the neutral zone, march 2007

the neutral zone

vol.6 issue 2
03.07

Content
News and Updates
TVMA "NVC & Mediation" Training,
April 13-14.
News from the Front
Peer Mediation in Tennessee
Blog World
Legal Language
Salt in Mediation
Mediation Toolbox

Archives

2007
February

2006
December

2005

2004

Quid Novi?
News and Updates:

CMC DATES:
March 21, Executive Committee, 12-1pm, CMC Gay St Office conference room. Brown-bag lunch, drinks provided.

March 29, Board Meeting, 5:30-7:30pm, place to be announced. We will be welcoming our newest board member, Professor Becky Jacobs, UT College of Law Mediation Clinic.

Peer Mediation Advisory Committee: If you are interested in being included in the re-start of this CMC Committee, please get in touch with Jackie at jkittrell@2mediate.org or at our office, 594-1879. There is quite a bit of interest in breathing new life into our 7 year old unfunded peer mediation program for Knox County, including networking with surrounding counties. Our work with UT Athletic Department needs follow up, as well as our work with Knox County Schools.

TVMA DATES
March 20, (3rd Tuesday) Regular monthly meeting of TVMA, TVUUC, 6:30pm social time, 7-8pm, No program is scheduled but we will be holding our annual election of the board and officers. Click here for directions to the meeting. The slate presented by the TVMA Nomination Committee is:
Officers:
President Wayne Whitehead
Vice President Jean Munroe
Secretary Natalie LeVasseur
Treasurer Janet McMullen
Board Members at large:
Greg Davis
Renee Gray
Marsha Hupfel
Jackie Kittrell
Judy Toole

REGISTER EARLY & SAVE THE DATE!
April 13-14, A special treat for all mediators in Non-Violent Communication and Mediation, with two wonderful trainers, John Kinyon and Ike Lasater (an nvc attorney mediator). This training will be a 2 day training, held in the large meeting room at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church (TVUUC). Please go to TVMA's website for registration information. This training will fill up early, so please register before the end of February to assure a place. For more about Non-Violent Communication, please check out this website.

KNOXVILLE BAR ASSOCIATION DATES
KBA ADR Section: Events will always be held at Anderson, Reeves & Herbert, P.A. - 2607 Kingston Pike, Suite 130 (Tyson Place), at 5:30-6:30pm on the first Monday of the month. They each have been approved for 1 hr CME/CLE. $15 for KBA members; $25 for nonmembers. ($5 extra the day of the event.)

April 2, 2007
Mediation in Business Cases
Speaker: James S. MacDonald, Dunn, MacDonald, Coleman & Reynolds

May 7, 2007
Mediation Insights in Employment Law Cases
Speaker: Patty K. Wheeler, Wimberly, Lawson, Seale, Wright & Daves

September 10, 2007 (Note Date Change)
Mediation of Medicare/Subrogation/Liens/Nursing Home Claims
Speaker: Harry P. Ogden, Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, P.C.

November 5, 2007 (Note date change)
Ethical Considerations in Mediation
Speaker: Howard H. Vogel, O’Neil, Parker & Williamson
*Approved for 1 hour of Ethics CLE Credit

Nashville trainings:

TBA mediation CLE/CME offerings:

Tennessee Association of Professional Mediators (TAPM)

Lipscomb University Institute for Conflict Management
April 19-21, The Advanced Mediator's Summit with Dr. Randy Lowry, Dr. Wendy Trachte-Huber, Dr. Larry Bridgesmith, Howard Vogel, and Cheryl Mason.

May 24, Knowledge vs. Reason: Healthcare's Approaching Perfect Storm

June 7 & 8, June 28 & 29 and July 19 & 20.
Mediating the Complex Case, Rule 31 basic Civil training, offered in three 2-day blocks.

Asheville Trainings:
May 17-18, May 19, Collaborative Law Basic Training: As many of you already know from experience, Asheville is a lovely place to visit, and to be able to attend a beneficial training there is to have your cake and eat it too! (Not to mention a side trip to Hot Springs Spa!) Asheville has a thriving and long-lived Mediation Center and some of the mediators, including the founding director, Barbara Davis, Chris Craig, and J. Kim Wright, have begun to practice and train Collaborative Law.

There will be a basic 12 hr. training held in Asheville
May 17-18 in Collaborative Family Law, along with a
4 hr. advanced practice training on May 19.

I've taken the basic training and plan to take the advanced session. Contact any of the trainers (via their websites--links above) to learn more and sign up!

Tennessee Committee on Community Mediation (TCCM)
March 21, Mid-South Mediation Services and its director, Mary Ellen Bowen, will host the March quarterly meeting in Hohenwald, TN, 10am-2pm (CDT). This coalition is composed of all community mediation programs in Tennessee who receive funding through the Administrative Office of the Court (AOC) for Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP) work, and whose volunteer work is informed by TCA 16-20-101, et seq., aka the Victim Offender Mediation Center Act. CMC is a member of this coalition since CMC's inception in 1994.

Mary Ellen runs an amazing program, serving the counties of Giles, Hickman, Lawrence, Lewis, Perry, Wayne, and Williamson. They do mostly VORP cases, but have also begun parenting mediations in Juvenile Court. Check out their website!

ABA Dates
April 25-28, ADR In Bloom: Politics and Collaboration in the Nation's Capital, the ABA's Dispute Resolution Section's conference. Early Bird registration is done on 3/14 and hotel bookings until 4/3.

SAVE THE DATE--MAY --FOR COMMUNITY SHARES CIRCLE OF CHANGE AWARDS DINNER AND SILENT AUCTION!

news from the front

Dear Friends of CMC,

I know some of you have followed our story about trying to get the "dollar bill" tax fully implemented in Knox County. (See the December issue of this column.)

The Dollar Bill is TCA 16-20-106, allowing counties to pass resolutions taxing $1.00 on cases filed in Juvenile and General Sessions Courts in order to support community mediation programs. Knox County passed its resolution unanimously in 2000---a very broad resolution to tax "all matters" filed in those two courts. General Sessions Court collects the tax and sends CMC a check each month between $2,000-3,000. On the other hand, the resolution was never implemented in Juvenile Court, most likely because Judge Garrett, very supportive of CMC's work, thought it would not generate much revenue. Turns out, he was right!

As you remember, Judge Irwin, equally supportive of CMC's work in Juvenile Court, issued a standing order requiring the Clerk (Kathy Quist, another supportive official) to collect one dollar on each and every case filed in Juvenile Court.

But in practice, the exceptions to the rule overwhelm the rule! First of all, $1 is not taxed on cases when petitioners are indigent and no fee is collected. Fair enough (although I'm at the point of saying, "They could pay a dollar!"). But most notably, the most prolific petitioner in Juvenile Court is the State of Tennessee's Department of Human Services, which files petitions to enforce child support. DHS files around 20,000 cases each year in Knox County and they pay a filing fee with the Clerk. The problem is (and has been) that they do not pay the dollar bill tax. The irony is this: CMC expends most of its staff and volunteer time on child support referred cases, mediating parenting plans between never-married parents.

Judge Irwin says that, on average, we save the system at least $2,000 per low-income case we mediate. When a never-married parenting case is mediated successfully, the court does not have to spend valuable court time making parenting decisions! The child will not need a GAL, the indigent non-petitioning parent will not need an appointed attorney, a home study will not have to be done, DCS will not have to spend their staff resources, and court's family workers will not need to become involved.

Here are our 2006 statistics, just for Juvenile Court mediations.

Year, Jan-Oct.

Referrals

Mediations

Agreements

2006

502

[384 visitation]

356

[268 visitation]

322

[241 visitation]

We carefully evaluate and do intake on these cases to make certain the parties do not need attorneys; we make certain the child does not need a GAL; and we assess for domestic violence issues. Our clients are by and large proceeding through the system without legal representation, and we try to spend a little extra time to find free or low-cost counsel if they truly need legal advice.

As you see from the numbers, once we get parties to the table, our co-mediators can facilitate successful agreements 90% of the time. We attribute this high success rate to our proven model of mediation with its goal of getting parents to the table to talk together about their feelings and negotiate their needs around parenting. The successful mediation of one case may take two volunteer mediators up to 6 hours, sometimes longer.

FYI, our volunteers (including law student interns in the Spring semester) mediate approximately 400 day-of-court cases each year in General Sessions Court.

Our bottom line: We need approximately $40,000 from Knox County to cover our overhead in our Juvenile program. If we have to stop mediating in Juvenile Court parenting cases, the burden on the county could be crippling in terms of judicial time and resources, not to mention the impact on the lives of family members who, with a little help, are more than able to work out their own parenting disputes without relying on an expensive judicial process.

This may be a problem for other community mediation programs across our state. There are several programs which conduct juvenile court parenting mediation

Our trained volunteers and their valuable time are, by far, the biggest resource we bring to the table. Almost as important is our office staff's ability to "triage" cases, prepare the parties to mediate, and do necessary referrals and follow up for those cases which are not able to mediate. One benefit we have not yet measured objectively is that mediation may give people, especially people who have continuing relationships, the necessary social tools to keep out of court, hashing out and escalating the same (unsolved) conflict.

Each and every day we "market mediation" and make people more aware of mediation. We help people find Rule 31 mediators; we conduct thorough intakes and triage; and we mediate disputes using our volunteers. We are asking all our friends to speak about CMC's value to the County and State, and well as continue to pass along to friends and family the word-of-mouth "buzz" about the effectiveness of mediation.

Jackie Kittrell
Executive Director

                                                                            eer Mediation News from across Tennessee

In October, 2007, our new coalition of 22 mediation groups across our state, Tennessee Coalition on Mediation Awareness (TCMA), will be presenting a program on mediation by, for and about children in Tennessee.
Many of our programs focus on at-risk children in Juvenile Court, children who are the topic of "negotiation" between divorcing, divorced, and never-married parents. Another creative mediation program along this spectrum is peer mediation: teaching children (mostly middle and high school students) how to mediate disputes in a school setting.

Here are some conflict resolution resources for teens and children, as noted in the Tennessee Bar Association's ADR section newsletter. If you're interested in joining this section or being on their newsletter listserv, please contact Lynn Pointer, lpointer@tnbar.org, or you can read it online here.

YOUTH COURT
The Youth Court program is one of the ways the Tennessee Legal Community Foundation (the charitable arm of the TBA) supports mediation-related projects. For more information about Youth Court, contact Anjanette Eash at a_eash@tnbar.org.

TENNESSEE PEACEABLE SCHOOLS
The Peaceable Schools Tennessee conflict resolution program trains school staff at three-day professional development institutes. Staff learn to teach skills of group problem-solving, mediation and negotiation. The program incorporates elements of research-based programs with segments designed to meet Tennessee academic standards in language arts, health, social studies and science. The program helps Tennessee schools develop more peaceable atmospheres with fewer unresolved classroom conflicts that will, in turn, give teachers more
time to teach. Classroom management with a focus on non-coercive discipline is a major topic of the Institutes. In addition, this conflict resolution program correlates with Second Step, Life Skills, No Bullying and Character Education projects. Funded by U.S. and Tennessee
Departments of Education, the Peaceable School Project is brought to Tennessee schools through a collaboration of the Tennessee Department of Education's School Safety Center and the law related education division
of the Tennessee Legal Community Foundation (TLCF).

In schools or classrooms that implement the program as designed, the Peaceable Schools Program is finding:
    * a safer, more positive school environment with decreased rates of aggressive behavior;
    * gains in social competence and other resiliency skills;
    * increased problem-solving skills through enhanced critical thinking skills; and
    * fewer office referrals resulting in increased instructional time.

For more information about Peaceable Schools and other Law Related Education programs funded by TLCF, contact Janis Kyser, Director of Tennessee Law Related Education, Tennessee Legal Community Foundation, the charitable arm of the Tennessee Bar Association at 423-593-1444 (phone); 423-479-9553 (fax) or jkyser@clevelandschools.org.

MBA DISPUTE RESOLUTION SECTION WORKING ON JUVENILE COURT PROJECT.
Members of the Memphis Bar Association Dispute Resolution section have been working with officials at the Shelby County Juvenile Court to implement a mediation project for never married parents. Spearheaded by former section chair, Sheree Hoffman, a committee has been formed to explore options. For more information, contact Linda Warren Seely, who will become the Chair of the TBA Juvenile and Children's Law section of the TBA this June. Linda Warren Seely, Director of Internal Operations and Private Attorney Involvement, Memphis Area Legal Services, Inc. (901) 523-8822 x417 ), lseely@malsi.org.

SPOTLIGHT ON M.A.R.R.S.: A MEMPHIS MEDIATION SERVICE PROVIDER FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

The Mediation and Restitution/Reconciliation Services (M.A.R.R.S.) program is under the umbrella of the Memphis Leadership Foundation. For the past 12 years of operation, the mission of M.A.R.R.S. has been to provide first and second-time misdemeanor offenders aged 8-17 an alternative disposition to the juvenile justice system by agreeing to mediation. The mediation sessions allow the youth to appear before the victims to accept responsibility for his/her behavior, agree to perform community service and make restitution if appropriate. M.A.R.R.S. receives, on average, 15 new cases a month from Juvenile Court, endeavors to mediate and resolve the cases within 90 days from referral and keep recidivism among all youth completing M.A.R.R.S. at twenty percent or less during the year following completion. The program successfully relies on volunteers, most of whom are Rule 31 trained mediators to conduct the mediation sessions. Many other non-profit service-oriented agencies partner with M.A.R.R.S. for community service opportunities and youth mentoring options. The M.A.R.R.S. staff and board are looking forward to celebrating the upcoming twentieth anniversary of the Memphis Leadership Foundation in May of 2007. M.A.R.R.S. is a member of the Tennessee Coalition for Mediation Awareness. For more information or to volunteer your services, contact Lorri Fentress at lorrif@hotmail.com.

STUDENT PEER MEDIATION INFORMATION ON ACS WEB SITE
For information on peer mediation in grades K - 12, the Association for Conflict Resolution Education Section website is a good starting place (although some of the information is out of date, so a direct contact with any listed program is necessary to get updated info); see the ACS Website.

SAFE SCHOOLS & PEER MEDIATION
In Knox County, CMC is a part of the Safe Schools Network, a group of organizations and parents who are concerned with how schools have (and have not) addressed bullying and harassment of students. Two years ago, the state legislature passed a law requiring schools to adopt an anti-harassment policy, and Knox County passed an excellent policy, taking a firm stand against all forms of harassment and bullying. There was notably absent from the policy any language about mandating prevention measures. Last year, we educated our Board of Education about the need for prevention of bullying and harassment in schools. We shared with the Board how peer mediation programs, if supported and implemented properly and consistently, can reduce bullying and harassment by empowering students to take a stand against behaviors like name-calling and stereotyping which can lead, so many times, to escalation, bullying, and violence. Although it's clear that, once bullying occurs, adult intervention and serious consequences to the bully are essential, conflict management training for students can work to increase the number of students who will not "stand by" while a child is victimized. It is also becoming clearer that children perform better when they feel safe at school and when interpersonal conflict is reduced. As my 15 year old would say, "Duh!"

Some useful online articles about peer mediation:

:: The Effectiveness of Peer Mediation in Low-SES Rural Elementary Schools (SES= socio-economic status), detailing how effective peer mediation is to lower school suspensions and conflicts. The article makes the important point that implementation is key in the program's success, not only the training materials.

:: Excellent article on importance of implementation by Richard Cohen, who maintains the ever-useful School Mediation site. The most recent newsletter from School Mediation is available here.   Archives are indexed here back to 2001.

If you're interested in working with our Peer Mediation Program, please call us or email us. We really need your involvement to revitalize our program.

"Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge."
~~Audre Lorde

Blog World

Items from some of our favorite mediation blogs:

From San Francisco Mediator: Unrepresented Parties in Mediation

From the Online Guide to Mediation: The cost of conflict: What happens when we frame divorce as combat

From Florida Mediator: How to use the Six Laws of Persuasion during Negotiation by Edrie Greer, PhD. of www.globalknowledge.com

From Mediation Mindset, on facilitation: Secrets of Successful Facilitators, an article by The Thiagi Group (whose byline is "improving performance playfully").

From Mediator Blah Blah, a wonderful New Zealand blog, an article on how to best gauge what court-appointed mediators, especially attorney-mediators, might be charging nation-wide. (Look at the fees allowed for bankruptcy counsel, which have to be court-approved.) Map included.

Male-Female differences in communication was debriefed and debugged, in light of International Women's Day (March 8) at a blog by a Gini Nelson at Engaging Conflicts

An interesting article discussing how to seat parties in a mediation: side by side, or facing one another. The article is in a wonderful peer mediation newsletter called School Mediation, edited by Richard Cohen, available for free on this site.

A recommendation for Zen Cards, a set of 50 cards in a box which can be used for zen-like activities such as contemplation and meditation, but also as warm up excercise for training or conducting mediation. (Click on the Amazon.com link to browse; if you buy the cards, part of your purchase price will go to support CMC!)

Our staff email addresses:

Jackie Kittrell: jkittrell@2mediate.org
Sharon Upshaw: supshaw@2mediate.org
Jen Comiskey: jcomiskey@2mediate.org

Our contact info:

912 South Gay Street
Suite L-300
Knoxville, TN 37902
(865) 594-1879, voice
(865) 594-1890, fax

Juvenile Annex office
(865) 215-6570, voice
(865) 215-6564, fax

Website: www.2mediate.org

Legal Language

By Don K. Ferguson
(CMC volunteer mediator in Knox County General Sessions Court and author of the "Grammar Gremlins" column that appears in The Knoxville News-Sentinel every Sunday.)

--------------------------------------------------------------

to wit

"To wit" is a legal archaism, an outmoded expression that is not yet obsolete. "To wit" means "that is to say." The word "namely" is almost always an improvement, according to A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage.

SALT IN MEDIATION

Talented mediators have an “optimal” level of assertiveness – that is, they are not under- or over-assertive. According to a recent study in the February issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association, leaders who are perceived as low or high in assertiveness are seen as less effective than those who are moderately assertive. Those who are moderately assertive have the flexibility of modifying their behavior up or down as the situation dictates [i.e., they can “duly” influence the parties without coercing them].

What does salt have to do with this? One of the researchers has described assertiveness in this way: “We say it’s like salt in a sauce: when there’s too much or too little, it’s hard to notice anything else, but when it’s just right, you notice the other flavors. No one compliments a sauce for being perfectly salted, and it’s just as unusual for a leader’s [substitute – mediator’s] perfect touch with assertiveness to attract much notice.”

How much “salt” [substitute – assertiveness] is in your mediator toolbox?

Thanks so much to one of our favorite bloggers!

M e d i a t i o n
T o o l b o x

For those of you who haven't had a chance to review the changes wrought in Rule 31, here it is. One change: you can become a Rule 31 family mediator with an undergraduate degree IF you have 10 years experience as a mediator. You must also fulfill the other requirements.

Culturosity.com is committed to helping individuals find their resources, experiences, and opportunities that will open their minds and broaden their perspectives. We help people understand global realities and empower them to live and work effectively in a multicultural world.

Yes, its true! Another animal other than humans uses weapons to hunt and kill its dinner. Read this article about spear-wielding chimps.

Mississippi Mediation Project (MMP) was created in 2006---post-Hurricane Katrina---to empower residents of Mississippi gulf coast communities with new capacities to work collaboratively through the use of positive problem solving and effective communication skills, in an effort to diminish the conflicts which are impeding the rebuilding of homes and businesses in the region and delaying the return of displaced residents.

And Justice for Some This report is an update to And Justice for Some: Differential Treatment of Minority Youth in the Justice System. Both reports are from NCCD. From the report, these statistics:
* Black youths are detained at 4.5 times the rate of white youths.
* Black youths are more likely than their white counterparts to be charged and sentenced to custody, even when referred for the same offense.
* Although African American youth are 16% of the adolescent population in the United States, they are 38% of the almost 100,000 youth confined in local detention and state correctional systems.
* They were overrepresented in all offense categories.
32 page pdf file.

Judicial Leadership to Ensure Sound Permanency Decisions for Children in Foster Care: Practical Guidelines for Juvenile and Family Courts

Miniature Earth, a very short, wonderful film about our world's diversity.

Try to read this and then rethink your understanding of literacy!

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery."

-- James Joyce