{"id":2831,"date":"2020-10-01T09:00:15","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T23:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.amt.org.au\/?p=2831"},"modified":"2020-10-01T10:01:49","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T00:01:49","slug":"what-to-know-before-you-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.amt.org.au\/index.php\/2020\/10\/01\/what-to-know-before-you-call\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Know Before You Call"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019m popping into AMT Head Office today to find out what everyone is up to and to learn a little bit more about the questions we members are asking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I volunteered to pick up coffees for my visit. Of course, this is not an ordinary visit to Ultimo (the inner Sydney suburb where the AMT office is located). We’ve gone virtual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have all been working at home now for 6 months and I think it\u2019s safe to say we are all feeling rather exhausted,\u201d<\/em> Office Manager and all-round good egg, Katie Snell tells me. \u201cAmidst the height of the pandemic, AMT staff and Board members were working well beyond what was required to make sure the organisation kept running and to get members through the other side of this horrible pandemic.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Katie\u2019s on the cappuccino today but admits that she has regularly turned to the energy boosting short black while working from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katie fills me in on who\u2019s who in AMT Head Office:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very exciting to say we now have 7 employees at AMT. I remember when there was only 3 of us, which is great as that means the AMT community is growing. I\u2019m sure most members have encountered all of us at some point in time but just to remind everyone the names of the amazing team at AMT Head Office are Rebecca Barnett, Rema, Belinda (B), Shady (rhymes with daddy), Scott Lloyd-Owen, our newest recruit Declan and of course myself, Katie Snell.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AMT was established in 1966 and is the oldest association in Australia to represent massage therapy in its own right. Originally a NSW based organisation, AMT went national in 2004.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AMT currently has 3425 members, with members from every state and territory of Australia, and 1 member in the USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a lot of members to guide, assist and provide information to. Do you want to know a bit more about what happens at AMT Head Office? I did, so I asked Head Office staff a few questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BLOG: I bet AMT\u2019s phones ring and email alerts ping all the time. This is only members wanting help, right?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

CEO Rebecca Barnett (cappuccino for staff meetings, mainline tea during WFH):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe pretty much had to throw the rule book out the window when COVID hit and things are not completely back to normal yet.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe always dealt with a small volume of calls and emails from non-members but this reached a whopping one-third of our contacts when COVID arrived. Many of these calls were from angry business owners demanding that we tell our members to go back to work. There was also a fairly large element of listening and counselling type support going on for members. Overall, both call volume and call complexity has substantially increased over the past 6 months.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThere was also a fair volume of calls from non-member therapists who were seeking guidance and help in the areas that AMT excels at (for example, the COVID back-to-work risk assessment stuff). It\u2019s surprising how many therapists call AMT because they can\u2019t get through to their own association. It\u2019s quite a tricky balancing act for us to negotiate because our first priority is always our own members and COVID made it challenging for us to filter out the needs of non-AMT members. When people are desperate for information, you really don\u2019t want to turn them away.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn \u201cnormal\u201d times we do receive quite a lot of calls from employers and practice managers demanding information about provider numbers. This is probably the most frustrating type of call because it\u2019s actually not possible for us to give out that information (there are privacy issues) and we don\u2019t have any kind of binding relationship with \u2013 or obligation to \u2013 employers. It\u2019s amazing how quickly some employers forget that provider numbers actually belong to the therapist \u2013 our member \u2013 and not to the practice. Amazing and supremely aggranoying.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BLOG: I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a word.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course it is. It\u2019s a recognised portmanteau.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BLOG: What are members asking for help with?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe majority are about routine stuff such as renewals of insurance and first aid or professional development requirements. And then there\u2019s the change of practice detail requests \u2013 did you know that AMT head office staff have processed 1360 practice address changes so far in 2020?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BLOG: I did not know that. Wow. Why do you think that is?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo me, this is a worrying statistic because it speaks volumes about the lack of stable employment opportunities in the industry. It\u2019s a serious workforce development issue that needs to be addressed. And it really doesn\u2019t help that there are dozens of places across social media where positions can be advertised not only for free but with no screening or oversight. In my view, this leaves therapists extremely vulnerable to exploitation under truly crappy contracts. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHmmm. I may have taken that answer in an unintended direction \u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BLOG: AMT\u2019s website is packed with resources. So we don\u2019t inundate AMT\u2019s staff with phone calls, tell us what parts of the website we should read before we call.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Rebecca:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am personally very invested in the members\/practice resources section of the website. I have lost count of the number of times members have made helpful suggestions for resources that AMT should produce, only for me to gleefully inform them of the exact location said resource can be downloaded from the AMT website.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen members first join AMT, they\u2019re often understandably pretty focused on getting set up with provider numbers. If they put half that amount of focus into tooling around on the AMT website, I feel like they would be richly rewarded in lots of practice-building resources.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rema (macchiato):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is where<\/em> <\/em>the AMT portal can make a big difference. Knowing you can check your membership status 24\/7, make<\/em> <\/em>changes plus renew membership brings a whole new level of control members did not have before.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rema suggested the following AMT resources that may replace any need to call\/email:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Login to your member portal<\/a> to add\/check\/change:<\/p>\n\n\n\n