Dear Fellow Professional Homeopath:

This past year has been full of good news for NASH. Since my last president?s message, our membership has more than doubled. At the end of the year 2007 NASH had a 20% increase in registered members carrying the RSHom(NA) designation; an 18% increase in associate members, and a 60% increase in student members for the year. This is good news indeed. It shows that more and more supporters of the homeopathic profession recognize the importance of NASH?s mission.

Exciting things have happened. After working hard to get our budget back on track over the past few years we are now in the black, having paid back a loan to our defense fund. Please refer to our Treasurer Julie Mann?s detailed update on our budget on our website's member page. Thank you, Julie, for your constant and reliable input.

The NASH Foundation was created in 1999 to generate funds for homeopathic education and research. In the past year, the NASH Foundation has received a grant of $4,000 for the Foundation. NASH has also received smaller donations and pledges. I wish to thank our donors for their generosity and wonderful good sense. Please consider the NASH Foundation for your tax deductible contributions.

Last year, NASH created a new membership category, Educational Institutions, which has turned out to be a success. NASH now counts no less than nine multinational homeopathic educational institutions as its esteemed members. And it?s the students who are our most important members. They are the professional homeopaths of the future. One school had the great idea to sign up their entire student body as NASH members ? that was approximately 100 students! Thanks to our school members for their support and for all their hard work educating a new generation of homeopaths. If you haven?t yet, please consider signing up your school and students as NASH members, as well.

NASH continues with its commitment to support the work of the National Center for Homeopathy (NCH) www.nationalcenterforhomeopathy.org. We support the Annual Joint American Homeopathic Conferences as a way to participate in this vital educational effort, to contribute with presentations and we welcome the opportunity to meet and interact with the homeopathic community. We would like to thank our friends at the NCH, including NASH members Nancy Gahles, Ann Croce and Amy Lansky, and all their volunteers and staff for the essential work they do to educate the public and promote homeopathy. If you are not a member of the NCH, please sign up today.

NASH actively works with the Homeopathic Action Alliance (HAA) to coordinate and streamline the common interests and efforts of the diverse homeopathic organizations in the United States and beyond. I have recently joined the board of the HAA and am looking forward to working with representatives of the homeopathic organizations. I wish to thank President Jean Hoagland and the volunteers of the HAA for their dedication to bringing us together towards more common goals.

NASH continues to support the work of the Council for Homeopathic Certification (CHC) to set standards for certification for homeopaths and to implement competency exams. The CHC certificate is used by most homeopathic professional organizations, such as the Homeopathic Academy of Naturopathic Physicians and the Homeopathic Nursing Association . It meets NASH criteria for registered membership. While the CHC is an independent certification organization, NASH is represented and votes on its board. I would like to thank the CHC team and especially our CHC liaison and NASH registrar Laura Sholtz for her continued commitment to this task.

NASH actively supports the work of the Council for Homeopathic Education (CHE) and its vital effort to coordinate and enforce standards in homeopathic education and in approving candidates for accreditation of training programs and homeopathic schools. For the past year, as a working board member of this organization, I have had the opportunity to participate in the certification process of a school. Thanks to Todd Hoover and the CHE volunteers for this important effort. If you run a school, please consider going through the accreditation process with your institution.

NASH has worked to promote the homeopathic profession by helping students with our Student Liaison Program, offering networking and mentorship opportunities. The program also keeps the students up to date on current developments in the legislative and legal arenas. I would like to thank board member Carleen Johnson, associate member Rhonda Majalca and all the volunteer student reps for their important efforts.

NASH has been active in generating and coordinating policy guidelines for legislative action. We have been in touch with members and activists in various states and provinces in supporting (including financially) legislative activity that enhances the right of professional homeopaths to practice their vocation and protects access to homeopathic care for their clients. Our health freedom expert Marylu MillerPeterson has participated in this effort. I would like to thank all our volunteers all across North America as well as Diane Miller, JD of Health Freedom Action who have contributed to this enormous task. Please consider starting a grassroots movement in your state to introduce health freedom legislation. And please help keep NASH informed about efforts in your region by emailing regular updates to guidelines on how to talk with the media.

NASH has published the prestigious professional journal The American Homeopath (AH) that continues to fill a vital gap in scholarly exchange of ideas and experiences in homeopathic practice. I would like to thank our Chief Editor Richa Eland who assumed this enormous task last year with AH13. I would also like to thank her team of copy editors and proofreaders for their tireless labors in making AH happen. Please consider submitting your work on cases, new provings, book reviews or other contributions of time and expertise to a future volume.

We have been active on the international arena, too. In Ontario, NASH?s efforts contributed to the process of regulating homeopathy as an independent profession. NASH is also a member of the International Council for Homeopathy (ICH) . Our former vice president Kate Birch has volunteered to continue representing NASH in this organization. I wish to thank both our Bi-national Liaison Basil Ziv and Kate for their invaluable efforts.

NASH has developed guidelines to speak to the media about homeopathy. Members are also invited to purchase the book Legal Guidelines for Unlicensed Practitioners to help them set up their practice safe from legal prosecution. Please click on this link for more details.

We have made some important changes on our website. We now have a members-only area where we will have on-line chats and information intended solely for our members. We also have a shopping cart where visitors can join or renew their membership or make a monetary donation to NASH.

Our future plans include activating a publicity and fundraising campaign to generate funds for projects in legislation, education and research. We plan to have information available for members on how to make their practice a success. We have plans to continue to work on all projects we have already started which have already contributed to a considerable increase in membership and support for our organization.

Homeopaths are dedicated people. They have to be, because things aren?t made easy for them.

Think of the dedication required to be a homeopath ? the years of study, countless unpaid hours, perpetual lack of professional recognition, deep daily empathy and enormous personal sacrifices on behalf of the well being of their clients and patients; plus volunteering to do the important work of organizing the homeopathic profession- without pay!

This is why I am dumbfounded that agents of the British and American press, even reputable magazines like Newsweek, would stoop so low as to malign homeopaths. Please refer to our news section for the link to an article by Jerry Adler, and my response. The mainstream media are alarmingly out of touch! They really need your help in becoming educated about homeopathy.

We should always remember that attacks on homeopathy are nothing new. Even fascist and communist dictatorships have tried and failed to destroy homeopathy. The great 19th century homeopathic physician Constantine Hering once quipped that homeopathy will eventually survive by natural selection! Since statistics show that people who use homeopathy have a longer life expectancy that those who don?t, homeopathy in the end will prevail because the latter will be extinct and only the former will be left. Perhaps, instead of slandering homeopaths, the press will then celebrate us as heroes ?

I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of our volunteers, all our members and especially our many unnamed supporters and donors, who have helped make NASH happen. I especially wish to thank the NASH Board, who has kept up a grueling pace of bi-weekly board meetings for 3 1/2 years now!

Special thanks must go to our Secretary Carleen Johnson for keeping detailed minutes of our board meetings and always making sure to clarify our objectives. Thanks also to our Administrator Liz Bonfig who keeps up with everything we do, picking up the pieces, including last minute requests for copies that miraculously turn up later. Liz has been nothing short of the backbone of our organization.

Last but not least I would like to thank my incomparable wife who imparts levity, and always pitches in before you can ask.

The work of NASH has never been more important than now. As you can see, it takes a whole community to create the homeopathic profession. NASH will continue to play an essential role in promoting the interests of North American professional homeopaths. Please continue to support this vital mission with your monetary contributions and by serving as a volunteer.

I am looking forward to seeing you at the next Joint American conference.

Please join?

?NASH ? a vital force for homeopathy.?

Manfred Mueller, RSHom(NA), CCH,
President,
North American Society of Homeopaths