Wednesday, October 6, 2010
6:30 PM
2001 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 201, Santa Monica, CA

For all the details, here is a message from Wendy:

Hello Everyone:

The hiatus is over and I miss you all! Please join me on October 6, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. for our study group.

Please note that the meeting will be held in my new suite, Suite 210, same address: 2001 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 210, Santa Monica, CA. My new space has a much larger conference room, so space should not be an issue; however, please RSVP so that I know how many of you are coming for snacks and beverages. purposes. Also, if anyone can contribute to the snacks/beverages, please let me know.

The study group is free to SCMA members – if you have not rejoined SCMA, please take this opportunity to check out the new website (it is fantastic) and rejoin – your support is greatly appreciated!

Also, please advise if you have any specific topic requests.

If you cannot get access to the building, please call my cell at (310) 490-5426 and I will ferry you up in the elevator.

Looking forward to seeing you all.

Best regards,

Wendy W. Kramer
Mediator/Arbitrator
www.kramermediate.com
(310) 829-6063 ext. 12
2001 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 210
Santa Monica, CA 90403-5684

HOW CONFLICTING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES CAN SINK YOUR MEDIATION
September 23, 2010
Santa Monica Library
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Cultural Values are like the underlying issues in ma mediation.  Fail to recognize and address them and you run the risk of reaching an unsatisfactory resolution, or no resolution at all.  This presentation describes a way of recognizing organizational values so you can use them to analyze a dispute and find a path to a fully satisfactory resolution, using case studies of how understanding cultural values helped to resolve the dispute.

Maria Simpson, Ph.D. is an organizational conflict resolution consultant, and teaches mediation and conflict resolution at CSUDH.  She has been a mediator for the Superior Court and member of SCMA for over 15 years, serving as editor of the newsletter and member of the programs and bylaws committees.  She is the author of “Leading Unstoppable Teams!” and “Is This a Good Fit?”  “The Connection Between Organizational Culture and Communications Styles”.

This program is FREE for SCMA members and $30 for non-members.

Santa Monica Library

601 Santa Monica Blvd.

Santa Monica, CA 90401

Sign up now!

Space is limited

SCMA Members:

Click here to RSVP as a member at no charge! Or call 877-963-3428 or e-mail your RSVP to scmaoffice@yahoo.com.

Non-SCMA Members:

Please Register and Pay here.

Non-Member $30.00 (Can be applied to membership)

Dear Everyone:

As you may know, each year at our annual conference, SCMA awards its Cloke-Millen Peacemaker of the Year award.

Several weeks ago, I received a phone call from one of our former board members Laurel Kaufer who told me that with Doug Noll, she was working on a project with women prisoners, “lifers’” – at a woman’s prison in the Central Valley. She wanted to nominate them for our annual award because the progress they had made was phenomenal: in the week subsequent to Laurel and Doug finishing the training, the inmates had resolved quite a number of disputes both amongst themselves and with the prison guards.

I requested that Laurel send me a proposal in writing that I could share with the board. What she wrote was the following:

Under careful stewardship, 15 women, all prison inmates, most of them “lifers”, have become Peacemakers. How is it that women, with dark pasts, serving time for murder and manslaughter, could possibly be peacemakers?

Their story is one of personal commitment to themselves and the community in which most are destined to live out their lives. “This is an environment filled with conflict and violence. There is a dire need and want for change,” said Susan Russo, one of the fifteen initial peacemakers, serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole at Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, CA. “Mediation interests all of us because we are lifers and long-termers hoping to make a difference in teaching our peers that there is a better way.”

Beginning her quest in 2007, Ms. Russo wrote over 50 handwritten letters from prison to mediators all over California. Her letters went unanswered until August of 2009 when one of her letters made it to my mailbox. As soon as I read the letter, I was hooked, but also knew that I couldn’t do it alone. Still standing at the mailbox, I called my friend and colleague, Doug Noll, a superb trainer, mediator, and restorative justice expert, and the only person I could consider working with on a project like this. I read the letter to him. He was silent for about a nano-second before he said, “I’m in. What’s our next step?”

It took us six months of persistent contact and visits to the prison to work our way up the chain of command and convince the authorities to let us run a pilot project. As soon as we got the final approval, we selected the first 15 women, all long term and life inmates, and the training began less than a month later.

Ten weeks later, these first 15 women were fully trained mediators and within just two weeks of completing their training had conducted over 25 mediations and dozens of peace circles within the prison, with more occurring every day.

“I can already see the difference in the Prison community,” said participant Betty Mills, “as other inmates now strive to model their lives after the Peacemakers currently in Prison of Peace. I feel more empowered than I have felt in forty-four years.”

“The whole package has changed not only my way of thinking but also my feelings. I truly believe this will have a lasting affect on this whole institution,” says Russo.

The secret is to build skills slowly with continued accountability throughout the process. The training, which took ten consecutive weeks, consisted of a two day intensive listening workshop, three weeks of follow-up, a day-long class in peace circles and restorative justice, three more weeks of follow-up, and a 3 day intensive mediation training workshop followed by two more weeks of follow-up. Every Wednesday for 10 weeks, I made the 500 mile round-trip drive, between my home in Woodland Hills, California to the prison in Chowchilla. Doug, living somewhat closer to the prison in Clovis, California, provided our base of operations, and when we did extended days, my room and board.

“Over the course of the training, we saw amazing transformations in these women. They started out emotionally shut down and skeptical and ended up empowered and dedicated to making peace within the prison. It has been one of the most satisfying projects of my career,” said Doug Noll. “I’m excited to move the project forward with our next group of Inmates. This is the first time I have felt that a conflict resolution training might make a real, systemic difference within a community.”

“Instead of running from conflict, I now run to conflict, with hopes of bringing resolution. Not only has this program taught me not to be scared of conflict, it has also taught me how to communicate at a higher standard and with more ease and grace,” says Peacemaker, Anna Humiston

We are committed to making this project internally self-sustaining by training the life and long-term Inmates to be trainers within the prison. At present, we have a waiting list of inmates seeking to participate in the program that will take us through 2010 and beyond, and hope to have 75 peacemakers fully trained by the end of the year. The entire project is pro bono with Doug, myself, and the specialist trainers we’ve brought in paying all costs out of our own pockets and not charging for any of our time.

It is our distinct privilege to nominate these 15 unique Peacemakers for SCMA’s 2010 Cloke-Millen Peacemaker of the Year Award and hope that you will consider them as worthy of this honor as we do.

As you may guess, all of us on the board were moved by Laurel’s description and voted to present the award to those inmates participating in the program. Laurel announced the award to the inmates when she was there last week and as a result, Forbes magazine has publicized it:

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/prnewswire/2010/07/07/prnewswire201007070635PR_NEWS_USPR_____LA31415.html

I wanted to share this bit of good news with everyone;

Have a good day!

Hope to see y’all at our Town hall next Saturday. For more information, contact our SCMA office.at scmaoffice@yahoo.com or 877- 963-3428

Kind regards,

Phyllis (aka da prez)

How is it that women with dark pasts, serving time for murder and manslaughter, can be honored as Peacemakers? Their story is one of personal commitment to a community in which most are destined to live out their lives.

Susan Russo, a lifer at Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, CA wrote over 50 handwritten letters to California Mediators, requesting training for inmates.

One of these letters made its way to Laurel Kaufer who phoned colleague, and frequent SCMA event speaker, Doug Noll. The two of them took action and twelve weeks later, 15 inmates were fully trained
Peacemakers, conducting dozens of mediations and peace circles within the prison. “Instead of running from conflict, I now run to it,” says Peacemaker, Anna Humiston. SCMA’s Board of Directors has also taken action in approving the decision to award the Peacemaker of the Year award to the prison inmates participating in Laurel’s and Doug’s Conflict Resolution Program. SCMA is proud of their achievement and its association with these distinguished mediators. To read more, visit www.forbes.com at this link.

Also, see an open letter about this amazing event from Phyllis Pollack, SCMA President, here.

Details to follow…

His friends remembered when and how they met Richard, even though, in truth, most of them could not remember the exact details; rather, each remembered simply that Richard had always been their friend,

and mentor, their inspiration, who always said “yes” and who had always been around. Lee Jay Berman cited the Lyle Lovett song where he sings about a woman, saying, “I can’t remember how I met her; seems like she’s always just been hanging here off of my right arm.”

We were told stories of his singing abilities as his daughter Kathy recounted his “Tennessee Song” talking about the men of the US Calvary, of which Richard was one; of his organizing so many meetings of mediator round tables (before he co-found SCMA!) and of more recent monthly series of mediator meetings they called “My Dinner with Richard,” where they met to discuss Richard’s passions, including Martin Buber, Rumi, Ghandi, the Bodhisatvah and Ram Daas, who Richard had met.

We were reminded of all his favorite quotes, like Lao Tzu’s “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” and how he practiced his patient listening and tolerance (“living with opposites and acceptance of others”) as a devout liberal by watching Bill O’Reilly regularly and practicing sitting quietly, and his philosophy on life. Although a lawyer by training, Richard came to believe that people didn’t have legal problems until the lawyers got involved, and if people just listened to each other, communicated with each and let the process do its work, a resolution would be reached.

Many of you know that a few years ago, SCMA (through a special vote of its members) amended its bylaws as Richard was terming off of the board to create an Emeritus Board position just for him, because we did not want to lose Richard and his valuable insights and input.. We also named our annual Peacemaker of the Year award after Richard and Ken Cloke, awarding the Cloke- Millen award for the first time at our Annual Conference in November 2004.

We miss Richard very much and will continue to miss him deeply. But we carry him in our hearts and thoughts: he is still with us, if only in spirit, smiling down on us reminding us to follow the process. We owe him so much . . . much more than we can ever possibly put into words. He was and remains truly and forever our “Yoda”.

Last week SCMA’s Board voted to oppose AB 2475 which would abolish quasi judicial immunity for third persons who are engaged in mediation, conciliation, evaluation or similar dispute resolution efforts under any statute or contract so that such persons would not be exonerated from liability for any act performed in that capacity.

Click here for a copy of the letter that I sent (as President) on Thursday, April 22, 2010 to the sponsoring Assembly member, James T. Beall Jr., expressing SCMA’s opposition.

In response to the many comments that Mr. Beall no doubt received in response to AB 2475, he amended the draft legislation on April 22, 2010 so that the abolition of quasi judicial immunity would apply only to family law matters. However, this latest draft still includes mediators, especially privately retained mediators, who handle family law disputes. Thus, I have written a second letter to Mr. Beall, urging that the draft legislation is still too broad and that to accomplish his purpose of excluding from quasi judicial immunity those evaluators who provide recommendations and findings to the court, the draft legislation should delete all references to “mediation” and “mediators.” Stay tuned for further developments!

Phyllis Pollack

President, SCMA

Last week, SCMA’s Board voted to oppose AB 2475 which would abolish quasi judicial immunity for third persons who are engaged in mediation, conciliation, evaluation, or similar dispute resolution efforts under any statute or contract so that such persons would not be exonerated from liability for any act performed in that capacity.

Click here for a copy of the letter I sent (as President) on Thursday, April 22, 2010 to the sponsoring Assembly member, James T. Beall Jr., expressing SCMA’s opposition.

Phyllis Pollack

President, SCMA

Managers, counselors, human resource professionals, teachers and neighbors are increasingly being called upon to resolve disputes at work, in their own homes and communities, in our schools and beyond!

Many of us do not possess the advanced communication and negotiation skills needed to meet today’s complex interpersonal demands when conflict needs to be diffused.

In the workplace, being “good with people” is no longer enough. Leaders must also be able to manage “difficult people” and diverse environments and to manage risk and reduce the likelihood of litigation, in all types of organizations, is essential.

To meet these needs of the 21st century workplace and community, CSUN’s Tseng College has developed a certificate in advanced professional development in Mediation and Conflict Resolution (MCR) for professionals and community members interested in enhancing their skills and becoming mediators and dispute resolution specialists.
Program Features:

The CSUN MCR program provides a jump start into the mediation world. Learners who complete the program by taking the litigated case practicum will be eligible to continue to mediate as part of the largest court mediation panel in the world, the Los Angeles Superior Court, and those that successfully complete the community mediation practicum will be eligible to pursue additional mediation opportunities with the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Dispute Resolution Services.

MCR Learners will:

* PARTICIPATE IN A LIVE ENVIRONMENT: California law requires mediation training programs to cover landlord-tenant, neighbor-neighbor, and customer-merchant disputes. CSUN will also engage learners in simulations and role-plays for both workplace disputes and family law matters. CSUN also places participants in hands-on mediation practicum experience.
* RECEIVE THE HIGHEST QUALITY EDUCATION: The CSUN MCR program only confers certificates of competence rather than certificates of completion. Most mediation training classes granted certificates to those who simply attend class; but CSUN MCR classes have been designed to meet graduate level standards, are graded, and appear on student CSUN transcripts.
* ENHANCE THEIR CREDENTIALS IN THE COMPETITIVE JOB MARKET: MCR students earn
1. a certificate intended to satisfy the educational requirements under the Dispute Resolution Programs Act (DRPA) of California,
2. a certificate intended to satisfy the educational requirements for the Los Angeles County Superior Court pro bono mediation panel,
3. a CSUN certificate in advanced professional development in Mediation and Conflict Resolution, and
4. 10 continuing education units (CEU’s) reflected on their CSUN transcript.
* BE ELIGIBLE FOR A DISCOUNTED MEMBERSHIP WITH SCMA, the Southern California Mediation Association, offering discounted access to SCMA conferences and meetings, weekly e-newsletters on mediation matters and events in our region, and access to working with seasoned SCMA mediation mentors to assist members in building their mediation practice.
* NETWORK WITH TOP MEDIATORS: CSUN MCR students meet several top-level mediators in the region and work directly with organizations that employ mediators.
* ENJOY A SCHEDULE MADE FOR BUSY ADULTS: CSUN MCR students finish their certificate in just 1 semester, meeting for classes in the evenings and online.

Visit our FAQ section to learn more about mediation and the CSUN MCR program!

The CSUN Mediation and Conflict Resolution (MCR) certificate program provides a jump start into the mediation world. This 100 hour, 17 week certificate program is completed in just one semester. Courses are graded and appear on the CSUN transcript. Learners who complete the program by taking the “litigated case” practicum will be eligible to continue to mediate as part of the largest court mediation panel in the world, the Los Angeles Superior Court, and those that successfully complete the “community mediation” practicum will be eligible to pursue additional mediation opportunities with the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Dispute Resolution Services.

Contact Jennifer Kalfsbeek, Ph.D.
Director, Tseng College: CSUN
818-677-5943
jennifer.kalfsbeek@csun.edu

For the past decade, Widman, 64, has run the organization out of his home. He serves as one of three mediators in the non-profit organization.

Widman, who teaches political science at El Camino College, has mediated disputes since about 1990.
Before that, he dealt with the public in other capacities, including as a city councilman and school board member.
What does your job entail?
Whenever there’s a case that doesn’t go to court but it needs some attention, they send it to me.
Who is “they”?
Referrals come from the police department, animal control, code enforcement or city prosecutor. We are contract with Redondo Beach, Manhattan, Hermosa, Torrance and Lawndale. If you and I are neighbors and your tree is dropping stuff in my pool, the city doesn’t want to get involved.
How much does it cost?
If they are referred by anyone with the city, then there is no charge no matter how much it takes. We have a contract with each city to pay us about $150 a case.
How long do cases take?
It could take a few weeks. Every case is different. Some cases go really quickly. They’re like, “Oh, I didn’t know my dog barks when I’m away.” And I say, “Get a bark collar or keep your TV on when you’re out so the dog thinks you’re there, because dogs often bark when they’re lonely.”
What’s the process?
The mediator is there to work with the folks rather than decide a winner. I’m not there to say you gotta pay or he’s gotta stop. I say, “With this problem in mind, what do you see as a reasonable resolution?” You get them to try to solve the problem. The communication is really key. Another nice thing about the mediation process is it’s confidential. Anything you say on the phone with me or in mediation can’t be used in court. So they can be candid.
What’s the most common dispute you see?
Neighbor to neighbor. That’s about 90 percent. We get lots of barking dogs, as well as fences, property lines. And we also get landlord-tenant disputes. Security deposits, privacy issues – the landlord keeps coming into my unit without notice – repairs and maintenance.
How often is mediation successful?
Over 70 percent of the time. Most of the time, I can settle the issue over the phone without having mediation.
What’s the most difficult type of dispute to resolve?
I used to do divorces. The courts sometimes order it because there are so many issues. I did that for a few years and it is so demanding. You’ve got built-in tension and frustration. It just took so much out of me that I finally said no, no more of this family law stuff.
What’s the best part of your job?
One of the most satisfying parts is when we have mediation and people come into the meeting and they’re intense and very angry. And then within two hours they’re shaking hands as they go out the door.
And the worst part?
The most frustrating part is people who simply don’t want to get it resolved. For some people, being in conflict serves their needs. I’ve had some people say, “I just don’t care. I’ll see the SOB in court.” And I’m like, “Oh, come on. Give peace a chance.”
Has your mediation experience helped you in your own life?
Oh, yes. Empathy skills, rephrasing skills, defusing, how to communicate without losing it. I’ve used it with my students and I’ve used it at home dealing with my adolescent son when he was growing up.

muhammed.el-hasan@dailybreeze.com

FIND OUT MORE
South Bay Center for Dispute Resolution
1015 4th St.
Hermosa Beach
310-376-7007

By Muhammed El-Hasan Business Writer
Posted: 04/22/2010 03:33:51 PM PDT

Lance Widman is the executive director of the South Bay Center for Dispute Resolution.