The
Oregon Massage Technicians Association was formed in early
1985 when the Oregon Legislature was preparing a Sunset Review
of the Oregon Board of Massage Technicians (OBMT).
A
group of LMTs formed a professional corporation and communicated
with massage technicians throughout the State of Oregon. On
March 14, 1985, Susan Kerr Shawn, Doug Montgomery, Jo White
and Ray Siderius signed the Articles of Incorporation, and
the Oregon Massage Technicians Association was born. This
early effort helped retain the Massage Board and our licensing
process, as well as raising our professional standards.
Since
that early effort, we have grown into a well-defined, articulate
professional organization.
A
variety of member services have been developed, including:
Touchstone (our professional journal), a membership directory
and this website.
We
have sponsored several major information and educational conferences
and a number of professional workshops.
A
less tangible but no less important outcome of our organization
is stimulating and supporting our visionary process. Questions
are raised about the future of massage, our place in the workforce,
our professional standards and our ideals. Through discussion,
controversy and action, a greater recognition of our interdependence
as a community is born.
The
OBMT changed our licensing title from Technicians to Therapists,
son on April 6, 2001, we changed our name to the Oregon Massage
Therapists Association.
Website
History
In early 1997, the Executive Committee authorized Matthew
Starrett-Bigg, a Portland massage therapist, to create a website
for OMTA. The site went live on May 14, 1997. The original
URL was http://www.altmedweb.com/~mattlmt/omta. Whew.
In
1999, Larry Park, our Membership Director, offered to create
a website for OMTA. Larry secured the name, www.omta.net,
and created a good stand-alone website, with basic info, a
list of members & their businesses.
In
2002, Robert Bike took over, and the position of Webmaster
was created on the Associate Executive Committee. Robert added
all of OMTA's public documents, the library, and multiple
ways to find LMTs in our Massage Finder.
