History of the PMA

Chapter 1

Kevin Bowen Introduction

Hi there. I'm Amy havens that I'm here with Kevin Bowen. I'm happy to be here and we were in [inaudible] studio. This is Pat Guyton Palladio's in boulder, Colorado and pick dress back here. It's a beautiful space. Let's talk about Kevin for a minute. Can you tell me and everybody a little bit about how you came to [inaudible]?

I first heard about Palazzos when I was a young boy, let's say 16 I saw that first book that came out. The plot is method of mental and physical conditioning and it kind of caught my eye and then later when I was in Santa Fe, many years later I had an aerobic studio and a number of dancers used to use my studio to rehearse in and one of the dancers wants to Michelle Larson. And it was right at the time that she and Eve and Joan Breitbart started the institute for the Polonius method. And Michelle brought me in the first newsletter and thought I might be interested. And I looked at it and I put it on my desk and that was about the end of it.

Then a few years later, I was in s, uh, moved to San Francisco. I was back in the retail business, still teaching fitness classes and a classes on the side and I was managing for 'em the gap and ended up leading them and going into fitness full time. And the clubs that I manage really needed something new on the schedule. And I decided to put plots on the schedule after doing a little research and I spend a lot of time watching the class and I asked the instructor who was still a lower Vaughan who I think is still around and I said, where did you learn how to teach this? I really wouldn't want to learn how to teach.

And she sent me to metal and black and metal and black was my first teacher in San Francisco. Did you like the training? How long? Um, well it was probably the most frustrating thing I'd ever done because I was still doing fitness at the same time, doing personal training, teaching 14 classes a week and trying to do my pilates education at the same time and not letting any of it take root. So I was really frustrated and finally I had a little epiphany moment and realized that it was probably the best thing I'd ever done for myself and decided that's what I wanted to do. 95, sorry. No, no. Were there any other men in your class? No. No one as usual. It's usually me and five other women where in my class. So then when did you start teaching after that training?

That training back then was done in a couple of phases. And after the first phase we were allowed to teach math classes and from San Francisco right around the same time I finished my first phase of training and four months I moved to Miami and I started teaching PyLadies at the beach there. I taught for David Barton and I taught in a yoga studio as well. And did you find it popular there with it going? Um, people really weren't quite sure what to expect of it. I mean, there were people in classes and um, it was, you know, it had been on the beach and in Miami, but in on a smaller scale. And, um, I got written up in the paper a couple of times, which assisted with people coming into class and so forth. Um, but it wasn't as mainstream as it is today by a long shot. When did you decide on studio ownership or owning, or I'm assuming you did own a studio? I know a little bit about that. I did.

Well, what happened was in Miami, I was just working actually in the fitness industry. So doing my PyLadies training and David Barton moved me to New York to manage a gym in New York and I decided I need to finish my [inaudible] training. So I actually went to Debra lesson in New York to finish the training. Um, and it wasn't until a couple of years after that when I moved back to Miami in 97 that I opened a studio and with Debra Lessen. Tell me a little bit about that a little. Yeah. Well, you know, there was a split with the institute for the Palladio's method at that time, right around the time of 95. So Deborah was still teaching that program. But when the institute split apart, um, Debra went off on her own teaching and I had called the institute to say, well, who can I train with in New York?

And they gave me devore's name and I went to her studio and the rest is history. So I finished my training with Deborah. What else? Other than PyLadies teaching or, um, I know you moved from Florida, made your way on our way to Colorado. What'd you do when you got here? Recently? Okay. When I was in Florida, I've only been at Colorado once. That's this move. Um, when I moved to Colorado it was because I took a position with Pete [inaudible] as director of education. So that was about three years ago. And, uh, back when Julie Loved del was still with the company and it was just after she had sold it to mad dog athletics. So the director of education, um, had resigned and was taking a teaching post. And, um, I think in New Hampshire or Vermont and Julie was looking for someone and push came to shove and she said, do you know anyone in the industry?

And I thought about it and I said, well, do I have to live in Colorado if I want to? I was interested. And she said yes. And I said, let me think about it some more. And I did. And I said, okay, I'll interview. And she interviewed me and next thing you know, I got offered a job and I came out here,

Chapter 2

Trademark Lawsuit

the big lawsuit that was kind of happening in the 90s, not kind of, that was happening in the 90s. Uh, where did you fit into that or did it affect you at the time of your studio? So the writeup in the paper that I mentioned in Miami kind of opened me up and about a week after the writeup in the paper, I got a letter from Sean Gallagher telling me to cease and desist using the name [inaudible] because I was not allowed to do so. And I just sat on it because I'd heard that this was going on for a while. So when I got to New York and I met Debra, we started talking, she mentioned the lawsuit and I said, yeah, I have my letter with me. I got, you know, got this lawsuit.

So we bonded on that level as well because Deborah was involved with the suit in a major way. Um, and it kind of pissed me off. The whole thing just, you know, was very irritated and angry that who was this person to tell me what I was trained to do. I was not allowed to say. So that's how I got pretty involved with it. Um, later as the lawsuit progressed along and one of the attorneys actually was a client at Debra's, uh, I was put on the class action suit cause we filed a class action suit against Sean saying that we were not able to earn a living because we couldn't say Pele's. Um, that's super was probably initial one was about a hundred people and we brought it down to around nine and I happened to be one of the nine. So I was named in that suit as the trademark, you know, proceeded through court and Judge Cedar Bom, uh, was involved with it. She said that she would rule on the trademark, but if she had to rule on the class action, it was going to cause more trouble for the lawsuit and take more time, I e. Money and everything else. So she said if you drop the class action, we can come to terms with this much faster.

So we decided that we would drop the class action against Sean so that the lawsuit could move forward as it was progressing at this point. Did you have any idea how many other studios were getting affected by this around the United States? Or what was the growth like in the [inaudible] industry on this time and the impact of that? Well, there, there was an impact of course with the New York community and then certain people in California, Washington State, um, the boulder area, of course, any place where there were some hotbeds of PyLadies happening. So PyLadies was growing, but everyone was afraid to say the word. I mean, you were very cautious when you answered the phone at the studio because you were always baited many times. Like what do you teach there? Well, we take, teach the exercise and methods based upon Joseph based upon, based upon methods, based upon. Yeah. So as that, you know, proceeded along the route, you know, we had a fundraisers to try to raise the money because the lawsuit was very costly. Um, uh, there were two attorneys involved with it, which was Gordon, Troy and Larry Stanley, um, Ken emblem. And the obvious was very involved without his assistance. You know, it would be very difficult because he was the big company and Deborah was also involved. So one of her attorney was Larry Stanley, so they worked on the whole lawsuit together. And, um, you know, thank God that on October, forgetting the exact date, but October of 2000 plots was deemed a generic term for exercise.

But prior to that we were talking about, I kept saying to Deborah, Diane Miller and Michelle Loris, and they were all at Debra's a loft one time. And I said, what are we gonna do if we can't say the word, what are, what are we going to do as a community? There are so many of us. Shouldn't we have an organization? Should we be structured? Shouldn't there's something be going on? Because if we lose this suit, we're all kind of screwed. Okay. And you know, they said, well yeah, I think you're right, but we've just been involved with way too much stuff. You're the younger one, you do it.

So I kept thinking about that and thinking about that and thinking about that. And um, you know, when I moved back to Miami, I kept it up, you know, I'm was like, we still need to do something because even after it was declared generic, it was necessary to do something and had already been stung. People who had been stung by the slap the hand and don't use the name. And businesses had started to develop with not having piles in their business name. So how did they turn that over instilled then advertise that they teach pilates, but they send her a different business name. Right. Because I imagine a lot of, you know, complexity in working around the issue and, but still wanting to raise the issue and talk about it. It was, it was a, it was an interesting time to have been involved in this industry because, you know, a lot of people who were not, who are newer teachers have never been around for all of that.

They don't really understand what happened and what we went through. Um, and you know, if you lived it, you got much more involved in it than you did if you were, you know, now I tell some new teachers, many teachers that I've trained and they all listened intently, but you know, until you've been through it, you don't get it. Right. So if we can, if we can talk PMA now, and I would,

Chapter 3

Starting the PMA

I'm very curious to know how did a, how did you take on the, okay, I'm going to be the person to create this. You've given a little insight. You're, you're interested. People needed to talk about it. Uh, but why did you step up? What made it be that? And it, um, is sometimes in life you're just presented with something and it needs to happen. And um, you know, I talked about it after that time in Deborah's, when I finished working at Debra's and finished my training and moved to Miami, I continued to speak about it because I just knew that having been in the fitness industry and part of other fitness organizations, part of Ace, part of the AFA that Pilati is really needed to have some form of a structure set up with it. That was, you know, more or less a business organization, professional business organization. Um, and we didn't have it. So I kept chatting and talking about it and um, had begun working with Michelle Larson doing teacher training and I kept talking to her. I said, Michelle, you know, we've got to do something. And she said, why don't you talk to calling Glen? Because Coleen's been telling me that she thinks something needs to be done and she's trying to do something in Texas. So she gave me Coleen's phone number and calling in.

I started to have a conversations and discourse and I think it was over a period of six months, you know, and, um, we're going back and forth. We had a lot of great conversations, but we weren't getting anywhere. And I was getting a little frustrated cause I'm thinking, you know, the clock's ticking here, we got to do something. So I found the plane ticket online really cheap and I bought it and I called her up and I said, guess what? I'm coming to Texas so we can sit down in person. And she goes, well, this is a bad weekend.

It's my first weekend home in four with, you know, flying and this and that and teaching. And I said, well, I got with the plane ticket, so, you know, she was kind enough and I went to her house and we sat down in a Starbucks and spent four hours the first time, you know, as a true face to face meeting, talking about business. And we realized in the first four hours that, um, you know, we both had very similar ideas and that despite the fact that she was trained differently than I was in [inaudible], we both had many more similarities than differences. So we proceeded to carry on the conversation and talk about things. Her husband at the time helped us out with that and we started coming up trying to come up with names because this was still before the lawsuit had been over. So we couldn't use the word [inaudible] in the title. So we were trying to come up with names at the time and so forth and so on.

And we came up with the, you know, some guidelines for teachers based upon hours and training. And then in October of 2000 when the lawsuit was over, then we realized that we could do something. So instead of calling it the Exercise Alliance Association, which is what we were going to call it, we went to the plots method alliance. So, um, and just the two of you created the name? Yes. So what happened was, is, um, we came up with the name, we thought that would work. Um, an ex of mine had a graphic design business and he did the initial website and all of the graphic design and layout for the PMA so that we had a logo and something to do creative the materials.

We came up with this system of four tiers as a membership level based upon the hours, because back, um, back then there was no definition for comprehensive instructor training. There was, but it was all very different. And there were a lot of people who just taught Matt or Matt and reformer or just reformer. So we wanted to have everyone to have a place. And in November of that year of 2000, um, there was a trademark party. I'm the disillusion of the trademark and it was at the power plotty studio on 23rd street. So people came in from all over the country and, uh, we knew this was happening, so calling and I thought, well, wow, this is the best time for us to present this idea that we have.

So we ran off papers and had all this stuff and there was a party and this is going on and you know, Deborah was there and Michelle Larson and Amy and Rachel and Howard and the attorneys and the attorneys wives and all sorts of instructors from the area. There were power. Plotters was involved with some things as well. At the time that was back. Um, Bob Lincolns was there and a Phoebe Higgins, a lot of, you know, a lot of people who've been in the industry for years and years and years. Mary Bowen was there, Kathy grant came. They were all there. So Colleen and I were given some time to speak. So we got up, we passed out the papers and we got up and said, you know, this is a good opportunity for us to discuss how we're gonna move forward with this and Dah, Dah, Dah, Dah, Dah, you know, this is this, these are our thoughts. And we'd like you guys to take a look at this.

And we were basically booed. And, uh, the whole general consensus was like, we just got over the lawsuit. We can't talk about this now. Why are you guys getting up and doing this? Why are you doing this to us? This is not right. Um, and there were a number of people who felt that way who are now very committed to the PMA. Uh, and I'm not going to go through and name the list of names, but everyone was like, you can't do this. You can't do this. Why, why? Where do you guys think you can do this? What was maybe, why were they so adverse to it? I think there was a rawness on everyone's nerves about what happened.

And then, you know, you know, people knew Colleen, but people didn't know who the hell I was. I was, you know, here I am standing up there and speaking and people were like, what, what's going on with this? So we continue to speak about it. Um, this was November. We proceeded, you know, Coleen and I were like not going to be deterred. So we proceeded and decided that, you know, we, we got more people involved and people really start starting to see the need for this. And we decided to hold a meeting in May of 2001. Okay. Did you invite the people to the meeting? Yes. So initially, um, Kenny, uh, Endelman and Julie Lepto were very, um, very free with their mailing lists. So we sent them a mailer and they mailed it out for us and, uh, actually covered the cost of postage, which was very nice. Um, and we decided to plan this meeting in May. So I had the business incorporated as a not for profit in February of 2001.

And, um, we got set up and planned this meeting, but you know, the next step was to get people to come and [inaudible] method alliance had been formed. Okay. Yes. So I knew at the time that we needed to get a lot of people there who were kind of quote unquote heavy hitters are very involved in the industry. So, you know, Ken was on board, Julie was on board with this. Um, Basel was with, uh, garage at the time and Lindsay and more from Stott, but I made personal phone calls to all these people and talk to them. And basically, you know, a Moira had come into town with Lindsay for ACA fitness conference in Miami Beach. And I took her out and we sat down and talked about all of this. So, uh, I called Ron Fletcher. I called Kathy Gran, I called Lolita, send me go cause no one had even heard from her because she was in Puerto Rico, uh, and Mary Bowen and I called Romana cause those were the five that were still left in involved. Corolla had just passed away in October of 2000 just to right around the same time that the lawsuit happened. Um, and um, Mary agreed to come. Ron agreed to come, um, Lovita agreed to come and Kathy agreed to come. And not only that, you know, Julie and peek polities came and Ken Adelman and balanced body came and Lindsay and where Rick came in addition to a number of key instructors all over the country. Ray L was there, Michelle was there, Pat Guyton was there. Um, Don Marie Ike's was there. PGO Claire was there, there was there and the list goes on and on. Um, but when I say on and on, it was about 90 people. That's what I was getting.

It was about 90 people. Yeah. But the interesting thing was I didn't know it couldn't be done and it was the first time everyone came up to me and said, you know, this is the first time we've all been in the same room together. So thank you. Did anyone say thank you? Yeah. Oh yeah, they did. I didn't think about it at the time because, you know, it was just, I was doing it. So you just didn't think about it. And then after you step away, I thought, wow, well that's kind of cool. And you know, one thing that both Coleen and I thought was very important was that each of the first generation teachers get up and talk about Joe just to kind of be a cohesiveness for the group upon number arriving.

Chapter 4

First PMA Meeting

What were the moods of most of the people or was it excitement?

Was there kind of, why are we here? I think people, yeah, people were apprehensive. They weren't quite clear. Um, a friend of mine at the time, W, uh, was involved in team building and she worked for a big company that would go into corporations and do team building things and retreats and ropes courses and all that kind of stuff. Right. So I asked Susan if she would come and she heard what I was doing and she donated her services for the weekend and she did a team building thing on the second day to try and get everyone to come together with a consensus. And we all broke into groups. So people were apprehensive. But I think everyone walked away from this situation, you know, happy. We took nominations from the floor for the board and put together the first board and people voted and we had little handwritten ballots and I sent two volunteers into the room and to a private room and they count all the ballots and figured everything out and we put the board together.

So did you name yourself as executive director over? Well, executive director is, is, is a little bit different because it's um, executive director as a paid position and a not for profit. So initially when we set up the board, um, because Colleen and I were doing all the work, we took the two roles as president and vice president, and then when we elected the board, then, um, then we put in the secretary and the treasurer positions at that point on. That's how we kind of set it up. And basically, you know, when you started a not for profit, that's usually what's involved. The founders usually put themselves in the position so that they're responsible for running everything. They're not paid positions, it's volunteer all of it. So that's what we did. And the first board, let's see if I can remember the entire first board.

I'll tell you if you can name the board. Ray Owl. Amy, Michelle Larson. Um, dawn Marie PGO Claire, she didn't stay on the board long. Uh, she had too many commitments and had to leave. Um, I'm think I'm missing a couple of people. Let me think here for a second. We had found someone to be a PR person. They came on the board. Deborah lessen was on the board as well. Um, and later we brought, the next year we had some more seats open and people left. But we did bring other people on. It wasn't, it was an interesting group of people. And um, we had our first board meeting at that conference and the dining room and the crest hotel once that the name was declared generic, almost instantly people were out there doing training programs and all of the initial training programs, uh, for better for worse were very short. Um, and they were all done in a very short modules. So, um, that was one of the things that the board decided right away and then put a question to the membership was what is it that you would like to see that happened at the second meeting and almost unanimously everyone said a national certification exam and that's how that started. It was it that definitive. Yup.

Good. Well, I, I would imagine like the board, well there were, there needed to be some set guidelines on teaching and you know, levels of expertise in what's required to go into creating a profession. That's basically what we were doing was trying to create a profession. Not that none of us were unprofessional, it's just that [inaudible] was that thing that people did. It just didn't have this name and all of a sudden between the trademark being dissolved and everything else happening, it just went and you know, it was good for business. It was also a free for all. And you know that they still are, they're still available, pull these certifications online. There were all over the place. Right,

Chapter 5

PMA Objectives

right. What were the initial objectives of the PMA?

Was there list of objectives or again with the collective discussion from everyone there at the meeting, where did each person go around and name one thing that they wanted to have is there, there was a, you know, it was so long ago, specifics of the group were really that we needed to be organized and I think from the standpoint of the larger companies, the equipment manufacturers, they wanted that organization to, because the fitness industry is quite organized, but plottings industry was not. So they wanted some organization, they wanted some structure, they wanted those things to happen and they wanted some affiliation. So those were the initial objectives of the group. And then as the board, you know, then you have to get down to business. You know, I'm part of the businesses, you know, you know, unfortunately sometimes there's an old adage for not for profits and when it comes to board work and it's changed and adjusted itself through the years. But the old adage was if you're going to be involved with the board, your whole goal is to make the organization successful. And Eh, it's the three g's. It's give, get or get off.

And we knew that we had to do something. So we either as a board member, you that give money, you go get money or you get off the board right now. And the way of pilates, in the beginning, the giving of the money was the fact that all of the board members put out of pocket expenses to become very involved and make the organization work. Cause they flew to all the meetings, they put everything on their dime. They made those things happen. And then the next thing was to reach the tentacles out of the group that was involved and tried to get the rest of the community involved and then to step out into the wider community and try to get other people involved that may like polities, but you know, maybe they could help pull out these in some other way.

So it was, um, you know, it's the hard part of the board work, you know, it really is. It's the hard part of the boardwalk. But we kept trying to push the message out. And the other issue with getting members, because we didn't have deep pockets to advertise, we were advertising an idea as much as possible every month, which costs us money. But any money that came in basically went out for ads and to promote. So it was just gone as soon as it came in.

So the PMA didn't start in lovely offices. I had a smaller loft at the time that I worked out of and lived in and my walk in closet became the office for the PMA. And, um, uh, and the first person that worked in there, I actually paid myself and, you know, we set it up that way and some of it was confidence studio and things like that. So I had like a little administrative person to do some of the work. Um, but consequently, the next thing that I knew we had to do was to have meetings in different parts of the country because everyone heard about the organization, but they didn't know what it was about. So I thought the best thing to do is for me to get out, go around the country. And I got in front of freestyle. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Right here and in, in boulder. And I flew and in most cases, everyone who hosted me put me up in their house. And, um, I had many funny situations of running meetings. Believe me, I'm, uh, Devin tech and Patrick O'Brian in Chicago who's to the meeting and it was their combined Christmas party and it was on the top floor of the John Hancock building. So by the time I got up to speak to these people who were there with their respective spouses or significant others and their clients, the room was already swaying because they all drank too much. And um, yeah, there was a lot of martinis going on. So, um, it was an interesting time. I had to stand up on a chair and talk to the group and that was fun looking out the window and talking to everyone on the recording. What is this guy talking about?

And we really didn't get much accomplished that evening, but they did hear the name PyLadies method alliance. But um, consequently, um, that's how I thought to grow. The organization was grassroots and in each town, each person that hosted the meeting kind of kind of became the little center where people would get information and they would help promote and do things. And that's how it all worked. So in the conferences of inviting some key players to teach and present where they happy to come and present workshops and classes. And was it challenging to get? Well, in the initially the second conference, we actually had presenters, so they were the four first-generation teachers. I invited Romana to come again, but there was no reply. Uh, I had actually during that time, during that first couple of years, went to New York several times and took Romana out, had a lesson with her and explain what we were trying to do and she was very polite but was clearly not interested. Um, so the first conference that was really a conference that was the four first-generation teachers and then we brought in, um, math people to teach math classes. And there was, I think Christy was one of the first people that was brought in the teaching class. So, um, that was, it was an interesting conference, but we decided to have all of the attendees. We had a very large meeting room, which was a, it was the conference center for the University of Miami.

So each of the first generation teachers did a presentation for the whole group. And then there were smaller group breakouts where they each, if you were lucky enough to get in the smaller breakout, depending on when you signed up, you could get in the smaller breakout. But we had about 300 people that conference. And then the next year we went to Denver. That was the third year. And um, it was actually much busier than it was at the Hyatt hotel downtown. And, uh, we had presenters and meetings and focus groups and an exam committee at the time we had put together a group, an exam focus group. Um, and it was entertaining because we had the first generation teachers again, they all presented, um, not this time in the biggest settings but in smaller venues.

So they had about 80 or 90 in each room. And um, that was a very successful conference as well. So we just kind of grew through the years. And how long were you involved with the potties method alliance? I left, I resigned and Elizabeth took over in 2007. I resigned in January of 2007 and stayed on until the end of July in the role as executive director. And then I stayed on the year after to run the conference and put the conference together, kind of passing the torch a little bit. Um, for a combination of things.

The PMA a was in some financial situations, so it was better for me to stay involved and to cut out, um, some other expenses that were being involved with the conference. So I stayed on and worked a little part time and put the conference together and ran it and did it that way. And then I stayed on for, there was 2007 and in 2008 as well. And then we didn't have the conference in 2009. Right. Yeah, because the, that was when the whole thing tanked with the economy. We ready to make a transition away from the PMA when you did or, yeah, I think the time had come to, um, you know, we had already, by that point when, after I'd resigned, we had already created and set the first certification exam. So this certification exam was launched by that point that was done.

The first exam was given out in June of 2005. Um, so by that point we'd already had the examined place and it was already running and working and we had done I think the hardest part, which was actually getting that off the ground and getting the group of people together as the subject matter experts to make it happen. Um, you know, because initially the board thought we could write the exam ourselves. Can you talk a little bit about that process? Yeah. We think it'd be important for us to know why you, why that wasn't a good idea to have you all write the questions. Well, you know, my position on the board was to facilitate and kind of be the eyes and the ears for the organization and to go out and tell people what was going on and to make my recommendations cause I thought, you know, that was what I thought I should be doing. And, um, you know, part of, during that processing too is I thought it was very important that, um, plot is also have some type of PR happening with it. So, um, uh, I w I wanted it to get a name out there and be exposed and right around this before I left around 2006, dawn Marie Ike's, um, we had discussed, you know, one of Joe's wishes was for children to do piles. So, um, dawn and I had talked about that a lot. She was still on the board at the point and she started a pilot program, which now has morphed into the plot is youth program, but at the time it was called plays in the schools and she started in her daughter's school and we put this together and um, we made a video about the positive benefits of polities and really we let the children do the talking. So don had a friend who was a videographer. Um, he interviewed the kids and the kids couldn't say anything better than we could say to ourselves. They were saying things video. Yeah. Is that still available?

I think so. I think so. And you know, at the same time we decided that we should, you know, uh, one of my clients was involved with not for profits in Miami for my studio and she said, you know, I want you to talk to someone. She put me in touch with the lobbying law firm in Washington d C and I went up to Washington to speak with this woman. At first I met her in Miami and then I went to Washington speak with and tell her what we were doing and the law firm was very interested in working with us. The problem is of course they're very expensive to work with. I also talked to just a regular lobbying firm, but the consensus among everyone in Washington that I'd spoken with is, you know, this is something good. Um, you know, plot is, despite the fact that Joe came from Germany, PyLadies is an American export.

And you know, that was a key factor that was very interesting to a lot of people. So I did spend some time going, um, you know, to lobby and talk to congressmen and so forth because really the goal at that point had been to do a mat class on the lawn of the Capitol for the congressman and all of these staffers. And we were trying to work towards that. So, um, there's a lot of stuff going on back then, man. Yeah, yeah, it was, but it was fun, you know, it, um, you know, getting PyLadies for the kids was really the key thing that was important to have happen because that would've set the tone of the longevity plays has been around for years, but keeping the children involved and, and I thought carrying on what Joe wanted was probably very important. So that's why we went in that direction. And, you know, p s um, it has a great business side to it because those young children become Polonius consumers of tomorrow and it's very important. Right. So, you know, there was a lot of ways to get out there and get the message going on. Right. So it was a, yeah, it was, it was a different time. Yeah. It's a different time. Hi, I'm here in Miami,

Chapter 6

Elizabeth Anderson Introduction

Florida at the offices of the potties method alliance and I'm wonderfully excited to be speaking with Elizabeth Anderson, the executive director of the PMA. And we're talking is, we're talking to history of PMA.

We'll get to certification in just a little while, but first I'd like you to tell us a little bit about you and um, you okay, great. Great. Well, I'm from the northeast. I grew up in Connecticut and Pittsburgh and I come from a family of arts people. So I have three brothers that are all musicians and I grew up in that middle year. And so I studied dance and um, after studying dance for awhile and got into arts administration and that eventually led to working at cal performances in Berkeley and then moved to New York, worked at the public theater with actors and then back to Pentacle dance works in New York, which is a services Organization for small emerging contemporary companies. And then in 1990 I went on vacation to London and at the end of the vacation I said to my friends, I was visiting don't really want to go back. And they said, Oh, you've got to stay here, stay with them. And so it was like, how do you do that? So one thing led to another and I ended up finding a really fantastic job there as the general manager of Chavonne Davis Dance Company, which I did for about five years and I stayed for 17 years and I became a citizen and I have an apartment there and a tiny little [inaudible], a continuing education business called Pele's umbrella. Wonderful. Yeah. Well, so that's how, that's my background. Background. Yeah. So theater, theater and art theater. Yeah. Perfect.

So what brought you to back to the states and to Miami? Okay, well, um, I have, I'm just to backtrack slightly. I had three sort of sections of my work in London for about five years with a dance company. And then the next five years was a producing conferences. And that brought me to, through through my connections with dance, I got involved with the, with I Adams, the International Association for Dance Medicine in science. And I produced their first conference that was outside the u s which was in tring England in 1997 and that is where I met for the first time, uh, Brent Anderson and Shelly power from Pollstar Polonius because Polonius is very much involved with dance medicine. And so I got to know them and I then produced the conferences 2000, 1998, 1999 and then in 2000, I was producing a conference for the, for Dance UK at the Royal Opera House and in VR and asked Brent to advertise in our program and he said he would and that he was coming over to London and did I want to have lunch.

So the lunch led to an exploration of me becoming the Pollstar licensee for the UK. And, um, I had been a Polonius client, but I really didn't know a lot these, yeah, about the [inaudible] world. But I learned, I learned. So I, I spent five years as the licensee for Pollstar in the U K and at the end of that period, um, I had started coming to the PMA conferences in 2000 I think the first one I came to was 2003, um, Denver and then Denver, and then New Orleans. And, and because I wasn't a police teacher, I didn't stay in the workshops, you know, I wanted to know who people were, so I'd say who's run Fletcher? Let me go listen and stay in here for 20 minutes. Get a sense of who he is, what he's like, but I wasn't gonna stay in there for the whole time because it's not my, yeah. So, um, I would then had time to hang out in the trade show, meet the exhibitors and the sponsors get to know the board members. And I began to invite people to come teach in London at my polities umbrella company. And through that I really got to know Deborah Lessen.

I brought her over in 2005 to teach and she became interested in me joining the PMA board. So I joined the board in end of 90 and 2006 and then then my first board meeting here in Miami in 2007 is when, um, the founder of the Co founder of the PMA, Kevin Bowen, um, decided to step down. So it was sort, I'm sort of in the right place at the right time and we had a discussion about me taking that, you know, taking on the job. Yeah. And in January and I moved here in June, 2007 he came back from London. Was it hard to leave and yeah. Um, I was ready for a change. I love England. It does really feel like my home.

I was there for 17 years and we know through your thirties and most of my forties, those are formative years and the people that you get to know when your friends, it feels like my, my home base. But I wanted, I, I thought to myself, I don't want this to be the last thing I experienced that I want to try. I want to be some other places. I want to do some other things. So I go back every six months. Wonderful. London. Yeah. So going forward in when you stepped in as executive director, what'd you do? What did, what did you do first? I mean, what did you have to do first? What did you, you know, where was it, where was the organization at that time? Um, I think that it was at a vulnerable moment. I mean, anybody who runs an organization or is, understands organization development, organizational development over periods of years, knows that there are people who have different talents for org managing an organization at different times of the organization's life. Um, I happen to be somebody who likes to be in on the earlier stages when things are really, uh, kind of messy and hard. Once they get too easy and it becomes routine, I get bored.

So like when I was running the dance company in the UK, I did that for five years, but after five years we'd done 11 tour, 11 UK tours. How many more times are you going to do that? I don't want to do that anyway. 11 is enough for me, you know, so, but, um, there are people who like it when it's just taking over. Um, so anyway, Kevin was the right place in the right place at the right time, the right person, Kevin and Colleen Glen, we're the co founders of the PMA. They were the right ones to get it launched. But then I think there was a time when it was time for the next person to come in with some different skills, different experience. And also it wasn't exhausting. I mean, I think those first seven years were exhausting for everyone involved and they need somebody fresh. Um, you know, I've certainly experienced that in doing conferences. It's like the, the lead up to doing the content, preparing the conferences.

So taxing by the time you get there, it's like, oh my God, can somebody come in and please say hello to everyone? It doesn't [inaudible] yet. So, um, anyway, and Kevin was an amazingly supportive and we, we, I worked in his space for, for two years. So I had an amazing crossover period with him where he was able to coach me and give me background. And give me perspective and history about the different relationships and to an apprenticeship in a way. It's a really, it really was. It was a fantastic, uh, well, it's essential, you know, I think when you have succession of, of um, presidents or, or board presidents or executive directors, there's gotta be across the Earth or period. It was a, he was very, very helpful to me. So when you arrived, um,

Chapter 7

First Teacher Training Summit

becoming the second executive director, um, it was an interesting time in our global world and I'm sure then how did that siphoned down to the PMA? It was a very dramatic time because of what was happening in the world economy.

So in 2008, there's a big crash and everything is terribly uncertain. And, uh, as a result, we felt it was necessary to cancel the 2009 conference to save the organization. Really. But, but what we did instead, what we did instead is something that's been incredibly positive was we, we had our first, uh, teacher training summit and we, because people already had booked that, those dates, they already had the conference dates in their agendas. We said, look, let's get together anyway and we can work on this issue. And that, that was where we really got to grips with what does the word certification mean in a professional context as opposed to an informal context. So we got that point across at that meeting. And I think that was a real turning point for the organization and for the buy-in for people to really understand what we were trying to do. And what was the attendance like at that summer?

About 150 people there and saw the way the first and if there was these were schooled school owners and school owners and directors and teacher trainers, people developing curriculum. And how did you, I remember that to getting email notification about the summit, but how did you all, uh, really drive that? Please come. How did you get them or did, was it a quick or people really excited to come or would they tend to have or were very intrigued but, but tentative. Yeah. And what we did, which was really the right thing to do is we, we had a very in depth presentation by one of the psychometricians from castle worldwide, our testing company. So it's not, this is not us telling you, it's, it's them telling you, you know, that this in the world of professions, certification means something very particular. Okay, keep going here. This is good. Okay. Really great place to clarify this. The, there's it certification in the world of professions, ta refers to, um, an exam that is comprised and developed by people from the whole community, not one school. The whole community is brought together to look at what actually is this method.

And they do this under the direction of a psychometrician. Now it's like I'm attrition is somebody who usually would have say a phd in statistics. They don't know about Palase. They know about organizing bodies of knowledge. So you sit down with a psychometrician and you know, 15 people and saying, what is [inaudible]? Well, it's this, we do this, we do this. And you put it all on the table and then the psychometrician helps to organize it. And so in, in the case of [inaudible], it's organized into three domains.

There's, um, assessment, teaching and then reassessment. Okay. So there's a, those are the three domains of learning for law, being a Polonius teacher. And under each of those domains there's an incredibly long list of knowledge and skills you have to be able to do to perform what's in that domain. So that's the overview of how the field is organized. Now once you have that, that that's what we is what we call the role delineation, the or job analysis, it's like what is this body of knowledge? Then the test is structured by writing questions that relate to all the skills and knowledge in those domains. It's extremely organized. You know, it's, it's very, very, very analyzed and organized, time consuming and very time consuming and expensive cause you've got, you've got to fly in 12 people to spend three days sitting around a table and of course the fees to the 10th to the stack company as well, you know, but, um, that's what certification is in a professional context as opposed to up colloquial con, uh, context where I might say, I saw you at the movies on Friday night. I certify that you are there. It's my testimony. I'm, I'm, I'm attesting to the fact that I saw you there.

I get it. It's a personal thing, but that's not the way we mean certify in a profession. So this was a big, you know, distinction to make because, because [inaudible] had grown up so, uh, just mushroomed up everywhere and people were so excited about and creating schools, creating training programs. And you know, the word certification is used in many professions to designate that you have accomplished. Uh, I've trained, you've trained training, you've trained and you've been assessed and to be competent and safe to work with the public. And I took a test and you took a test and so they called it certification and also that's what students want. I want to get certified. So I up there, well I'll certify you but that isn't what it means in a, in the world of professions. So we had to make that distinction and in that meeting it really came across, I mean because we had a professional psychometrician giving us like a four hour lecture about the history of professional certification, where it comes from, which is really actually from the civil rights era where it was about um, job discrimination. So it's an interesting history and we have, that lecture is on our website. It's free. It'd be great for that luck checkout. Yeah. Wonderful. So can, can I, can I just say one thing at the end? I remember, I will never forget at the end of that first day when we had spent the whole day talking about certification, Howard's this a shell from power plots was sitting in the back of the room and at this time they were like, okay, we get it. We get it, we got it.

Let's see if I do this. Stop telling me this, you know, and he's, and he said, well, that's a bit, what do you want? Okay, we understand that. What do you want? And I said, I want you to stop saying that you offer certification. You would have school offers is a certificate or a diploma or an assessment based certificate, but not certification. The certification is something that comes from the whole community, not from a school. So anyway, people got it at that point. And they signed a pledge.

We had about 60 schools that signed a pledge to commit to stop using that word by a certain date, which was July 1st, 2010 they had, they, they committed to removing that word from all of their websites and their brochures and everything. What were some of the outcomes of the 2009 summit? Um, and moving forward? Um, yeah, the outcomes. There were two main outcomes. One was that we effectively communicated to the group the distinction between what the word certification means in, uh, in, uh, the world of professions as contrasted to what it means in the colloquial and conversational world. Um, and that point was made and people understood it. And the, the community agreed to stop using the word certification to, to, to describe the results of teacher training. So positive about very, very positive outcome. I mean it was, I think people really understood it and understood the, the, the, the reason to, to, to, to change. Um, and then the other thing was at that meeting, um, we proposed the idea of setting up a registry of schools and people were very interested in doing that. And, and also interestingly, we said, um, we'd like to propose this idea, but we only have one criteria in our view, which is that we, we, we don't want you to use the word certification to describe the results of teacher training if you want to be on the registry, but you know, schools, do you want to have other criteria? And they were like, yes, yes, yes, yes. So they came up with all these criteria that was way beyond what we would have ever imagined they would have suggested or that we would have dared to suggest, which was fantastic. So it's like actually we really want there to be some guidelines about how we operate in this field.

So they came up with seven criteria in order to be included on the registry of schools. And that became the guidelines. So I mean all of this is very early days. You know, as, as the field develops, these thing will, will become much more refined and much more verifiable. But we're, we're trying to take something that's very loose and kind of, you know, heard it into a shape. Absolutely. And so it isn't perfect. It isn't perfect, but it's, it's got some, some shape. As Joe said, Rome was not built in the day. That's right. Hey, we're following along with what he said, you know. Right. So in 2010 another summit, no, we didn't. We, we, we'd, so far it seems we're doing them every two years.

So the second one was in Vail in Colorado in 2011 and that is when we started a process, which we're finishing this year in in June at our third teacher training summit in Miami Beach, which is to investigate what is being taught in the schools, what is being in and by schools. I'm using that word loosely. I mean with, with Polonius teacher training, what we know is out there is everything from the most extremely codafide program to, to to a very loosely organized program and everything in between. So you, you might have a mentoring apprenticeship sort of program, which has a manual and has logbooks and has this or you might have one that has nothing at all. Okay. So there's a big spectrum. So school, so what we did last teacher training program, what we're trying to use the word school. Okay. Because it's what's understood in the world of professions. Okay? Now, however we don't what we don't mean to exclude an apprenticeship from that. What we mean is teacher training. But in the Polonius world, people tend to think of teacher training as coming from a company or a program rather than a school. I see. And schools have certain things like a course catalog, like credits, like a, a grievance procedure, like job placement, like all of these kinds of things. So we're interested in having things kind of move in that direction, but we don't want it to be a straight jacket. Got It. Okay. All right.

So anyway, this, this a, so, so what we started to do, what we're after now is we want to establish a template for schools, um, which would outline what the minimum components are for a comprehensive platas teacher training program. Okay. And the reason for that is many, and, and ray will talk to you about that ray and Fontera certification specialist, but we, for one thing, we get people calling us frequently saying, I've been doing this for x years. I want to set up a training program. What are your requirements for a teacher training program? Well, there aren't any. Sure. Right. But, but what we've done is we, for the last two weeks, two years, ray has been surveying schools all over the world to say, you know, how do you break your program down? How much time do you spend on Matt reformer? You know, blah, blah, blah, history, contra-indications, ethics, anatomy, physiology, and all of these things. And so we came up with a big, um, chart, you know, and asked people to say, okay, my program is x amount of hours long, and I break it down this way. And that's been a very interesting process.