Untitled Document

Mark your Calendars Now

2008 Annual General Meeting and Conference

Friday, June 13, 2008

Mississauga, Ontario

Register Now!
Register before May 2, 2008 and receive an Early Bird Discount Coupon "** of $25.00 towards your next membership renewal

Novotel Hotel
3670 Hurontario Street
Mississauga Ontario
905-896-1000

To Register Now, Go to:
http://www.oafm.on.ca

PROGRAM

Colleen Currie	9:00 a.m.	Opening remarks by our past President
Brahm Siegel	9:10 a.m.	"Case Law Update: Recent decisions related to the practice of Family Mediation"
Rick Shields Barbara Fidler Antoinette Clarke	10:10 a.m.	A Panel Discussion: "Family Arbitration for Lawyers, Parenting Coordinators, and Other Professionals: Overview of Training, Screening, Contracting, and Practice Issues"

(12:00 p.m.) LUNCH

	1:00 p.m.	Annual General Meeting (Members only)
Bernie Mayer	2:00 p.m.	A Participatory Workshop with Bernard Mayer: "Staying with Conflict: The Challenge of Working With Long Term Disputes"
Daniel Lanoue	4:00 p.m.	Closing remarks by our President
	4:15 p.m.	President's Wine and Cheese Reception

Bernie Mayer, Ph.D.
"Staying with Conflict: The Challenge of Working With Long Term Disputes"
A Participatory Workshop

Bernie Mayer is a Professor at the Werner Institute for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution at Creighton University and Partner at CDR Associates and has worked since the late 1970's in the conflict resolution field as a trainer, mediator, mentor, facilitator, researcher, program administrator, and dispute systems designer. Being recognized internationally as a trainer and innovative leader in applying mediation, he has consulted on conflict management procedures and trained mediators, negotiators, and conflict resolvers throughout the United States and Canada, Australia, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, and New Zealand.

Mayer has mediated or facilitated the resolution of many different types of conflicts ranging from child protection, adoption and family disputes to labor/management, public policy, and ethnic conflicts. He has worked with corporations, labor unions, Native American governments and associations, Federal, state and local agencies, public interest groups, professional associations, public schools, child welfare programs, mental health services, and universities.

Mayer was the founder and co-director of the Child Protection Mediation Project, which was one of the first efforts to use mediation in child protection cases and he has provided consultation and training on the use of mediation and other conflict resolution programs in child welfare throughout the United States and Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and various parts of Eastern Europe.

Mayer is a widely published author in the conflict resolution field and his publications include the Dynamics of Conflict Resolution and Beyond Neutrality.

Brahm Siegel, LL.B.
"Recent Decisions Related to the Practice of Family Mediation"
Case Law Update

Brahm D. Siegel is a senior partner at Nathens, Siegel, LLP, a five-lawyer boutique in Toronto restricted to family law. He received his Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours from McGill University in 1990 and his Bachelor of Laws from Queen's University in 1993. He articled with McMillan Binch in Toronto in 1994 and was called to the Bar in 1995.

Brahm is the founder and consulting editor of the McCarthy Tetrault Guide to the Family Law Courts in Ontario, co-author of the Ontario Family Law Rules Annotated and the consulting editor of the Consolidated Ontario Family Law Statutes and Regulations, both published by Carswell. He is also the author of the chapters on divorce, procedure and alternative dispute resolution for the family law Licensing Process at the Law Society where he had the pleasure of being an instructor from 2000-2006.

Brahm has also spoken at various conferences and seminars at the Law Society of Upper Canada and Advocates Society, been published in the Canadian Family Law Quarterly and is the founder of the Nathens, Siegel Award, a scholarship for first year law students at Queen's University. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Bench & Bar at the Ontario Court of Justice in North York.

In 2006, he began offering services as mediator/arbitrator and is enjoying assisting lawyers and clients resolve family law and divorce disputes in this manner.

Family Arbitration for Lawyers, Parenting Coordinators, and Other Professinoals: An Overview of Training, Screening, Contracting, and Practice Issues"

A Panel Discussion with Richard Shields, Barbara Fidler and Antoinette Clarke.

Richard W. Shields, LL.M., Ph.D.

Shields is a lawyer, mediator, arbitrator, and trainer. Admitted to the practice of law in Ontario, Canada in 1976, he now restricts his professional practice to collaborative family law, family mediation, and family arbitration. Rick has an M.A. in Conflict Resolution, an LL.M. in ADR, and a Ph.D in Adult Education. He is certified as a specialist in family law by the Law Society of Upper Canada and as a comprehensive family mediator by Family Mediation Canada. Rick is also designated by the ADR Institute of Canada as a Chartered Mediator and a Chartered Arbitrator. He is an adjunct professor in negotiation and mediation in the dispute resolution programs of York University and McMaster University and a family mediation, family arbitration, and collaborative family law and practice trainer. Rick is co-author with Judith Ryan and Victoria Smith of Collaborative Family Law: Another Way to Resolve Family Disputes, published by Thomson Carswell in 2003.

Barbara Fidler, Ph.D.

Barbara Fidler is a registered psychologist and accredited mediator practicing in Ontario, Canada. She received her MA from San Francisco State University in 1980 and her Ph.D. from York University in 1986. Dr. Fidler maintains a private practice and is a founding member of Family Solutions, a team devoted to working with separated and divorced families. She provides consultation, reunification intervention, mediation, arbitration, parenting coordination, expert court testimony and custody/access assessment critiques. Her practice also includes marital/ couple, individual (child, adolescents, and adult) and family counseling.

Dr. Fidler provides training and supervision for child custody assessments, parenting coordination, mediation, parent-child contact problems and other special topics relating to high conflict families alienation. She has been actively involved in the development and training of Parenting Coordination services. She was appointed to the AFCC Task Force charged with developing guidelines and standards of practice for Parenting Coordination.

Dr. Fidler is currently a member of the High Conflict Forum in Toronto. She is a frequent presenter on high conflict families and related topics. Dr. Fidler has published in the areas of separation/divorce, parenting plans and residential schedules, child alienation, and parenting coordination. She is co-author of two books: Child Custody Assessments: A Resource Guide for Legal and Mental Health Professionals (2008) and Special Topics in Child Custody Assessment: A Resource Guide for Legal and Mental Health Professionals (to be released in 2008).

Antoinette Clarke, B.S.W, M.S.W., R.S.W., Grd.Dip.Soc.Adm., Ph.D.

Antoinette is a PhD candidate with the Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. Her thesis is focusing on the influence of culture on the mediation process. Antoinette is also an Adjunct professor for the Graduate programme and a course director for the school of Social Work, Atkinson faculty of Liberal and Professional studies at York University. She is also a course director for the Family Mediation certificate/diploma programme at the Centre for Continuing Education, McMaster University. In addition she is a co-facilitator for a workshop on Assessing for Power imbalance and Domestic Violence in Mediation. Until recently, Antoinette was the coordinator of the Peel Family Mediation and Parent Education program.