Summary of Activities for 2011
2011 turned out to be a busy year! During this year we worked with a number of key clients and performed challenging and rewarding work. Among others, clients this year included:
- The United States Department of the Interior;
- Los Alamos National Security, operating Los Alamos National Laboratory;
- The Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors®;
- The Santa Fe Business Incubator;
- SAIC; and,
- The New Mexico First Judicial District Court.
Working with these and other outstanding clients we were able to meet many new challenges and, working in collaboration with them, to accomplish many excellent outcomes. Some highlights of these outcomes were:
- Helping the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors® implement its new Ombudsman program;
- Facilitating very challenging community hearings on environmental impact issues for SAIC for a potential new nuclear facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory;
- Facilitating ten community hearings and community dialogue meetings for other projects under the direction Los Alamos National Security;
- Conducting organizational development and excellence activities for the Santa Fe Business Incubator and facilitating its strategic planning;
- Conducting mediations and coordinating a variety of organizational development and organizational conflict assessments for the Department of the Interior;
- Working with the New Mexico Governor’s Office to explore the viability of an Ombudsman program for New Mexico State Government;
- Conducting a wide variety of conflict resolution, communication, and leadership training and hands-on staff development training and mentoring for a variety of clients; and,
- Continuing to handle a steady stream of court-referred mediations for the New Mexico District Court.
Along with the challenging workload of client-oriented projects, we also published a number of articles and 23 blog postings! I also had the opportunity to work with several new collaborators on BES projects, including Kelly Hill, an outstanding mediator and life coach, and Camilla Lopez, a former ombudsman and case tracking systems expert. In addition to my work with new collaborators, I continue to enjoy my long, on-going collaboration with Monique McKay, co-founder of BES and co-founder of the Master Mediator Institute. Monique’s humor, optimism, and intelligence always sustain me during times of challenge or doubt.
All in all it was a very busy year, and I sincerely thank my clients for the continued opportunity to work with them and to help them meet their challenges and achieve their goals. I am especially thankful to have maintained such a full platter of work in the current economic climate.
BJM — January 5, 2012