Ohio Mediation Association

OMA Membership Meeting

                                                                                 Distribution: Post to mediate.com/ohio

Date:               December 1, 2006

Time:              11:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Location:        MCL Cafeteria on Schrock Road

Attendees:      17 members and 0 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.  Two of the members were first-time attendees to the OMA lunch meeting. 

2.  President’s Comments.  Speaker for OMA’s annual conference, to be held on May 11, 2007, on the 31^st floor of the Riffe Center, is nationally known mediator and trainer Nina Meirding.  She will provide “toolbox” training designed to enhance mediation skills.

3.  Vice President’s Comments.  Volunteers who are interested in working on the OMA conference should contact Phil Dunfee.  Also, the new OMA brochure should be available in the near future.

4.  Immediate Past President’s Comments. Per Shirley Cochran, OMA now has 131 members.

5.Treasurer’s Comments.  Dan DeStephens shared that OMA currently has $2,982 cash on-hand and $7,054 in CDs.  Recent expenditures include a $6.00 service charge to Fifth Third Bank, $1799.95 to Mediate.com, and $24.00 for postal supplies.

6. Secretary’s Comments.  Christy Radigan completed the minutes from the October meeting.

7. Better Word Award.  Nominations are needed by January 31, 2007.  Anyone can provide a nominee, either a person or an organization – just be sure to provide a strong write-up.  A nominee does not have to be a member of OMA.  Please provide nominees to Shirley by the January deadline.

8. Case Study Group. A one-year  prototype of the case study group is being coordinated by Susan Shostak and Kathleen Hoenic.  The initial meeting will be held after today’s OMA meeting, from 2:00 p.m. until 3:30 p.m.  The presenter is Sheri Center.

9. Summit. Focus of this group, which includes members from major mediation groups and organizations throughout Ohio, is on advancing the profession of mediation.  Additionally, it serves to increase collaboration between the various mediation groups.  The next meeting will be held on December 16, 2006. 

10. Program.  Dan DeStephens shared insights from a meeting of 106 senior mediators and facilitators recently held in Keystone, Colorado.  This conference, conducted on October 9 through 11, 2006, was jointly hosted by The Keystone Center and Mediate.Com.  Purpose was to examine where the field has come over the past three decades, assess the current landscape as well as strengths and weaknesses, and prepare a statement of guidance to the next generation of policy-making and policy-influencing practitioners.   Megatrends influencing the dispute resolution field in the next 25 years were particularly interesting and stimulated much discussion amongst the luncheon attendees.  Many thanks to Dan for sharing his meeting notes.

11. Adjourn.  The next bimonthly meeting is scheduled for February 2, 2006 at the MCL Cafeteria.

Prepared by:  Christy Radigan, OMA Secretary