As you may know, I currently serve as both President and Membership Liaison. I feel that this is a very exciting time to be involved in all aspects of APP Membership; there are more tools at our disposal than ever before.

Technological advances have made shooting videos and photographing documents easier than ever. In years past, a new applicant would have to shoot a VHS or DVD, along with photocopies of all of their compliance documentation. They would then ship it in the mail to our office, where it was forwarded to a person on our Membership Committee, who would review it. Then it would be shipped to a second person on our Membership Committee for review.

If an applicant made a small mistake, it could take months of letters and phone calls to make an important change and appropriately document it. Now, we can instantly respond with requests for missing documents or quick fixes of minor mistakes in an applicant’s piercing studio. This means far fewer declination letters have to be sent over minimal errors. The Membership Committee sees these mistakes and then gets to engage in one-on-one health and safety education that makes a real difference in our community. The current Membership Committee (Cody Vaughn, Monica Sabin, Coyote Black, Johnny Velez, Aaron Pollack, Darrin Walters and now Sean Phillips) have my thanks for the extreme amount of applications and renewals they have processed during my term as Membership Liaison.

It is impossible to fully understand the impact of internet forums, such as the Body Modification Learning Forum and the APP Non-Member Forum, in popularizing the use of safe jewelry and up-to-date health and safety practices. There was a time when jewelry compliance issues were the chief hurdle for most piercers in joining the APP. With these forums, safe piercing jewelry has become more and more the norm in shops all over the world. This welcome exchange of ideas has illuminated the path to APP membership, but more importantly safer piercing practices worldwide.

The entire APP benefits from the assistance so many of our Members have given to prospective applicants. The volunteers within the APP work so hard to make the organization effective, and they have my sincere gratitude. I also want to say thank you to those of you within our organization and within our community that supply piercers with so much health and safety information and education. The growth our organization has experienced wouldn’t have happened without you.

To maintain this growth and continue to fulfill our mission of health and safety education, the APP is taking steps to streamline the membership application process. We are doing this by developing a digital application which we are hoping to unveil very soon. This digital application should result in fewer missing documents, as well as making each step easier for applicants to understand and committee members and the office staff to process. It is my hope that this simpler, digital application will allow the APP to continue growing the way it has over the past five years.

In addition to a digital application, the APP is in the process of automating certain aspects of membership compliance and recordkeeping. Soon, internal documents will be uploaded directly to Member records, and Members will be granted access to upload external documentation (like First Aid and CPR). These records will be available to the Membership Committee and APP staff for review. This is an ongoing project in the beta phase, but I have very high hopes that it will be a huge success in making membership accessible to more and more piercers, while also making maintaining membership even simpler.

Stay tuned over the next months as we hope to see these great projects revealed to the membership.