Leaping toward Self-Determination

Happy February 29, 2012! 

It takes the Earth approximately 365.242199 days to complete a revolution around the sun and Leap years were added to keep the calendar in line with these revolutions. In 46 BC, Julius Caesar, in his aptly named Julian calendar, was the first to add Leap Years; however, he added too many. The Gregorian, or common solar calendar, corrected this some 1500 years later. Its 365 days includes Leap Years under three conditions:

• if the year is evenly divisible by 4;
• if the year can be evenly divided by 100, it is NOT a leap year, unless;
• the year is also evenly divisible by 400, then it is a Leap Year.

This means that 2000 and 2400 are Leap Years, while 1900, 2100, 2200, and 2300 are not.

Sophia Gilmer

Romance the Other 365 Days a (Leap) Year

We're pleased to welcome Sophia Gilmer, NAFCM's new intern who will be sharing a continuing series of conflict resolution tips blog posts.

Romantic relationships are long term mutually satisfying extensive collaborations in which negotiations are constant and, as in all relationships, often occur without you realizing it. Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In proposes a conscientious method of principled negotiation. (See how these principles can reduce relationship conflicts below.) 

Sophia Gilmer

Community Mediation Webinar Series

NAFCM is bringing all the latest in community mediation direct to you! Through the new Community Mediation Webinar Series, you can connect with the latest discussions, leading research, and inspiring topics, all from the convenience of your own office!

Staying current couldn't be more convenient! We realize budgets are strained, travel expenses have been excised, and time out-of-office is a decreasing luxury for many program administrators. That's why we're brining conference-quality trainings direct to you! Even better, we're making each webinar FREE for current NAFCM members! Non-members can register for only $20 per event or, better yet, join NAFCM to save even more!

Check out the initial list of webinars and stay tuned for new additions arriving regularly throughout 2012. Don't miss out, registration will be limited to only 20 seats per event!

In community,

Justin R. Corbett

Executive Director, NAFCM

D+I Week 3: Resources to Equip Our Commitment

The third week of NAFCM's Diversity + Inclusion Discussion Series is now a wrap. This week's theme: "Resources to Equip Our Commitment" was focused on ensuring our principled aims are supported by accessible resources, insightful research, and local connections. Toward that end, our Series facilitators posted a range of interesting discussion prompts and compiled an initial set of helpful resources. Review the complete list of daily discussion prompts (below the break) and recommend additional adr-related diversity resources in the comments below.

This week also saw the release of NAFCM's Survey on Diversity + Inclusion within Community Mediation. This Survey is an ambitious, first-of-its-kind undertaking to purposefully and methodically collect information on how community mediation programs envision, engage, and excel in diversity and inclusion practices at the local level. To further inform and engender continued dialogue, results from this Survey will be compiled into a report from NAFCM's D+I Working Group and shared with the broader field.

In community,

Justin R. Corbett

Executive Director, NAFCM