New School in Georgia

There's a new massage school in Georgia, the Georgia Massage School in Suwanee. It has been founded by longtim Atlanta School of Massage teachers Laurie Craig and Rick Garbowski. From their website, it is unclear what the focus of the school will be, just that it will be a 500 hour school. Best wishes for a successful startup. Their webite is www.georgiamassageschool.com. If you know them, let them know you support them.

History and Timeline of Massage Therapy Legislation

On Thursday, March 31, 2005, the Georgia Massage Therapy Practice Act (SB 110) passed the House of Representatives. On May 10, 2005, Governor Perdue signed it into law at 5:00 p.m. This act professionalized massage therapy by setting minimum standards, a minimum of 500 hours of core education from a state approved school and have passed the National Certification Examination for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCETMB) or a similar certifying examination that is approved by the Licensing Board. A generous grandfathering provision expired on July 1, 2007. Jane Johnson (Marietta), then Chapter President Robb Doyle (Atlanta).

Members of the AMTA-Georgia Chapter were very active in getting this bill passed, as well as representatives from the Federation of Therapeutic Massage, Bodywork and Somatic Practice Organizations. Opponents of state regulation also influenced the bill.

But that was not the beginning. I remember sitting in a committee in the State Capitol Building after graduation and while I was teaching at the Atlanta School of Massage. Our student recruiter gave an excellent presentation, and the man sitting next to me commented that the Atlanta School of Massage supported this legislation because they were the only school in the state. I commented to him, a member or lobbyist for the medical board, that there was another school starting up, and soon there would be a second school.

There might have been efforts before that. The reprint below from the Illinois Chapter of the AAMM indicates that massage legislation was of interest to Georgians in the 1960's, although I do not know of any record that a bill was ever introduced.

Building an Oral History
By contributing to this blog, we can build an oral history of massage legislation in Georgia. Were you or someone you know involved? What was your or their involvement? Do you know the number or title of any of the bills that were previously introduced?

Policy on Gift Certificates

As the Christmas season has ended and clients have are redeeming those wonderful gifts of massage, perhaps this is a good time to review our policy on gift certificates. I recently participated in such a discussion, and it became clear that there are many variables that massage therapists need to clarify for themselves and their practice.

These are a few of the decisions we need to make in writing our policy on gift certificates:

1. Are expiration dates legal where you work?
2. Should you have an expiration date, and if so, for how long?
3. What happens after the expiration date? Do you still honor it, or does something change?
4. Do you honor the recipient when they want to switch services or request a refund?
5. Who 'owns' the gift? If you need to alter or refund services, should it be to the giver or to the recipient?
6. Does it risk hurting the relationship between the giver and recipient if the giver is informed that the service was not redeemed? What is your responsibility in this?
7. Do you have different policies for purchased gift certificates and donated gift certificates -- cash value, expiration dates, missed appointments, etc.?
8. What is the best balance for you and your practice between customer service and honoring your boundaries?
   

What is your policy on gift certificates?