The Pathway to Membership

 

What is the pathway to membership?

The path to full membership entails a number of steps and the level of involvement and roles and responsibilities increase as members progress along this pathway. Note that some members may choose to join and remain as Registered Interest Groups (RIGs), while others will progress to prepare and submit their curriculum to become an Associate Member Organisation (AMO) and eventually a full Member Organisation (MO) of IFOMPT:

 

To watch short narrated Powerpoint presentations outlining the main aspects related to becoming a Registered Interest Group and progressing to an  Associate Member Organisation and Member Organisation, click on the links below:

How to become a Registered Interest Group (RIG)
How to Become an Associate Member Organisation (AMO)
How to become a Member Organisation (MO)

Step 1: How do you become a Registered Interest Group?

The journey to membership begins with the formation of a Registered Interest Group (RIG) in your country. The RIG is normally the group running the OMPT programme in a country. The requirements for this are listed here.  If you are interested in becoming a RIG, please contact the IFOMPT office and you will be directed to one of the Advisory Group on Membership Development members who works with your area. This group has been established with explicit purpose of growing of RIGs, AMOs and MOs by developing strategies to support and maintain existing MOs/AMOs/RIGs; and pro-actively seeking and engaging potential new members.

It is also important to understand that you can have more than one RIG in a country, but that there is only one overall group that is recognised by IFOMPT called the MO. Therefore, as you start this journey and there is (or can potentially be) more than one RIG, you must meet and form an Umbrella Group (UG) in your country. The UG will become the MO once the curriculum of at least one of the RIGs of this UG has achieved the required standards. More than one RIG can achieve the required standards. For example, in the USA there are over 20 different programmes that meet the IFOMPT Standards, but they all fall under the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists (AAOMPT), which is the MO for USA.

Approval as a Registered Interest Group
Once a prospective RIG has submitted the required documents to IFOMPT, the Executive Committee will approve your RIG status.

What next?
For some RIGs, this may be the level of involvement you choose to have with IFOMPT, and participation will be based on being a RIG. For the majority of RIGS, the goal will be full membership of IFOMPT as a MO and IFOMPT has put in place mechanisms to assist them in the process of progressing to full MO status.

 

Step 2: How do you progress to become an Associate Member Organisation?

Once a group has been approved as a RIG of IFOMPT, a member of the Advisory Group on Membership Development will be allocated to them and work with them to ensure you have things in place to develop their curriculum towards meeting the IFOMPT Standards. The members of the Advisory Group on Membership Development are all part of existing MOs and have worked with IFOMPT for many years. They will be allocated to you based on your geographical proximity to them. It is important to look at the Standards Document early before you plan your curriculum. Once you have looked at the document, this is a good time to talk to your allocated advisory group member. The development of the programme and ensuring that it meets the requirements set out in the Standards Document will take time, and IFOMPT will support the process wherever possible.

The development of the programme forms one part of becoming a MO. In addition to this, work also needs to be done on organising the structure of your organisation, especially if there are or potentially can be more than one RIGs in your country as has been the case in many parts of the world and where the various groups have very successfully formed an umbrella groups.

At this point, the RIG can then apply to become an Associate Member Organisation by providing the list of documentation required here.

Approval as an Associate Member Organisation
Once a prospective AMO has submitted the required documents to IFOMPT, the Executive Committee will approve your AMO status.

Step 3: How do you progress to become a Member Organisation?

RIGs or AMOs who wish to apply to become an MO are encouraged to utilise the following document for guidance in the development of curriculum submission for membership in IFOMPT. Once the educational programme of your RIG or AMO is ready and the Advisory Group on Membership Development have given the go-ahead, and you have sorted out your organisational structure, the formal application to become a MO can be submitted. The applications should contain the list of documents required and an application of US$1.000.00 is payable. 

Review process of the application
The application will be referred to the Standards Committee (SC) to review the application and the curriculum to make sure that it meets the requirements. The SC members allocated to the case will interact with you as part of their evaluation and will work with you to ensure that all the requirements are met. Once this process has been completed, the application needs to be presented to the Delegate Assembly of IFOMPT, who have to vote in the new MO. If voted in, the MO annual subscription applies.

 

Next Step: International monitoring

Once approved as an MO of IFOMPT, the MO is eligible for all the benefits of membership and the programme can be offered as an accredited IFOMPT programme. Every six years a process called international monitoring ensures that the standards are maintained.