MINUTES OF THE MEETING
OMA Membership Meeting
Distribution: Post to mediate.com/ohio
Date: August 4, 2006
Time: 11:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Location: MCL Cafeteria on
Attendees: 24 members and 3 non-members
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. None.
3. Vice President’s Comments. None.
4. Immediate Past President’s Comments.
a. Shirley Cochran spoke about on-going efforts to clean-up OMA’s membership list included on mediate.com/ohio. The list currently includes 40 past members whose information will be deleted if they do not renew their memberships.
b. Shirley is striving to produce the OMA newsletter on a monthly basis rather than bi-monthly. The July edition will be posted next week to the website. As a reminder, for the first month after posting, the newsletter is only available to OMA members.
5.Treasurer’s Comments. Dan DeStephens was unable to attend today’s meeting but the following information was provided. The treasury balance is $10,851.21, with $7,000 in CDs and the remainder in a checking account for payment for the website, brochure, etc.
6. Secretary’s Comments. Christy Radigan has completed the minutes from the June meeting and posted them to the website. She will also be removing any minutes earlier than 2005 and storing them in a separate archive.
7. Old Business.
a. Intern. Shirley Cochran continues to work with personnel at
b.
8. New Business.
a. Case Study Group: Susan Shostak described the case study approach. The
b. Review of OMA logo. Phil Dunfree described the two different logos along with colors and fonts. It was suggested that color choice should also consider how the brochure would look being reproduced in black and white. It was also suggested that a script font not be used; Times Roman Numeral seems to be the standard for readability. Most members gravitated toward the use of blue as the color and bold, decisive type.
c. Chris Perrin was introduced as the newest board member.
d. Ed Krauss asked members to send in articles for a bi-annual newsletter which is distributed to the
e. Cathy Kuhn currently serves as the conduit between OMA and the Court Professional Education and Training Committee. She described the process the committee is using to develop training courses: through a review of job categories and work processes so that training is based on job requirements. The group will be reviewing what functions mediators perform and then developing modules for training. Cathy stated the group is still in the information gathering stage. Board members interested in participating on the group include Susan, Phil, and John. Other interested OMA members should contact Cathy.
f. There are several upcoming conferences. The Association of Family and Conciliation Courts is holding a conference in
g. Susan passed around cards for members to sign providing support and encouragement for Joe Palmer. Joe recently took a tumble from a ladder and is recuperating.
9. Program. The program focused on writing mediation agreements and included four panel members who provided insights on various issues and concerns. Members included Shirley Cochran, Judith Thomas, Cheryl Lowery, and Eileen Pruett. The members addressed questions such as what type of information should be included in an agreement, what are the typical ways that mediators cross the line on practicing law, are signatures needed on the agreement, and what are the ways mediators can get into trouble in writing agreements. The panel members provided great insights and also fielded additional questions from the attendees. The lively discussion sparked everyone’s interest and imparted useful information valuable to any mediator.
10. Adjourn. The next bimonthly meeting is scheduled for October 6, 2006 at the MCL Cafeteria.
