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by Margrit Mikulis ND, AD
It has been an honor to have had a front-seat view of the incredible work accomplished this past year. I feel proud of our growing staff, volunteer, and member workforce; their service is the heart and soul of NAMA. We are so fortunate that we have such a dedicated group of people within our organization who are thrilled about Ayurveda and who work to help NAMA and the profession thrive!
Since our organization’s inception, hundreds of people have served as volunteers, and notably during this past year, over 70 members have served NAMA in this capacity. I am inspired and stand in awe knowing the capabilities of our “think tank.” We are such a great powerhouse of professionals creating and gifting time for everything that represents our great organization and community within NAMA and for Ayurveda. Ayurveda is growing in the United States because of our collective contributions and the hard work we do each year.
How does NAMA work as an organization?
At the close of our fiscal year, the Executive Director requests an annual summary from the Chairs of each Committee at NAMA to highlight the teamwork and accomplishments from the previous year. All detail then gets compiled into our annual report, which can be accessed online (2020/2021 Annual Report). This year we brainstormed about how we can help our members better understand how NAMA functions. In the spirit of knowing that we can always improve, we now aim to educate our community about how NAMA operates, and how we uphold our vision and mission as our initiatives evolve each year. For all of you, it is my hope that this article will serve as a step toward that goal.
Before diving into the details of our board’s processes, I will provide some helpful background information on the general structure of a Not-For-Profit Organization (NPO).
NAMA is a Private NPO and as such incorporates the following structural features:
Stakeholders: People and organizations invested in NAMA’s success, such as members, sponsors, donors, volunteers, and beneficiaries
Governance Body: The Board of Directors elected by NAMA stakeholders
Director Nominations: Election of Directors by the voting members
Management: The body of people who oversee operations, including the Executive Director, who reports to the Board of Directors
As a volunteer-driven professional membership organization, we rely heavily on our stakeholders, including our voting members, to drive NAMA’s progress. Without stakeholders we would not have an organization. We view our stakeholders as the mitochondria of NAMA, here to empower people and to help advance our profession, build relationships, continuously improve the organization, and increase our success so that we can continue to achieve excellence in educating the country and the world about Ayurvedic medicine. Our stakeholders are the building blocks and internal engine of NAMA that hopefully will continue to sustain our strength and fuel out growth for years to come.
Yearly, the Board of Directors collaborates with the Executive Director to determine the type of work that needs to be accomplished in any given year. We can determine our direction because the Board, the Executive Director, the staff, and our Committee members are driven by NAMA’s mission, vision, and purpose. The board determines organizational goals and objectives for the coming year and the Executive Director, the staff, and all the Committees work in concert to achieve the goals set each year by the board.
As the Board of Directors, we must ask big questions:
What do we need accomplish in any given year?
Was there any work that was carried over from the previous year, and if so, what are the fiscal ramifications?
What initiatives do we know we need to complete?
Are our operations aligned with our strategic plan?
Did we meet the previous year’s goals?
What obstacles prevented us from completing work that needed to get done?
In addition, I would like to emphasize that we are always having to answer the question can we afford to do this?. We faithfully rely on our budget as the financial framework that guides us during the year (Financial/Treasurer’s Report).
These are just some examples of how we determine our path to the future and find the best ways to execute our vision and strategy while upholding our mission to serve our membership and the Ayurvedic community.
Workflow and Our Volunteers
Our Executive Director and staff are responsible for the administrative functioning of NAMA, an enormous task that is constantly expanding and becoming more complex. The NAMA Board of Directors and all the individuals from the different Committees make up the entirety of our volunteer team. You can dive deeper into learning more about the NAMA Board of Directors and each Committee by reviewing the annual report. Our volunteers are students, general members, and professionals from all over the country. Like me, some began volunteering as students who eagerly entered the field with a strong desire to progress to a professional track. Others are already involved in some Ayurvedic professional capacity and serve because they are also interested in growing Ayurveda and helping the profession evolve in the United States. When I reflect on such a fine collection of individuals dedicating their time, the volunteers seem like the mosaics of the Taj Mahal, each one contributing something beautiful and vital to NAMA’s structure and function over the past 21 years.
Highlighted Outcomes from 2021
Like many other organizations, NAMA experienced challenges and had to change direction in 2020 because of COVID-19. Timelines and work shifted as we responded to the needs of our community. Below are some highlights from the past year that can help illuminate some of NAMA’s incredible accomplishments in 2020:
Accreditation Council: The NAMA Board of Directors and the board of the National Ayurvedic Medical Accreditation Council (NAMAC) worked the entire year to prepare for a successful Iaunch of NAMAC’s operations in August 2021. With NAMA’s financial support and the collaborative efforts of the NAMAC Board of Directors and NAMA’s Executive Director, Hilary Garivaltis, NAMAC was able to hire an Executive Director, Lisa Cavallaro, in February 2021. NAMA helped secure NAMAC’s initial operating budget with a financial commitment of $50,000 over the next year. This is a monumental endeavor and a historical moment for the Ayurvedic profession as we approach a new horizon of academic excellence for Ayurvedic schools and programs in the United States.
Certification Board: The NAMA Certification Board (NAMACB) is now four years old and has been working hard on promoting the Ayurvedic Health Counselor and Ayurvedic Practitioner certification exams while developing the Ayurvedic Doctor exam. The Ayurvedic Doctor beta testing phase should begin in early-2022. This exam will serve as the third component of the only official and verifiable set of professional certifications for Ayurveda in the United States. A huge accomplishment for any profession, the creation of certification exams is a hallmark of any profession’s growth and viability.
Conference/Events: In 2020, we initially faced the challenge of having to make a swift and difficult decision to cancel our annual in-person conference but quickly moved forward to host our first virtual conference. Additionally, with the help of an outside consulting team, we determined that we would expand our events and host educational programming for the Ayurvedic community in 2020/2021. These events included Ayurveda Day and The Business of Ayurveda. As the pandemic extended further into 2020, the Board of Directors determined that it would be in our community’s best interest to host our 2021 annual conference on a virtual platform as well. Although the cancellation of the in-person conference is disappointment, we welcome this new opportunity to keep our community connected and to get more experience hosting large online events.
Membership: The Membership Committee hosted a Leadership Summit for the first time this past year to give our Committee volunteers a chance to learn about all the wonderful things each Committee is doing. The Committee also hosted the first round of Student and Professional “Mingles” in response to the call for more time to connect and interact as a community. These events have been a great success, and we plan on continuing and expanding them in the coming year. We also created a special BAMS Task Force to focus on the particular needs and contributions of this growing portion of our membership community. Finally, the Membership Committee has now opened to programs that offer Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy and has welcomed the first two programs this year.
Diversity and Inclusion: The NAMA board established the Diversity and Inclusion Committee in July 2020 to support the growing needs of our community. The board felt it was imperative to offer a training series led by a specialist in the field so that we could provide more education on this important issue to our members. The Committee worked diligently and after conducting a rigorous selection process hired Diversity Antiracism and Inclusion Trainer Mariama Boney of Achieve More, LLC. With Mariama at the helm, NAMA hosted a three-part monthly training program between February and April 2021. “Reveal, Realign, Restore” was an interactive and recorded program that gave the participants an opportunity to discuss and celebrate diversity and inclusivity within the Ayurvedic profession.
President’s Corner: From April 2020 through April 2021, I hosted 19 virtual programs for our community on topics ranging from Classical Ayurvedic Perspectives on COVID-19 to Biodiversity and Health with Vandana Shiva. Over the past year, I had great conversations with many NAMA board members, keynote speakers from our conference, and other professionals who specialize in topics related to Ayurveda. All past recordings are available to members and can be accessed from the events page on our website.
Looking back on this past year, I am hopeful and remain positive about the future, yet feel compelled to acknowledge the suffering and challenges faced by so many of you and by all communities locally and globally. A massive global healthcare burden exists that can no longer be ignored. We know that this pandemic is an undeniable example of how our environment directly connects to our health and well-being. We as Ayurvedic professionals are grappling with the same questions confronting all of humanity and every faction of healthcare:
How do we respond to this increasingly urgent call for global health and wellness?
How can we as professionals and individuals promote health in our families and within our communities?
How can we protect Mother Earth and all of humanity so that our children and their children will come to know that a healthy planet equals healthier people?
Since the beginning of 2020, maintaining our health has taken on new meaning. Our service and the wisdom of Ayurveda are needed now more than ever. It is so important to acknowledge how the shared experience of the pandemic continues to influence and shape all of us as professionals. Knowing this I feel that we as colleagues must work together and keep striving to be of service to the Ayurvedic profession, to our communities, and to the world.
NAMA remains committed to growing with all of you. Ayurvedic medicine may be a young profession in this country but this ancient wisdom has flourished for millennia and is now taking root here in the United States. Collectively we are stakeholders in this profession, each one of us carving out the distinctions that define what Ayurvedic medicine means to the American people. As pioneers, we expect to wrestle with challenges; however we know that hard work, endurance, and commitment have proven to yield success after success for the National Ayurvedic Medical Association. Thanks to the efforts of teachers and students, doctors and clients, schools, product companies, cooks, authors, and scientists, and the passionate desire of the general public for alternative healthcare solutions, Ayurveda is no longer a quiet voice echoing across the mesas of New Mexico. We are a nationwide organization with a loud voice, opening doors for each other and all those who need Ayurveda’s natural, holistic approach to healing.
We are all living and breathing examples of why Ayurveda continues to blossom and bear fruit, and every one of us can celebrate with certainty that we are changing lives, making history, and growing in strength and togetherness.
Hari Om.
In Gratitude,
Margrit Mikulis, ND, AD
NAMA President
About the Author
Margrit Mikulis ND, AD, is a Naturopathic and Ayurvedic Doctor, practicing in Vermont and New Hampshire. She incorporates Ayurvedic principles and practices with other integrative medical systems and modalities. She has over 15 years of clinical experience serving children and families in the northeast and throughout the United States. Margrit serves on the NAMA Board of Directors and is currently NAMA’s President.