Events & Updates

ANNOUNCING

The Ohio Mediation Association’s Annual Conference 

Friday, October 13, 2023, 9 – 4:00 pm. Registration 8:30 am.

Fawcett Center, Columbus, Ohio

“BUILDING RESILIENT RELATIONSHIPS” with presenters

Tom Carlisi, MA, Certified Nonviolent Communication Trainer

& Laura Nagi, Attorney and Counselor at Law

This presentation includes 6 CLE’s and is free to members. This year we are opening the event to interested persons so reserve your seat before September 11th.  To reserve a seat, or for any questions, rsvp to Teresapcusma@gmail.com

Registration will open September 11, 2023 for both members and interested persons.

Take Care,
Teresa Cusma
President, Ohio Mediation Association
_________________________________________________
July 2023 Update

Hello Fellow Mediators!

JOB OPPORTUNITY
Lorain County Court posts the attached job opportunityGail Ignatz-Hoover is retiring and has shared  this information. She has been an asset and advocate to our profession and we will miss her direct involvement!!
ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Mark your calendars for the OMA annual conference, in person, Friday, October 13th at Fawcett Conference Center, OSU. Our topic is Nonviolent Communication with Tom Carlise presenting. The conference includes 6 hours CLE credits. More information to follow.
WANT MORE BUSINESS?
Market yourself on www.mediateohio.org. Your membership includes a free website. You can use the member center template or your own design. Most important, include a picture of yourself. In today’s world, having a website is a proven marketing tool. Take advantage of your membership!
The Better World Award
The board is accepting nominations for this special award. This award recognizes an individual for their outstanding service to the mediation profession in Ohio. Nominations are one page stating the nominator and contact information, the nominee, and why you are nominating them. Send information to omapresident@mediateohio.org by August 30.
Take Care,
Teresa Cusma
President, Ohio Mediation Association

 


Hello Everyone,

Please join us for our quarterly program this Friday, March 24th. Our presenter is OMA member Veronica Cravenor, who also serves on the Board. The title for the presentation is:”Podcasting Like A Mediator”. She will be doing a short presentation on how to launch a podcast followed by Q&A. Veronica is very good at what she does and volunteering to help us learn this popular technology. This is an opportunity to learn and be able to ask questions with live answers.

Join Zoom Meeting
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Free Happy Hours on Zoom for Members! Watch your email for times.

Stay tuned for Fall 2020 Virtual Conference details.

OMA Annual Meeting May 8, 2020

Our Annual meeting was held virtually due to COVID-19.

 

OMA Annual Conference 2019 was a big success!

On March 1, 2019, Dr. Joseph Shannon delivered an engaging training on personality disorders at the OSU Fawcett Center.  The training was approved for 5.5 hours of CLEs and continuing education credits for counselors, social workers, and marriage & family therapists. Watch for future trainings.

 

 

Some Previous Activities:

June Meeting: OurFamilyWizard.com Presents New Tools to Offer Parents in Custody Disputes

On June 3rd, 2016, we will meet at the MCL Cafeteria in Westerville to hear about OurFamilyWizard.com.  This web service helps separated parents to manage parenting time, child expenses, and communication.  The presentation is entitled “Eliminate The ‘He Said/She Said’ – Improve communication and keep parents accountable in moderate and high conflict cases.”

OurFamilyWizard.com and its mobile applications are often made part of the parent agreement in an effort to improve co-parent communication. Learn how parents and professionals utilize its features to manage and document communication. Learn who may access the family’s activity and obtain declarations on authenticated records. Review model language colleagues are using to stipulate to and order communication on the website. Discuss relevant appellate opinions regarding the best interest of the child and user privacy.

Where:  MCL Cafeteria, 76 E Schrock Rd, Westerville, OH 43081.
When:  12:00pm – 1:00pm, Friday, June 3rd, 2016

 

February Meeting: OMA Returns to MCL Cafeteria for a Roundtable Discussion on the Future of Mediation

On February 5th, 2016, at the MCL Cafeteria in Westerville, OMA will conduct a roundtable on the future of our organization.

Mediators have much to offer disputants in Ohio who often approach conflict in harmful, expensive, and ineffective ways.  However, the field of mediation continues to flounder or exist as a secondary focus for many organizations and professionals.  So, what should OMA do?

As the only statewide professional association for mediators, is there something that OMA should be doing to address this problem?  This meeting will be an excellent opportunity to network with other mediation professionals at a crucial point in the development of ADR.  The address for the meeting is MCL Cafeteria, 76 E Schrock Rd, Westerville, OH 43081.
If you cannot attend, please take this two-question survey about future efforts by our organization: Survey: The Future of OMA

 

December Meeting: Robert Wistner speaks about Collaborative Law

On December 4th, at the Panera Bread in Clintonville, OMA’s own Robert Wistner will present the topic of Collaborative Law.  Collaborative Law is an important development in the alternative dispute resolution movement that should interest attorney and non-attorney mediators alike.  For our attorney members, collaborative law offers the ability to combine mediation and legal advocacy skills in the same process.  For our non-attorney members, collaborative law provides an opportunity to team up with legal and financial experts to resolve complex cases.

Collaborative Law therefore provides private practitioners with the ability to expand the services they offer.  And because Collaborative Law is an emerging process, OMA members who work in court systems maybe interested to learn about collaborative law so that they may promote it within their programs.

This meeting will occur from 12:00pm to 1:30pm at Panera Bread, 4519 North High Street, Columbus, Ohio.  We look forward to seeing you there!

 

October Meeting: Jeanne Clement speaks on Mediation and Mental Illness

On October 2nd at noon at the OSU Moritz College of Law, Dr. Jeanne Clement will speak on the topic of “How to Relate to Individuals with Mental Illness during Mediations.”  Dr. Clement has a doctorate in nursing education, works as a private practice mental health counselor, and has held teaching positions at Ohio State University and Capital Law School, where she has taught classes in the area of health care conflict resolution.

Nationally, Clement has been president of the Society for Education and Research in Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing, the Foundation of the International Society for Mental Health Nursing, and the American Psychiatric Nurses Association.  She was inducted as a fellow of the Academy of Nursing in 1995 and honored as a nursing Legend by the Ohio State University. Internationally, Clement has presented papers in France, Brazil and Turkey and has met with a team of international psychiatric nurses in Bellagio, Italy, to identify common issues for educators and to develop transnational curricula.

This event will occur in Room 251 at OSU’s Drinko Hall, 55 West 12th Ave, Columbus, OH 43210.  Please send RSVP to omapresident@gmail.com.  The first 15 people to RSVP will receive a parking pass.  Pizza will be provided.

 

Dr. Roy J. Lewicki, Emeritus Professor at the OSU Fisher College of Business, to speak on negotiation theory.

On Friday, June 5th, at noon, at the Fisher College of Business, 2100 Neil Ave, Columbus, Ohio, room 800 (the large conference room on the 8th floor), Dr. Roy J. Lewicki will lecture on negotiation theory.  He is looking forward to interacting with practitioners, so we encourage you to attend.

 

Dr. Bob Stinson and Dr. John Tilley Discuss the Impact of Personality Dynamics on Mediation for the 2015 Annual Conference.

On Friday, April 24, 2015, Dr. Bob Stinson and Dr. John Tilley, Board Certified Forensic Psychologists, will follow up last year’s introduction to personality disorders by discussing how personality types interact with each other, how the mediator’s personality may impact his or her mediation style, and how to use this knowledge to improve communication.

This event is being co-sponsored by the Columbus Bar Association, and we are applying for CLEs and CEUs.

 

February Bi-Monthly Meeting:  Meditation, not Mediation

The Ohio Mediation Association Will be holding its February bi-monthly meeting on February 6th from noon until 1:00 P.M. at Capital Law School, room 208.
The topic for the OMA February Bi-monthly meeting was mindfulness meditation and how this practice can improve our skills as mediators.  Because recent studies are showing that mindfulness meditation improves people’s ability to be present in turmoil and cognizant of their own impact on the situation, knowing about these practices may help us remain in control when dealing with high emotions, maintain our impartiality in trying cases, and be able to counsel our disputants on how to manage their own stress levels.
Our speaker at this meeting, Kathy Wesley, has been teaching mindfulness practice for 18 years, has 35 years of practice with mindfulness including a 3-year retreat, and is a Lama at the Columbus Karma Thegsum Choling meditation center.  Her talk explains how to practice mindfulness and discusses the potential benefits of mindfulness practice for mediators.

 

August Bi-Monthly Meeting: Promote Your Mediation Services!

For our August meeting, Ted Bigham, a local marketing expert with a web development business available at http://www.webdesignincolumbus.com/, spoke about Advertising in the 21st Century and how to use the internet to increase the visibility of your mediation services.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aamlo9ApMGo

 

June Meeting Cancelled, Open Call for Joining OMA Board

There will be no general, bi-monthly OMA meeting in June.  However, the Executive Board is seeking members to apply for the positions of Secretary and Appointed Board Member.  Candidates should email omapresident@gmail.com to announce their candidacy and introduce themselves at the board meeting in June.

The Board Meeting will be on June 6th at the MCL Cafeteria, 76 East Schrock Road, Westerville.  The Board will meet at 9:30am, and candidates should expect to make an appearance by 11:00am.  The Board will deliberate on filling those positions during that meeting.

A brief description of these positions is as follows:

Secretary:  The Secretary maintains records, maintains the membership roster, records meeting minutes, inputs membership into the www.mediateohio.org website, and checks the OMA email account.  It would be very helpful to have a laptop and touch-typing skills to be able to record meeting minutes.
Appointed Board Member:  This is a non-voting position; however, appointed board members are just as involved as officers, deliberating over board policies and contributing to OMA initiatives.

 

Arnold Schienvold Discusses High-Conflict Disputants for the 2014 OMA Annual Conference

On Friday, May 16, 2014, Arnold Schienvold, Ph.D., Past President of the AFCC and a nationally-renowned expert in the topic of high conflict families, will give a full-day lecture entitled, “Difficult Conversations with Difficult People.”

Conference Notes available here:  2014 OMA Conference notes

The PowerPoint presentation will be emailed to OMA members directly.

 

 

February Bi-Monthly Meeting set for February 7th at MCL

After reaching out to our members in the Cleveland area, OMA returns to Columbus for the next bi-monthly meeting, scheduled for February 7th at the MCL Cafeteria.

The topic that will be presented at this meeting will be “co-resolution,” an innovative new ADR process that allows mediation-trained professionals to serve as partisan advocates for separate parties, cooperating across the table as they give each party individual assistance with negotiation skills.  After receiving national attention in a Conflict Resolution Quarterly article and two ACR conferences, the process was then piloted in Columbus by OMA board members Nate Witkin and Susan Shostak.

Nate and Susan will explain the process and share their experiences in using it to resolve domestic relations cases.

When: Friday February 7, 2014
Time: 12:00 – 12:30pm – OMA General Meeting
          12:30 – 1:30pm – Co-resolution Presentation
Where: MCL Cafeteria
           60 Westerville Square
           Westerville, Ohio 43081
           (614) 818-1700

December Bi-Monthly Meeting: OMA visits MANO

For our December Bi-Monthly Meeting, OMA went on the road to connect with our Cleveland members and The Mediation Association of Northeastern Ohio.  Below are some video highlights from the meeting and roundtable discussion.

 

Video: The Psychology of Mediation

At our October bi-monthly meeting, forensic psychologists Dr. John L. Tilley Psy.D. and Dr. Bob Stinson Psy.D., J.D., delivered a talk on “The Psychological Aspects of Mediation and Negotiation.”  In Part 1 of the video, they discuss the chemical processes and mental shortcuts that occur in the brains of disputants and third-party neutrals in conflict situations.  In Part 2, they discuss psychologically-supported methods of influencing parties and how, as a mediator, you can guard against these tactics.

View both video segments below:


August 2nd General Meeting: View Magistrate Kemp’s talk on Mediating in the Ohio Federal Courts

Magistrate Terrence P. Kemp, the main organizer of the Southern District’s successful Settlement Week program, discusses this and other efforts by the Court to refer cases to mediation and other ADR processes. This talk alternated smoothly between a lecture and Q&A format. Our members in attendance participated fully and the overall talk was very informative. View the other segments on OMA’s YouTube page.


View highlights from OMA’s June 7th panel discussion on Credentialing Mediators in Ohio.

Click on the “YouTube” emblem at the bottom of the video screen and continue the discussion in the Comments section at the bottom of the page.

The entire hour-long discussion is broken up into four parts on the OMA YouTube channel.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel for updated videos as they are posted.