8125

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 8125
• Author: Moore, C. W.
• Title: Editor
• USFW Year: Series
• USFW - Doc Type: 1986
• Copyright Material: YES

56 The Mediation Process
initiate contact with disputants. These include letters, phone
calls, personal visits, and third-party introductions. Depending
on the mediator, institution, type of dispute, and characteristics
of the disputants, various combinations of the above may be ef-
fective. Some mediation organizations make their first contact
with clients by phone, while others rely more heavily on per-
sonal interviews. Frequently a combination of letter, brochure,
and phone call is used to build credibility, describe the process,
and gain commitment to mediate. (See Resource B for a sample
contact letter.)
In complex disputes-such as volatile community con-
flicts or cases involving highly bureaucratic and hierarchical or-
ganizations-in which access to the main actors is tightly con-
trolled or limited by some barrier such as race, channels of
authority, or even physical inaccessibility, asecondary party
may be used to introduce the mediator to one or more dis-
putants. These introductions may be invaluable to the inter-
venor seeking entry into a closed dispute.
Timing of Entry
Two levels of intervention activity are usually weighed
when considering the point at which a mediator should enter a
dispute: (1) the timing of data collection regarding the case and
(2) the initiation of problem-solving mediation activities. While
both types of intervention require entry by the mediator, their
impacts on the dispute are quite different.
Data Collection. Entry to gather preliminary data about
a conflict can be initiated at almost any time in the develop-
ment of a dispute, although information may be more difficult
to collect during certain phases of conflict development, such as
the ,early escalation stage before the actual decisions of the par-
ties to negotiate, or the stage in which negotiations have com-
menced but parties do not believe the mediator is necessary.
The mediator's entry to collect data about the conflict usually
does not change the power relations between the parties.
The major strategic decisions about intervention for data
collection focus primarily on whom to talk to, the sequence of