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Dear Collaborative Colleague,
We are pleased to bring you Volume 2012/2 of the CP Cal Newsletter, the electronic newsletter of Collaborative Practice California.
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Letter from the President
by David Fink, JD |
Dear Collaborators:
Your CP Cal Board completed its 5th annual Board Retreat on August 17 and 18th. The Retreat was held at the Bristol Hotel in downtown San Diego. As usual, Board members paid for their own travel and lodging to attend the day and a half of meetings.
The focus of the retreat was to look forward to how your organization could best serve the collaborative community in California while taking into account what we've done over the last five years. We noted how much had been accomplished in those five years, including most recently the creation of the "toolbox" for member groups, targeted outreach to the mental health community as a source of referrals and the statewide rollout of the Divorce Options programs.
Going forward, the Board identified a need to be even more focused, refined, and effective, with both purpose and with intention, and to go beyond merely sustaining thestatus quo. To accomplish this, we directed our attention to the following areas:
- Identifying key priorities for CP Cal in the coming years;
- Refinement of priorities, focusing on our organizational structure and resources, and how to match resources with our goals/objectives; and
- Defining actions we plan to take, with timetables and accountability.
...click to continue
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Delegates Corner
This is a new feature of the CP Cal newsletter,
in which we will introduce member group delegates.
We are an organization populated by interesting and varied individuals.
Please greet the people you meet here when you encounter them at a training, conference, or new case team meeting! - Peg Anderson, Editor
|  On a recent pleasant Friday afternoon, I enjoyed speaking with ELAINE FRASER, an attorney whose law practice is primarily in San Mateo County. She is not only a collaborative attorney, but also a mediator, mediation consulting attorney, and litigator. Elaine has been in practice for twenty-eight years, with the collaborative component beginning in 2000. As others have found, the work she does in mediation and collaboration has definitely influenced how she works with clients and colleagues in litigation as well. Her involvement with CPSMC (Collaborative Practice San Mateo County) includes currently serving as the Public Education Committee chair, from which they have gotten Divorce Options and movie theater ads "off the ground". Elaine's decision to become trained in collaborative practice came from her experience of how families are often torn apart in traditional litigation. It wasn't a stretch to conclude that collaborative practice can be a better choice when the emotional upheaval of separation and divorce happens. She sees collaborative practice as a way to maintain the integrity of the family at the end of the divorce. Also appealing to her is the transparency of the process, especially when compared to litigation discovery, where way too much game playing and expense can be so destructive. She takes pleasure in observing the parties communicating with each other during the process, which is empowering for both of them. Elaine estimates that probably 40% of her professional time is devoted to the collaborative process, when considering not only work directly with clients and the team, but also training, networking, practice group activities and the promotion of the process with clients and other professionals that we all must do. Her vision for collaborative practice in the next five years is great success in educating the public about process options so that even more new clients come to us already having heard about what we do, and specifically requesting collaboration. Several years ago, San Mateo County began requiring the filing of a Notice of ADR Options form with every San Mateo family law petition filing; this kind of exposure to mediation and collaborative practice will help with spreading the word. The public education that continues to be needed is not only with consumers, but also bench officers, and our professional colleagues who are not yet committed to practicing in a different way. She agreed that it would be wonderful to have mediation and collaborative practice as the defaults, with litigation being considered an alternative dispute resolution process! Elaine couldn't identify a particular person who influenced her the most to learn about the collaborative process - but she is certain that her colleagues brought her to that decision. She has high praise for those with whom she works, and especially for the movement of her practice group into multi-disciplinary team practice. Away from her professional life, Elaine particularly enjoys spending time with her two young adult daughters, especially when they share a spa day. She also has a tea cup poodle named Niki, who loves to snuggle with her. In addition, she is also very active in Zumba, and has walked three half marathons for charitable fund raising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. |
 Letter from the President, cont'd
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By the end of the Retreat, the Board had approved a new mission statement for CP Cal:
To unify, strengthen and support the Collaborative Practice community and to increase public awareness of the collaborative process throughout California.
We also consolidated the structure of our standing committees into three groups: Member Group Support, Revenue and Fundraising, and Public Education. The function of the various committees and task forces that previously existed will now fall under the umbrella of one of these new standing committees, as follows:
Committees:
Member Group Support:To share Collaborative Practice information, education and training opportunities and to promote and maintain high standards of Collaborative Practice in California. Co-Chairs: Peg Anderson and Hal Bartholomew
- Newsletter
- Toolbox
- Delegate Relations
- Practice Excellence
- Celebration
- Insurance (liability)
- Legislation
- Domestic Violence
- Diversity
Revenue and Fundraising: To ensure CPCal has the financial resources to accomplish its mission. Co-Chairs: Warren Sacks and Suzan Barrie Aiken
- Fundraising
- Revenue Alternatives
Public Education: The Public Education Committee shall develop and disseminate materials for the education of the public and professionals about CPCal and Collaborative Practice through various modes, including, without limitation, print and electronic media, direct presentations and other methods and to conduct other activities related to the promotion of CP Cal, its members and their interests. Co- Chairs: Randy Cheek and Stephanie Maloney
- Statewide PEC Coordination
- Public Communications
- Website
- Social Media
- Divorce Options
- Professional Outreach
- Mental Health
- Financial
- Legal
Perhaps the most exciting change the Board approved was to create more opportunities for practitioners around the state to become involved in both their local and statewide collaborative community. We hope to accomplish this by increasing the connections between your local practice group and CP Cal, and to have more practitioners from around the state and from all disciplines serve on the various subcommittees and task forces, to become leaders on those bodies, and to have locally-sourced influence on Collaborative Practice in your area and statewide. Some of the changes now in the works are:
- Inviting Delegates - and all other member of CP Cal Member Groups - to serve on and lead statewide sub-committees and task forces
- Move the Annual Delegates Meeting from Sunday to Friday afternoon before the Celebration
- Have additional meetings that include both Board members and Delegates
- Create regional Delegates groups and meetings
- Recognize the work of Delegates and other practice group members at Celebration and in the newsletter.
- Create and distribute a Delegates toolbox kit, with tools for communication with your practice group members and the Board.
- Continue to have a Delegates reception at Celebration
Finally, as part of our efforts to lay the foundation for the adoption of the Uniform Collaborative Law Rules/Act (UCLR/A) in California, we will be asking Delegates and their local practice groups to create and build relationships with those in your local community who may be impacted by the UCLR/A, including attorneys, mental health professionals, financial professionals, domestic violence groups, children's welfare groups, and other community groups.
The purpose of creating these relationships at the local level will be to build understanding about who we are as Collaborative professionals and for us to understand the perspective of other groups in our community. The groups can provide valuable feedback on the draft UCLR/A statute that has already been approved by the Board. At the same time, this outreach can help to grow and enhance the awareness of the existence of Collaborative Practice, and your local practice group, to new potential referral sources.
This is the year for all of us to be engaged and involved in collaborative work and in our local communities to ensure that Collaborative Practice remains a valued alternative for California's families. I look forward to working with you all!
Best regards,
David Fink
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Join Us Next Year
at Celebration 8!
Manhattan Beach Marriott
April 26-28, 2013 |
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ABOUT CP CAL |
Collaborative Practice California is a statewide organization of Collaborative Practice groups. We are an interdisciplinary volunteer organization. For details on how you can become involved in CP Cal, see your local Delegate. | |
| About the Newsletter | |
Past issues of the CP Cal Newsletter are archived on the CP Cal website at www.cpcal.com. If you have comments or questions, please contact Margaret (Peg) Anderson, Managing Editor. Peg's email address is mlanders@sonic.net.
The opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the individual author(s), and not necessarily the opinions of CP Cal as an organization. |
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