Thinking About the Future

I have been thinking about lots of futures this week - my own, that of my clients, my students, my interns, my professional organization, my profession. I'm not exactly sure why this has come up this week, but it has so I am going with it.

The personal future questions are coming up because I accomplished something on my "evolve" 2020 list. I spoke to a financial planner about retirement. Whoo-hoo to me for doing something so "middle-aged" and forward thinking!! I'm pretty clueless when it comes to saving for retirement other than just putting some money away every month in a retirement account. My sister, though, wants to retire in seven years and is pressuring me to go with her. I'm not sure if I will be able to do so, so that's what is spurring this particular task on.

So, I talked to this woman for a bit on Monday afternoon - after a difficult Monday - and we made plans to meet in person during my spring break. 

Oh! Another future thing. I have a colonoscopy on the Monday of break. Fun!! At this point right now, I don't have a ride to or from the hospital, my house is a total mess, and I am exhausted. 

I need a bunch of courage to ask for help, and it is coming, but I had a bit of a breakdown as I took my aching body home from work yesterday. I cried all the way home. This was because of many different factors, but the fact is that I had an anxious moment yesterday and my body needed to cry. 

My thoughts about the future currently include lots of thoughts about what is happening in the bigger world and in the small world of music therapy. I am concerned about what is happening with our association of music therapists. I feel that there are people out there who are unclear about what a professional association is able to do for its members. I think people are wanting things from our association that are not possible due to its business designation and format, and I think that there is lots of misconception about what a professional association can and should do for its members. There are some things that just cannot be led through the association, and we have to remove the therapist inclinations that are part of all of us and put on our business shields. We, as a community, have to realize that the association cannot offer situations that put us at risk. I think this is one of our collective stumbling blocks. We go with our therapist sides before our "not-for-profit organization" sides when we think about what we want for our profession. We don't really remember that there are things that need to happen differently when we are in "not-for-profit" mode than when we are in therapy mode.

I am afraid that those who are determined to make our association delve into specific issues are not as aware of the rules and regulations that are present for organizations. This was avidly demonstrated during the controversy surrounding last year's kerfluffle about closed sessions at conference. The committee reviewing proposals obviously didn't know about the regulations, the Board didn't seem to know this, and when it was revealed that these sessions would place our association into danger, folks became very angry. I agree that it absolutely sucked that these presentations/meetings were canceled after going through the acceptance process, but there comes a time when you have to acknowledge that there are rules that govern every single thing that our association does for and with us. We cannot break the rules for anyone, even when we want to in our therapy hearts.

I think - and please know that this is only my opinion and is not influenced by anything other than my own brain and my current state of rumination - that we are headed for a schism in our organization. One of the things that happens, especially when I start to see patterns in different situations, is that I can see many outcomes. I see several different pathways for us right now. I see the association having to close because of lack of membership. I see the association going through significant changes because of member input and hard work. I see the association continuing in the path that it has taken up to now and losing members until all that are left are the internship directors who are required to be members in order to volunteer their time and energy to future students. I see the attitude of "us VERSUS them" becoming prevalent in all interactions between the people we elect to run our association and the rest of us.

My hope is that "we" music therapists can find a way to balance the social issues with the need to run a not-for-profit business within the legal parameters established by the country that we live in. I hope that music therapists will be able to find some patience as we are all trying to figure out what path we are going to take into our future. Nothing ever changes quickly, especially when we are a bunch of therapists who want to offer everyone a chance to weigh in and discuss the opportunities that are available to us all. In this process, however, there has to be a time when our elected representatives have to be trusted with the decisions for what will be the best thing for our organization to continue to be present in this country. 

We then, as individuals, need to decide if we can live with those requirements and either work within the parameters that are present or leave the association.

Here's what I want our leadership to do.

• I want a statement from AMTA sent to all members - NOT distributed via social media - that outlines the parameters of what a professional organization is allowed to do and what it is not allowed to do.
• I want those who want our association to do things differently to clearly define what they want. I want there to be a method of discussion and debate about what these things would mean if they were absorbed as part of our association and what the ramifications of changing from a professional association to a socially-minded organization would be for all members.
• I want there to be legal experts involved in both of these discussions - we need someone who knows about the legal implications of whatever path we take. I would like these experts to be talking to all of us about what the pathways are, within the legal parameters, and what may happen if we choose any of the particular pathways.
• I want my elected representatives to the Board of Directors to make communication with membership a HUGE priority - again, not only relying on social media to release important information to the membership.
• I want all voices represented not just the loudest voices. 
• I want my association to focus on my professional role. I want my fellow therapists to advocate for social issues outside of the association. If we try to become both things, I feel that we will not survive as a profession or as an association.

I don't think I'll post this one on social media. If you are here reading this post, I would be interested in what you have to say about my opinions as expressed here. I won't publish any comments unless you give me express permission to do so in your comment.

What do you think? Do you think that our association is doing well? Do you think we have changes in our future? Do you have a vision for what needs to be done? If you were one of the decision makers, what would you be doing right now? 

I'm going to take my achy body to a shower and then to work.