NASH MEMBER UPDATE - December 2005

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: Kate Birch, MN,
Email:  Katebhom@yahoo.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

Canadian Representative: Basil Ziv, Ont.,
Email:  basilziv@rogers.com

Administrator: Liz Bonfig, FL,
Email:  nashinfo@aol.com

The Year in Review

We are pleased to bring you this update as we close out the year 2005. What a busy year it has been. In January, we held an interim election to replace three board members who had resigned the previous year. With a new board ready to go by February, NASH embarked on a year of renewed vitality and clarity in our mission to represent the profession of homeopathy.

Our accomplishments include:

• Successfully elected three new board members;
• Appointed a Canadian representative;
• Conducted regular bi-weekly board meetings;
• Developed this bi-monthly member update to keep our members informed;
• Rewrote the mission statement to better reflect our purpose;
• Defined a scope of practice for professional homeopaths to be published in Alternative Link’s insurance coding system;
• Developed an approved budget for 2005 which allowed further development of our organization while establishing a debt reduction and savings plan;
• Published our annual journal, The American Homeopath, Volume 11 (enclosed with this update);
• Increased communications with other homeopathic organizations through the Homeopathic Action Alliance (HAA) with the development of a long range project defining how we can work together and support each other’s missions, rather than each organization standing alone;
• Represented NASH at the 2005 NCH Annual Conference;
• Planned for the 2006 first ever joint conference in San Jose, CA, an event bringing all the professional organizations together for the first time;
• Printed the enclosed membership brochure;
• Revamped our website providing an opportunity for members to have links to their site, member bios and teacher listings (if you are interested in posting your information, please contact us @ nashinfo@aol.com or call Liz @ 954-749-9943);
• Monitored nationwide legislative activity relevant to the practice of professional homeopaths for health freedom laws. Supported bills introduced in several states that met NASH criteria;
• Reached out to old and new members for continued support and membership renewal;
• Reinstated an involvement with the process of regulation of homeopathy in Canada;
• Developed a political position statement which allows us to help state organizations develop health freedom legislation;
• Published a response to the Lancet study;
• Convened an ethics committee;
• Served as the voice for professional homeopaths at the National Health Freedom Conference.

The Year Ahead

We are excited to share NASH’s goals for 2006, and we look forward to increased member involvement:

• Review and rewrite the By-Laws to make them more succinct and applicable to the work we are doing;
• Continue growing the memberships currently offered and develop various new levels of membership, e.g. we wish to expand the definition of ˜Special Friends of NASH” to include organizations, study groups, businesses, schools, etc.;
• Publish Volume 12 of The American Homeopath;
• Participate further with health freedom;
• Look at more avenues for funding;
• Coordinate 2007 joint conference with NCH, AIH, HANP;
• Assemble student liaisons from schools across the continent to participate in an annual teleconference for the continued growth of homeopathy;
• Arrange for malpractice insurance for NASH members;
• Seek ways to interface with the health care system;
• Trademark the RSHom (NA) title;
• Expand member involvement, address member concerns, develop and implement new ideas and projects.

The board’s purpose is serving the membership. We are working for you to make sure we have a viable place in the homeopathic world. If you have ideas that need help reaching fruition, NASH has the communication tools and platform with which your ideas can be brought to the forefront. We encourage you to come forward. Thank you for your continued support in our endeavors.

National Health Freedom Conference in Review

Vice President Kate Birch was honored to represent NASH at this conference which was attended by health freedom leaders from Canada, England and the US. There are many individuals working toward health freedom from lawyers and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) to citizen groups and practitioner groups; all there to present what their organization is doing for health freedom.

The hope is that the work from this conference will percolate into the international community where initiatives and policies worldwide will aim to protect the freedom to have access to the health care modality and nutritional supplements of your choice. As you may well be aware, CODEX and ‘Big-Pharma’ are working toward limiting those choices.

The Speakers

• Dianne Miller, National Health Coalition
• Jim Turner, Citizens for Health
• Dr Rob Verkerk and David Hinde, Alliance for Natural Health in England
• Filmmaker Kevin Miller, producer of ‘Let the Truth be the Bias’ and ‘We Become Silent’; movies about the corruption in the medical industry through the oppression of natural health practices
• Daniel Haley, author of ‘Politics in Healing’
• Scott Tips, National Health Federation speaking about his role as a delegate at Codex
• Peter Helgason, Friends of Freedom International, an organization for health freedom based out of Canada
• James Gormely on the challenges in the food supplemental industry.
• Our very own RSHom, John Melnychuk with Jerri Johnson and Larry Hanus, speaking on the steps to passing health freedom legislation
• Tim Bolen, buster of “Quackbusters” extraordinaire, a lawyer making effective proceedings against “Quackbusters”
• Burton Goldberg, author of ‘Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide’
• Clinton Miller, Sunshine Health freedom Fund, an organization working toward passing health freedom laws in every state
• Wendell Whitman, Certified Natural Health Practitioners
• Carolyn Dean, MD, ND, author of ‘Death by Modern Medicine’

There is still much work to be done for health freedom with many states needing to write and pass health freedom legislation and many countries needing to understand the human rights issues in light of oppressive regulation of natural healing modalities and access to nutritional supplements.

NASH was well received during the ‘World Health Freedom Assembly’ held on the last day of the conference. From this exposure, health freedom groups will hold a place for professional homeopaths in the further development and implementation of laws that will protect our rights to practice.

Tapes Available

Health Freedom Legislation

Legislative sessions vary from state to state. NASH is once again monitoring the progress of health freedom bills and keeping an eye on other bills introduced that may restrict the right to practice. Get involved by contacting your local group. It is through active involvement that change happens. We encourage state organizations to become active and utilize other members of the health freedom movement to develop legislation for your state. Currently, there are laws in development in several states. Contact The National Health Freedom Coalition for up-to-date information: www.nationalhealthfreedom.org. We invite your input and news from your local legislative activities.

Canadian update

With the increased legislative activity these past few months, board member Basil Ziv has been very busy as NASH’s Canadian representative. We will have a detailed report early next year. Please consider volunteering some time to help Basil with issues affecting our Canadian members.

Annual renewals

It is that time of year again for annual renewals. Included with this update you will find your renewal form. Dues are payable by March 1st. We are delighted to offer you the opportunity to have your 2006 renewal dues waived; just have three friends become new NASH members too. (The membership level must be equivalent to your own level of membership, e.g., an associate member needs three new associate members to join.) Membership brochures are enclosed to help you share the opportunity.

Joint American Homeopathic Conference 2006

Mark your calendars for this inaugural joint conference April 7-11, 2006 in San Jose, California. Brochures will be available soon. All the speakers have been selected and the schedule will be posted shortly. NASH’s annual meeting will be held during a catered lunch on Saturday April 8th. We invite every member to attend. Lunch is included in the cost of the conference. If you wish to attend the meeting without attending the conference, there may be a fee.

NASH is pleased to sponsor a portion of the Saturday night entertainment. Tickets can be purchased as you register or at the door. There will be live music, dancing, door prizes and more. It will be a great evening to let loose from a hard day’s study.

If you are interested in being an exhibitor at the conference, please contact NCH directly at info@homeopathic.org.

The 2007 joint conference will be held in Colorado with the same organizations participating. If you are interested in speaking then, you may apply to Dana Ullman at mail@homeopathic.com after June 2006.

Homeopathy in the Press

Apparently the recent Lancet "death wish" for homeopathy has fallen on deaf ears at the Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a Medline journal. The Journal has just published a special, in-depth issue on homeopathy, containing multiple outstanding editorials, studies, articles and commentaries. The authors are international researchers, scientists, practitioners and scholars who explore a wide variety of research subjects. The issue expands the homeopathic debate to as of yet unexplored territory and proves that homeopathic science is very much alive. Though we recommend that our members obtain their own copy of this delightful issue, the homeopathy special is available for free online and you can access it at www.liebertpub.com/acm.

Homeopathy and Avian Influenza

There is much work to be done in this area. It is our hope that homeopathy can come to the forefront in the treatment of this threatened epidemic. Once some cases start to come in we hope to participate in the dissemination of important remedies. Please keep us posted of any developments in your area.

In Memoriam

NASH gratefully acknowledges donations made to the NASH Foundation in honor of RSHom Catherine Sharfsten’s late father. Thank you to Mr. and Mrs. David Cohen and Mr. and Mrs. Ted Jacobs for their generosity. We extend our sympathy to Catherine and her family.

Help Needed

By-Law Revision NASH's By-Laws need to be revised and expanded, and we need one or two volunteers who would be available to attend special Board meetings devoted to this project. The first meeting will be held in January with the goal to have the revisions available at the annual meeting in April 2006 at the Joint American Homeopathic Conference in San Jose, CA.

Registered members will vote on the proposed amendment. The current By-Laws state we need a 10% return of the ballots to constitute a quorum. A majority of the returned votes is necessary to pass the amendment. If you have worked with the By-Laws in the past or know of some constraints in the existing By-Laws, please bring us your comments. A copy of the By-Laws is available by request (nashinfo@aol.com).

Grievance Committee and Appeal Panel
In accordance with the current By-Laws, we need members to serve on a Grievance Committee and an Appeal Panel. For more information, please contact NASH President, Manfred Mueller. (homeopathicassociates@earthlink.net)

Website
Our wonderful volunteer Giri Wescott has fallen ill and is no longer available to help with the website. We thank Giri for his time and wish him a speedy recovery. If you are familiar with website administration, please contact Liz at nashinfo@aol.com to see how you can help.

There are other volunteer opportunities available on our website http://www.homeopathy.org/volunteers.html or call Liz at 954-749-9943. Remember volunteer hours can be applied to a portion of CEUs required of our registered members, 2 hours volunteer time equals 1 CEU.

World Homeopathy Awareness Week, April 23-30, 2006

To keep abreast of world happenings for WHAW, please visit their website at www.whomeopathy.org. There you will find contact information of local and state reps, get ideas for your own WHAW projects and be able to post your local updates.

The next conference call will be on Monday, January 9th at 4pm PST. If you would like to participate, call 218-936-1200 and use the password WHAW.

Message from the Administrator

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the board members, Manfred, Kate, Julie, Carleen, Laura and Basil for their tireless devotion to NASH. They have donated many hours to the cause and have been very supportive to me. This year’s hurricane season took its toll on the NASH office, and my family, and the board was there to keep things afloat. To all the members that sent their wishes, I thank you.

I’d also like to thank Melanie Grimes for once again donating her time to The American Homeopath. I’m sure you will agree that she has compiled a fascinating collection of works.

I hope you will consider this year donating some time to NASH. I understand that we all have too many things to get done each day, but please squeeze us in too. It’s been a pleasure being your administrator. Call or email me anytime. Happy New Year!