July / August 2007

MEDIATE OHIO
Ohio Mediation Association
www.mediateohio.org

A Bi-Monthly Publication
July/August 2007

President: Jay Patterson (614) 403-3825 E-mail: jmpmediation@ameritech.net
Immediate Past President/Mediate Ohio Editor: Shirley Cochran (614) 863-4775 E-mail: scochran@insight.rr.com
Vice President: Phil Dunfee (740) 366-3297 E-mail: phil@phildunfee.com
Treasurer: Sheri Center (614) 783-7281 E-mail: findingcommonground@yahoo.com
Secretary: Christy Radigan (614) 855-6926 E-mail: cradigan@insight.rr.com

Mark your Calendars for our exciting 2007 meetings!! (First Friday of the even numbered months except our conference or April meeting since it is at a facility for conferences.)

August 3, 2007 How is the UMA doing in Ohio? A year and a half’s perspective. Shirley Cochran, Attorney at Law and Mediator.

October 5, 2007 Mediating with Schools to Meet Needs of Children with Disabilities. Steve Polovick, Mediation Coordinator Ohio Department of Education Office of Exceptional Children

December 7, 2007 Probate and Guardianship Mediation. Ann L. Snyder, Magistrate Summit County Probate Court All meetings, except the Annual Conference, to be held at 11:30 AM at the MCL Cafeteria at Westerville and Schrock Roads in Westerville until further notice. (Directions on last page.) Don’t forget—after each OMA bi-monthly meeting, the Case Study Group gets together to discuss a case presented by an OMA member. If you are interested in a lively discussion of different types of cases, this is the group for you. For questions or to volunteer to present a case, please contact Susan Shostak (740) 681-1031, or shostak@ohiohills.com

President’s Column
By Jay M. Patterson
An Easy Way to Help Yourself by Helping the Whole

As most of you know, I have a deep seeded belief that every mediator has an obligation to play her or his personal role in advancing this profession that has yet to realize its true potential for improving quality of life. (In the past, you might have, indeed, heard this theme from me a time or two or three…or more.) Fulfilling that obligation can come in many forms. We don’t all need to contribute in the same way. Mediators can find the path that fits them best. The key is to find some route to do more than simply the good work we do with our own clients.

So, for those of you that have yet to find a way to contribute in a fashion that suits you, I have another suggestion for an easy way for you to help your profession advance. You can simply contact one or more mediators you know that might not yet be a member of OMA and urge them to join the only statewide professional mediation association serving all regions, styles and settings of mediation. In order to make this as easy as possible for you, we have drafted a template letter available on our web site, www.mediateohio.org for you to use in whole or to modify to your satisfaction. You can simply click on “Join OMA! Letter” and use this Word formatted document to forward via email or regular mail to other mediators. In this way, you can help OMA build resources to act on behalf of the profession as a collective whole. This, in turn, will help all individual mediators.

I believe our profession’s best days are ahead of us. I also believe those better days will not occur automatically. Our future as a profession rests largely on our ability to be less passive as a profession and by asserting ourselves as the true professionals we are. In my opinion, we can best achieve this through the collective action that starts with individual commitment.

As always, I invite you to share your thoughts either in agreement or disagreement to me, personally, or in a letter to the editor of this newsletter, Mediate Ohio.

Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution Supports Ohio’s Youth with Diverse Programming
By Sarah Wallis

The Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management serves as a source for information and technical assistance in the areas of mediation, facilitation, conflict resolution education and much more. However, the Commission is unique as a Dispute Resolution state agency in that it has a position dedicated to supporting conflict resolution capacity in K-12 schools and colleges/universities throughout Ohio.

The Education section of the Commission is currently involved in an evaluation project with Vanderbilt University, a partnership with Cleveland State University and Temple University in Pennsylvania, as well as an innovative project to train staff in all eight Juvenile Corrections Facilities under the administration of the Ohio Department of Youth Services.

The Vanderbilt project is an evaluation of the effectiveness the Ohio model of comprehensive school based conflict management. The Ohio model consists of training a school based site team and providing follow up training throughout the year. In addition the program provides technical support, expertise, and guidance on implementing an action plan based on the School Conflict Management Resource Guides. The Resource Guides are a collection of hundreds of student oriented conflict management activities developed jointly by the Commission and the Ohio Department of Education (ODE). This model for building conflict management capacity has been implemented in over 800 schools throughout Ohio. It has been shown that with proper implementation, which includes each student in the building receiving 25 lessons on the conflict management concepts (understanding conflict, understanding emotions, communication skills and problem solving), the climate of a school will shift in a positive direction, and will reduce fights and office referrals.

The school site teams consist of at least one administrator and three teachers. The administrator is required as they set the tone for the building and are essential for sustainability. The rest of the school team is made up of other staff-i.e. school nurses, school resource officers, guidance counselors, or other teachers. After being trained the school team becomes responsible for implementing and coordinating the school conflict management curriculum. There are currently 50 schools throughout Ohio that are participating in the evaluation. Based on the results of this evaluation the Ohio model could be endorsed as a Federal best practice.

The partnership with Cleveland State University and Temple University is a project funded by the US Department of Education and the Gund Foundation of Cleveland. This project, Conflict Resolution Education in Teacher Education (CRETE) is designed to incorporate conflict resolution skills (problem solving, emotional literacy, understanding conflict) into the curriculum of teacher training programs. The incorporation of these skills will enhance the likelihood of teachers remaining in the teaching profession and being even more effective in the classroom. This program has just received extension funding for two years and will be expanding to the University of Akron and Goucher College in Maryland.

The Commission is also developing a pilot curriculum for teacher training programs based on interactive video simulations to enhance decision-making around conflict situations in classrooms and school settings.

The most recent area of interagency collaboration is the partnership with the Ohio Department of Youth Services (DYS). DYS and the Commission are working together to train staff in all eight DYS facilities and integrate the conflict management resource guides into the education and social work curriculum for the youth. This training is designed to build capacity within each facility to train their own staff and provide alternatives to physical altercations for both youth and employees.

This is an overview of the major projects of the Education section of the Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution, if you are interested in learning more about these projects please contact Sarah Wallis at sarah.wallis@cdr.state.oh.us or 614-644-9275.

For information on other areas of Commission, including trainings and projects please go to www.disputeresolution.ohio.gov .

Don’t forget to renew your membership in OMA.

Due’s year is May 1^st – April 30^th each year.

Monthly Presenters for OMA
by Sandra Fredrick

I wanted to let the members of the Ohio Mediation Association aware that I will be coordinating the monthly presenters for our organization. I am very interested in any appealing presenters and if you feel you have a new program or approach that you would want to share with your peers it would be appreciated. Please contact me with ideas as well The following are ways to contact me: Sandra Fredrick, (937) 225-4099 or I can be reached by e-mail at fredricks@mc.ohio.org I look forward to hearing from you

Mediate Ohio Material: Please send material for Mediate Ohio by the 20^th of the even numbered months to permit publication in the newsletter. The next deadline is August 20, 2007. My address is 2897 Liberty Bell Lane, Reynoldsburg, OH 43068 Phone/fax: (614) 863-4775 E-mail: scochran@insight.rr.com Thanks, Shirley Cochran, Editor

Job Announcements: There are some announcements that become available for the meetings. Be sure to attend the meeting and check Mediate Ohio for openings we might receive notice of and if you have a position you would like to have listed, provide it by the deadline to the Editor. In addition, watch for e-mails from the OMA President. An additional website to check is at Mediate.com: http://www.mediate.com/jobs/

THE MEDIATION COUNCIL OF GREATER CINCINNATI
The Mediation Council of Greater Cincinnati, which has been in existence since the mid-1980’s, is a networking organization of mediators who live or practice in the greater Cincinnati area. The group meets at noon on the second Wednesday of each month from September – May to learn about matters of interest and share information. Members as well as non-members are welcome to attend the meetings; annual membership fees are $15.00. Meeting Time: 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Location : The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati* Rookwood Tower (5^th Floor) 3805 Edwards Road, Suite 500 *Health Foundation will not allow food to be brought in to its facility. Please Note: with the exception of the September meeting, the schedule of presenters and topics may be subject to change. Join the Mediation Council for monthly meeting reminders with updated information. If you have questions or need information, contact Marie Bader at 859-380-2137

Association for Conflict Resolution News
Mark your calendar to join colleagues and friends at the Association for Conflict Resolution Seventh Annual Conference “Rethinking the Table: People, Places and Practices” October 24-27, 2007 Held at the Phoenix Convention Center and Hyatt Regency Phoenix Hotel in beautiful downtown Phoenix, Arizona Program, hotel and travel information will be posted at www.ACRnet.org as details become available.

Conflict Resolution Day Facts at a Glance:

• 2007 will mark the third annual celebration of Conflict Resolution Day
• In 2006, there were at least 22 official proclamations from states, counties and cities recognizing Conflict Resolution Day
• The conflict resolution day logo of a tree was designed to match the intention for Conflict Resolution Day to grow organically from the “grassroots.”
• Conflict Resolution Day 2006 was celebrated in North America, South America, the Caribbean and Europe

Conflict Resolution Day 2007 is October 18. How will you celebrate? For great ideas and listings of past events,

visit www.ACRnet.org/crday.

ACR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR SEARCH
Summary – JDG Associates has been engaged to conduct the search for the Executive Director position at the Washington, DC-based Association for Conflict Resolution. ACR is the nation’s largest professional association for mediators, arbitrators, educators and other conflict resolution practitioners. Its mission is to advance the practice, research, public understanding and teaching of conflict prevention and resolution. With more than 5,000 members, ACR works in a wide range of settings throughout the United States and around the world. A multicultural and multidisciplinary organization, ACR offers its members conferences, professional interest sections, insurance products, regional chapters, quality assurance initiatives, training standards, and public policy representation. The position reports to the Board of Directors and is responsible for instilling in the staff a team-oriented, community approach for working together, based on the values of ACR and the field of conflict resolution, as well as a culture of “customer-oriented” responsiveness to membership. ACR’s website is www.acrnet.org. Principal responsibilities:Working with the Executive Committee, Board of Directors, and staff to accomplish the goals and objectives of the organization; works with the Treasurer to ensure and maintain ACR’s fiscal integrity. Manages and supervises the administrative offices of ACR including oversight of all staffing and personnel issues, and the development and maintenance of policies and procedures. Supervises all aspects of educational events for the Association, including annual conferences, section conferences, professional development and technical assistance programming, as well as oversees the publication of ACR’s journal, newsletters and website. Works with the Board and staff to create, plan and coordinate long-range strategies, including the development and articulation of a compelling vision of ACR for its fundraising activities. Develops and strengthens partnerships with allied organizations and key stakeholders and constituencies; represents ACR at conferences and other events. Requirements: Bachelor’s degree with a major in public administration, business administration, behavioral health, communications or related discipline; Master’s preferred. Strong track record in management of a non-profit, member-based organization with sections and/or chapters very helpful, as would be experience in: Working with board of directors and committees; Organizing and managing large educational events/conferences; Promoting diversity and equity throughout an organization; Member recruitment and retention strategies; Fund raising; Promoting a positive image of an organization. Strong oral and written communication skills are essential. Reply T PAUL BELFORD, Principal JDG Associates, Ltd. 1700 Research Boulevard Rockville, MD 20850 301 340 2210 belford@jdgsearch.com

Upcoming ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Sponsored Events:

August 9-11, 2007 ABA Annual Meeting San Francisco California

April 2-5, 2008 Tenth Annual Section of Dispute Resolution Conference Sheraton Seattle, Washington

August 7-9, 2008 ABA Annual Meeting New York

April 15-18, 2009 Eleventh Annual Section of Dispute Resolution Conference Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers New York

July 30-August 1, 2009 ABA Annual Meeting Chicago, Illinois

Renewing, New Members and Additions/Corrections to the Directory (not the entire list of members—see the directory at our web site for that list): New and renewing members may send applications to Immediate Past President, Shirley Cochran at 2897 Liberty Bell Lane, Reynoldsburg OH 43068. Contact Shirley for membership applications. A membership application can be sent electronically for your convenience or you can download it from the OMA website www.mediateohio.org If there is a correction or an addition, please let Shirley know but only you can correct the directory on the website. If you have misplaced your membership number and password, please contact Christy Radigan for assistance.

Correction: Barbara A. Venesy, Law Office of Barbara A. Venesy (not Offices)

NEWS: Mediation Training Institute International is for sale. MTI is the most prominent source of mediation training in the world. Acquisition by an Ohio ADR firm, academic institution, or large law firm would immediately propel the new owner to being the global leader in ADR training. Inquiries outside Ohio also welcome. This is a truly unique opportunity for a visionary entrepreneur in dispute resolution. Request the detailed prospectus at http://www.mediationworks.com/sale/ For MTI’s physical street address and telephone contact numbers, visit http://www.mediationworks.com/contact.htm

TRAINING & WORKSHOPS:

Community Mediation Services of Central Ohio and the Columbus Bar Association Basic Mediation Training September 12 & 13, 2007 and 40 Hour Domestic Mediation Training October 3, 4, 9, 10, & 11, 2007. Presenter Shelley Whalen, Executive Director of CMS and a past president of OMA Training site 91 Jefferson Avenue, Columbus OH, the Thurber Center CLE and CEU’s Contact CMS (614) 228-7191 or www.communitymediation.com Fax: (614) 228-7213 Mailing address: 67 Jefferson Avenue, 2^nd Floor, Columbus OH 43215. Capital University Law School Center for Dispute Resolution

Center for Dispute Resolution, Capital Law School, 303 E Broad Street, Columbus OH 43215-3200, Phone (614) 236-6430/ Fax (614) 236-6956 CDR Directors include Roberta S Mitchell and Scot E Dewhirst, Co-Directors of the Center, and Terrence T Wheeler, Executive Director of the Center. Please visit our website at www.law.capital.edu/disputeresolution to gain more detailed information on our trainings or to register on-line.

Cleveland Mediation Center United Office Building, Suite 906 2012 West 25th Street Cleveland, Ohio 44113 2005 Presenters include Dan Joyce and Wendy Hawbaker For further information on all training contact: Bob Curtis, Training Co-coordinator Phone: (216) 621-1919, extension 500 Fax: (216) 621-3202 E-Mail training@clevelandmediation.org .

Pepperdine University School of Law presents A World Class View of Dispute Resolution, the 20^th Annual Professional Skills Program with seventeen courses, thirty-seven faculty, over 300 participants from around the world, two and a half days of interactive dialogue and in cooperation with Mediate.com. Woodstock, Vermont co-sponsored by Vermont Law School, October 4-6, 2007. To register or for more information, visit straus.pepperdine.edu or call Lori Rushford at 310.506.6342.

Web Sites of Interest:

Ohio Mediation Association: www.mediateohio.org
Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management: www.disputeresolution.ohio.gov/
Ohio State Bar Association: www.ohiobar.org
Mediation Association of Northeast Ohio (MANO) www.manomediate.org

DIRECTIONS TO OMA MEMBERSHIP MEETING LOCATION—MCL CAFETERIA

Schrock & Westerville Roads, Westerville Phone: (614) 818-1700

All meetings begin at 11:00 AM with the program immediately following

From Western Ohi Take I-70 East to I-270 North Two exits past I-71 is Westerville Road Take the part of the exit that will take you north on Westerville Road Either turn right at Schrock Road, left at the light at Otterbein Road, and left into the shopping center (first driveway on left) or cross Schrock Road to next light, turn right into shopping center and follow driveway to far end of the center From Southwestern Ohio: Take I-71 North through town to I-270 East two exits to Westerville Road Take the part of the exit that will take you north on Westerville Road Either turn right at Schrock Road, left at the light at Otterbein Road, and left into the shopping center (first driveway on left) or cross Schrock Road to next light, turn right into shopping center and follow driveway to far end of the center

From Northern Ohio: Take I-71 South to I-270 East two exits to Westerville Road Take the part of the exit that will take you north on Westerville Road Either turn right at Schrock Road, left at the light at Otterbein Road, and left into the shopping center (first driveway on left) or cross Schrock Road to next light, turn right into shopping center and follow driveway to far end of the center

From Eastern Ohio: Take I-70 West to I-270 North to the Westerville Road exit Take the part of the exit that will take you north on Westerville Road Either turn right at Schrock Road, left at the light at Otterbein Road, and left into the shopping center (first driveway on left) or cross Schrock Road to next light, turn right into shopping center and follow driveway to far end of the center