Letter from the President
Dear TAPM Members,
It’s already September! As the incoming President, I want to reach out to all members and thank you for your patience through the summer.
We now have in place new administrative helpers, Dawn Forshay and Jen Comiskey who are ready to produce CLE/CME presentations via Zoom, begin planning our annual event, and---as you can see---ready to publish a newsletter again. TAPM’s Board would like to say a special thank you to Jenny Darrell, Joy Reed and Nayeli Chavez at Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services (TALS) for their work behind the scenes over the last decade and for helping us with a smooth transition to new support staff.
I’ve been a member of TAPM since the beginning (2006) and have served on the board in all capacities since then. There have been a few times I’ve been less active, “rolled off” the board and done my mediation thing with other groups. But I always have so much fun and learn a lot when I stay active with TAPM.
Mediators are just the best group of people! I invite each of you to consider whether you might want to come closer and see what TAPM is all about, and what you can contribute. This year, we have the following committees at work, and each of them would welcome each of you. Do you see anything that makes you want to put down that remote and sign up?
- Membership with Kim Best (outreach to and networking with members, and CLE/CME presentations, our first one on September 12)
- Public Relations, with Robin Wheeler and Regina Newson (newsletter and social media)
- Professionalism, with Gordon Russell, Sara Figal and Cindy Ettingoff (rules and ethics affecting mediators in their profession, communication with the ADRC)
- Pro bono, with Vicki Krusel, and me (Our first project is to better understand PEMF and Rule 38)
- Nominations, with Beth Tarter (board nominations and the Grayfred Gray Award, the next one focused on Middle Tennessee)
- Financial, with Karen Phillips (budget projections and adjustments)
One of my projects this year is to attempt create an organizational structure within TAPM for mediators who want to be mentored and mediators who would like to be mentors. We have had so many inquiries about how to find a mentor/guide/tutor or a co-mediator.
As Director of Community Mediation Center, I’ve seen how newly trained mediators find their super-powers when given the chance to observe and participate in a small group or one-on-one tutorial about what they’ve just seen. The profession of mediation can benefit from mentoring, and in my experience, the clients in mediation need to be asked permission, but almost never do they mind the idea of allowing confidential, silent observation by mentees. They may even think it results in better mediation! Aside from observation and debriefing, mentors could also meet with a mentee for one-on-one discussions, for advice about a particular type of
mediation process.
If anyone would like to help me work on this new project, please reach out directly
to me!
As I mentioned earlier, as we did with our September 12th Zoom presentation with our mentors: Jocie Wurtzberg, Lynn Barton, Marietta Shipley, and Grayfred Gray, we will follow all Zoom presentations with a members meeting to discuss what we
have coming up with TAPM and asking for your input for activities this year.
As always, Jackie
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