The resignations of two executive-committee members of the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB) in February, and controversial circumstances surrounding a recent nomination process, has put the massage field’s only certifying body squarely in the spotlight.

In early February board chair Judy Dean and chair-elect Neal Barry abruptly resigned from the NCBTMB. In interviews with MASSAGE Magazine, each point to a divisive environment that convinced them to give up their posts. (Dean also cites health reasons in her decision to leave.)

Others close to the NCBTMB, who requested anonymity, concur that there is division and power struggles on the board that threaten the work before it. At present, 29 of the 34 states and the District of Columbia with state-licensure laws require a passing score on the National Certification Exam for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork. More than 81,000 people hold certification from the organization.

“The board became very divided,” says one source. “Is the NCB[TMB] running well right now? No.”

Directors speak out
Dean, who became chair in 2003, claims that she inherited challenges compounded by an acrimonious board environment. “The board was split; of a nine-member board five [members] were in one camp, four in another. My hands were tied in many situations,” she said.

During Dean’s tenure as chair, the board was working under strained conditions. Christine Niero, who had served as executive director to the board for seven years, resigned in April 2004. Her successor, Mark Green, wasn’t appointed until July and quit six months later. Susan Nicholais is now serving as interim executive director until the board hires its own.

In addition, the board was faced with deciding the future of its leadership-development committee, which had dissolved after most of its members left to pursue other obligations. The committee is responsible for nominating candidates to run for election to the NCBTMB. A new leadership-development concept was being developed after questions had been raised about the criteria used for candidate nominations, Dean said. In the meantime, she was directed to appoint a chairperson to form a temporary five-person nominating committee that would work independently of the board to make recommendations for a slate of candidates to run in the 2005 election.

According to Dean, the nominating committee was instructed to follow protocol used by past leadership-development committees: After the entire committee reviewed applications two members would conduct separate phone interviews with potential candidates and bring their findings back to the committee for discussion. If chosen, a candidate’s name would be placed on the nomination slate given to the board of directors.

Also facing the board was the issue of a standing grievance against the immediate past chair, Garnet Adair, issued by a former director. With Dean’s resignation, Adair was elected by the board to fill the chair position until May. 

There is question over what happened with the grievance. Adair said that she received notification from her lawyer on Feb. 3 that the grievance was dropped, although the board has not been officially notified of this. However, Dean and Barry contend that as executive-committee members they did not dismiss the issue before their respective resignations.

MASSAGE Magazine was told by a spokesperson for AMG (Association Management Group), the board’s management company, that because of confidentiality issues it could not verify who made the decision to dismiss the grievance.

Nomination conflict?
Tensions increased on the board when, in January, then-sitting director Elizabeth McIntyre sent a letter to colleagues protesting her denial for nomination for the 2005 candidate slate. The letter, which questioned the nomination process and inferred possible board “fixing,” was widely distributed through the massage community.

In December McIntyre was notified that her application had been denied because she did “not meet the current criteria for consideration.”

McIntyre told MASSAGE Magazine after appealing to the board and being told by Dean that it could not get involved, she wrote to the chair of the nominating committee, Linde Wolfgram, and approached the supervisor of elections. McIntyre says she did not receive further response to her inquiry of what criteria she did not meet.

In the letter, McIntyre questioned the relationship between Dean and Wolfgram, who were former colleagues at the University of Wisconsin. “The BOD Chair shared that [Wolfgram] was a friend and former colleague and that she [the chair] was selected for the ballot,” the letter states. “This situation represents a major conflict of interest.

The letter continues, “The Nominating Committee’s decision not to place an incumbent Director on the ballot is unprecedented and highly suspicious of BOD fixing.”

McIntyre says that she sent the letter in the hope that “the [nomination] process would be stopped and [her concerns] would be addressed.”

According to Dean, she and Wolfgram were friendly years ago when they worked together but she was not involved in decisions by the nominating committee. “That would be unethical,” she said.

Wolfgram, in an e-mail to MASSAGE Magazine, defends the actions of the committee.

“The Nominating Committee took its job very seriously and strictly followed the guidelines we were given for the nominating process,” she writes. “There were no improper actions on the Committee's part as each member acted professionally, ethically and seriously.

“There was absolutely no interference on Judy Dean's part with any contact with the committee or myself. I know Judy to be a person of integrity, intelligence and a strong understanding of boundaries, ethics and permitting an unimpeded process.”

A member of the nominating committee who requested anonymity explained to MASSAGE Magazine that the committee knew that rejecting a sitting director would be controversial. However, the source said, the committee took into account two sets of criteria: one that determines the basic qualifications needed to run for election to the board, and one that binds sitting NCBTMB directors to a code of conduct. Failure to meet either of these criteria could be considered as grounds for denial of an application.

NCBTMB voluntary code of conduct, according to Dean and Adair, includes items such as not divulging board business without authority to do so; not breaching confidentiality; and avoiding conflict of interest.

McIntyre’s letter resulted in numerous inquiries to the board from massage therapists questioning why McIntyre’s application had been rejected. In January the board voted to reject the recommendations of the nominating committee and start the process over.

Neal Barry says he disagreed with this decision. Although he believed the criteria for choosing a public board member was “loosey-goosey,” he said the process for choosing a professional member to the board was the same that had been used for years without issue.

He says that he urged the board to hear the reasons why the committee made its decision before rejecting it. “I said, ‘Let’s investigate this,’ and was shot right down,” he said. “[Other board members said] ‘there’s no clear clarification established for giving direction to the nominating committee; let’s just scrap the entire committee and start again.’”

Barry says that this decision was one of the questionable things that led him to leave the board. “I resigned because I could not work with a group that was unethical and violating bylaws,” he says.

He claims that McIntyre’s public letter was a form of campaigning, something forbidden by board bylaws. Adair disagrees.

Campaigning “is defined as a series of organized planned actions designed to achieve the particular outcome of being elected,” according to NCBTMB policy and procedure guidelines. Because McIntyre was not on the ballot, her actions do not constitute campaigning, she says.

“[McIntyre] wanted the process to be done the way it’s supposed to be done,” says Adair. “Get the nomination committee to bring forth a slate based on the [skills] needed by the directors.”

With Barry’s departure, McIntyre was voted unanimously into the chair-elect position by the seven remaining board members (board members can vote for themselves). She will begin serving the one-year term as chair of the board in May. Former NCBTMB Chair Whitney Lowe and co-founder Barry Green were brought in to fill the remaining terms of the director positions vacated by Adair and McIntyre.

At press time in mid-March, a new nominating committee had not been chosen.

Concerns about the board
The recent developments on the board have troubled the massage-therapy community.

Lowe says he agreed to fill the vacant board position because of his concerns for the board. He says that because national certification is no longer the voluntary credential it once was, the board has a greater responsibility than ever to act in a professional, responsible manner. “It’s not enough to say, ‘trust the board of directors. We are acting on everybody’s behalf.’

“I think it comes back to leadership,” he continues. “Even if you have divergent interests on your team [a leader] gets input, there is discussion, and you agree to disagree,” he says. “What is key is can we see some quality leadership to turn this thing around?”