Howdy folks. With our big (un)official holiday just around the corner I thought we could have a little discussion on what May Day means to CAN and now POCA. Why does May Day matter to you, your clinic, and your community?
Nick
PS- if you ordered a may day shirt they got shipped out early monday morning via priority mail. expected delivery time is 2-3 days.
Some thoughts about the acupuncture profession in the West, Ming vases, orchids, dead languages, Miriam Lee, and cathedrals.
The theme for this conference is “Breaking Barriers”. You know, there are so many barriers to break in acupuncture that it was really hard to choose which ones to talk about for this speech. But since I’ve spent so much time talking about classism as a barrier, I thought it might be fun to shift gears a little and talk about numbers.
A Guest Post by Michael Kalebich featuring Lava Resistant Bears.
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May Day is the anniversary
May Day is the anniversary of our opening day. Last year on May 1st we treated 40 people at our open house and expect a crowd this year as well. I don’t know why I decided to do it that way – it just seemed like a good idea, and our lease just worked out for it to happen.
I’ve heard from a number of patients in recent weeks that they’ve lost their jobs. Just about all of them will be there on Sunday. None of them are willing to be treated for free on a regular basis, but a celebration that includes free acupuncture is something they can get behind.
To the clinic (CCA), May Day is our annniversary …and our day to celebrate our connection to the network of like-minded clinics and punks. It feels great knowing it’s happening on the same day all over the country!
Jen
so hungry for acupuncture!
Man.
We just sent out a belated email to whole patient list about may day, haven’t really talked about it much or opened the schedule until today. Guess what? We are fully booked in 20 minutes. So I dragged some poeple around to open double and triple bookings, all those spots gone in the next 10. Now people are emailing wondering why they can’t get on the schedule.
And as others see the email, we’re gonna have a PR problem on our hands…
But this amazing, no strings attached celebration of acupuncture in a community setting just to spread the love and because CA is awesome…
Significant? Yeah. Because at BCA’s first few free days we had empty seats and a crew of the curious. Now these people and their people know exactly what it is we are offering, and they are clambering for it. People are catching the wave of ca in SD…
I wonder how many treatments we do this year?
It’s also the anniversary of when I opened my first CA clinic
And being at the two-year end-of-the honeymoon point, getting myself back into excitement mode and sharing it with this wonderful CA famiy who are also doin’ it just for the love of it … think how far that can carrry us all and the patients we treat.
Pauline
Workers
Celebrating workers of the world.
I meant to write this last
I meant to write this last night but got pulled away. I had a patient who has been seeing me since I opened. He is a dishwasher and has horrible neck pain. He never could have afforded treatment without community acupuncture.
May Day has its roots in the early labor movement. It is about
working class people getting together and organizing to help each other. That is exactly what CAN is about.
I think May Day goes beyond the conversation of unions. It is not a “leftist” holiday. Its radical. Its revolutionary. It is tungsten.
We cannot rely on the benevolence of those with power to give us what we need and what our communities need. We are stepping up to take care of ourselves.
Acupuncture is so amazing because it is cheap, easy to do, and works best in multiples (multiple patients and hour and multiple treatments over time). One punk with a $20 box of needles can give 100 treatments!
Just because someone is working class or lower middle class does not mean they need to be in pain or that they need to go broke to experience wellness. This May Day acupunks in the US, Canada, the UK and Israel will show thousands of people that this is true. That is tungsten in action.
Happy May Day and Viva La POCA!
nick
ad astra acupuncture
Like.
…
I am also opening up for
I am also opening up for business on May 1st (pure coincidence!). I didn’t realize it was such an auspicious day!
I haven’t yet designed T-shirts but plan on doing so and utilizing my website name I picked for the purpose http://www.stuckintroy.com
I haven’t got advertising in place yet and am transitioning into the new practice gradually — but next year I will join the celebrations…
solidarity!
Thanks Nick. Beautiful.
Korben Perry
Philadelphia Community Acupuncture
wow, booked up in 20 minutes
wow, booked up in 20 minutes that is amazing and inspiring! This is my second May Day what it really feels like to me is community and bringing people together, the essence of what its all about and a reminder of this work being a vocation and the gift it is to be able to give.
Free Day for our Regulars
We have a nice mix of new and returning px coming in 5/1. We do first-freebies 2x ea month, so this is a nice opportunity for our regulars who might not have had a freebie to get in on it. I did hardly any marketing, just F-book and a flier in the lobby, and it booked up in about a week.
getting very excited
We’re not doing any advance scheduling, just first come/first served, but last year was hella busy and I expect this will be too! I’m excited.
We also just got our package of shirts today! Thanks Nick, though I must say the back looks super crappy (that’ll get me a free beer next time I see you, right?) ;p Nice one. Big thanks to you and Alicia for putting in the work to make the shirts happen!
.
rules are
1- store up your anger
2- tell me to my face
3- step on my toes
then Ill buy you a beer 😀
Can you tell i was sleep deprived when i sent those out?
nick
Awesome!
Troy, NY! My dad went to RPI. I’ll tell him he has to go visit sometime when he’s back visiting. Maybe I can join him 🙂
Justine Deutsch, Acupuncture Together of Cambridge, MA
61 appointments and counting…
I don’t know how many walk-ins to expect. We’re taking down our 1 table and squeezing in a few extra recliners for the day to bring our total to 18. I had said I was hoping we’d top 100. Was I crazy? 🙂
My heart is beating a little fast and I’m trying to keep my Liver Yang in check. It gets a little out of whack when I get over-excited. Knowing so many of you are gearing up for the same just adds to my joy.
Oh my. Must go do something with myself on this beautiful Oregon day or I’m going to explode with anticipation.
Blessings to all of you getting ready for Sunday (or tomorrow if you’re celebrating a day early).
Nancy
Salem Community Acupuncture
Hey no one told me about
Hey no one told me about this, thank goodness there’s a lot of time left for me to store up – the rest is no problem!
MM
Didn’t know what to expect
I’ve been open since January, and some family obligations have kept me from doing as much in the community as I would have liked. But I vowed to let nothing get in the way of May Day!
I put up some full page neon orange fliers across the entire storefront, and made up a couple hundred 1/4 page fliers, also orange. I gave some out to the surrounding businesses, and asked patients to share out the remainder. I also posted copies of the flier on FB – on my clinic and personal pages, and on 5-6 FB pages related to my town.
I hadn’t gotten very many appointments as of yesterday, but people started calling after close of business Saturday afternoon, and I noticed several patients had reposted my May Day FB post on their own pages with great comments.
So far my best weeks have been 33 and 34 treatments, and I’m hoping to do at least that many treatments today alone. I really love my little town and enjoy meeting people whether they come in for treatments or just to say hi, but I really love it when a patient comes in nearly crying from pain, and the next day they come in dancing! It’s transformational for me as well as for them. I really want to have that feeling associated with May Day.
See all y’all on the flip side – love your May Day!
MM
24 patients in two hours!
Did well 😀