NASH MEMBER UPDATE - February, 2008

The North American Society of Homeopaths is dedicated to promote, represent and serve as the voice of all professional homeopaths in North America.
NASH aims to develop and uphold the highest level of excellence in homeopathic practice while enhancing the role of the homeopathic profession as an integral part of health care delivery.

Board of Directors

President: Manfred Mueller, CA,
Email: homeopathicassociates@earthlink.net

Vice president: Cassie Travani, NM,
Email:  cassietit@aol.com

Treasurer: Julie Mann, CA,
Email:  ma13nn@aol.com

Registrar: Laura Sholtz, ME,
Email:  laurasremedies@hotmail.com

Secretary: Carleen Johnson, ME,
Email:  cjohnson@uninets.net

Bi-national Liaison: Basil Ziv, Ont.,
Email:  basilziv@rogers.com

Executive Director: Liz Bonfig, FL,
Email:  nashinfo@aol.com, 954-749-9943

Grievance Committee: Kate Birch, MN, Katebhom@yahoo.com

Health Freedom Expert: Marylu Miller, MN, marylu@vitalforceconsulting.com

Journal Editor: Richa Eland, OH, nashjournal@msn.com

Student Liaison Project: Rhonda Majalca, CA, rsrmajalca@cox.net


Treasurer’s Report

A Review of 2007

NASH Treasurer, Julie Mann, is pleased to submit to our members the attached 2007 Financial Report. It is brimming with good news! The first thing to report is that the rise in all the membership categories has brought in almost $18,000 more than we budgeted for this year. Registered and Associate memberships both have risen close to 25% each, and Student and School memberships almost tripled in members since 2006! This has made it possible to pay off the outstanding debt to the Defense Fund so we are now clear of any liabilities, achieving our goal two years early! We expect 2008 to be a dynamic year for NASH.

Thank you to those members who have already renewed their membership. Many of you have used our new online shopping cart (http://homeopathy.org/join.html); we hope you have found it easy and convenient to use. If you have not renewed yet, please take a moment to do so now. If you have not received the 2008 renewal paperwork and your copy of The American Homeopath, Volume 13, please let us know.

• RSHom (NA)
• Susan Drury, BC
• Madhavi Kasam, GA

• Associate
• Laura Bridgman, ME
• Jolinda Rockett, ME
• Melissa Tapia, FL

• Students
• Debbie Allen, ON
• Sima Ash, CA
• Elizabeth Ball, ON
• Carla Beharry, ON
• Shawna Bradshaw, ON
• Carla Cavallo, ON
• Sandra Charlebois, ON
• Genevieve Chavez, NM
• Kelli Ewing, ON
• Josie Gintoli, ON
• Bruce Gordon, ON
• Donna Gregory, ON
• Lori Hartwick, ON
• Sarah Ismail, ON
• Tamara Kempe, ON
• Yukta Laul, ON
• Danielle Leadbeater, ON
• Linda Mariconda, ON
• Jen Marks, MI
• Emily McDowall. ON
• Maria Moraca, ON
• Ivy Nibourg, ON
• Andorlie Raney, BC
• Sasha Sadilova, QB
• Margaret Sanderson, ON
• Paresh Solanki, ON
• Samantha Spencley, ON
• Pamela Sweet, ON
• Brenda Thompson, ON
• Virpi Vantanen, ON
• Helen Vuletin, ON
• Clasina Weese, ON
• Ania Wojnarowski, ON

We are happy to announce that for the third year in a row NASH will be part of the Joint American Homeopathic Conference, April 11-15th, in Warwick, Rhode Island. NASH’s annual meeting is scheduled for Saturday, April 12th during lunch. For conference details, including speaker list and scheduling, please visit the NCH website at http://nationalcenterforhomeopathy.org/about/annual_conference.jsp. Several of our members will be presenting at the conference. We would like to invite all of our members to join us in this important event. Please let us know if you will be attending.

STUDENT DISCOUNT: Full-time students will be given 1/2 off the registration price at the Joint Conference. Contact info@nationalcenterforhomeopathy.org for more details.

We are seeking volunteers for a new committee dedicated to exploring ways to promote NASH and the important work we are doing on behalf of the professional homeopath. If you can help, we’d love to hear from you.

Recently, yet another defamatory article about homeopathy has appeared in a major publication, this time in Newsweek magazine. Already, many positive responses have been generated by both professional bodies and private citizens. NASH president Manfred Mueller has NASH’s response and will post it in the News and Events section of the website as soon as it’s sent. Please visit http://www.newsweek.com/id/105581 and submit your response.

Go to our website to read the responses to this injurious attack posted by the American Institute of Homeopathy and others. www.homeopathy.org.

A message from The Trustees of H:MC21

Dear Supporter,

During the past few months, you've signed the declaration and also agreed to receive updates about the “Homeopathy worked for me” campaign. Well, we have some news. We have launched a key tool to help us raise more awareness about the attacks on homeopathy, and to give people something they can use to spread the word. It's a new website. But it's not just a new website. It's a tool which clearly explains what's at risk, and what anyone can do to help, and it also answers key questions about homeopathy, the campaign, and the "arguments" against homeopathy.

So why are we writing to you? Because you could really help us by doing one simple thing: Email the website address and a short personal message to ten (or twenty or thirty) of your friends and contacts. Encourage them to take a look, and sign the declaration if they can. If you need a template to use for your email message, there's one on the site (see "What can you do"). We need everyone to pitch in and spread the word, so that we can ensure that we all have the choice we deserve in medicine!

The link is www.homeopathyworkedforme.org

NASH is committed to supporting the concept of health freedom legislation. Please send us a status report regarding the practice of homeopathy in your state, including health freedom group information, pending legislation or any other pertinent details. News from Ontario, Canada

By Basil Ziv

In Ontario, since June 2007, Bill C-171 has added five new professions to be regulated under The Regulated Health Practitioners Act (RHPA). There are now 28 health care professions including medical doctors, dentists, nurses, chiropractors, naturopaths and homeopaths. The stakeholders in Ontario who have been involved in discussions with the government regarding the regulation of homeopathy await the formation of the Transitional Council that will be responsible for establishing the Homeopathic College whose main purpose is Public Protection and Public Interest. Basil Ziv, NASH’s Bi-national Liaison, has been meeting with each of the stakeholders in order to help unify the homeopathic community and thereby assist in facilitating the process. All of the participants have now agreed that there are solid advantages to regulation and there appears to be a genuine willingness to work together for the common good of the profession. Basil continues to meet with all of the stakeholders with the objective of bringing Ontario homeopaths, schools and associations together to participate in a joint conference. Through cooperative effort, we will have the chance to establish homeopathy, in the 21st Century, as a powerful alternative to the current medical system.

A thank you goes out to those members who have donated to the NASH Foundation. Originally founded in 1999 with the intention of providing a venue to generate funds for education and research, the NASH Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization, was created to accept tax deductible donations. We are looking for volunteers to help the Foundation generate more revenue and evaluate where the money would be best allocated to further homeopathic research and education.

Articles for The American Homeopath, Volume 14 are now being accepted. We encourage contributions from practitioners and students from all homeopathic schools throughout North America and abroad. Writer's guidelines are available from the NASH website under the icon for The American Homeopath, http://homeopathy.org/submissions.html.

Please consider submitting a case, proving or well-written, researched and documented discourse on homeopathic philosophy for publication. We are always in need of book reviews. We are also looking for experienced writers willing to take on an assignment and run with it! Deadlines are staggered to meet the needs of the author and all the volunteer editorial staff. May 15, 2008 is the final date for which we will consider a submission.

We love to hear from our readers regarding AH13 and welcome suggestions for article ideas that you would like to read about!

We are in search of a volunteer Chief Copy Editor to complete our editorial team. The Chief Copy Editor will coordinate the many drafts of a given piece and will consult with the Chief Editor on each piece as it develops. Organization is key here along with good communication skills. The load is heaviest from May 31 - September 15. If you are interested, please email nashjournal@msn.com.

We are also in need of several more volunteer experienced copy editors. These are people who really know their grammar rules and enjoy nit picking everything from footnotes to comma placements. They love the best use of grammar.

Members of the editorial committee are encouraged to attend the 3rd Annual Joint American Homeopathic Conference next April to meet with Richa in person (meeting time TBA). Look for Richa at the poster sessions during the conference in Rhode Island!!!

By Carleen Johnson

The student liaison committee met on January 28 and 29 for their second meeting of the current school year. These reps are making plans to address their respective student bodies to explain the mission of NASH and introduce the students to the NASH website, specifically Manfred's address - "Why Join NASH." Even though many students are not practicing yet, it was agreed that many need help understanding how to talk about homeopathy in the general public - it was suggested that the reps share Guidelines for Media Communications as a way of starting discussions about some of the legal issues surrounding their future practices. We would like to email or chat more often in between meetings and teleconference more then twice a year.

By Kate Birch, Chairperson

Thank you to the three NASH members who have volunteered to join the grievance committee. In accordance with the confidentiality implicit in the grievance process, these members will remain anonymous. We have started our preliminary work of reviewing the grievance process and the Code of Ethics as established in the NASH By-Laws. The existing Code of Ethics and current bylaws do not sufficiently or succinctly describe the ethics review process and/or delineate legal restrictions from ethical practice issues and the practice recommendations NASH holds out for its members. With the development of health freedom laws and seemingly more resistance opposing homeopathy in some camps, it is vitally important that we update these documents and continue to educate our members about the parameters of their application. As NASH firmly believes in the self-regulatory approach to the regulation of homeopathy the development of a fully functioning ethics review committee will strengthen our profession considerably. We will keep you posted as the work develops.

In interests of saving money and reducing their carbon footprint, the CHC has changed from having one annual day-long board of directors meeting to quarterly meetings. The first of these was held on 2-6-08; Cassie Travaini represented NASH, as Laura Sholtz was unable to attend.

At this meeting it was decided that a requirement of 40 hours of pathology training for all certification candidates would be added to the exam, beginning in March 2008. The CHC is also working toward offering a veterinary homeopathic certification in the future. Check out their newly improved website!

NCH President and NASH Registered Member, Nancy Gahles, sent us the following link announcing the launch of IntegrativePractitioner.com, the online community for practitioners of integrative medicine. The site contains a myriad of resources for integrative healthcare professionals including opportunities for peer-to-peer collaboration and discussion and more.

We need volunteers to arrange for shipment from our storage unit in Oakland, CA to our office in Florida. If you are able to help, please contact us ASAP. We spend around $1,500/year for the storage unit and feel that the money should go to more useful things.

Copies of volumes 1-13 of The American Homeopath are still available. If you run a school, offer seminars or schedule conferences, please consider offering the journals for sale at your events! Contact Liz for pricing and discounts.

For more information about legal practice issues, we have copies of “Legal Guidelines for Unlicensed Practitioners,” by Dr. Lawrence Wilson on sale for $12.95 plus shipping and handling. This practical guide explains the legal issues involving the unlicensed practice of a healing art. It is designed to help anyone who wishes to engage in the lawful practice of an alternative healthcare profession in the absence of statutory regulations. Email nashinfo@aol.com or call 954-749-9943 to order.

The 6th Australian Homoeopathic Medicine Conference 2008 will be held at the Swiss-Grand, Bondi Beach from the 12-14 September 2008. For information, visit www.homeopathynsw.org.

This post is from a member of the National Health Freedom Leaders group. Please act now and join your local health freedom legislation advocates.

Colleagues, We are currently dealing with a situation in Texas that, frankly, came out of left field and caught us all off guard. Over the last several weeks, Clayton College of Natural Health has been sending letters to their Texas graduates/students, informing them of a little known portion of the Texas Education Code. This Code allows an agency called the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (TX HECB) to designate degrees issued by schools who are not affiliated with a Texas-approved accreditation authority as "substandard." Both Clayton and Trinity Colleges of Natural Health fall in that category, and are so listed on the TX HECB web site. A revision to the law, which became effective in 2005 (while we were defending our right to practice against the dietitians), made it a Class B misdemeanor to use such degrees in business advertising, to apply for a job, etc. A class B misdemeanor in Texas is punishable by up to a $2,000 fine and up to 180 days in jail, or both. Since the provisions of this law are now widely known, our Texas Coalition has informed our at-large network of its ramifications, recommending that any naturopaths or other graduates of Clayton/Trinity degree programs comply with the law, and also cease using the titles conferred by their degrees (e.g., Doctor, ND or Ph.D), using instead "Traditional Naturopath," "Certified Traditional Naturopath" or "Holistic Health Practitioner" as their individual circumstances permit. We have also been in contact with the senior staff of both schools, and have offered them points of contact within the TX HECB that will hopefully allow them to reach an accommodation with the TX HECB that will protect the interests of their graduates and students. Additionally, attorneys Diane Miller and Rick Jaffe, both members of our Coalition legal committee, have proposed revised language for the next submission of our health freedom bill that, when enacted, will legally protect disclosure of the degree information.

I am notifying this forum of this situation in Texas for two reasons. First, there may be analogous provisions in the education codes of other states that you are not aware of. In the health freedom movement, we focus so much on issues such as licensure and the right to practice that we sometimes (as was the case in Texas) are not even aware of other segments of a state's legal code which may significantly and negatively impact the ability of those practitioners whose rights we defend to continue to effectively do business in their respective states.

Second, I'm sure it's not lost on anyone on this forum that such a situation plays right into the hands of the naturopathic physicians. Given that their mantra has always been the superiority of their education over traditional naturopathic schools, were this situation to remain unresolved in Texas it would complicate our efforts to enact health freedom legislation, especially if (as we expect them to do) the naturopathic physicians introduce a naturopathic licensure bill next session in Texas.

We recognize that this ultimately is a practitioner and individual school issue. However, for the above reasons we are involved to the extent of facilitating the efforts of the schools to come to an acceptable accommodation with the TX HECB. As the old saying goes, when you're handed lemons, make lemonade. Hopefully, your own states' groups won't be making lemonade like this any time soon!

Peter McCarthy, Certified Traditional Naturopath
Chair, TX Health Freedom Coalition