Terri Brandt and I had a great visit to St. Louis last weekend to attend the AMTA National Board meeting. As usual, we got to see lots of familiar faces and old friends, and made some new friends, too. It was Terri's first National Board meeting and my 7th (I think) but we still came away with some useful information.

The main exercise of this weekend was to collectively help AMTA create a new vision statement for the next 10 years. We did this by holding group discussions with the usual big sheets of paper and markers to make our notes. At the end, we had a vision statement that we felt that everyone could live with and feel good about.

Some specific points in the vision statement included:

• An emphasis on integrating massage into mainstream health care
• A focus on education
• A commitment to a mindset of quality over quantity

These concepts were all important to the chapter leaders present and made up a significant portion of the new vision statement.

Additionally, I had a pleasure of attending the President's gathering and enjoyed networking with other Chapter Presidents. These discussions always help me by giving me new tools and insights that benefit my work in my chapter.

The last day of the event was a National Board meeting in which the Chapter Presidents were able to observe. Some highlights from this board meeting include:

• Approval of the new Vision Statement
• A motion to add the following to bylaws: "Chapter Boards may add responsibilities for their elected Delegates."

If anyone has any questions about this meeting or about the direction of AMTA, please don't hesitate to post a comment below.