Mediator Interview Topic - When you gave technical assistance to one side, did you inform the other side about it? Did you offer it to the second side, too?

When you gave technical assistance to one side, did you inform the other side about it? Did you offer it to the second side, too?

Efrain Martinez

[Full Interview] [Topic Top]

Do you do the same sort of work with both sides? Do you help the police or the KKK or whatever the opposing side is to help develop their issues?

Answer:
Sure. Not develop the issue but look at possibly how the issues could be addressed and what he or she might be willing to do. Especially once they propose a remedy. How possible is that, how feasible is that. Maybe if you cannot give them A or B, you could give them C or D. Or A or category D or whatever. It's good for me to know both sides, where they think they are and what do they think are some solutions. I mentioned, you have to help both sides or you can't help either side.

Silke Hansen

[Full Interview] [Topic Top]

Did you provide technical assistance to both sides?

Answer:
Yes. I always provide technical assistance to both sides. Now sometimes, the technical assistance required by an establishment side, just for the purpose of kind of grouping them, they require less assistance than the minority community. But I make sure that I offer pre-mediation training and preparation to everybody who's going to be involved.

Will Reed

[Full Interview] [Topic Top]

Was there ever a time where you provided technical assistance to one group and didn't provide technical assistance to the other group, or didn't want the other group to know that you were helping out the first group?

Answer:
That's a good question. I don't think so. I mean, I never engaged in it. I think that it was always available to any one who came up and made the request.

Dick Salem

[Full Interview] [Topic Top]

But, you know, when we talked about empowerment I mentioned earlier that Howard McKinney just sent some stuff in the mail or gave some advice over the phone to someone. That certainly was helping one side of the conflict.

Silke Hansen

[Full Interview] [Topic Top]

I try to coach them to be clear, to present their needs, and to state their position. I start with, "What do you think is important for the other party to know? Who's going to say that? Who's going to present that?" I also tell both sides that part of my role as mediator is to control the process, and that I'm not going to let it get out of control. They also need to understand that there are some emotions here and there is some anger here and that is part of what we're here for, but to trust me, that I'll keep it under control. So far I've been able to do that. It's more than just coaching on how to be calm participants. It's an approach that they themselves pick up and use. Again I've not always seen that happen. I've seen it enough times to sort of almost marvel at the change in presentation. It's not a change in outlook, but it's a change in presentation. I think probably they're wanting to be seen as people who are sincere and wanting to work this out, so they believe that they need to appear to be reasonable, controlled and organized in making their presentation. So yes, I do some preparation towards that, but it's more than that, it's more than just good pre-mediation training. To some extent I admire them because we had very sophisticated people on both sides, as opposed to the more grassroots leadership that I frequently work with. That degree of sophistication means we still made some preparation. We make sure we work with both sides so that they recognized what their specific needs were and what some of the options and alternatives might be. We didn't do the kind of basic role playing that I might with a more grassroots party.

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