MCDR Then!

top

In the late 1980's a group of practitioners met and began to organize. The early focus, and virtually all our energy was devoted to getting started.

We talked about the needs of professionals in Maryland, but we didn't have any specific, defined purpose that propelled us forward. In fact some of our deeply held values held us back. We were inclusive, so we became very heterogeneous. We valued participation and consensus decision-making which created burdens as the organization was trying to form. Because of the need for consensus, coupled with a fluid membership, it was hard to choose leaders.

In 1991, we organized a large successful conference for practitioners that was held at Howard County Community College. Over 120 persons attended.

During that period we made the decision not to become a SPIDR (Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution) chapter. In the late 80's SPIDR's early members were focused on labor relations. It didn't seem like a good fit for the needs of Maryland.

Still there was so much to be done in Maryland. Maryland was well behind many States in both breadth and depth of ADR applications. There were questions about prospectvie court rules and other regulatory issues. ADR was just beginning to appear on the scene in Maryland.

The organization fell into a state of dormancy until the early '90s when it was resurrected from its own ashes. A group of mediators held a meeting, initially in order to develop a consensus on how mediation was progressing in the various court systems in Maryland. Other non-court mediators asked if they could attend and we began anew.

Initially, we held meetings four or five times a year, largely for peer support and to do some informal in-service training. We met frequently in Columbia since it was centrally located, and had, at the time, a free facility. As interest grew, we progressed more formally, nominating and collecting officers. We selected our name (originally the Maryland Committee on Dispute Resolution) to indicate our openness to all people interested in all types of dispute resolution. We operated largely on a consensus basis.

As we were growing, so was the court's interest in mediation and the need of the court to establish standards for court mediators. In the mid '90s, we received word that the Rules Committee of the Circuit Courts of Maryland were proposing changes to the rules (S73A - originally established in 1991 ) concerning court mediators. These proposed changes concerned us.

We were determined to have an impact on the decisions made by the Court of Appeals, and as a group invested much time, energy and skill into educating, lobbying and testifying before the court of appeals. Not only were we successful in containing the approach by the court, we also became a cohesive and more tightly focused organization.