WELCOME TO ACR UPDATE—the monthly e-newsletter sharing important conflict resolution news and organizational updates with ACR members. Your feedback is welcome!

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OVERVIEW OF ARTICLES
April 4, 2006

1. ACR Board Designates Third Thursday in October as Conflict Resolution Day
2. ACR Annual Conference: Sponsorship, Travel, Hotel and Entertainment Information
3. Is It Time for a Change? Visit the ACR CareerCenter!
4. National Youth Violence Prevention Week: April 3-7, 2006
5. ACR Sections Update: Upcoming Conferences and Teleseminars
6. ACR Chapter Update: Chapter Leader Calls and Chapters advisory Council
7. ACR Teleseminars Available on CD
8. Special ACR Membership Offer
9. Quotations
10. Messages from our Sponsors: Mediate.com, Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution and Sullivan University Department of Graduate Studies

ACR Board Designates Third Thursday in October as Conflict Resolution Day

Building on the success of the first Conflict Resolution Day, held in October 2005, ACR’s Board of Directors has adopted a resolution designating the third Thursday in October each year as Conflict Resolution Day.

It’s not too early to start thinking about how you’ll celebrate Conflict Resolution Day 2006! Visit the ACR website for suggestions: http://www.acrnet.org/crday/ideas.htm. A listing of the 2005 events is posted here: http://www.acrnet.org/crday/crday2005.htm. Last year there were celebrations in Canada, Portugal and 22 U.S. states!

Interested in helping expand the reach of Conflict Resolution Day? Contact the Conflict Resolution Day Steering Committee via ACR Program Manager Jennifer Druliner at jdruliner@ACRnet.org or by phone at 202-464-9700 ext. 228.

The purpose of Conflict Resolution Day is to:

• Promote awareness of mediation, arbitration, conciliation and other creative, peaceful means of resolving conflict;

• Promote the use of conflict resolution in schools, families, businesses, communities, governments and the legal system;

• Recognize the significant contributions of (peaceful) conflict resolvers;

• Educate current and potential consumers about the benefits of conflict resolution; and

•Obtain national synergy by having celebrations happen across the country at the same time.

Sponsorship Opportunities Available for ACR’s Sixth Annual Conference!

There are many terrific opportunities for advertising, sponsoring and exhibiting at ACR’s Sixth Annual Conference (October 25–28, 2006 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). Benefits of buying an ad, a sponsorship or an exhibit table include:

•High visibility to thousands of practitioners and businesses if you advertise in one of our three Annual Conferene publications, beginning with the Pre-Conference Brochure mailed to  25,000 readers in early summer;

•The opportunity as an exhibitor to make hundreds of new contacts with potential business or strategic partners;

•Branding of your company name as a sponsoring organization, with banners, advertisements and even major Annual Conference events bearing your logo.

If you have sponsored at previous ACR Annual Conferences or have marketed your business, school or organization with ads or exhibit tables, watch your mail this month! 

If you have not yet participated in one of our Annual Conferences, please join ACR in Philadelphia on October 25-28, and promote your company or school to hundreds of leaders in the field!  Email agallivan@ACRnet.org  right away and have the 2006 Sponsorship Brochure sent by post or email.

Full Sponsorship packages begin at $3,500. Exhibit tables begin at $575. Promotional items begin at $1,000.

Deadline: Advertisers and sponsors who want to place ads in the Pre-Conference Brochure, ACR’s wide-circulation promotional brochure, must submit ad copy by May 15.

Air Travel Discounts Available for Annual Conference Attendees

It’s not too early to start planning your air travel to Philadelphia for ACR’s Sixth Annual Conference (October 25–28, 2006). ACR is happy to offer an air travel discount through United Airlines (www.united.com). With a 30-day advanced purchase, Annual Conference attendees can receive a discount on their air travel to Philadelphia. Please call United Meetings Plus at (800) 521-4041 and mention our ACR ID# 530XK when speaking with the United representative.

Reserve Your Hotel Room by October 2, 2006 and Receive a Discounted Rate

ACR and the Philadelphia Convention and Visitor’s Bureau (http://www.pcvb.org/) invite you to attend ACR’s Sixth Annual Conference in Philadelphia! This year’s Annual Conference will take place in the heart of Philadelphia’s historic center city at the Wyndham at Franklin Plaza (http://www.wyndham.com/hotels/PHLFP/main.wnt). Please note that as of May 4, 2006, the host hotel will have a new name: The Sheraton Philadelphia City Center.

ACR has reserved a block of rooms for Annual Conference attendees starting at $155 per night.  Rooms for qualifying attendees at the 2006 government per diem rate are also available. Individual reservations can be made by calling 1-800-WYNDHAM. Please be sure to mention “Association for Conflict Resolution” in order to get the group rate. The group block number is 1022326ACR. A deposit equal to one night’s stay is required to hold an individual reservation. The cut-off date for our room block is October 2, 2006 so please make your reservations before then!

Please feel free to contact Christina Herold, Conference Manager, if you have any questions. She can be reached via email at cherold@ACRnet.org.

We look forward to seeing you in Philadelphia in October!

Philadelphia, Here We Come! Part 4: A Taste of Entertainment and the Arts

Below is a sampling of Philadelphia’s entertainment offerings to whet your appetite. For a more complete list of music venues, theatre and museums please go to the ACR website.

Music:

Classical:

The Philadelphia Orchestra   at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (Broad and Spruce Streets) (3/4 of a mile away) is our world-class orchestra performing in its new state-of-the-art venue.

Opera Company of Philadelphia at the Academy of Music (Broad and Locust Streets) (3/4 of a mile away) is our resident company of rising music stars.

Pennsylvania Ballet  at the Academy of Music (Broad and Locust Streets) (3/4 of a mile away) is one of the nation’s leading ballet companies, performing innovative and classical numbers.

Jazz:

World Café Live (3025 Walnut Street) (one mile away) features live jazz, blues, reggae, R&B, zydeco, folk and world music.

Pop:

Bob and Barbara’s Lounge (1509 South Street) (one mile away) is an R&B headquarters.

Broadway musicals/cabaret:

Prince Music Theatre (1412 Chestnut Street) (1/2 of a mile away) showcases top cabaret acts and new, innovative musicals.

Live Theatre:

Forrest Theatre (1114 Walnut Street) (2/3of a mile away).

• Online Discussion Forums/ Message Board

• Access to the full Membership Directory

• Reduced Rates on Professional Liability Insurance

• ACR CareerCenter

• CRQ Online: Access ACR's academic Journal online anytime

• 20% off Purchases from BNA Books and Jossey-Bass publications

• Discounts on Medical Insurance, Hertz Car Rental and buymagazines.com

• and much more...

Is it time for a change?

Are you looking for a new job?  Or are you an employer looking for qualified employees?  Then look no further!  The *new* ACR CareerCenter  is up and running.  Sign up now to take advantage of this full-service resource designed just for members of the conflict resolution field.

Go to the ACR CareerCenter today to start searching!

April 3-7, 2006 is National Youth Violence Prevention Week

ACR is pleased to be a strategy sponsor of National Youth Violence Prevention Week, an annual campaign to raise awareness and to educate students, teachers, school administrators, counselors, school resource officers, school staff, parents, and the public on effective ways to prevent or reduce youth violence.

Upcoming ACR Section Conferences

ACR Environment and Public Policy Section Midyear Conference June 28–30, 2006

The Environment and Public Policy (EPP) Section is gearing up for an enlightening and enjoyable three-day conference at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts June 28 - 30, 2006.

Chaired by Professor Lawrence Susskind, Director of the MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program, and Harry Manasewich, President of Human Factor Dispute Resolutions, “Deliberative Democracy: New Directions in Public Policy Dispute Resolution” will offer participants the opportunity to network with each other while learning from top theorists and practitioners in Public Policy Dispute Resolution and Deliberative Democracy (broadly defined as democratic civic engagement).

Keynote addresses and workshops will focus on the intersection of theory and practice in resolving public disputes, the role of ADR practitioners in resolving intractable public policy disputes around social and moral issues such as abortion and race issues in rebuilding the Gulf Coast. The conference will also look at public dispute resolution as a business, leveraging data gathered from surveys of the top dispute resolution individuals and firms, and include a panel of professionals who work to resolve conflicts outside the United States.

For more information, please contact Anne Mansfield, 802-831-1338, or visit the EPP Section website at http://www.mediate.com/acrepp/pg17.cfm.

ACR Family Section Conference, July 13 - 16, 2006 in Cape Cod, Massachusetts

The ACR Family Section Conference, “Making Waves – Breaking Barriers,” will be held July 13 - 16, 2006 at the Sea Crest Oceanfront Resort and Conference Center. The conference site is in beautiful Old Silver Beach in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, scene of the AFM conference in 1997.  A limited number of rooms have been set aside until June 13 for conference participants at the rate of $190 for Thursday night and $220 for Friday and Saturday nights, plus tax.  For reservations, call 800-225-3110 before June 13, 2006, and request the group rate for “Association for Conflict Resolution.” For information and directions to the resort, please visit www.seacrest-resort.com.  

The conference will feature (1) three pre-conference workshops on Thursday afternoon; (2) an opening plenary and reception Thursday evening featuring David Hall, Provost and Senior Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Northeastern University Boston and author of the best selling book The Spiritual Revitalization of the Legal Profession: A Search for Sacred Rivers; (3) 54 workshops Friday morning through Sunday morning focusing on every aspect of family mediation; and (4) a closing brunch and plenary featuring highly experienced mediators, each with a different style of mediation, working with very high conflict couples.  The full conference schedule and registration information will be available soon

Spirituality Section Mid-Year Meeting in San Francisco, CA, May 5, 2006

Plan to attend the Third Annual Spirituality Section Mid-Year Meeting, co-sponsored by ACR’s Spirituality Section and the Association of Dispute Resolution of Northern California. This exciting event will feature Gary Friedman, Center for Mediation in Law as keynote speaker and Barbara Ashley Phillips, North American Institute for Conflict Resolution. More information will be made available on the Spirituality Section website.

Upcoming Section Teleseminars!

Spirituality Section

Kenneth Cloke: “Why Every Conflict Breaks Your Heart: Conflict as a Spiritual Crisis” on April 13, 2006, 3:00 p.m. EDT

To participate, please send an email to Conflict@ACRnet.org. You will receive an auto reply email with the confirmation details in the body of the email. If you do not receive your confirmation, please contact Anne-Marie Burton, ACR Sections Manager at aburton at ACRnet.org.

Workplace and Online Dispute Resolution Sections Co-Sponsor an Online

Brainstorming and Mediation Demonstration Call

May 25, 2006, noon EDT; note: the registration deadline is May 10, 2006

Experience how electronic dispute resolution tools can be effectively integrated into the mediation process. This Workplace/ODR teleconference adds an online experience to the February 17 teleconference co-hosted by the Workplace and ODR Sections. It is not necessary to have participated in the February 17 session to participate in this online demonstration call, but advance registration by May 10, 2006 is required.

Participants who have registered by the May 10 deadline will be given instructions on how to access two online ODR applications.  These applications will be used to conduct ongoing asynchronous demonstrations of online technology and how it can be used to conduct brainstorming sessions and mediation online. Then, during the May 25 call, participants will be given access to a synchronous online site where they will be able to see the presenter, Daniel Rainey, and see the summarized results of the asynchronous work done by the participants in the two weeks leading up to the May 25 session. Daniel Rainey is Director of ADR Services at the National Mediation Board in Washington, DC and is responsible for the development and integration of technology across the Board’s function areas.

To participate in the discussion, send an email to integrationodrteleseminar at ACRnet dot org by May 10, 2006. Confirmation and instructions will be sent after the May 10 deadline. Non-Section members may attend two teleseminars at no charge.

Interested in participating in a teleconference? Send an email to sections at ACRnet dot org to receive dial-in instructions. Please note: most Section teleconferences are a Section member benefit. To join a Section, log in to ACR’s Online Member Center, click on “My Account History,” then “Add Sections,” and select the Sections you want to add.

Update on Monthly Chapter Leader Calls

ACR Chapter Leaders have been participating in monthly conference calls where valuable ideas have been exchanged.  To date, we have discussed:

• Reaching a large geographical area

• Involving students in Chapters

• Increasing Chapter visibility at the Annual Conference

• Improving collaboration with Sections

• Hosting a film festival

• Successfully increasing the number of members using ACR member geographical lists

Interested Chapter leaders can join the calls, which are held the 1^st Thursday of every month 1:00-2:00 p.m. EST.  Please contact Ashley Parker, Membership Relations Associate, for the call-in number (phone: 202-464-9700 ext. 245; email: aparker@ACRnet.org). Topic suggestions are welcome and should be sent to ACR’s Chapters Director Tara Fishler at tara@tarafishler.com.

Chapters Advisory Council Update

The ACR Board of Directors met March 10–11, 2006 in DC and Chapters Director Tara Fishler presented the proposed agenda for the Chapters Advisory Council (CAC).  One of the great things the CAC members are doing is serving as liaisons for prospective Chapters.  People in 17 states and several countries have expressed interest in potentially becoming Chapters.  The CAC is helping to foster those relationships.  The CAC is also working on clarifying categories for International, Affiliates and Associate Memberships.

Other CAC initiatives include:

• Improve visibility of chapters at ACR’s 2006 Annual Conference 

• Collaborate more with Sections

• Revise Model Chapter Bylaws

• MMM – Mutual Membership Marketing – Clarify multi-year plan for acceptance by board and chapters

Join an ACR Chapter!

With 20 ACR Chapters, there is one in your area.  Get more information at http://www.acrnet.org/chapters/.

Check out the ACR Chapters’ discussion forum!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ACR_Chapters

Expand your Horizon with ACR’s educational Teleseminars on audio CD.

You have the chance to hear a teleseminar in the comfort of your office, home, car or on your way to work.  For more information, please click on the names of the CDs below.

The following CDs are now available for purchase:

• “Violence in the Workplace: A New Way to Recognize Potential Explosions and Effectively Intervene,” presented by Marcus McElhaney.
• "Extreme Facilitation," presented by Suzanne Ghais.
• "The Devil is in the Details," presented by Jack Kelly.
• "The Anatomy of a Commercial Mediator," presented by Jeffrey Allen and Tom Oswald.
• "What Every Mediator Should Know About Current Trends in Arbitration," presented by Richard Dewitt, Esq.
• "The Spiritual Cost of Conflict," presented by Kenneth Cloke.
• "Why We Do What We Do By Accessing the Greater Vision of Our Work," presented by JoAnne Kellert.

To order a CD:

Pay by fax or mail:

Click to download a Product Order Form in PDF format and mail or fax it in to the ACR office with your check or credit card payment. Faxed orders should be faxed to the attention of Anne-Marie Burton at 202-464-9720. Mailed orders should be sent with a check to Anne-Marie L. Burton, Sections Manager, Association for Conflict Resolution, 1015 18th Street, NW, Suite 1150, Washington, D.C. 20036.

SPECIAL MEMBERSHIP OFFER!

Log in the Online Member Center  and renew your membership online now and you will automatically be entered to win TWO FREE MONTHS OF MEMBERSHIP!

Make your dues go farther! Renewing online saves ACR resources!

One Drawing Every Month!

Congratulations to last month’s winner, Harmony Tenney of Staunton, VA.

10. Message from our Sponsors: Mediate.com, Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, and Sullivan University's Department of Graduate Studies

Celebrate 10 Years with Mediate.com

• Mediate.com DVD's: New Release: "Culture & Gender Issues in Negotiation & Mediation" with Nina Meierding
• Mediate.com's Comprehensive Web Site Package  is now only $49.95/mo or $499.95/year.
• The best way to get clients and referral sources to your web site is with
  MediatorDirect Area Code Placements & Statewide Banners

For additional information, contact admin@mediate.com or call 541 345 1629

SPECIAL ONLINE OFFER!

Log in to the Online Member Center and renew your membership online and you will automatically be entered to win

TWO FREE MONTHS OF MEMBERSHIP!

Make your dues go farther!
Renewing online saves ACR resources!

One Drawing Every Month!

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Reach 6,300+ conflict resolution enthusiasts with your advertising message. A 10-line, 100-word, text ad costs just $150! For more information, contact ACR at ACR at ACRnet.org.