OMA Membership Meeting

                                                                                 Distribution: Post to mediate.com/ohio

Date:               June 2, 2006

Time:              11:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Location:        MCL Cafeteria on Schrock Road

Attendees:      12 Members: Phillip Dunfee, Christy Radigan, Sheri Center, John Cruze, Ed Krauss, Shirley Cochran, Faith Walzak, Robert Monnaville, Beth Leger, Gregory Edmonds, Robert Wheaton, and Jay Patterson

 1 Non-member: Rhea Havari

1.  Welcome and Introductions.  All attendees introduced themselves by providing their name, location of services, and a brief description of their mediation job or cliental. 

2.  President’s Comments.   Jay Patterson stated that OMA is becoming more than the organization it has traditionally been in the past.  The organization is becoming better and better but continues to need additional human and financial resources.  Members need to step up with new ideas and support of OMA events and projects.  Jay asked attendees to consider joining a committee.  OMA committees include:

            a. Membership: to retain and grow the number of members.

            b. Funding: to identify ways to build OMA’s treasury.

            c. Programs and topics: to schedule speakers for the bimonthly meetings.  Ideas for speakers should be shared with Sandy Frederick.

            d. Annual Conference: contact Phil Dunfee with any ideas or to join the committee.

            e. Technology: This committee is chaired by Martha Antolik and is responsible for OMA’s website.

3.  Vice President’s Comments.  Phil Dunfee reiterated the comments made by Jay on the need for members to participate on the Annual Conference committee.

4.  Immediate Past President’s Comments.  Shirley Cochran shared information on this year’s Annual Conference.  The speaker, Robert Benjamin, received very good or excellent review comments from the 40 participants.  Thanks to the grant from the Ohio Commission of Dispute Resolution, which paid the speaker fees, and also for the room in the Riffe Center and assistance in room setup.  The Better World Award was presented to Eileen Pruett.  Shirley read Eileen’s thank-you note to OMA for the award.

     Ed Krauss suggested that the OMA board consider having a joint conference with MANO next year or the year after.  Jay said the OMA board would certainly discuss this and he will also talk with the new MANO president. 

5.Treasurer’s Comments.  Dan DeStephens was unable to attend today’s meeting so no official treasurer’s report was available.  Jay shared that OMA did benefit from the recent annual conference; about $2,500 was cleared after deducting the cost of food.

6. Secretary’s Comments.  Christy Radigan has completed the minutes from May’s meeting; they will be posted to OMA’s website within the next couple of weeks.  She will also be removing any minutes earlier than 2005 and storing them in a separate archive.

7. Old Business. 

            a.  Intern.  Shirley Cochran and Dan DeStephens will be meeting with personnel from Capital University to discuss an intern/extern position.  This person would complete some of OMA’s more routine work. 

            b.  Website and Newsletter:  Martha Antolik is in the process of removing non-members (those individuals who did not renew their OMA membership) from the website.  She is also working on rearranging newletters on the website so they are in chronological order.  Shirley is now producing the newsletter on a monthly versus bimonthly basis but needs contributions for articles.    Bulk email is being used to send out notices of training or job listings; only 12 OMA members do not have email accounts.  These individuals will continue to receive information via mail. 

            c.  Membership.  Last year’s membership was 128; with this year’s membership drive still underway, OMA has 91 members.  Expect to see an increase in membership in the next few months.  Shirley has OMA brochures if anyone needs them to recruit new members.

            d.  Summit Meeting.  The next meeting is July 17, 2006.  Focus of this group, which includes members from major mediation groups and organizations throughout Ohio, is on advancing the profession of mediation.  They are exploring the development of a common slogan or tagline to be used by Summit members   Debbie Heimberger is gathering data for the next meeting.

8. New Business. 

            a. Case Study Group:  This committee is chaired by Susan Shostak, unfortunately, Susan was unable to attend today’s meeting due to illness.  Jay stated the goal is to conduct case studies not only in Central Ohio but also throughout the state.  All professionals can benefit from exploring common problems encountered and techniques used in mediations.  Look for the case study groups to be up and running in late summer or early fall.

            b. Review of OMA logo.  Phil has been working with a graphic designer to redesign OMA’s current logo.  He offered two basic designs, one with three boxes and the second using the State of Ohio as a backdrop.  Each design was displayed with different colors and fonts.  Ed Krauss suggested that members could incorporate the logo on their business cards, that should be kept in mind when designing the logo. 

     Members present at the meeting favored the three-box design with two lighter colored boxes merging into a darker colored third box.  The use of three different colors and fading colors was also discussed.  Cost may be a factor.  No decisions were made; Phil will provide cost information. 

            c. Leticia Patino, a newly appointed board member, recently resigned due the transfer and relocation of her husband who is a contract employee for the military. 

9. Program.  The program was a pilot for the Case Study Group.  Ed Krauss provided a typical scenario often encountered by mediators.  Meeting attendees were asked to respond to the scenario by answering two questions: 1.) what should the mediator do? and 2.) is it ever acceptable for the mediator, who speaks from a legitimate, strong knowledge base, to identify the flaws in a potential agreement?  These two questions generated a healthy exchange of opinions and examples by the attendees.  Everyone appreciated the dialogue and the techniques that were shared. 

10. Adjourn.  The next bimonthly meeting is scheduled for August 4, 2006 at the MCL Cafeteria.

Prepared by:  Christy Radigan, OMA Secretary