Letter from APTA’s President

First, I want to thank all of you who are doing such incredible work in your schools and with your clients, for carrying this profession forward with integrity and heart.  We are so grateful to have you be a part of APTA.  This website launching is just the beginning of many exciting changes ahead for our organization, and we thank you for your patience as we have been in transition for the last year.

When I took the position of President, I had two main goals: to help our community heal by reaching out to offer every member a place at the table, with an equal voice; and to inspire a Renaissance for Polarity — a renewal of passion for our work.

I knew it was going to be a challenge to restructure our organization. For some members, it might seem as though nothing has been going on, but behind the scenes the board has been working diligently, asking hard questions, gaining counsel from expert consultants, and laying the ground work to make changes our organization so deserves.

Some key changes occurred in 2016:

• We established a transitional CGC (Certification Governing Council) to continue pursuing the path of accreditation. The APTA board and the CGC have been working together cooperatively.
• The APTA Board has gone through a metamorphosis -We thank Nancy Risley and Mary Jo Ruggieri for their leadership and dedicated service; this year they moved on to other endeavors. Gary Strauss and Heather Principe stepped in to fill their vacancies. We also appointed two new members, Elizabeth Ferrara and Valerie Bowman, to fill vacancies from 2015. We have been actively working on legislative issues, this beautiful new website, updating our standards for practice and improving office functions and technology. We have a well-rounded board that brings a variety of talent to the table.
• GREAT NEWS:  We are excited to announce the reinstatement of our RPP designation. Also, the CGC has made a decision to raise the BCPP training to 800 hours. This will bring new level of credibility and respect to our profession.
• MORE GREAT NEWS: An important correction from our conference call with the schools and members in August: If you are a BCPP, you are not required to document any additional hours. You only need to recertify every other year as you have been (with 15 hours of CEU Credits).  You do not need to document an additional 125 hours; your BCPP status stands.
• Please see the separate post concerning BCPP and RPP changes, for more details.
• We also have reduced membership fees!
• We are in the process of improving our office operations and will be hiring new staff for 2017.

There are many new benefits on the websites and many more will added in the near future. Please stay posted!

We invite you to participate on committees; Marketing, Ethics, Finances, Monthly Newsletter, etc. Go to the Members area on the website and click on “get involved”.

The Renaissance for Polarity is underway! We ask you to share this information with anyone who’s been involved with APTA in the past. We will be doing an international ritual that will include our entire community, ushering in the new and releasing the old. Watch for this announcement soon~

Let’s get the word out!  

Lisa Nemzo, BCPP, RPE, CST, MT
President of the Board of Directors