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From the Commission
Dear Registered Neutral,
We would like you to tell us how we’re doing. The short surveys below
are your opportunity to tell us what you think works and what needs
improvement in our court-connected ADR system. Your feedback will
help us create new programs and enhance our current programs and
services to you. Please take a few minutes to complete one of the
surveys. Just click the appropriate link below, depending on whether
you live or work in Georgia or outside the state.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FFZ5PCT (Registered
Neutrals in Georgia)
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2WK5NZG
(Registered Neutrals Out of State)
Your responses and your identity will remain confidential. The ADR
Court Program Liaison Committee will analyze your answers and use them
to develop recommendations to the full Commission on Dispute
Resolution.
The Liaison Committee was established in January 2010 with two
mandates: 1) to support and promote high quality court ADR services;
and 2) to help the Georgia Office of Dispute Resolution (GODR) provide
you value-added programs by improving communication among the
constituents of Georgia’s court-connected ADR system.
So far the committee has created several new programs for registered
neutrals, including: professional liability insurance, health
insurance, retirement programs and this GODR e-newsletter. We need to
hear from you so we can better understand your priorities and needs.
Thank you,
Alan Granath, Liaison Committee Chair
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KSU Seeks Department Chair, Interim Director
Kennesaw State University is seeking a chairman of the Political
Science and International Affairs Department, which houses the widely
respected Master of Science in Conflict Management program. Click
here to see the job listing.
KSU is also seeking an interim director for its Center for Conflict
Management. Click
here to see the job listing.
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Case Watch: For Mediators
The issue of child support and how it can be paid is once again front
and center in this analysis of two recent Georgia appellate court
cases Mary Ellen Cates, veteran divorce attorney and registered
mediator. Her take: trial courts, which are charged with overseeing
the best interests of children in a divorce, have broad discretion to
secure adequate financial support for the children, even if that
discretion involves a parent paying a lump sum, rather than making
monthly payments.
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17th
Annual
ADR Institute
&
2010
Neutrals
Conference
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ADR Institute
Registration Now Open!
Finally! Registration is now open for the 17th Annual ADR Institute
and the 2010 Neutrals’ Conference. It will be held Friday, December 10,
2010, at the State Bar of Georgia Conference Center, 104 Marietta St.
NW, Atlanta. 6 hours of neutral continuing education and 6 hours of
CLE (including that rare 1 Ethics Hour) will be available. The
early/on-site registration fees have been kept the same as last
year’s: $105/$125 for neutrals, and $170/$190 for lawyers wanting CLE.
Details and conference registration available now through the
Institute for Continuing Legal Education.
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’Tis the Season:
Registration Renewal Opens
The 2010 registration renewal season will be from November 1 to
December 31, 2010. All registered neutrals will need to renew,
except those new neutrals with a registration expiration date of
1/1/2011. Online renewal access and fillable, downloadable renewal
forms are now available on our
website. Any applications submitted after December 31, 2010 will
be considered late. Details:
Continuing Education: All renewing neutrals must show on
their renewal applications that they have taken at least 3 hours of
continuing education since their initial registration or their last
renewal, whichever comes later. You can no longer carry over CE hours
from previous years or toward future years.
Renewal Fee: The basic renewal fee is $125;
it is $150 for those registered in domestic relations
mediation. Note: if you submit your application after December
31, 2010, your application will be considered late, and your renewal
fee will double to $250 or $300. We don’t want you to have to pay the
late fee, so please submit your application before December 31, 2010.
Signature Page: The GBI requires all
renewing neutrals to submit a hand-signed signature page that gives
GODR permission to run a criminal background check. For those
submitting printed applications, the signature page is the last page
of the renewal form. For those submitting renewals online,
the signature page is the last page of your online application
summary, so please print your summary. Your application will not
be processed without the signature page. Mail, e-mail, or fax your
signature page to us.
More Information:
Renewal instructions and information are posted
here on our website.
**Always send important documents to GODR via a service
that offers tracking and delivery confirmation.** |
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Feed Your Head:
CRQ Articles for Neutrals, Court Administrators
Conflict Resolution Quarterly
is a highly respected academic publication, and it just so happens
that the editor-in-chief, Susan S. Raines, Ph.D., is a Georgia
registered mediator, approved trainer and ADR professor at Kennesaw
State University. For the interest of neutrals and court
administrators, she has compiled for us a list of recent CRQ
articles on topics as diverse as the
struggle to define “mediation”;
ADR in medical malpractice cases; and
an approach to dissolving same-sex partnerships. You can access
these articles three ways:
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All members of the Association for Conflict Resolution can access
articles for free as a benefit of membership. Please visit
www.acrnet.org for more information on becoming a member or to
log on and search articles via their website.
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You can access articles through any institutional library through
which you have borrowing or usage privileges.
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Abstracts can be accessed for free and full-text articles can be
accessed for a fee at the Wiley CRQ website:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1541-1508 |
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Business Tip: Tax Changes for Your Neutral Practice
Many ADR professionals in Georgia are sole proprietors or small
businesses. You should know that several changes are afoot in the tax
code that will affect the way you do business next year and beyond.
In this first installment of our Business Tip column, Rob Tamburri,
CEO and founder of Tamburri Financial Group,
explains the tax changes that he believes are most relevant to you and
your practice.
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Rob Tamburri is a licensed CPA and
the CEO & Founder of Tamburri Financial Group - He can be reached
at
rob@tamburrifinancial.com
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Commission Meeting in
November
The next meeting of the Commission on Dispute Resolution is scheduled
for Thursday, November 18, at 2 pm, in Meeting Room 1 of the
State Bar of Georgia Conference Center, 104 Marietta St. NW,
Atlanta, GA 30303. Meetings are open to the public. Upcoming
Commission meetings, agendas and minutes are always posted on our
website.
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Upcoming CE and Training Offerings
Registration renewal season began November 1. But there’s no reason
to panic about your annual 3-hour neutral CE requirement. Remember,
any training you took counts as CE as long as you took in since your
last renewal or your initial registration, whichever comes later.
Lawyers, any CLE you took in 2010 counts as CE. Likewise, judges, any
CJE you took in 2010 counts as CE. Accountants and other
professionals with continuing education requirements, same thing. And
any ADR-related seminar or training you attended in 2010 just because
you wanted to learn something, yes, that counts as CE also. Check
frequently at our
website for the latest CE
and training offerings.
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Be Neutral
Back Issues Available Online
Be Neutral
is sent monthly to all registered neutrals, generally at the beginning
of the month. If you missed an issue, our back issues are posted at
the bottom right of our website, under
“Newsletter Archive.” Please take a look. If you know people who
want Be Neutral, please direct them to our subscription box at
the bottom right of our
website, where they just
need to enter their e-mail addresses.
Please forward this
newsletter to anyone who might be interested in ADR in Georgia
courts. Forward it just as you would any other e-mail. If folks who
are not registered neutrals want to receive the newsletter free of
charge, they can submit their e-mail addresses in the subscription box
at the bottom right of our
website. And sending us feedback is easy – just reply to this
e-mail as you would any other e-mail. We want to hear from you!
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Spread the Word Please forward this newsletter to anyone who might be interested in ADR in Georgia courts. Forward it just as you would any other e-mail.
If folks who are not registered neutrals want to receive the
newsletter free of charge, they can use the subscription link at the
bottom of this newsletter or submit their e-mail addresses in the
subscription box at the bottom right of the home page of our
website. And sending us feedback is easy – just reply to this
e-mail as you would any other e-mail. We want to hear from you ! |
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