Indian Dispute Resolution Services - Certification Program

General Background:

There are no mediator licensing or mediator certification requirements in California. In fact, this is true of most other states. While this is true at the present time, many state legislatures are studying licensing and certification proposals with the intent of imposing legal requirements to limit entry into the field and, in their words, protect the consumer by raising the level of competency among practitioners.

For the most part, mediators have opposed efforts by states to establish standards through licensure. They have stated that these would be too restrictive in a field that is diverse and still very experimental. But seeing some intervention by the state, under the guise of consumer protection, as inevitable, practitioners are currently conceding that certification may be the lesser of two evils. Their reasoning is that it could be based on objective minimum basic training and experience requirements. Moreover, obtaining ones Mediator Certificate could be structured as voluntary rather than as a requirement for practicing as a mediator.

In California, for example, the California Dispute Resolution Council (CDRC), a lobbying group made up of practitioners, is currently developing a Certification Program in coordination with some state legislative committees.

The IDRS Program:

The IDRS Mediator Certification Program has been operating since 1991. It was created to provide people who have taken the full sequence of our mediation training workshops some formal recognition of the amount of training they received, and of the competence they have achieved.

Since we anticipate that eventually at least some states will have a Mediator Certification program, the current IDRS Mediator Certification Program is also a way of ensuring that our graduates receive credit for what they have already achieved. We anticipate that our IDRS certified mediators would be “grand fathered” in by any new state certification program, since our requirements are every bit as stringent as what they are currently discussing.

The IDRS Mediator begins by sitting down with a small group of representatives from each of the prominent factions that are competing in the elections. They come together to discuss and resolve the procedural issues and to craft and sign an “Elections Procedures Agreement” they can all agree to support.

Important agreements are reached at this meeting with the IDRS Mediator about how the election will be run. Among these are: (1) who shall be officially eligible to vote, (2) when and where the election should be held, (3) procedures for declaring candidacy, (4) the tribe’s criteria and process for determining a candidate’s eligibility to run for office, (5) the process and timeline for “absentee voting”, (6) the criteria for validating and invalidating ballots, (7) defining what is acceptable behavior at the polls on election day, (8) when and how IDRS will count the votes, and (9) the length of the appeal period.

Once all the representatives sign this agreement, IDRS implements the process as outlined.

IDRS reviews the candidate’s mentoring experience and assesses whether it is sufficient to meet the standards and fulfill the final certification requirement.

The question that invariably comes up is how does the candidate get his or her mediations to fulfill the mentoring requirements. Unfortunately, IDRS does not have enough mediation requests to keep everyone who is interested busy. So, the candidate will have to take the initiative to generate the mediation opportunities him or herself.

We have a suggestion in this regard. Most communities, at least those in more urban areas, have community based dispute resolution programs that look for volunteer mediators to handle their caseloads. This is an excellent place to get a lot of good experiences relatively quickly. Often these programs will provide free training in exchange for the volunteer work. IDRS training may be sufficient to participate, or the program may still want the volunteer to take its own training before it will refer mediations.

Panel of Professional Mediators. People who have satisfactorily met all their training, examination and mentoring requirements for certification are placed on the IDRS Panel of Professional Mediators.

The IDRS Program:

ince we anticipate that eventually at least some states will have a Mediator Certification program, the current IDRS Mediator Certification Program is also a way of ensuring that our graduates receive credit for what they have already achieved. We anticipate that our IDRS certified mediators would be “grand fathered” in by any new state certification program, since our requirements are every bit as stringent as what they are currently discussing.

IDRS Program Specifics:

a) Training. We require nine full days of training. Three days are required for our Communication/Negotiations Workshop, three days for our Mediation/Peacemaking Workshop, and three days for our Advanced Mediator Workshop.

b) Examination. We also require that participants take and pass a written examination. It is an open book exam designed to get people back into their IDRS Resource Participant Books. Participants also are encouraged to supplement their knowledge of negotiation and mediation processes by reviewing other literature in the field. IDRS provides them with a reading list. Examinations are to be completed and sent to the IDRS Executive Director for review. To cover the costs for review, applicants will be responsible for submitting a check for $50.00 (with their completed examinations) to Indian Dispute Resolution Services, Inc. A “pass” or “fail” grade will be given and the graded exam will be returned with the reviewer’s comments.

c) Mentoring. In addition to requiring that candidates complete and pass their exams, we ask that they complete at least three formal mediations under the mentorship of a more experienced mediator. They are asked to write to us describing their three mediations, their role in it, their mentor(s) and their mentor’s role in each mediation.

IDRS reviews the candidate’s mentoring experience and assesses whether it is sufficient to meet the standards and fulfill the final certification requirement.

Panel of Professional Mediators. People who have satisfactorily met all their training, examination and mentoring requirements for certification are placed on the IDRS Panel of Professional Mediators