Get on the Map!

hello CANers! got a bit of that spring fever yet? feeling a little burst of energy? well, i’ve got a little project for you that will be worth every ounce of effort and will have weeks and months of on-going return.

have you noticed the CA clinics popping up every day like spring bulbs? it’s time to put yourself and the over 160 other CA clinics on the map. which map? the map of the community acupuncture network that will hang in your clinic–preferable someplace where it’s okay to talk (more on that later)!!

we put it off too long, honestly. our old place didn’t have a good spot for it and since we moved we’ve just been sooo busy with everything. but after our one year anniversary, we got it together and it is SO awesome!

we sent a short note asking for business cards, included some of our own business cards and a self-addressed envelope to each clinic on the Locate a Clinic list. we got a laminated map from Rand McNally for $14.95, some small round red stickers, a large binder with 2 packs of clear business card sleeves and then went to the mailbox every day like kids with a pen pal (do they still do this anymore?) we put a red dot on the map for each clinic (just started alphabetically by state) and a corresponding red dot on a business card slot in the binder. as the cards have come in, we just slide them into their numbered slot. we keep the binder right under the map, so patients have access to it.

how wonderful to get all your beautiful, unique business cards, and your supportive and funny notes. we feel the love and the solidarity!!

and our patients are really excited about it! we have been able to have lots of fun conversations about it all. some of our long-term patients have begun to really understand the layers of what CAN means in terms of health-care reform. and many folks have been able to follow the groovy train by getting to other CA clinics when they travel and to recommend to family in other parts of the country. special thanks to our stellar reception staff for help with the mailing and mapping!

so don’t delay–feel the love and get on the map! especially you new clinics. there is nothing like feeling the power and support of this network in as many ways as possible, especailly in those early, sometimes overwhelming, months. you can look at the map and know you are among comrades who have marched before and are launching with you, and you just know you are right where you want to be!

Author: melissa

Found community acupuncture in my last year of acupuncture school and it was like cool water on the dry desert of aculand. It addressed all those nagging questions of how to make acupuncture accessible and inviting to people like me, in my own communities as well as actually make a living and I knew I would practice this way for the rest of my life. I have learned more (about acupuncture, about people and community, about myself) in the past few years of running a CA clinic and being an acupunk at another BDC clinic than ever before. It's one of my all-time favorite places to be. I am eternally grateful to this community for its welcoming support, its passionate determination and its irreverence for useless sacred cows. I look forward to our continued work in supporting community acupuncture clinics worldwide!