President's Message

May 9, 2013

Hello and welcome to ACR-GNY!

 

The June 20th Annual Conference to be held at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is around the corner, so please consider attending or donating.

 

As those of you who are members know, ACR-GNY is able to provide free or low cost programming throughout the year from the proceeds of our Annual Conference and by your generous gifts. We accomplish our mission to educate the public about alternative dispute resolution in its many forms through free or low cost programming to members and non-members alike. As a result, we are one of the most active and accessible ADR organizations within Greater New York.

 

Besides the ongoing monthly roundtable breakfasts, co-sponsored by the John Jay College Dispute Resolution Consortium and led by Dr. Maria Volpe along with Past ACR-GNY President Julie Denny, we have held numerous evening programs throughout the year. These programs range in topic and substance -- from Youth and Criminal Justice panel, to an Open Space forum and a Class Arbitration presentation, to co-sponsoring Columbia University's International ADR Students' organization, to our networking holiday party. And through these events, we are able to educate and introduce the public and our member dispute resolution practitioners to new and existing conflict resolution processes, leaders in the field, new trends, new skills, and much, much more.

 

Unlike any other local ADR organization, we accomplish our mission and yet keep our membership and attendance fees affordable at low or no cost. And we are fortunate that as an organization based in Greater New York, we can boast a high-caliber of practitioner-members in every ADR and comparable field imaginable and have access to the top leaders in the field. And yet any person can participate in our events and any professional is invited to join. We have divorce attorneys, commercial arbitrators, volunteer community mediators, ombuds, trainers, professors, facilitators, court employees, researchers, police officers, judges and former judges, community activists, international arbitrators, spiritual leaders, federal employees, corporate consultants and those that want to see ADR on TV! And our membership runs the gamut in age, practice diversity and professional focus.

For all of these reasons, I hope that you will consider supporting ACR-GNY by attending our upcoming conference, donating to the organization, or otherwise getting involved. The possibilities of how you can contribute are limitless, and just some include joining one of our committees, spearheading a project, or simply sharing your ideas with me or another board member about how you would like to see ACR-GNY move forward.

 

Thank you to all of you members who volunteer your time and lend your expertise to work on the Annual Conference and other ACR-GNY committees. And thank you to those of you who support us through your conference regsistration and attendance and by your donations. We know -- and we want you to know -- that without your assistance we could not provide the level of quality that we do.

 

All the best and I look forward to seeing or hearing from you soon!

 

Best,

 

Sheila M. Sproule
President, ACR-GNY