Section History

History of Section Leadership

We would love to hear from anyone with knowledge of the history of our section and to help fill in missing dates below! Please see the “Contact” page for our web contact email address.

Chairs and Co-Chairs

Gail Bingham 1983-1989
Suzanne Orenstein 1990-1992
Greg Bourne 1992
Elaine Hallmark 1993
John Folk-Williams 1994-96
Chris Carlson 1995-97
Bob Jones 1996-1998
Sylvia McMechan 1997-1999
Mary Margaret Golten 1998-2000
Rafael Montalvo 1999-2001
Rosemary Romero  2000-2002 (dates uncertain)
Donna Silverberg 2000-02
Frank Dukes 2001-2003
Tom Fee 2002-2004
Mary Skelton Roberts 2003-05
John Stephens 2004-06
Cindy Cook 2005-07
Michael Elliott 2006-08
Carolyn Penny 2007-09
Harry Manasewich 2008-10

When SPIDR was created in the early 1970’s there were two categories of membership: labor and “other.” A decade later, then SPIDR President?, Tom Colosi, suggested the creation of ”SECTIONS” to acknowledge the growth of the “other” category of SPIDR members. 26 years ago, in 1983, Gail Bingham, a SPIDR board member, was asked to help form and chair a new environmental sector. 1   Initially, the sector didn’t meet at SPIDR annual meetings but held meetings at user conferences and one free standing conference of environmental mediators at Florescent in Colorado in 1982 (organized completely outside of SPIDR). In late 1990, following the first SPIDR Qualifications Commission Report (1989) on which Gail Bingham served, the sector initiated an effort as a follow on response to that report to develop consensus on a set of competencies and tasks for environmental and public policy mediation. That effort was led by Susan Carpenter and Suzanne Orenstein. This was the first such policy document initiated by a SPIDR sector and was adopted by both the sector and by the SPIDR Board in 1991.

In 1992, Gail Bingham, Abby Arnold, Rich Collins, Frank Dukes and Bruce Dotson organized a 10 year follow up meeting to the Florescent conference in Charlottesville, Virginia. 75 seasoned and newer practitioners met and distilled lessons learned over the past decade. It was at the Charlottesville meeting that the Sector debated several models for helping the field build intellectual capital, whether to form a separate association ala AAA or other professional associations such as those of planners and psychologists, or seek better support within SPIDR as a sector. This resulted in the publication of "The Cutting Edge" conference report and the creation of a steering committee led by Greg Bourne, the Section Chair, which brought forth a new negotiated contract with SPIDR addressing the Sector’s needs. In 1993-95 Elaine Hallmark and John Folk-Williams served as section co-chairs and the Sector published a membership directory for the first time as a service to members. Larry Susskind also agreed to cover Sector issues and initiatives through his newspaper, Consensus and continued to do so until Consensus ceased publication in 1998.

In 1995-96 John Folk-Williams and Elaine Hallmark Chris served staggered terms as the section’s first co-chairs [see above– also 93-95?]and brought about the first successful, revenue generating mid-year meeting at University of California, Santa Cruz 2  with over 90 practitioners attending and participating. An informal poll of those practitioners attending revealed that 90% served as neutral facilitators while less than 10% attending made their living solely as mediators. The subsequent sessions took place in informal retreat settings in Minnesota (95), New Hampshire (96), Seattle (97), Chapel Hill, North Carolina (98), Keystone, Colorado (99); Chicago (2000) Tucson (02), Washington D.C. (03), Portland (04), Boston (06), Florida (07), Tucson again in 2008, and Denver in 2009.

In 1995 Chris Carlson got support from the Hewlett Foundation and co-chaired with Greg Bourne a best practices/critical issues committee with Jim Arthur and other sector practitioners in a joint venture with the Georgia Tech Hewlett Center. This led to another Sector publication, “Best Practices for Government Agencies.” Between 1995-99 co-chairs Chris Carlson, Bob Jones, Sylvia McMechan and Mary Margaret Golten developed a sector structure with task groups and standing committees, a strategic planning function, initiated a website, published a Sector newsletter (Sector Update) and adopted as the Sector’s motto, “informality, energy, quality and results.”  Mary Margaret Golten and Rafael Montalvo facilitated a sector diversity initiative and developed themes.

Co-chairs Frank Dukes and Donna Silverberg (2000-02) helped to secure Hewlett Funding to support the development of a series of “white papers” by sector members reflecting on key aspects of our practice today on the future of the sector topics. The Tuscon mid-year conference in 2002 was devoted to presentation of these papers and brought together leadership from the 1982 and 1992 conferences to examine growth and current issues.

In the past 26 years many leaders from the Environment/Public Policy sector played leadership roles for the overall SPIDR/ACR organization including SPIDR presidents Liz Neumeier, Glen Sigurdsen, Peter Adler and ACR President Rosemary Romero. Gail Bingham, Bob Jones, Bob Barrett, Mary Margaret Golten and Rosemary Romero, and Cindy Cook (currently serving) served as SPIDR board members and officers.

In 2001 ACR was formed out of the merger of SPIDR, AFM and CREnet. The SPIDR Environment/Public Policy Sector became the ACR Environment/Public Policy Section and continued to function in much the same way.

TO BE CONTINUED: Establishment of EPP Section Interim Leadership Council in 2004  and transition to current elected EPP Section Permanent Leadership Council in 2006 to:

• Support EPP members’ interests and energy to contribute to the section and the profession in a collaborative and effective manner,
• Support Co-Chairs, seeking ways to involve more EPP members in order to manage the workload of the Co-Chairs and to capitalize on the energy of members,
• Provide guidance, develop policy transparently, and respond to ACR policies and needs,
• Be a core leadership team that is the policy-making body of the Section and helps coordinate activities and distribute the workload, and
• Allow committee chairs to work on substance and minimize time on EPP-wide or ACR-wide matters.

Please contact Harry Manasewich (hfactordr@aol.com) if you would like to edit or contribute to this tome.

Footnotes

1. Please see "Chairs and Co-Chairs" above for a complete listing.
2. This conference was nearly canceled because of a last minute labor strike at the hotel site in Monterrey and SPIDR’s policy of not crossing picket lines. UC Santa Cruz was secured as the alternate site.