Mediation Process: If the Operating Board Executive Committee’s help is warranted, the following process has been designed to support the timely resolution of the conflict. Adjustments to this process will be made to best meet the needs of the situation.
- Volunteer leaders experiencing the conflict submit relevant documentation to explain their situation to the operating board executive committee and/or HBA Central Staff (in general, this should not exceed a few pages).
- A member (or members) of the Operating Board Executive Committee will speak with each volunteer member leader involved in the conflict individually to understand the situation and the parties’ preferred solution.
- The mediation team will facilitate a joint session with all parties to develop a shared understanding of the issues so the parties can identify and ideally agree to solutions and next steps.
- Steps 2 and 3 may be repeated as deemed necessary by the mediation team based on the severity of the conflict and the willingness of the volunteer leaders experiencing the conflict to stay in the mediation process.
- The mediation team issues a written recommendation, shared with all parties, on how to proceed.
As the purpose of this process is to help facilitate conflict resolution, the proceedings and the recommendations are confidential to those involved, except for the Operating Board Executive Committee and the HBA staff member involved. In instances where there may be legal implications, the HBA executive committee and possibly the board of directors may need to be notified.
The mediation process ends with the team's recommendation. At that point, the volunteer leaders experiencing the conflict are strongly encouraged to follow the recommendations of the mediation team and work to implement a resolution to their conflict. The parties may decide, however, to progress to the existing procedures (found in Appendix I) to formally remove the volunteer board member(s).
