Mediation On-Line A Newsletter from ADR Resources http://adrr.com/adr9/016.htm Volume 2, No. 4,  January 1999 From: Ethesis@AOL.Com (Ethesis) To: SMarsh@adrr.com Subscribe

Greetings:

I moved my practice and am now with the Zisman Law Firm, P.C., an b.v. rated general litigation firm at 200 Renaissance Place, 714 Jackson Street, Dallas, Texas  75202, 1-800-242-5053.  I will continue to mediate and am very excited about the move.

I hope that the season and the new year find you all well.  On the web site there is now a great new essay by Dr. Moore at http://adrr.com/adr3/conference.htm.  It is titled Community Conferencing, and is on transformative processes, both in the community and in the business place.  Dr David Moore may be reached at www.tja.com.au or tja@connect.net.au. I've also added my photograph to the on-line version -- I'm told that makes the newsletter more concrete.  

Interesting new Mediation & ADR web sites

A reminder.  If you receive this newsletter, and if you have a web site, please send me the url to look at. I'm actively adding personal mediator's sites at http://adrr.com/adr0/links1.htm#SMALL and value referrals and suggestions about good sites.

• FTAA CONSULTING, INC. has a web site at http://www.ftaaconsulting.com/.
• Frankenfeld Associates has an interactive web site that generates economic calcualtions and personal injury reports at Economic Projections (http://www.frankenfeld.com/).  An interesting site.
• Transformative Justice Australia at http://www.tja.com.au/ is a site for a group that does substantial work in the United States and Canada as well as Australia. This is an interesting place to start if you are curious about the differences that make transformative mediation what it is and if you would like to learn more about community conferencing.
• Mediation Quarterly has a new web site at http://www.jbp.com/JBJournals/mq.html.  At $58.00 a year, it is a little expensive for a journal, but at $119.00 for institutions, not so bad.  I should note that there have been several publications with the name Mediation Quarterly -- this is not the one I published a number of articles with -- but this is the Mediation Quarterly that has had the most success in the market and is the best known.
• The Martin Institute at the University of Idaho (Moscow) has its publications listed at http://www.martin.uidaho.edu/publications/.  If anyone who has subscribed or read them has an opinion to share with me, I would appreciate the feedback and insite.
• Yale's Journal of Conflict Resolution is found at http://www.library.yale.edu/un/un2f1a1.htm.  At $290.00 a year it makes the Mediation Quarterly and Harvard's Negotiation Journal look like incredible bargains.  I passed on subscribing but your institution may be interested.
• A resource site on dealing with bullying and abuse is http://www.successunlimited.co.uk.  Interesting material and over forty web pages of resource information.  I'm not fully competent to evaluate whether the author is correct or not, but the work is exhaustively presented.

News

The University of Missouri -- Columbia has a residential, one year (24 semester hour) LLM in ADR.  George Washington also has an LLM program. Though George Washington is more oriented towards trial advocacy, it is also available to part time students where Columbia is not. Osgood Hall (a Canadian law school) is offering a part-time program LLM. All in all, LLM degrees are more likely to have value in the (non-practicing attorney) market than certificate programs and are programs open to those with interests besides or beyond law (e.g. the University of Missouri offers combined emphasis with their Family Science program or with the organizational behavior department of their Public Administration graduate program). The real value of an LLM is that it is available with the entire resources of the university to support the scholastic efforts that a post graduate degree entails.

The Columbia program should graduate about 3-4 students a year who will be ready to pursue serious academics in ADR (by teaching in law school) and another nine to ten student a year who will have a solid foundation to do deeper work and gain stronger perspectives of how ADR relates to specialized settings.  I would hope to see some of its graduates in international legal negotiation and business settings as well as with the FLMA and Justice Departments InterAgency ADR Working Group (web page at http://www.financenet.gov/iadrwg.htm ).  The ADR Working Group seems to set out a strong pathway that calls for legally trained individuals with advanced skills and education to aid the various federal agencies in their missions that is aimed right at a program such as Columbia's.

Finally, there is some real work to be done as the various North and South American indigenous peoples reconciliation initiatives progress.  As "Indian" law (the law of Nations vis a vis indigenous tribes) progresses, there is a real need for people with both strong legal understandings and strong ADR training.  Professor Kevin Worthen of BYU has done some excellent work that just cries out for application to ADR techniques and approaches.

I should comment that Director Bobbi McAdoo is taking a very conservative approach when she talks about her program, but I'm willing to say things about the program and what I see as its place that she is too reserved to note. You can attribute to my observations and comments what I expect to see the students doing and the place I see for them in the various federal initiatives.  Ms. McAdoo sees them doing serious graduate study work.

The Columbia LLM has its details available from http://www.law.missouri.edu/csdr/ and the program is only taking in about 12 or so students a year.  If anyone has details on the George Washington or the Osgood Hall programs, I'd love to hear more and to be able to pass that information along.

Essay/Comment/Books/Periodicals

I've been subscribing to Negotiation Journal, Harvard Negotiation Law Review, Missouri Journal of Dispute Resolution (I'm still waiting on my first issue, but I just subscribed within the last several months), and Journal of Dispute Resolution (Ohio) (Which I just subscribed to in November.  I kept waiting for the web site to get updated and offer on-line ordering ... but http://www.acs.ohio-state.edu/units/law/jdr/ordering-info.html hasn't been updated since 1995 -- and I had waited long enough to subscribe).  I also was a subscriber to the Mediation Corporation's publications, including their Mediation Quarterly.  Mediation Monthly is supposed to have a successor publication shortly and I'll subscribe to that.  Of course I subscribe to Camara out of Lima, Peru and have provided some very modest support for that endeavor. If you are interested in providing support to Camara, contact the editor at ZAZAZA@ibm.net.

In addition, I subscribe to Suzette Haden Elgin's bi-monthly linguistics newsletter -- a valuable resource.  L&SFN, Post Office Box 1137, Huntsville, AR  72740-1137 at only $15.00 a year for a sustaining membership subscription.  You can also call (501) 559-2273 to order direct.

Next month I review The Alternative Newsletter -- only $15.00 a year and by far the best "dollar per page" bargain in the newsletter industry.  Tan@mediate.com for more information about ordering it yourself.  Not to be missed.

International Updates

I've been very impressed at two completely different initiatives.  First, Australian mediators have just about colonized the world with various programs, outreaches and approaches.  It is incredibly impressive.

Second, South American mediators have made revolutionary improvements in the legal and community atmosphere in many areas.  In many ways I see the hope mediation gave many of us being fulfilled in South America.

Also, there is a new initiative aimed at setting up a mediation center in Russia.  They can be contacted through Violetta Vatagina at general.lpg@col.ru.  I am certain that they would appreciate any help or suggestions.

On Employment

It should be interesting to watch the federalization of ADR programs.  I am very curious to see just how that affects employment opportunities in the ADR field.  Visit the Department of Justice pages to keep current on opportunities in the federal mediation sector.  http://www.usdoj.gov/06employment/indextxt.html and http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/ta.htm are two pages to bookmark.

You will need to do a federal format resume.  They look a little different from "normal" resumes -- including information such as your SSN, citizenship, high school, etc.  ftp://adrr.com/adr9/fedres.htm is a copy of mine as of November, 1998 -- in html at fedres.htm.  A good web site that explains all of the details you need to know is found at http://www.resume- place.com/.  The site is set up to promote a book on the subject, but it has very substantial content, instructions and information.  It has all you need to know right there on-line.  If you've ever applied for a federal job by sending a "resume" this site will explain what you should have done and what you should have known (e.g. SSN, citizenship, high school, etc.).

Submissions to adrr.com

As always, I am interested in any submissions or articles anyone would like to have posted on the web -- and I am glad to be able to point them out in this newsletter.  I prefer to post material as you have written it, with no editorial changes by myself.

With my best regards, I remain,

Sincerely yours,

Stephen Marsh
http://adrr.com/adr9/016.htm
Additional material is included in the on-line version.
If you are curious where the term/name Ethesis comes
from, visit http://adrr.com/living/ethesis.htm

Back issues at http://adrr.com/adr9/mediation.htm
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If for some reason you wish to be removed from my periodical mailings please let me know. If I'm sending anyone extra copies or sending it to anyone who shouldn't be getting it, please let me know. This e-mail mailing list is supposed to be limited only people who would be interested and who have subscribed.  Thanks for your patience and help.

Post Script (the "extra" material for the on-line version).

<< Subj: Distance doctoral program
Date: 98-10-21 17:46:29 EDT
From: yangh@nsu.acast.nova.edu (Honggang Yang)
Sender: owner-dispute-res@listserv.law.cornell.edu
Reply-to: yangh@nsu.acast.nova.edu
To: dispute-res@listserv.law.cornell.edu ('dispute-res@listserv.law.cornell.edu')

Nova Southeastern University (NSU) Launches a Distance Doctoral Program in Dispute Resolution

The Department of Dispute Resolution at NSU is launching a new Ph.D. program in a distance format to accommodate and meet the needs of working adults in the fields of peacemaking and conflict resolution. The development of distance doctoral studies is based on the solid residential academic programs where we attract life-long learners from all over the world who are committed to academic excellence, social responsibility, and informed, reflective practices.

The distance Ph.D. program develops an optimal combination of innovative learning models, teaching approaches, and interactive media so that working adults do not have to relocate to study for their doctorate and enhance their career development. It offers the students weeklong, limited-residential institutes, on-line seminars, and individualized systematic studies. This flexible format will also allow and encourage mid-career working adults to define and shape their intellectual and practice paths in a creative, rigorous, and structured fashion.

At NSU, students are challenged with dynamic, innovative, and holistic approaches to learning. In the current residential graduate programs, students' backgrounds are as varied as their geographic distribution: community mediators and organizers, public administrators, business managers, court personnel, trainers, teachers, therapists, social workers, pastors, police officers, doctors, urban planners, organization consultants, human resources professionals, social services workers, government employees, NGO practitioners, customer service agents, resident directors, and college professors. 36% of the students are from minority groups and 66% of the students are female, who came from 24 states and 17 countries.

The 82-credit-hour program includes courses of theoretical foundations, history and development of the field, research methods, practica, skill development, and substantive topic areas in the field. The program will admit its first group of distance doctoral students next summer in preparation for commencement of their Ph.D. studies in September 1999. While the department is developing distance programs for the field, it will continue to support and enhance its residential programs (i.e., Graduate Certificate, M.S., and Ph.D. Programs) that are offered on campus.

The NSU is located in the beautiful, vigorous metropolitan area of Fort Lauderdale and is the largest independent university in Florida. For more curriculum and admissions information about the residential and distance graduate programs, please contact:

Department of Dispute Resolution
School of Social and Systemic Studies
Nova Southeastern University (NSU), 3301 College Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314
Phone: (954) 262-3000
FAX: (954) 262-3968
Toll Free: (800) 262-7978
E-Mail: CR@ssss.nova.edu
Website Home Page: http://www.nova.edu/ssss/DR/adr.html

Honggang Yang, Ph.D.
Chair and Associate Professor
Department of Dispute Resolution
Nova Southeastern University (NSU), 3301 College Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 3331 >>

Subj: "places mediation has gone"
Date: 11/2/1998 8:52:06 PM Central Standard Time
From: tja@connect.net.au (David Brian Moore)
Reply-to: tja@connect.net.au
To: SMarsh@adrr.com

File: tja intro.doc (19968 bytes)
DL Time (32000 bps): < 1 minute

Dear Stephen Marsh

Charlotte Gottschau recently wrote me advising of your newsletter after you posted the website for an essay she wrote on the "Minneapolis Conference on Conferencing". Since you expressed interest in "places mediation has gone" [beyond the court annexed process bearing that name], I thought I'd write with some basic details of the work I'm doing with my colleagues in Transformative Justice Australia (TJA). This small Sydney-based consultancy includes a couple of folks involved in the first Australian community conferencing program (in the New South Wales juvenile justice system).

We were then instrumental in formalising training workshops in the process, bringing on board various theorists in this area, moving the process into schools and other educational bodies, producing the materials on which the first North American conferencing programs were based, and - more recently - developing a range of processes such as workplace conferencing that extend principles and practice of transformative justice into large organisations.

We now spend several months each year working in Canada and the U.S. (e.g. have just returned from work with Manitoba Justice, Ontario Provincial Police, Scarborough Justice Committee [outer metro Toronto] and a group of inner city neighbourhoods in Baltimore).

I'm not sure how much of this would be of interest to your constituents - the newsletter readers. Certainly one of the first questions we're asked by people working in this field is: how does conferencing differ from mediation? Of course, mediation takes various forms, and ADR more broadly even more various forms. But as a rule, people find useful our distinction between specific DISPUTES and general CONFLICT. The former tend to revolve primarily around facts and concrete interests. The latter tend, above all, to involve negative feelings. Also as a general rule, ADR processes tend to work best while the DISPUTED facts and interests really are still more important than any concomitant or resulting CONFLICT. But at a certain stage of complexity, the conflict becomes more important than the dispute.  

And from that point on, as we see it, what is required is less a processfor dispute resolution, and more a process for conflict transformation.

In other words, in:

* circumstances in which there is clearly conflict, but the actual nature of any related disputes is unclear; OR

*circumstances in which a legacy of low morale and unresolved tensions remains after past disputes have been dealt with inappropriately - by amplifying or avoiding the conflict;

OR

*circumstances where there appears to be no specific dispute between parties in conflict. They just appear to be in conflict...

- it is unhelpful to amplify the level of conflict. But nor is it optimal to avoid or ignore the conflict. Instead, a process is required to transform the conflict.

The work we are doing in community, government and corporate sectors applies these principles in practice. (See attached file - blurb) Some of the larger programs we're involved with are being thoroughly evaluated (and I'm happy to supply net-references to reports/ statistics, etc. where they're required). Most immediately, though, some of your readers might be interested in our website: www.tja.com.au

Anyway, Stephen, I just thought this material might be of interest to you, and I wish you all the best.

Sincerely

David Moore
Transformative Justice Australia

Journals that matter

JOURNALS	Average Score	Central 50% of Responses	Range of Responses
Negotiation Journal	6.4	6-7	6-7
Mediation Quarterly	6.0	6-6	5-7
Journal of Conflict Resolution	5.6	5-6	3-7
International Journal of Conflict Management	5.4	4-6	4-7
Peace and Change	5.2	5-6	4-7
Journal of Social Issues	5.1	4-6	4-7
Missouri Journal of Dispute Resolution	4.7	4-6	3-6
Journal of Dispute Resolution (Ohio)	4.6	4-5	3-6
Law and Society Review	4.5	4-5	2-7
Family and Conciliation Courts Review	3.3	3-4	1-6

From Professor William C. Warters's paper, Table 5.

[return to mediation newsletter index]

This Website is by Stephen R. Marsh
Contact Information at:
http://adrr.com/smarsh/