New Year’s Resolutions:
Achieving Better Mediation Outcomes
We’ve all had them...the mediations that could have gone better. Maybe they ended in an impasse. Maybe you got a settlement, but things just didn’t feel right. You wish they had gone better, but could you as the mediator have done something different that would have changed the result?
Our December meeting will begin with a networking lunch at 11:30 AM, followed by a very short election of next year’s Board members.
The highlight of the meeting will be an interactive discussion among our panel and our attendees to determine ways to achieve better outcomes in mediation. Moderator Marcy Goodfleisch and panelists Linda Gibson, Diane Harvey, and Sara Saltmarsh are all experienced mediators with more than 100 years’ combined experience in ADR. These professionals will present examples of impasse or other problems encountered during mediation from their own experience and that of attendees. The panelists will then offer mediation strategies that could be used to improve the outcome of the various scenarios. Attendees are highly encouraged to participate in the discussion and to offer their own alternative strategies.
We invite all attendees to submit your own examples of mediations that could have gone better (maintaining confidentiality regarding the parties and details of the cases) to president@austinmediators.org by December 1. We will include as many such examples as time permits.
Location
Austin Dispute Resolution Center [DRC]
5407 N. IH-35, Suite 410, Austin, TX
Date
Friday, December 8, 2023
Time
11:30 Networking Lunch
12:00-1:30 Meeting & Presentation
Lunch
Individually-packed sandwich lunches
and tea will be provided for attendees.
Registration is required to ensure
we can provide lunch for all attendees.
1.25 hours of mediator continuing education,
including 1.25 hours of ethics for attendees
1.25 hours of MCLE, including 1.25 hours
of ethics approved by the State Bar of Texas
Registration is free for AMA Members/$15 for non-members. Attorneys who wish to receive Texas MCLE credit are asked to pay a $5 fee to offset the cost of MCLE sponsorship.
Become a member now
or renew an expired membership for as little as $35!
About the Panelists & Moderator
Linda Gibson received her basic mediation training through the Austin DRC in 1991. She is retired, but continues to volunteer for the DRC. As Pro Bono Coordinator for Legal Aid in Belton, TX in 1994-95, she started the pro bono program for indigent citizens of Bell County. Linda has been extremely active in the Texas Association of Mediators [TAM] for 30 years, serving as President in 2004. She was honored to receive the Susanne C. Adams Award “for exceptional and outstanding efforts in promoting and furthering the use of mediation” from TAM in 2015. Linda is a Texas Mediator Credentialing Association [TMCA] Credentialed Advanced Mediator, and an Austin Mediators Association [AMA] Board member.
Diane Harvey has been a clinical social worker for her entire career, in both the public and private sectors, and has been a mediator since 1999. Diane is a TMCA Credentialed Advanced Mediator, a mediation trainer and volunteer mediator at the Austin DRC, and has served on the boards of TAM [President, 2018], TMCA, and AMA [past president]. She maintains a private therapy/mediation practice working with adults, families, couples and other groups in conflict, and is a co-founder of The Center for Integrated Divorce.
Sara E. Saltmarsh has been a practicing attorney for 36 years and is a member of the State Bar of Texas and The Florida Bar. She practices Family Law, Collaborative Law, and Mediation. She has been Board certified in Family Law since 1992 and is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell [since 1996]. Sara has mediated for over 25 years and is a trained collaborative lawyer. She is a Texas Super Lawyer and past Chair of the Family Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution [ADR] Sections of the Austin Bar Association. Sara is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas School of Law and has served as a coach and judge in the UT Law Trial Advocacy Program.
Marcy Goodfleisch has been a practicing mediator since 1996, with training in Civil, Family, CPS and Employment dispute resolution. She is an adjunct professor at Park University and teaches courses in Cross-Cultural Communication, Interpersonal Communication, and the Ethics and Psychology of Humor. Since 1999, Marcy has served as an ethics review consultant for an Independent IRB, reviewing the safety and ethics of research to be conducted with human subjects. Marcy is a TMCA Credentialed Distinguished Mediator and an AMA Board member.