The International Academy of Mediators

International Academy of Mediators
Membership Policy
Adopted May 2005

Membership as a Fellow in the IAM is by invitation only, and a “Sponsor” and a “Seconder” from the ranks of the current Fellows is needed to endorse and facilitate the Candiate’s acceptance for IAM membership.

The criteria for membership in the IAM are evident through recognition by peers and by the marketplace of the Candidate as a preeminent, highly skilled, ethical and well respected full-time commercial mediator, teacher, trainer and/or ADR professional in the person’s state, region or country. The IAM is, first and foremost, the organization for premiere active practitioners of commercial mediation anywhere in the world. IAM seeks to create an international organization of full time commercial mediators with membership diverse in nationality, culture, background, location and experience. IAM membership is open to all qualified individuals without regard to age, color, creed, disability, gender, nationality, race, sexual orientation or political affiliation. The IAM also recognizes that preeminence as a mediator might be supplemented by a reputation and practice as a teacher of mediation and ADR, a trainer in the field, and/or a person who is recognized as an innovator, pioneer or leader in the field. Membership qualifications, standards and procedures are established by the IAM Board of Governors, which reserves the right to revise them from time to time in its sole discretion.

The field of commercial mediation contemplates a very wide spectrum of matters. It does not include family law, juvenile or community mediation; but it could include business, employment, contract, insurance, personal injury and death, professional liability, land use, environmental, intellectual property, products liability, utility, patent and copyright, construction, surety, pharmaceutical, healthcare, trade and commerce, civil rights and class action disputes, whether in suit or not. The foregoing list is by example, and not inclusive of all possible commercial matters in which IAM members are involved.

Categories

The categories of membership in the IAM are as follows:

Fellow, which class represents the active mediator, teacher, trainer and/or leader, or any combination thereof.
Life Fellow, a former Fellow who is retired or semi-retired and was at the time of retirement or at the time of the significant decrease in his/her practice, in good standing with the IAM as a Fellow, and who remains in good standing during the term as Life Fellow. This person continues to pay dues, and is given this classification at the discretion of the Board of Governors.
Honorary Fellow, which class includes the persons honored by the Academy with honorary membership in a non-dues-paying status as recognition for outstanding achievement in the field of mediation. These persons are not subject to the requirements to attend one meeting every two years.

Standards and Experience

Generally

The emphasis of the IAM membership standards is to gather together preeminent, highly skilled, ethical and respected commercial mediators who are engaged full-time in mediation and the ADR profession as their primary means of earning a living. Such practitioners may do mediation work exclusively, or they may also engage in some arbitration or special master capacities, either court-annexed or not. They may occasionally volunteer in those capacities. Or they may be highly regarded trainers or teachers of the art of mediation, or be published in the field, or be leaders or pioneers in the field who promote mediation as a preferred means of resolving disputes, or who have designed and fostered mediation programs in their respective geographical areas, jurisdictions or countries.
Active Caseload or Practice as a Mediation Professional

There is no hard and fast rule as to how many days in mediation per week, month or year a Candidate must actually spend in mediations, but generally speaking, for those who mediate exclusively, they may spend from 100 to 150 days and more a year in mediations for pay. If the Candidate does more than mediate as part of his or her career, the combination of days spent in mediation, supplemented by teaching, training, arbitrating, acting as a special master, or promoting mediation, should also approximate the 100 to 150 days or more per year. Part-time practitioners in the mediation or ADR field will not qualify for membership, nor by example, would those whose practice is primarily serving as an arbitrator or special master.

Mediation Experience

Eligible Candidates for membership in the IAM will have considerable training and experience in the field of mediation, and will have had background and experience for a number of years in that area. Notwithstanding the above criteria, before being admitted as a Fellow in the IAM, the Candidate will have mediated hundreds of commercial cases in order to gain the seasoning and experience required for recognition as a Fellow.

The Candidates may also have written and published, lectured and been honored by others for accomplishments in and contributions to the field, as part of building the kind of reputation an IAM Fellow enjoys. Likewise, teaching and training, or designing successful ADR systems and programs may be a part of the Candidate’s pedigree. The formula for experience and standards of Fellows in the IAM is intended to personify excellence in the commercial mediation profession.

Adherence to Ethical and Professional Standards

IAM members commit to practice according to the Standards of the Codes of Professional Responsibility as shall be adopted or promulgated by the IAM from time to time. They may ultimately be the same Standards of Conduct of Mediators as developed by a Task Force led by the American Arbitration Association, American Bar Association, and the Association for Conflict Resolution, or other respected professional organizations internationally.

Admission Process

Membership as a Fellow in the IAM occurs by invitation only from the IAM. The process of becoming a Fellow begins with two existing Fellows, a “Sponsor” and a “Seconder,” identifying a Candidate, and then marshalling the Candidate through the steps of the process to the endpoint – the invitation from the IAM’s Board of Governors to become a Fellow. The Candidate reaches that endpoint after attendance at one of the two semi-annual meetings of the IAM (Spring and Fall), at which meeting the Fellows have the opportunity to meet and know the Candidate, and the Candidate in turn has the chance to meet and learn about the IAM and its Fellows.

There are four general steps in the Admissions Process when Candidates know current IAM Fellows who could serve as a Sponsor and a Seconder. When the Candidate does not know any current Fellows, any Fellow or an Officer can invite a potential Candidate to a conference of the IAM, and thereafter identify a Sponsor and Seconder to begin the process at Step One, as delineated below.

Step One: The Sponsor and the Seconder obtain from the IAM’s Executive Director, a copy of a blank “Candidate Profile” form and coordinate their efforts with the Candidate to complete the form in its entirety, including appending the Candidate’s CV and four letters of reference from persons who are not IAM members. With the signatures of the Sponsor and Seconder added to the form, it is then forwarded to the Executive Director of the IAM along with a $250 non-refundable application fee. Upon ultimate acceptance into the IAM as a Fellow, the Candidate’s $250 fee is credited to the first year’s dues.

The final event in the first step of this Admissions Process is a review by the IAM Membership Committee of the Candidate Profile form to make sure that it is complete in its information and all attachments have been received. The Committee makes no other judgment about the Candidate. The Committee then advises the Candidate’s Sponsor and Seconder of his/her finding. Assuming the report is complete it is time for the second step of the process.

Step Two: The second step is for the Sponsor and the Seconder to invite the Candidate to attend the next IAM conference which the Candidate is able to attend. At that conference, the Sponsor and the Seconder, if they are also able to attend, will make efforts to introduce the Candidate to as many other Fellows as they can. The Candidate may also wear a nametag at the conference that makes him or her readily identifiable as a prospective member. The goal of the conference attendance is for the Candidate to meet as many Fellows as possible, and vice-versa, so that both the Fellows on the one hand have a chance to assess the Candidate as a good fit as a Fellow, and likewise, on the other hand, the Candidate can assess whether the IAM is a desirable organization for him or her.

Step Three: The third step in the process is the forwarding by the Fellows at the conference of their comments, observations and recommendations regarding the Candidate as a prospective Fellow to the Chair of the Membership Committee (who currently is Jim Readey of Columbus, Ohio). Fellows who are unable to attend the conference but who know or are acquainted with the Candidate or the Candidate’s accomplishments and reputation are also encouraged to forward comments to the Membership Chair.

The Membership Chair reviews all the comments, and then reports to the Board of Governors, and simultaneously to the Sponsor and the Seconder, the recommendations of the Membership Committee. At the next meeting of the Board of Governors after the Committee’s recommendations have been delivered to them, the Board votes whether to invite the Candidate to become a Fellow in the IAM. The Sponsor and the Seconder are to be invited to attend that Board Meeting either in person or via telephone (or other method) if they choose to do so. In the event the majority vote of the Board is “NO,” the Sponsor, Seconder and the Secretary/Treasurer of the IAM will advise the Candidate of the IAM’s position.

Step Four: In the event the majority vote of the IAM Board of Governors is “YES,” the President, on behalf of the Board of Governors and the Sponsor and Seconder, invites the Candidate in writing to join the IAM as a Fellow. The invitation letter will be sent out as promptly as possible following the Board Meeting so that the Candidate will have the opportunity to plan to attend the very next IAM conference, if he or she chooses. The Candidate will be asked in the President’s letter to respond to the invitation to join the IAM by a date certain, and the obligation to pay dues (whether pro-rated for a partial year or in full for an entire year) begins at that point. The $250 application fee previously paid by the Candidate is applied toward the first dues invoice.

Assuming that the Candidate accepts the invitation, the Candidate will be inducted into the Academy at the Friday night banquet of the next conference attended by the Candidate. This event is an acknowledgment by the Candidate’s peers (the Fellows of the Academy) of the Candidate having attained status as a preeminent commercial mediator and ADR professional, and formally welcomes the Candidate as a new Fellow in the International Academy of Mediators.

Dues and Benefits

Annual dues of Fellows and Life Fellows in the IAM are currently $750 (U.S.). Honorary Fellows are not required to pay dues.

The hallmark value of IAM membership is to meet, mingle, discuss and debate with and learn from and enjoy the company and collegiality of, other outstanding mediators in the member’s country, and in the world. That is why the IAM energetically encourages and enforces the membership requirement that each Fellow and Life Fellow must attend at least one conference in each two-year period of membership. The conferences offer a chance to grow professionally, to re-energize techniques and business practices and to strengthen the bonds of friendship and networking with the most outstanding mediators in the world.

The IAM currently meets twice a year with efforts made to equalize geographical conference sites to facilitate attendance by members who are geographically diverse.

Educational and professional programs are enriching opportunities (as well as socializing), and are carefully planned to be of high caliber at each meeting. Guests and spouses are welcome to join the members at the conferences.

The IAM Website, in addition to describing the IAM, lists the Fellows with their photos, and serves as a source for users of mediation services to connect with a list of premiere mediators and their locales.

The IAM likewise publishes an excellent newsletter recounting developments, new publications and events of interest to high caliber mediators and others interested in the field of commercial mediation. That membership benefit is augmented by the IAM’s “listserv” which is an online, private “chat room” where a Fellow can posit to other IAM Fellows a situation which occurred upon which the Fellow seeks opinions and comments on what should have been the mediator’s response or reaction, and such situations can present ethical quandaries, or call upon other skill-sets which could have been deployed to address a problem. Naturally, no names are used and confidentiality is observed and maintained. The discussions can be lively and diverse, but always enlightening as another means of supplementing one’s advanced mediator education.

The Website also displays a page akin to “Members in the News” which changes periodically to spotlight various members’ accomplishments throughout the year – books or articles published, speeches or presentations made, honors and recognitions received and the like.

The Academy offers opportunities for work on committees and for participating in and attending advanced mediator educational programs of very high quality, usually scheduled during one of the two conferences each year.

Finally, IAM members have participation rights, as well as their family and friends in a program called “Club Quarters.” IAM members are entitled to the use of private, full service hotels in major cities throughout the world, at the lowest rates available for guest rooms, meeting rooms and hotel service charges (when compared to traditional hotels in comparable locations). Club Quarters hotels are designed for the business traveler and are subsidized for use on weekends and holiday periods at extra special low rates.