State Affairs Report

Howdy Members,

My name is Phranque Wright, and I am your new chair for the State Affairs Committee. As I weave my way through this new duty, I want to keep you informed of what I know. I am working closely with the state presidents through the President’s Council communications to keep open relations between the state associations and the AAAOM.

For the AAAOM to assist the states, and thereby assist you and your profession, we need to hear what your needs are. Remaining a member of your state association and a member of the AAAOM helps keep the profession united in ideas and voices. At the same time, these voices need to be shared for us all to understand and help each other. Getting involved in your state association through volunteering services will help you understand which issues are being tackled in your local level as well as on the national front. Mostly, however it is very important to know who your legislators are and to start forming relationships with them. To find who represents you in your government, go to www.vote-smart.org. Insert your zip code in the left-hand column and the page will show you every person in the government who represents you locally, up to the president.

It is your right and responsibility to know what people represent you and to ask them (or their office staff) where your representatives stand on issues. You can also educate them on what you do, what our profession represents, and inform them on acupuncture laws, acupuncture practices and acupuncturists. Legislators are regular people who come from regular jobs who got into government. They represent you but can only know what that means when they know who you are and what you do. Make appointments to visit their offices or volunteer services to their staff. A face-to-face meeting has stronger influence than 100,000 signatures on a petition. No one is our enemy; there is just a lot of misinformation. The solution to misinformation is education. Who is it that will educate the legislation? If not us, who? If not now, when?

Your state association is also composed of regular people who need to know what your concerns and ideas are before they can act and serve. This is also true of the AAAOM; we need to know your concerns and ideas in order to guide us to serve you better. Start at the state level; let them know your concerns, then your state presidents, when greater assistance is needed, can gain support from the other states and from the AAAOM as a whole. There are a lot of voices and a lot of issues floating around, such that not all can be tackled at once. Nonetheless, many can be tackled if we all start to focus. This newly united association in itself shows that we can all agree to work together. As I weave my way through my duties, the rest of the association is weaving through the unity, and the presidents are weaving through the best way for all of us to maintain communications, as we stay connected to the NCCAOM, ACAOM, Council of Colleges and all others who help unite our profession.

As a united voice, we not only need to support our own local issues, but also shout out to other states sending the call to rally. If we speak for others now, they will be able to be there for us if we need them later. Standing together strengthens all our rights and our profession as a whole. The AAAOM cannot do it alone; we need you, its members and its state members to act as well.

Some important situations that have come before us include the issue of dry needling. This is still alive and troublesome; Valerie Hobbs covered this issue in the previous Qi-Unity Report in a quite thorough and informative article. You can read the article here if you haven’t seen it yet.

New Jersey had a troubling day when a bill was passed in committee that allowed DC’s to practice with minimal training similar to MDs. On the same day, massage therapists were granted exclusive use of the term “Medical Qi Gong.” The good news is that this is not the end of either issue. The LAcs are not the only ones who do not like the DC bill, and the sponsor is no longer in office. Orthos, PTs and pharms also are against the chiropractor bill, and it will need a new sponsor to get back into committee. A copy of the Assembly bill can be found here (PDF) and the Senate bill here (PDF).

To keep this from moving forward, letters of support need to come from the individual states to help. The NJAAOM president, Candace Sarges, can take letters of support and would like to review anything anyone has to offer. She can be contacted at clsarges@yahoo.com. Let’s use our unified voice to help protect these and other issues NJ is working towards. They have a new lobbyist who is very active and helpful, so let’s do our part as well. Please contact to ask what your state association or individual self can do. Other pertinent information: A proposed new acupuncture bill may be found here (PDF).

Vermont is currently awaiting a case on the question of veterinarians’ practice of acupuncture on animals vs LAc’s ability to do the same. From what I understand, the gray area resides because nothing in the acupuncture scope of practice limits them to humans and the veternarians’ law has no clear mention of using acupuncture practice. There is a motion to dismiss the case as well as the case pending to keep vet acupuncture limited to vets only. We are waiting for the result.

In New York, Michael Taromina expects the bill allowing LAcs to include herbs in the scope should be coordinated by the end of the month and given in next session. The Bill can be read at nysacupuncture.org. Funds are needed for lobbyist, political contributions, meetings and letter writing. Key sponsorship is on its way. Mr. Taromina worked half of last year with the profession and united them. In NY, there is unity and consensus at this time. He would like AAAOM to take that unity and run with it so we can become nation-centric and not just state-centric. He feels we can start by getting the coasts linked together. This starts by the AAAOM getting noticed in NY to take this to a national focus. As far as potential adversaries in NY are concerned, he is mitigating them in advance(i.e. nurses, etc.). He says their budget is tight, but he is not billing for services; he feels lobbyist and political contributions are the focus of funding.

In Massachusetts there is a draft for acupuncture legislation revision getting prepped for '08; nothing imperative is problematic except for some clarifications. The public comment process will be in '08 and at that time the Massachusetts Acupuncture Association will supply points that need to be supported by the AOM community. We will stay in touch with the state presidents to seek the supported documents when necessary. In addition, the president, Nancy, suggested "I would love to see AAAOM offer regional board training - it could be a perk for people who are interested in being on a state association board and would help the boards function more smoothly." If anyone has a template, we would be happy to share it with everyone. If not, I expect I will be helping create one.

If I have not brought up an issue here that concerns your state it is because it hasn’t come before me yet. Let myself or another board member know how we can serve you or get your messages out. I am the chair of the state affairs; Lloyd Wright is my co-chair. He also serves as the chair for national affairs.* Through coordinated efforts, we can help move the profession forward from local to national levels.

Thanks for listening.

-Dr. Phranque Wright; DAOM, AP, LAc, NCCAOM DiplAc.-

AAAOM State Affairs Committee Chair

* Jokes about “Phranque and Lloyd Wright” as architects for the growth of AOM are certainly expected.