"O-Resolution!": The First Meeting of The Co-resolution Group and More to Come

A little background:  For a few months in 2009, I had publicized "Information Sessions" at the Columbus Public Library, driven down from Marion, and lectured co-resolution to the one person who would show up.  Perhaps embarrassed to be the only person at a long table with many pamphlets painstakingly arranged on it, this person would politely show interest and then fade away like a bad first-date.  Sometimes no one would show up, and I would optimistically be grateful that my embarrassment wasn't being shared by anyone else.

So, these memories were organizing a reunion tour of my brain's emotion-centers at 8:59 this morning, as I sat utterly alone in the Community Room of the Panera on Bethel Road, reserved by a dry-erase board reading "O-Resolution: 9:00-10:00."  Guided by the same optimism that I have yet to violently draw-and-quarter to the four lobes of my brain, I had emailed the participants of the recent co-resolution training--and a handful of other people--that "The Co-resolution Group" would be meeting at 9:00 this morning to discuss I-didn't-know-what, and this same optimism was telling me to write out an agenda.

Did disaster occur?  If six people being a few minutes late and not following my last-minute agenda because everyone kept tripping over each other with excellent questions and observations qualifies as a disaster, then yes--complete train wreck.  Otherwise, I tend to see the positive side of these moments.

Topics Discussed:  Basics of co-resolution, how and why it has worked, how co-resolution could help cases with power imbalances and high-conflict, how co-resolution could and should be marketed (including whether we should start our meetings by singing an anthem, entitled "O-Resolution").

Topics to be discussed next time:  Co-resolution credentialing, further trainings, attracting members of the dispute resolution community, finding sources of cases, next steps.

Next Meeting:

May 20th, 2014
9:00am-11:00am (or whenever)
Panera Bread, 875 Bethel Road, Columbus, Ohio

Thank you, everyone who came today.  I hope to see you all again in May.  Bring a friend--you're going to need a partner in this process!