Victim/Offender Mediation - Yep. That was the first case mediated at this DRC, two guys in a fight over a girl. Sad to note, it turned out their decision was that the girl wasn't worth all the problems the fight over her had caused! The good news was that those two guys became best friends as a result of the mediation experience. And so the new DRC of Montgomery County mediated and settled its first case in November of 1989. We still provide mediation in minor criminal cases and through the Juvenile Justice system.

That first year was a test of everyone's patience and perseverance - only 20 cases were mediated. This year, the 12th, our DRC will handle more than 600 cases using a cadre of 80 volunteers who come from a wide variety of backgrounds. The volunteer who has the clearest sense of how to get people to come together, using grace and humor, has had as her only job being a cook in a lumber camp in Washington - for her it was a survival skill!

We operate in an interesting county. When the DRC began, the county had a population of about 135,000 people; it now exceeds 300,000. When this DRC was started, it was in the smallest county in Texas to have a free-standing DRC, much to the credit and vision of Commissioner's Court and the judiciary and bar of Montgomery County. We include The Woodlands, one of the 13 original HUD "New Communities", and Cut N' Shoot - which got its name legitimately and which is the home of a famed boxer and a Miss America. We are culturally and racially diverse and are dealing with the challenges of rapid growth.

The DRC routinely provides mediation services and Moderated Settlement Conferences. Our practice is to co-mediate always - except maybe in flu season when availability of mediators is limited. We also use the hypothesis that the greater the need for a future relationship between the parties to the dispute the greater amount of time should be spent face-to-face in mediation. Parents will be there working with each other to make needed changes and solve new problems for their children long after courts and attorneys have gone from their lives. We have heard many couples say that their experience in mediation is the first time in their whole marriage that they have successfully worked through disagreements in a civil, respectful, win-win way.

We also have a broad-based community conflict resolution training program which has supplied training to more than 100 businesses and agencies in the county. We have provided peer mediation training and teacher/administrator mediation training to school districts and to the police force of our largest school district. Our Board of Directors feels it is extremely important to get the concepts and skills of peaceful conflict resolution to as many people as possible.

Trends we are noticing:

· More people are referring themselves to mediation. Apparently the word is getting out that this is a kinder, gentler, more satisfying way to get disputes settled.
· The growth in numbers of family law cases has been meteoric - almost 85% of our cases are now family cases.
· More formerly "court ordered" cases are being sent directly by attorneys prior to orders from the court. Additionally, there are a number of cases which are brought here because the economics to litigate are not there and mediation is used as a way to achieve client satisfaction without "losing your shirt" on a minor case.
· More governmental agencies are using mediation to resolve multi-party community disputes.
· There is a growing demand for truly advanced mediation training and not much available locally.

Our DRC, like all the others in Texas, is blessed with a cadre of involved, dedicated volunteers, without whom low cost mediation services could not be provided on the scale now available. We are committed to continuing involvement with TAM and other organizations who:
· strive toward continued improvement in the conflict resolution field
· actively support the concept of mediation by an eclectic range of providers
· work to find common ground among mediators about the process and territories and credentials

For more information about our DRC, please call at 936-760-6914 or e-mail me at kbnorris@co.montgomery.tx.us We would love to hear from you. And thanks to TAM for the opportunity to share our experience with you.

Kathy Bivings-Norris is the founding Executive Director of the Dispute Resolution Center of Montgomery County, Inc. She has a B. A. from the University of Texas and 50 hours of graduate study at Antioch University in Conflict Resolution and was a city manager for six years. She is a charter member and Treasurer of the Texas Mediator Trainer's Roundtable, on the Council of the State Bar ADR Section, a member of Texas Association of Mediators, National Association for Community Mediation and the Texas DRC Director's Council.