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Articles Books Tips for Mediators

Book Recommendation by Owen Tamamoto

Public Policy Mediator Susan Podziba shared her wisdom on “Mediating Polarized Public Policy Disputes” at the William S. Richardson School of Law on February 12, 2020. One of her responses to a question left me with the impression that she had never before witnessed such extreme polarization in public policy disputes as in the last several years…it seemed that for some parties the truth no longer matters. She seemed to acknowledge added difficulties in mediating and facilitating resolutions in the current political environment. My daily readings about current events concurred with her description. I could not help but wonder why it might be so. Why don’t facts seem to matter anymore? Why doesn’t it seem to matter that outlandish lies are repeated over and over again and new ones proliferate incessantly? Why do conspiracy theories and fake stories seem to dominate the news? Why doesn’t science seem to matter? Jason Stanley’s book, “How Fascism Works,” gave me a deeper understanding of our current events. The lessons I got are best summarized in the book’s Introduction, excerpts of which are attached. If you are interested in facilitating public policy discussions, or in mediating public policy disputes, or if you simply want to know a bit more about what’s happening in present day politics, this is a must read book. The more we educate ourselves, the more we can use our skills and knowledge to work for a healthier society for all.

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Books Tips for Mediators

If you are looking for books to read…

Message from Matsunaga Institute for Peace… Another great free resource from the Institute for Humane Education for youth sixth grade and up:  The FREE guidebook for youth and changemakers, How to Be a Solutionary: A Guide for People Who Want to Make a Positive Difference. A guidebook that offers a step-by-step process to become a solutionary. Solutionaries are people who can identify problems and their causes, find strategic leverage points for change, and develop and implement solutions that do the most good and least harm for all life. Our world is full of solutionaries just waiting to emerge!  Learning to be skilled researchers, fact-checkers, solutionary thinkers, and successful change agents will provide meaningful and important work for young people, as well as adults, especially at this time of great risk and opportunity for our global community. It will turn a difficult and challenging time into an opportunity to make a powerful difference, build thinking and life skills of great value, and potentially lead to unprecedented learning and action. As you may know, IHE produced a free Solutionary Guidebook for teachers and parents this past winter, and we’re thrilled that more than 800 educators have downloaded it since December, using it to help their students become solutionaries. Now students – and all activists – have their own companion guidebook! 

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Events Mediation Tips for Mediators Training Webinar

Upcoming Webinar on ODR

Aloha Conflict Resolution Alliance Members, Hope you are well and thriving while staying at home. We wanted to share information about a webinar coming up next week if you want to learn more about ODR… Incorporating ODR in Your Legal and ADR Practice The ADR and Litigation Sections of the HSBA along with Giuseppe Leone will be presenting a web event/webinar. It will be aimed at helping conflict resolution colleagues and attorneys to learn about and to get comfortable with incorporating video conferencing tools in the practice. More information below and in attachment.   “Incorporating ODR in Your Legal and ADR Practice: a One Hour Presentation and Demo by Giuseppe Leone” Tuesday, May 12, 2020 at 12 PM Register for Zoom details at, https://bit.ly/2VQtEMs About the Presenter, Giuseppe Leone:  A leading expert ODR practitioner has been a mediator since 1997, and a Zoom user since 2013. He is also a volunteer mediator for the Mediation Center of the Pacific. Giuseppe offers a 2-hour one-on-one, hands-on training “How to Master Online Mediation via Zoom” to experienced mediators and ADR organizations in the USA and Europe. For more information you can visit his website https://www.virtualmediationlab.com/.

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Articles Mediation News Tips for Mediators

Virtual Alternative Dispute Resolution

As we continue social distancing to fight COVID 19 pandemic, we are all adapting to the new norm to get things done. Association for Conflict Resolution shared a couple of Virtual ADR articles last week: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/management/2020/04/fmcs-says-early-investments-in-virtual-mediation-paying-off-during-pandemic/ https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/video-mediations-the-future-of-36273/ Locally, The Mediation Center of the Pacific started to offer the option long before the pandemic and they are continuing to help community resolve disputes while people are staying at home. (See our past post at http://www.crahawaii.org/news/the-mediation-center-of-the-pacific-is-continuing-to-help-resolve-disputes) We would like to learn how you are innovating in your practice to resolve conflicts and build peaceful relationships in the era of social distancing. Please reach out to us at info@crahawaii.org and let us know. We will feature it in our news page so our community of conflict resolvers can learn from each other and thrive. Stay well!  

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Events Tips for Mediators Webinar

Talk Story Session with Dr. Maya Soetoro on April 22, 2020

Aloha, We hope everyone is staying safe and well. We wanted to share a very timely talk story opportunity that is coming up next week. Talk Story: “Self-Care in the Era of Social Distancing”  with Dr. Maya Soetoro Wednesday, April 22, 2020 11 AM – 12:30 PM (HST) (Zoom Conference Room Opens at 10:15 AM) Details for logging into the webinar via Zoom will be provided to registered participants the week of the event. RSVP at selfcaretalk.eventbrite.com Here is the event flyer. About Dr. Maya Soetoro: Maya serves as an Associate Specialist at the Matsunaga Institute for Peace and a consultant to the Obama Foundation, working closely with their international team to develop programming in the Pacific-Asia region. Prior to her work with the Obama Foundation, she was the Director of the Matsunaga Institute where, in addition to leading outreach and development initiatives, she also taught Leadership for Social Change, History of Peace Movements, Peace Education, and Conflict Management for Educators. She is also the co-founder of the nonprofits Ceeds of Peace, Institute for Climate and Peace, and Peace Studios. For inquiries: Contact the Matsunaga Institute at uhip@hawaii.edu. Co-Sponsors: Campus Climate Initiatives, Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution, Conflict Resolution Alliance (CRA), Hawaii State Bar Association Alternative Dispute Resolution Section, The Mediation Center of the Pacific, and the Matsunaga Institute for Peace. Hope you can all join us!

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Events News Tips for Mediators Webinar

“10th Annual International Cyber-conference on Dispute Resolution” – Happening Tomorrow!

“10th Annual International Cyber-Conference on Dispute Resolution” Theme: Community Engagement and Human Flourishing Wednesday, April 8, 2020 9 AM – 11:30 AM (HST) Join Zoom Meeting: https://csudh.zoom.us/j/668129425 Meeting ID: 668 129 425 (Zoom Conference Room Opens at 8:15 AM) Click here for more details. Contact: Nancy Perry at nperry@csudh.edu Website: https://cyberconferencedr.wordpress.com Co-Sponsors: Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), Center for Service Learning, Internships & Civic Engagement (SLICE), Woman’s Leadership Workshop CSUDH, Campus Climate Initiatives, Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution, Conflict Resolution Alliance (CRA), Conflict Management Institute, Hawaii State Bar Association Alternative Dispute Resolution Section, The Mediation Center of the Pacific, and the Matsunaga Institute for Peace

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Mediation News Tips for Mediators

How can you continue helping your clients in COVID-19 pandemic? (Business Tips)

Our efforts in trying to stop the spread of the COVID-19 will need to continue for a while before we come out of this battle. While we are mandated to work from home and practicing social distancing, stress and anxiety are building up in our community and coflicts will not stop. Are you adapting to this new environment? How can you continue helping your clients while staying away from them physically? In order to ensure that you are positioning yourself to thrive coming out of this battle,  you may want to think about: How can you stay connected with your clients and potential clients? Are you actively engaging with your clients digitally? What else do you need to consider for your business aspect of practice? You may want to gather tips from various business related organizations, for example, SBA, Better Business Bureau and Chamber of Commerce Hawaii have dedicated resource pages for the special business environment amid COVID-19 pandemic.  How can you provide the safe space for the parties to creatively come together to resolve conflicts while physically separated? Fortunately, we have technologies that are readily available that will help us stay connected while practicing social distancing. For example, The Mediation Center of The Pacific offers skype mediation and Online Mediation Program (OMP brochure) that enable their clients to use their services while staying safe at home. There are number of free video conferencing available, especially now.  What logistical obstacles you may need to overcome to offer alternative venue to mediate?  If you offer virtual mediation (video conferencing), will all the parties have devices to access internet, will they all have good connectivity, and the sofware is compatible? Security and privacy of connection?  If you are not able to offer your services while staying put at home, how will that…

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Articles Tips for Mediators

Message From Conflict Resolution Alliance President

Dear Conflict Resolution Alliance (CRA) Community, Hope you are all staying safe during this time of great change. In response to the rapidly evolving events surrounding COVID-19 (also called novel coronavirus) and to practice responsible social (physical) distancing all in person events have been cancelled till further notice. During this time, people around the world, nationally, and locally are experiencing many challenges. We can play a vital role in helping to reduce the impact of COVID-19 and look after ourselves and each other. We urge you to stay informed and adhere to the recommended precautions. Some key steps are below. Keep calm – take care of your mental health during these uncertain times Listen to the experts – look for reliable resources Practice social distancing – avoid gatherings and wash your hands regularly. Please visit the helpful websites for more continuous updates on COVID-19. State of Hawaii, Department of Health (Issues and Advisories) Civil Beat – Coronavirus Topic Page (Latest Hawaii News) Centers for Disease Control (CDC) World Health Organization As an organization we are moving to online board meetings and in the same spirit we are collaborating to develop some online events that may provide some opportunities for us all to connect digitally and discuss best practices in our field. Even an opportunity to compete in our new logo competition. As details and flyers get finalized, you should be obtaining the news of upcoming events shortly. If you have a topic you would be interested in hearing about or would be interested to provide yourself, then please reach out to us at our new email info@CRAHawaii.org. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with you all. Stay healthy, happy, resilient, productive, and courageous. José Barzola President || Conflict Resolution Alliance E: Jose@CRAHawaii.org || Follow us on FB | IG…

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Events News Tips for Mediators

Hope you were able to join us last week at “Navigating the Changing Legal Climate”

The first event we hosted as Conflict Resolution Alliance, “Navigationg the Changing Legal Climate” with Ron Ousky was a great success! Hope you were able to join us. If you missed it, now you have a chance to catch it again! Check out our new page at http://www.crahawaii.org/events/event-recordings-videos/. 

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Events Mediation Tips for Mediators

Free Event in February – Navigating the Changing Legal Climate by Ron Ousky

Happy New Year! We have the first seminar of the year scheduled in February, presented by Ron Ousky, and wanted to share information about this exciting topic! The legal environment has changed dramatically during the past forty years. The rise of mediation, Collaborative practice, unbundling, interdisciplinary practice and self-representation, along with the innovations in the court-system have created a new landscape that is both exciting and challenging. This presentation by Ron Ousky will focus on summarizing the best ideas that have emerged and on how we can adapt to this new environment to build truly client-centered exciting practices. Ron Ousky is a leading family law practitioner who has, over the course of the past 35 years worked in, studied, and written about the changing dynamics of the legal system. Ron co-authored a groundbreaking book with Stu Webb, the founder of Collaborative Law and has co-founded one of the largest interdisciplinary family conflict centers in the world. In 2015, Ron was the sole individual to be awarded the Lawyer as Problem Solver Award by the American Bar Association. Register online at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/navigating-the-changing-legal-climate-tickets-89539921315. Click here for the event flyer.