NYCCAT listserve, member questions

[Guest guest]

Dear le,

My name is a Mac and I have just recently joined the NYCCAT Board. A number of your concerns are valid and raise a good point. I think it would be wonderful for you to attend any of the open board meetings that NYCCAT announces on this listserve and hosts, there have been two in the past 2.5 months.

IF you are able to "back channel" through some of NYCCAT's postings on the list serve I belive Chriss Berk posted a very long and detailed message regarding the question of why the funds are needed and where they are going. I can tell you now those that HAVE been collected have not yet been utilized as they are not yet the size of the sum needed to acquire a lobbyist, nor to retain the one we had, the board is currently in the process of deciding how to proceed.

Also yes, the organizations that partnered to push Licensure through have splintered, so the monies which were before pooled from a larger contingency are now, shall we say, less ample.

I notice however that you live a ways away, and in light of this I would be willing to print out your email and address these questions at the next closed board meeting (tomorrow night).

If this is agreeable to you, I would volunteer to type an email to respond to your inquiries point by point and post it on the list serve for those that do read them.

Additionally if someone else has read this email and would like to pose a question I suggest emailing me directly, with the subject heading "Questions for NYCCAT Board" and I will try to introduce them into tomorrow night's discussion as well.

brianamacwilliam@...

Best regards,a Mac MPS, ATR-BC, LCATLicensed Creative Arts Therapistwww.artsinaction.homestead.com313 E.92nd. St. #2WNew York, NY 10128

I considered starting a community group, which would have forums, live chat, etc. I have adminstrated on groups in communityzero for a number of years, they have a great inexpensive format. I had written NYCAT about doing this a year ago and never got an answer.Things have only gotten worse in the past year. OMH employees need to act now. Some of us are in danger of loosing our positions as budget cuts will be happening in January.It is quite possible that if we took care of the problems in OMH there could be lots of new jobs for lcats across the state, so it serves everyone, not just omh people. Which is why we should have NYCATs support.A separate listserve for this would help move things along also, because most people working in OMH are not going to discuss things in a forum that could include

unknown people. A few people wrote to me asking to be included, even though they do not work in OMH. People are disturbed that things have moved so slowly. We understand that NYCAT has many issues to deal with, but we want to get involved and this seems to be the best way to start.Kathy Masone >> Also, Ailish and Kathy, NYCCAT is working on a new website that will have the capacity to have message boards and forums so that conversations like these and others can happen in one place. We are working for a start-up date early 2009. > It is certainly something we need. > Debbie Stone, Board Member> debbiestone@ ...>