The NMAS Review Team are pleased to announce that the NMAS Review Survey is now open from 14 February – 4 March 2022.

The NMAS Review Survey is the important final stage of our consultation process for the current review of the National Mediator Accreditation System (NMAS). The Mediator Standards Board (MSB) will conduct further consultation in response to the recommendations arising out of the review.

Who can answer the survey?

This survey is designed for the entire dispute resolution community. We need your help to extend the invitation to people or organisations in your network. With your support, this survey has the potential to be one of the largest data gathering processes of its kind ever attempted in Australia, and will make an important contribution to the field of industry-based research into dispute resolution.

As academics, we all know that the the more people who answer the survey the more robust the data will be. We want all stakeholders to be represented — practitoners, organisations, academics, users — anyone with an interest in dispute resolution can make a valuable contribution. Consider distributing the invitation to your students who are participating in ADR subjects, members of committes (e.g. ADRAC, The Alernative Dispute Resolution Committee, etc.) lawyers who work with mediators, other academics, mediators and other non-determinative dispute resolution practitoners.

What is in the survey?

The NMAS Review Survey considers the current Approval and Practice Standards for NMAS accredited mediators (the Standards), the technical and structural elements of the NMAS (the System), as well as other areas for further investigation that have arisen from consultation so far. 

The survey was developed in response to consultation and designed using a well-established methodology for the development of standards. Analysis of the survey will inform recommendations made to the MSB in relation to the review of the current NMAS.

The survey is made up of two parts:

Part 1: The Professional Practice Standards

Everyone who participates in the survey is asked to complete this section. It will take approximately 60 minutes to answer all of Part 1.

Part 2: The Approval Standards and System

We encourage everyone to complete this section. MSB Member Organisation hold specific responsibilities under the NMAS and will be automatically directed to complete both Parts 1 & 2. All other participants will be given the option to complete Part 2. It will take approximately 30 minutes to complete.

FAQs

We anticipate that you may have questions. The NMAS Review Survey may look unlike any survey you have completed before — and there are several reasons for this.

For FAQs and a recording of recent NMAS Review Survey Information Session hosted by Mediation Institute, please visit NMAS Review Survey FAQs.

Thank you all for your support with the NMAS Review.

The NMAS Review Team

Associate Professor Grant Morris (Victoria University of Wellington) discusses his paper on ‘Dispute Resolution in a Pandemic: The Impact of the COVID Pandemic on the New Zealand Dispute Resolution Landscape and Beyond’ with members of the Australasian Dispute Resolution Research Network.

Professor Kathy Douglas (RMIT) discusses her paper on ‘Lawyers’ Practice in Mediation: Including Emotion as Part of Lawyer Guidelines’ with members of the Australasian Dispute Resolution Research Network.

The NMAS Review Team is pleased to announce the final stage of the consultation process for the current review of the National Mediator Accreditation System (NMAS) – the release of the main NMAS Review Survey. The NMAS Review Survey will be open for two weeks from 14–28 February 2022.

We need your help to get the message out.

This blogpost provides insight into:

1. What to expect
2. What we want from you
3. Background information on the NMAS Review

What to expect

We will open the survey to the entire dispute resolution (DR) community and others with an interest in the future of mediation. With your support It has the potential to be one of the largest data gathering processes of its kind ever attempted in Australia.

You may notice that the survey is a little different from surveys you may have completed in the past. We think the DR community is up to the challenge, however, this might be one of the most challenging surveys our community has ever seen.

The questions are asked in a specific way using a well-established methodology for the development of standards. Participating in a survey of this type is a demanding task that requires deep reflection. It is rigorous and complex, perhaps unexpectedly so, as it examines all the information from the current NMAS — both the NMAS Standards and the System — as well as some questions that have emerged from our consultation with the DR community so far.

What we want from you

What we are asking of you is really important. The Mediator Standards Board (MSB) has recognised how valuable participating in this research is, by endorsing an hour of CPD for those who participate.[1] We hope that by sharing this with you early you can be prepared to put time aside to complete the survey.

Every voice counts.

Please consider who else you might wish to share this post with to spread the message as widely as possible. With your help, the invitation to participate in the survey can be extended to thousands, including mediators, other non-determinative DR practitioners such as conciliators and FDRPs, community and other organisations, government bodies, academics — the list goes on.

We know from running previous surveys that results are impacted when a group is unrepresented in the data. For example, in the NMAS Effectiveness Survey, judge mediators as a group were under-represented and, as a consequence, we could not include them in comparative analysis with other types of mediators. What a missed opportunity!

The NMAS Review Team wishes to thank everyone involved for their generosity and valuable contribution to the consultation process so far. It has helped us to develop and refine the main part of the consultation — NMAS Review Survey. Contributors include:

• 29 Reference Group members
• 50 Workshop participants
• 600 participants in the Effectiveness Survey
• 46 people volunteered to pilot the NMAS Review Survey

The NMAS Review is an independent process, however, we would also like to acknowledge and extend our thanks to the MSB, in particular those on the NMAS Review sub-committee, for their support through this process.

Background information on the NMAS Review

The NMAS Review Hub has been specifically constructed to provide up-to-date and transparent information about the review. It includes reports, videos, resources, news updates, background information and more. We invite everyone in the DR community to visit and/or subscribe to receive updates or for a link to the NMAS Review Survey once released.

Emma-May Litchfield and Danielle Hutchinson

Leading the NMAS Review Team

[1] If you are an NMAS accredited mediator, we have been advised by the MSB that you can collect one CPD point for completing this survey under Section 3.5 of the NMAS. Please contact your RMAB for clarification.

Welcome to the ADR Research Network’s 10^th Annual Roundtable 2022.

Due to the current Omicron COVID situation and its impact on Network members, this year’s Roundtable is being held through the Blog instead of face-to-face via Zoom on 7-8 February 2022 (as had been originally planned).

We are excited to have agreed on this creative solution with our presenters and our esteemed Keynote Speaker – Professor Bernie Mayer.

This first post for the Roundtable is our Opening Keynote Address (followed by a brief discussion with Bernie and some Network members). It is the first in what will be a series of 20-minute presentations posted by Network members in the coming weeks. We are aiming to add one presentation a week.

The Blog provides opportunities for comments and discussion. You are invited to be as interactive and responsive in your feedback and contributions to discussions as possible.

We are hoping this will provide a flexible, Covid-safe, asynchronous way to proceed with the Roundtable which will also be of benefit to the authors in terms of disseminating their work to a wider international audience.

We are delighted to have Professor Bernie Mayer as our Keynote Speaker for this 10^th Anniversary Roundtable of the ADR Research Network. Bernie needs little introduction to dispute resolution scholars, students, practitioners and enthusiasts as he has been an internationally influential thought-leader on dispute resolution theory and practice for many decades. He is speaking in his Keynote about his new book – co-authored with Jackie Font-Guzman – entitled The Neutrality Trap – Disrupting and Connecting for Social Change. Please do post comments, thoughts and responses to the keynote via the Blog.

We look forward to collegial and robust Roundtable discussions this week – and in the weeks ahead – as this new format for the Roundtable unfolds. We look forward to engaging with you online.

With our warmest wishes

Professors Rachael Field and Jonathan Crowe

Co-Convenors of the ADR Research Network and the Roundtable for 2022

Faculty of Law, Bond University