Here's the skinny on Just Dawn. She's a CDFA (certified divorce financial analyst), CEA (certified estate advisor), financial advisor, and financial planner in her thirteenth year of Collaborative work. She is part of LACFLA, A Better Divorce, and Alternatives--A Collaborative Divorce Team. She also has the good fortune to live with her 14-year-old son, and describes her favorite activity when away from work as going on road trips with him, visiting national parks, the redwoods, and similar places.

            Just Dawn recalls a divorce planners' meeting, for which George Richardson and David Weinberg presented a half day training. By the end of that training, nearly all of the attendees had committed to making Collaborative Practice part of their work. And not surprisingly, she identifies George and David as two of the people who most influenced her to become part of the Collaborative community - along with David Kuroda, whose kindness, positive attitude, thoughtfulness and warmth, have affected so many of us!

            She estimates that at least forty percent of her work time now involves Collaborative Practice. This includes work with clients, with organizations, reading, writing, attending conferences and trainings, etc. Equally important is that Just Dawn acknowledges that what she has learned in this work blends into all aspects of her professional and personal life.

            Her vision and hopes are that five years from now, Collaborative dispute resolution will be much more mainstream. Wouldn't it be wonderful if 50-75% of the family law cases were choosing to work collaboratively? The increased public awareness we are all creating now should help this to happen.

            Speaking of public awareness, and growing the Collaborative community, Just Dawn is one of the co-chairs of the upcoming Celebration 8. This has taken much of her time over the last eight months, and she and co-chair Natalie Leininger have done a "bang-up job" in their organizing of this event. Emphasis has been placed on selecting a range of workshops that will provide value to newer professionals, and others specifically geared toward seasoned professionals. In addition, the enrollment fee is only a bit more than last year, but the hotel's room costs are significantly lower than we have had before - only $129 per night! CP Cal is also continuing its program of providing matching grants of $150 (to be combined with practice group grants of another $150) for people who need some assistance with the enrollment fee. It is up to each practice group to determine the criteria for these grants, whether for "first timers" or based on financial need, or some other concern.

            We hope to see at the Celebration many Collaborative professionals who are recently trained, who haven't had many cases yet, and who will benefit not only from workshops, but also in connecting and networking with practitioners who have been involved in this work. These connections will inspire and re-energize all of us, and result in our renewed appreciation for the need to continue building contacts and having continuing education as essential to growing our practices. Building skills and building connections are the keys.