAMTC). I was also, until I resigned it last night, a columnist for Massage Today<\/em> (since January 2001). The opinions expressed here are solely my own. Period. Second, a definition, I use the term yellow journalism<\/em> in the sense of writing not designed to promote oversight and scrutiny but to stir up fear and outrage against a situation that, in my belief, is largely delusional. In the end, readers can judge for themselves.<\/p>\n

This piece is about clarity and responding to the spread of misinformation. It is not about whether I agreed or disagreed with a particular board vote. For example, here’s a situation in which I voted in the minority yet did what I could to clear up confusion and misinterpretation<\/a>. It is also in response to an article in Massage Today<\/em> by Kathryn Feather, Updated: CA Massage Board Votes to Send “Roving Ambassadors” to San Diego Convention<\/a>, and to an editorial by Donald Petersen called The CAMTC Money Grab<\/a>. <\/p>\n

As a bit of background, CAMTC is a nonprofit certifying board created under California state law (SB731; Oropeza, 2007-2008 session). That enabling law, with some more recent clean-up adjustments, is in Business & Professions code Sec 4600 and following<\/a>. CAMTC, while a creature of the state, is not a state agency. It does not license (a function reserved for agencies of the state). It does not ‘state certify”. What CAMTC does do is provide a state-wide system of education and background checks as part of two-tiers of certification that exempt certified massage professionals from local licensing laws. Certification, at least at the state level is voluntary.<\/strong> A local agency, city or county, may also have their own local licensing (for those not certified by CAMTC) or may require CAMTC certification to practice.<\/p>\n

So, time to move onward to the core of controversy. In, I believe, early March, I was asked by CAMTC CEO Ahmos Netanel whether I would be willing to volunteer my time to do outreach for CAMTC at the upcoming American Massage Conference<\/a> in San Diego. Prior to that moment, I had no plans to attend the AMC yet I agreed that this sounded like a positive thing to do. Let me explain why.<\/p>\n

CAMTC started accepting applications in Fall 2009, expecting several thousand by the end of the year. They received about 12,000, totally swamping the administrative agency and resulting in long delays. On top of that deluge, the state agency overseeing private post-secondary and vocational schools (BPPVE) had been sunsetted (i.e. killed) in July 2007. While a new agency (BPPE<\/a>) came into being in 2009 along with CAMTC, neither its capabilities nor focus (use of loan funds) were up to verifying the massage education provided by massage schools. Thus CAMTC had to develop its own procedures for verifying that schools provided the massage training claimed on transcripts. More delay for some as several thousand applications went on hold while this was done for schools deemed uncertain.<\/p>\n

In 2010, the California Police Chiefs Association (CPCA) sponsored AB-1822, initially designed to dismantle CAMTC’s state-level regulation. I created a video of one of the hearings<\/a> on that bill; a lot of misinformation was put forth. Note that the California League of Cities and the California Association of Counties have always had the ability to appoint representatives to the CAMTC board. I’ll note at this point that, in shepherding CAMTC’s survival to this point, Ahmos Netanel, the CEO for CAMTC, has had a far more challenging and demanding set of duties than the normal regulatory board executive director would encounter. That CAMTC is still functional is, at least in good part, a tribute to his effectiveness. His position as CEO is also an interim, at-will, appointment; essentially that of a pilot to get CAMTC past the snags and sandbars and into open water.<\/p>\n

This history is one of the reasons I believe that outreach to the community CAMTC regulates is important. Given a novel structure of regulation and a rough start-up, seeming accessible and not remote is important. CAMTC, by the way, does have to observe the requirements of the Bagley-Keene open meeting act<\/a>. I was queried by Kathryn Feather of Massage Today<\/em> if I planned to attend AMC and if I would request reimbursement for expenses. Part of my reply was quoted in her recent article<\/a>, but I’ll include my entire response here.<\/p>\n

\nI’m attending the AMC conference at the request of Ahmos Netanel and to network on behalf of CAMTC, not to take or give workshops there. I will be requesting reimbursement for my expenses. My time I’m donating even though it means canceling an online class I normally teach on Thursday evenings and missing an online Q&A session I’m normally part of on Sunday evenings. I also found out today that there will be an initial get together of a Science Online Bay Area<\/a> on the 19th, a new follow up to a Science Online conference<\/a> held in January on science communication. My prior commitment to Ahmos stands.<\/p>\n

I would not be attending AMC otherwise. I’m already planning on attending a mathematical biology conference in Knoxville TN in July and a science writers conference in Raleigh NC in October, both on my own “dime”. My dimes only extend so far. I’ve got 16 hours of teaching kinesiology coming up the following weekend (that I need to prep for) and am working on analyzing an initial subset of transcripts from a symposium on massage practice guidelines prior to a Massage Therapy Foundation board meeting in early May. If the CAMTC board vote had gone the other way, I could have used the time freed productively. It was only adding to the things I have stacked to vote yes.<\/p>\n

My yes vote was motivated both by my concurrence with a comment Mark Dixon made during the phone call and by my belief that management by walking about<\/a> (MBWA) is a good idea. Mark’s comment was that this is a major conference and it is happening in CAMTC’s jurisdiction — much like an event happening in a congress-person’s home district. I would not be in favor of it if the meeting were outside of California or exorbitantly priced (the room rate is about the same as that for a typical scientific conference).<\/p>\n

In short, I believe it behooves CAMTC to be seen as accessible and not remote — almost literally “in touch” with those regulated, particularly, given several factors in the start-up of CAMTC: a much greater response than was envisioned for the first 6 months; having to create procedures to handle schools and transcripts that weren’t as claimed, and having to fight back against the California Police Chief’s Associations initial attempt to dismantle CAMTC (that relationship has changed dramatically). Again, in short, it was a rough start and I believe there are still people out there that need a chance to vent and be listened to face-to-face.<\/p>\n

I see a major conference with educators and professionals in CAMTC’s home terrain as an opportunity to correct misconceptions (we are not a licensing board, we are not a state agency, we don’t “state license” or “state certify”) and to take responsibility for and apologize to those who experienced delays in certification or have questions that I can answer or facilitate.<\/p>\n

I have let it be known on Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a> that I will be there and available to do such networking.<\/p>\n

Note that the above are my personal beliefs and motivations, not board policy.<\/p>\n

That’s about it.<\/p>\n

…Keith\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There never was, in the board approval of reimbursement on 10 April an intent that any board members other than the seven specifically asked by CEO Netanel would attend. If the motion was unspecific, it was a failure of using too much common sense. Nor could, as had been suggested by Massage Today<\/em>, the entire board have shown up without violating the Bagley-Keene law. Same with the idea that reimbursement would fall along the same lines used for meetings, the board assumed common sense would prevail.<\/p>\n

Now, let’s do the numbers. Back in 2008 I looked at How much does a California Regulatory Board cost per Licensee?<\/a> My fit to the least expensive boards was $900,000 per year plus about $55 per licensee per year. For CAMTC, now with about 30,000 certificants, that would be about $30+$55=$85 per year per certificant or $170 for a two-year renewal. What CAMTC actually charges is $150. That’s $20 saved per certificant per renewal or a total savings to the profession of about $600,000 per renewal cycle.<\/p>\n

The AMC hotel at $125 compares with the Medbiquitous conference<\/a> in Baltimore at $189, Society for Mathematical Biology<\/a> at $112 in Knoxville, Society for Industrial and Applied Math in Anaheim<\/a> at $149, and another SIAM conference in Philadelphia<\/a> at $179. These are all negotiated conference rates, and AMC comes out on the cheaper side.<\/p>\n

How about the number of board members for which reimbursement was expected (after travel, via normal forms)? AMC expects about 2100 attendees. If seven board members were to network with all of these, dividing them between us, we would each network with 300 in 3 days. Let’s say we networked or conversed with half, for 10 minutes each. That’s 25 hours of networking, explaining, facilitating for each board member over three days. By the way, CAMTC board members are never reimbursed for their time, only for expenses. When I fly down to a board meeting in L.A., it’s generally up at 3:30am and back home at about 8:30pm.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, despite still considering this outreach to be a good idea, Ahmos and I concurred that this has become more trouble than it’s worth. I canceled my flights. For the record, if I really had wanted CAMTC to send me on a trip for personal benefit, it would not have been to AMC (which is not to knock AMC). I’m interested in research and having funding for the Third International Fascia Research Conference<\/a> in Vancouver would have been nice. I didn’t ask. I do hear that the organizers did an wonderful job.<\/p>\n

You’ll have to decide for yourself if this is a “Money Grab”. That’s not my personal take on this nor do I believe it was the intent of any of my fellow board members.<\/p>\n

Addendum 20 April 2012<\/strong> — After having discussed networking for CAMTC at the AMC with Ahmos Netanel earlier in March (phone conversation), I had pulsed him by email about logistics on 31 March. On 2 April, he had requested my estimated travel expenses. What the entire board saw and based their approval of reimbursement on was this table of estimated expenses<\/a>. Amounts apart from travel were filled in by Mr.Netanel. At least in my case, the understanding was that these were the only board members involved relative to the motion to reimburse. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Much of the impetus for the collapse of the top newsroom managers was credited to the Internet on which many of the Times employees posted the complaints that had been ignored. Staff members who used the open architecture of the new medium to become “the outside voice” provided a check on internal behavior. Along with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,109,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journalism","category-massage-therapy","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramblemuse.com\/rmtp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramblemuse.com\/rmtp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramblemuse.com\/rmtp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramblemuse.com\/rmtp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramblemuse.com\/rmtp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramblemuse.com\/rmtp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":622,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramblemuse.com\/rmtp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions\/622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramblemuse.com\/rmtp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramblemuse.com\/rmtp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramblemuse.com\/rmtp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}