Members Present: Rebecca Thiem, Chair; Dr. James Antes; Richard Gross; Jack Marcil; Kristine Paranica; Leo Wilking; Dan Hovland
Members Absent: Rev. Laurie Natwick; Hon. Lee Christofferson; Rep. Kim Koppelman; Dann Dunn
Staff: Christine Hogan
Chair Rebecca Thiem called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. and thanked the members of the Committee for coming to the meeting.
Consideration of January 25, 2002 meeting minutes
The minutes were approved on a motion by Mr. Gross and seconded by Mr. Hovland.
ADR update
Ms. Thiem led the Committee members through a round-table discussion on recent ADR issues and events.
Ms. Thiem attended the refresher mediation course recently held at the capitol sponsored by the Conflict Resolution Center. Ms. Thiem was complimentary about the course and about the training conducted by Kristine Paranica and her partner. She reported on her first mediation in the South Central Judicial District approximately one week before the meeting. She described her thoughts about having mediations in the courthouse setting. She reported that Rule 8.8 is being studied by other committees.
Mr. Marcil commented on a difficult mediation where not all the decision-makers were in the same room. Some attended via telephone conference.
Mr. Hovland reported on a recent voluntary mediation where the parties came to the mediation and refused to make an offer for settlement.
Dr. Antes reported that he and Ms. Paranicia are involved in a project with mediation centers in different parts of the country that are practicing or intending to practice mediation. This group is establishing a network and a developing website for on-line discussions and sharing documents.
Ms. Paranica - reported on mediation training seminars scheduled for May and July 2002. Ms. Paranica and one of her colleagues presented at the Family Mediator's Conference of the Association for Conflict Resolution. She is working on gathering information for producing a video on alternative dispute resolution to be used in the state in place of the training videos currently being used in some of the districts.
Mr. Gross- the American Bar Association's ADR Section is meeting in Seattle at this time. Mr. Gross had been asked to head a panel for this meeting but declined. He was just published in this month's ADR Journal.
He successfully facilitated a meeting in Wyoming of 150 hunters and landowners. He has been asked to come to Wyoming to do three additional projects, one which relates to education funding.
Continuing Education rules for ADR neutrals in North Dakota
The chair recognized the committee's concerns that by proposing a rule the committee could be seen as sanctioning Rule 8.9, but stated she would like this committee to adopt a preliminary rule on continuing education for ADR neutrals.
Ms. Hogan directed the committee to Tab 2, the two versions of the CE rule the committee has previously considered. The main change was taking out the laundry list of items in proposed Standard 1 and 2 that requires training on specific matters. The second change substitutes 120 days for processing coursework approval in place of 90 days. The final change adds the American Arbitration Association to list of approved training organizations.
Mr. Hovland made a motion to approve the draft guidelines. Mr. Wilking seconded the motion. Mr. Gross prefers "will" to "shall" in section one, line 3. In Standard 2, in place of "role playing," he would prefer a term like "experiential learning."
Mr. Gross moved to amend the motion to include "will" instead of "shall" in Section 1, opening paragraph, and Section 2 "experiential learning" instead of "role playing." Mr. Wilking seconded. Ms. Thiem explained the reason for the term is due to the language in the rule we are implementing. She then said we may not need that sentence at all if we simply require compliance with Rule 8.9(b) (2). After discussion, Dick Gross revised his motion to amend to delete the second sentence in Standard 2. The seconder agreed with the revised amendment.
Mr. Wilking noted the references to "commission" rather than committee in sections 2 and 3. These are typos that Ms. Hogan can correct.
The motion to amend passed unanimously. The committee then passed the underlying rule unanimously.
Uniform Mediation Act
Kristine Paranica led a discussion of the provisions of the Uniform Mediation Act. Ms. Thiem
suggested that the Act will require significant review and that another meeting should be devoted to it after the retreat meeting.
Planning for retreat
The Committee discussed having a retreat in Grand Forks in September or October. The committee agreed to meet all day Friday and till noon on Saturday. After discussion, the committee decided the primary focus of the meeting will be to complete our review Rule 8.8 and Rule 8.9. The group agreed that the Center for Dispute Resolution should arrange for a facilitator. We will not be having a meeting this summer.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Christine Hogan
Committee Secretary