Listening and Learning: CMC Chair Reflects on Membership Survey
Listening and Learning: CMC Chair Reflects on Membership Survey
AN INTERVIEW WITH CMC CHAIR KELLY STRICKLIN-COUTINHO
The CMC recently carried out a survey to better understand the views, needs, and aspirations of its diverse membership.
In this piece, CMC Chair Kelly Stricklin-Coutinho shares how the CMC is responding as well as ways in which member feedback is shaping future strategy and initiatives.
What was the thinking behind the recent CMC Survey and why now?
We have a large and diverse membership. I welcome the generously shared and candid views of those members that I know, but I was also conscious that there were many more members that I don’t yet know and whose views I hadn’t heard. I hoped that the survey might represent an opportunity for us to hear from a variety of voices.
What did you hear from the responses, as the key message from members to the Organisation?
Our mediators have confidence in our profession. Some of the ideas that we asked about as to future directions for work were well received and are being implemented in our strategy (such as collaboration with international colleagues, a Code of Conduct).
Our working groups are busy doing excellent work and there are many members who would like to engage more with them. We welcome volunteers to our established working groups and are developing plans for further opportunities to engage.
In particular, our annual conference, working groups and mental health resources were well received, and helpful suggestions were made for future growth.
In terms of benefits, there was a desire for additional CPD, some of which we have already launched by way of our Mediation in Session series. We are actively looking at other areas too, and will be putting out a call for volunteers for this. If you would like to get involved please contact us.
There were some membership benefits which were identified as desirable and which I would very much like to provide if we can manage to do so, like an ethics helpline or a digital community, but these depend on availability of resources.
Finally, there was an overall theme of some members wanting to get more involved with the CMC, which is wonderful to hear.
Following our recent work on the strategy, we have a lot planned, much of which will be powered by volunteer effort. Please keep an eye out for calls for volunteers, and if you have something specific you’d like to assist with we’d be delighted to hear from you. We are particularly keen to hear from you if you haven’t been involved with the CMC yet, or were in the past but haven’t been recently and are interested in our current plans.
We will be publishing our strategy shortly and hope you will find something in there you’d like to be involved with.
Did anything surprise you from the Survey responses?
The proportion of mediators that use online or hybrid mediation was higher than I expected. It will be interesting to see more data on this point, and we may need to revise our criteria to take this into account.
A handful of responses asked for the CMC to be a referrals/appointments panel. We are a non-commercial organisation that does not benefit financially from its work, which means that our voice is truly independent and we can advocate for the increased use of mediation without commercial conflict. Our Membership Organisations are referrals/appointments panels, and we view our role as supporting them, not competing with them.
To the extent we can operate in this area, we have in place the fixed fee referral scheme which we know does generate enquiries for our mediators from the register. We are also actively advocating with government that the CMC’s register is an appropriate place for them to refer to when ordering mediations. Recent guidance points to the CMC’s register to do so, and we hope this will lead to an increase in appointments.
What are the key outcomes that the CMC will be implementing in response to the Survey?
The survey was very rich in data and comments, and a great deal of it has fed into our work in one way or another. We’re already working on some of the topics raised. There was strong interest in professional development around marketing, membership benefits, more CPD events, and more information about the CMC.
We’ve already started our new range of online CPD events with our series Mediation in Session, the first session of which was by Dan Mortimer on marketing a mediation practice, which was another area of interest. We’re also working on a membership induction and information pack.
We have announced a new programme, Mediator Launchpad, which was put together in response to the desire in the survey for greater support for mediators at the start of their mediation career.
We have started conversations with international counterparts about ways in which we might work together, to benefit mediator mobility and mutual recognition.
There are other membership initiatives currently in the works which will be announced in the coming weeks.
Will there be further opportunities for input and consultation?
The mediation industry is developing very quickly after recent significant developments, so it was a particularly good time to ask for views.
We want to hear from members regularly, and we will continue to ask for feedback in this way, and to engage with our members in our Q&A sessions with the Board.
Kelly Stricklin-Coutinho is a CEDR-accredited mediator and barrister and Chair of the CMC. Kelly was counsel, led by Edwin Glasgow KC, to the CMC, CEDR and Ciarb in the recent landmark case Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil. Prior to her tenancy at 39 Essex Chambers, Kelly was a solicitor in a US headquartered law firm in London where she was involved in litigation at every level. She was a blue-book stagiare at the European Commission, a judicial assistant to the Court of Appeal, and taught on the LLM course at King’s College London and the LLB at Birkbeck, together for over 10 years. She is ranked in the Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners.
