News from Washington Mediation

Bold and Exciting Pilot Project
emerges through strategic planning process!!!

On Oct. 16, 2008, Conflict Resolution Day, we are envisioning 200+ mediators stationed at various locations (TBD) around the state of WA to take part in a
Two For One – (2-4-1) marketing assessment while marketing experience!

Participants will be asking (face to face) questions relating to the conflict people experience in their lives. We will also be telling people about mediation and answering their questions.

You won’t want to be left out of this incredible coming together of the mediation community for the purpose of learning about the community needs we could be addressing and sharing information about mediation.  We need some of you to be part of the steering committee and we need 200 of you to participate in a shift on Oct. 16. 

The first meeting of the steering committee will be September 3rd and all who are interested are encouraged to attend. We will meet at 6:00pm in the café in the basement of Elliot Bay Books (downstairs). At this meeting we will develop a more thorough list of tasks, timelines and people responsible. We want your name on this list. If you cannot make it to the Sept. meeting yet wish to help with other tasks listed, please send me an e-mail indicating what you are interested in doing.

Here are some of the tasks we’ll need help with:

Prior to Oct. 16
Development of survey questions
Recruitment of mediators
Press
Flyers
Buttons
Site locations (permission, tracking etc.)

After Oct. 16
Organization of data
Summary of findings
Tracking of effect of marketing
Feedback report to participants


Sarah Bergdahl and Lars Watson

This year’s National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation is being held in Austin, Texas, October 3-5. If you are dedicated to solving problems through honest talk, quality thinking, and collaborative action, we hope to see you there.

NCDD’s biennial conferences, which are highly participatory, highly innovative and surprisingly affordable, bring together

leaders and future leaders in public engagement and conflict resolution to share resources and strategies, build lasting relationships, increase the visibility and effectiveness of their work, tackle challenges facing this emerging field, and initiate collaborative projects. Many people have told us they’re the best conferences they’ve ever attended.

At NCDD Austin, we’re offering more ways than ever for conference participants to contribute content, share their work, and make progress on issues they care about. We welcome you to submit your proposals now for:

1. Concurrent Workshops (unique, engaging sessions that highlight the best the dialogue and deliberation community has to offer) 2. Innovations (innovative projects/strategies that address some of the biggest challenges and issues we face in the field; we’ll match you up with other innovators with similar topics to organize joint collaborative sessions at the conference) 3. Networking Topics and Facilitators (topics you’re really into, so you can meet others who share your same interests during a
fun, structured networking session)

More details about these 3 opportunities, and the forms for submitting proposals and ideas are at www.thataway.org/events/?
page_id=119

Please note that the deadline for submitting workshop proposals and innovations is Friday, May 16th. The deadline for

submitting networking topics and signing up to facilitate topics is July 19th. We’re also running two Q&A-type conference calls
for people who have questions about these opportunities - one this Wednesday at 7 pm Eastern and one on Tuesday, May 6th
at 11 am Eastern. The long distance call-in number for both calls is 1-712-580-8020, and the access code is 444839.

And if you’re planning on joining us in Austin, you may want to register before May 16th so you get the super-low early rate of
only $300 (!). Registration details can be found at www.thataway.org/ events/?page_id=136

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