The Association of Professional Sleep Consultants hopes that 2017 is off to a wonderful start for all of you, and that you ended 2016 filled with happy and blessed moments in both your professional and personal lives.
We are grateful for our members and the growth we were able to bring to you in 2016. We want to take some time to celebrate and recognize all we have accomplished.
First, we added to our Leadership Team this year with our ?Blog Manager?, Sophie Acott and our ?Social Media & Marketing Manager?, Arielle Driscoll.
Sophie has been working hard as our blogs have consisted of a few new Monthly Features: ?What is new in the Industry?, ?Highlights of our Members & their Businesses?, & ?APSC Announcements?. We are looking forward to adding our ?Guest Blogs? in 2017. The guest blogs will include articles written by members, as well as experts from outside the APSC. A goal for 2017 is to publish a new blog each week starting in March. Please look for these weekly updates that are posted on our Facebook pages, both private and public. Please share any of these blogs that you feel are appropriate with other sleep consultants, colleagues in other fields, or your clients!
Arielle has been able to increase our Facebook posts internally. She has been on a mission to provide us with articles and studies that have recently been published. It is always great to see all the different information that is out there, and we especially appreciate when it sparks a healthy debate between our members. We believe in continued education and professional development and aim to offer these opportunities to all our members. Arielle has also begun to work on our public Facebook page as well. We are hoping in 2017 that this can be a resource for non-member sleep consultants, as well as parents who are looking for additional sleep support.
Second, our continuing education and member meeting library have expanded!
Teresa Stewart, APSC?s Continuing Education Director, has organized thirteen members? meeting for us in 2016! These have varied in topics to help meet your needs. Please remember you have access to all of these recordings on our website. Please remember to sign in so that you will have access to the Members? Only content. Once you are logged in you will find that you have access to the 13 2016 meetings as well as five from 2015! This is a great library of resources for you! We would love for you to join us LIVE in 2017.
Upcoming meetings will be on February 7 and March 16. We are in the process of scheduling more meetings for April- August. If you have a topic you?d like covered, a speaker you recommend, or want to be our presenter, please contact Teresa. The live meetings are a great way to connect with other members and ask questions during the meetings. More information will be provided for you in the newsletter on upcoming topics, and if you are a member of our private Facebook group, you can also access information under the ?events tab?.
We also launched two continuing education courses in 2016: Adult and Pregnancy Sleep: An Integrative Approach for Family Sleep Solutions? by our founder Mar Oscategui and Newborn Fundamentals Class: How to Develop Positive Fundamentals the First 12 Weeks? by Executive Director, Terian Gregory.
More courses will be offered in spring 2017, and we are actively accepting proposals for courses for summer 2017.
Through the collective work of Acott, Stewart, and Driscoll, we have been able to add to our members-only discounts. Please see this section on our website for more information on The Wonder Weeks Academy, Babocush, Tranquilo Mat, and a course through Mindfulness for Mothers.
Third, the APSC expanded into new regions and welcomed new members.
We added a new region in 2016, Bermuda & the Caribbean Islands! We are so happy to have Kate Himsworth join us as our newest Regional Director!
We welcomed new members from countries all over the world. This year we have had members join us from: Australia, Bermuda, Canada, Malaysia, Middle East, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom, and The United States. We are now represented in 27 countries and have an active membership of 148 international consultants.
In addition to the leaders we have welcomed to our team in 2016, we also want to extend our appreciation to all the Regional Directors and members of the Marketing Team.
We are excited and looking forward to 2017. We have a number of announcements to make in the upcoming months about further growth of our organization. These will include adding new Regions & Directors, more continuing education courses, new ways for you to gain mentorship and networking opportunities, and other strategies for furthering the mission of the APSC. Please be sure to complete our anonymous survey by the end of February. Your feedback will help us target our growth to meet your needs!