The Maryland Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office (MACRO) has completed Phase II of its Mediator Quality Assurance Project. As you may recall from previous articles, the primary goal of the Quality Assurance Committee is to design a mediator quality assurance process for use in Maryland. The goal is to have a process that can be adopted by the courts, the private sector, schools, businesses, and community mediation programs.

Phase one of the project was to gather information on quality assurance programs from around the country and analyze what currently exists. The committee’s consultant, Charlie Pou, put together a report that has been widely distributed during Phase II, the stakeholder forums.

The oversight committee for the project has recently completed four regional and four practitioner group forums in the past 60 days. The open forums portion of the project took the committee to the "four corners" of the state, including stops in Salisbury, California, Cumberland, and Columbia. The committee also met with practitioner groups, including the ADR Section of the Maryland State Bar Association.

The oversight committee, chaired by Fay Mauro, will now begin Phase III of the project. In Phase III, the committee will process all of the information and input gathered at the eight forums and any additional information submitted to the committee by e-mails and fax back forms. The committee’s task now is to formulate a proposal or proposals for a Mediation Quality Assurance Program that can be used by the entire state. Once the proposal(s) is ready, another round of forums will be held and input and feedback will be invited again.

It is the hope of the committee that it will then be able to recommend a proposal to the MACRO Advisory Board for consideration. From there, The Advisory Board will make a decision about implementation.

As stakeholders in this arena, the committee and the ADR Section Council hope to see many of you at the next round of either stakeholder or regional forums. Watch your mail and e-mail for future announcements.