TAPM ANNUAL MEETING MARCH 28, 2008 at LIPSCOMB UNIVERSITY

TAPM will celebrate its second anniversary March 28, 2008, at Lipscomb University Ezell Center.  Members and guests will choose from a three or six hours offering of CLE/CME.  The morning session will be a three hour seminar from J. Anderson (Andy) Little, Veteran Attorney and Mediator from Chapel Hill North Carolina.  He has recently published a book through the American the Bar Association, entitled Making Money Talk .   The book represents experience gained from thousands of personal injury mediations   Andy Little poses the question as to what role mediators play when  parties have moved beyond analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of their case, when the proposed settlement only involves amounts of money.  This advanced mediation seminar  is designed to fill a gap in the theory of the mediation process and to provide a set of tools to assist negotiators and mediators in any negotiation involving money claims. Andy Little has  identified  numerous, and often predictable, stumbling blocks to successful money negotiations --- and has developed ways of understanding and dealing with them which will expand a mediator’s  repertoire of mediation techniques.

The first three hours in the morning will address the principles  a mediator can use in employing the  "control theory" in order to  deal with the many recurring problems that mediators find in the mediation of insured claims, including:

• The problem of "who goes first?" ;    "I'm not going to bid against myself!"
• "Go tell them to give me a realistic number." ; "I'm out of here."
• "That offer's insulting."  ; "Is that his best number?"
• "I'm not going to dignify that offer with a response."  And many more. . .

Noted reviewers say:  Making Money Talk is a valuable contribution to the conflict field. Andy Little correctly identifies the weakness in traditional needs based mediation for quite a wide variety of cases, yet shows how the basic value of a facilitative, client centered, process oriented, communication focused approach is still essential to money cases. Plus Making Money Talk is very well written and presented -- it's a pleasure to read.
--- Bernie Mayer, Professor, Werner Institute for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution, Creighton University, Omaha, NE

This book is a gift to both new and experienced mediators. It is profoundly practical in providing instruction on how to successfully mediate claims for money where the case is about numbers rather than relationships. This is not a book of theory, it is a guide of what to do and say as a mediator to move traditional law suit bargaining toward settlement. Andy Little has the mediation experience to discern patterns of movement that those who have not yet had thousands of cases would not know and he has the clarity of thought and writing to explain what the rest of us need to know.
--- Jay Folberg, Professor Emeritus, University of San Francisco School of Law.

Lunch and the business meeting will be from 12:15 to 1:15.  We will elect officers, provide a summary of the year’s events, consider a change in the bylaws and recognize our retiring officers. 

At 1:15, we will have a dual offering.  Participants may choose from a continuation of Andy Little’s morning session, which will provide for  more interactive small group sessions, practicing  the principles learned in the morning session as well as a panel of experts to discuss problems brought up by the group.  The alternate offering will be for family mediators.  We have not finalized the program, but we have booked our  own Ann Barker from Madisonville Tennessee.  [add her picture]  Ann is currently a professor at University of Tennessee School of Law and runs the Mediation Clinic as well as being a private mediator with The Mediation Group of Tennessee.   Previously she was the first ADR Director at the AOC.    She will discuss negotiation, the preparation of  documents and family mediator ethics. 

The choice is yours -  three or six hours of Andy Little’s presentation of civil mediation  or three of civil and three of family or just three of family mediation CLE/CME .  COME JOIN US.