NRRTS seeks committee members, growth

LUBBOCK, Texas – NRRTS has been holding steady at about 1,000 registrants for the last few years—no more, no less—which is why the organization is launching a new committee to develop strategies to increase its ranks. 

“We thought we needed to take a different look at how we actually presented ourselves to the ATP community, the manufacturer community and the therapist community, and really put together some good talking points about who we are, what we do and what the value of being a registrant is,” said Tom Simon, ATP, CRTS, and vice president of the NRRTS Executive Committee.  

NRRTS registrants must meet certain standards and go through a review and approval process to obtain the designation of RRTS and CRTS. 

The Registrant Recruitment Initiative Committee is open to everyone who wants to join, for as long as they’d like to join, whether they are involved in NRRTS in some capacity or not, Simon says.  

“I don’t want to exclude anyone, or anything, or any comment,” he said. “Because once you do that, I think it inhibits people from actually speaking up and expressing something that might be the gold standard eventually.” 

The committee doesn’t have a specific target, in terms of how much it wants to grow the registrant base, Simon says. 

“We’re really not going to limit ourselves to what our goal could be,” he said. “Someone said 500 registrants and I said, ‘Well maybe we’ll do 1,000,’ because you could be an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, and still become a friend of NRRTS.” 

For Simon, who has been a NRRTS member for 15 years, this committee and its purpose is more than a project, it’s a passion.  

“I love getting the message out about an organization I’m so proud of and have so much confidence in,” he said. “Five years down the road, I hope everybody becomes a registrant. I hope it’s elevated to the level that there’s no doubt that people are going to want to take that step.”