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TheBuzz

BY ERIKA ENGLE

Finding money
for mediation

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The nonprofit Mediation Center of the Pacific Inc. is scouting for members to help raise funds.

"The goal is to run a nonprofit agency more like a business," said Executive Director Tracey Wiltgen. "You don't want to depend on any one source of funding."

Known as the Neighborhood Justice Center for most of its 23 years of existence, the renamed Mediation Center at 680 Iwilei Road derives income from membership drives, contracts, grants and endowments and "some comes from being entrepreneurial," Wiltgen said.

"For us, what we do best besides mediation is training, so we've really expanded our training programs," she said.

The center offers training in basic mediation, conflict resolution, facilitation and several other areas listed on its Web site at www.mediatehawaii.org. Programs may also be customized, Wiltgen said.

"The old style of dealing with two employees who have a problem is to come up with a solution for them and they may not like it, so not only are they not happy with each other, they're not happy with you," Wiltgen said.

An improved way is to empower employees to come up with a solution that works for them, which decreases the time management spends intervening, she said.

The center's new "Manager as Mediator" training teaches supervisors skills to resolve employee conflicts, Wiltgen said.

"By using us in the beginning, it's going to save time, money and stress," she said. "And it will certainly help work productivity, as opposed to letting it get to the point where it's a major problem and everybody's involved."

Lynn Miller, director of training, and Erin Edwards, who serves as both office manager and part-time trainer, handle most classes.

The center serves a variety of clients, including the public and private sectors as well as nonprofits and the military around the Pacific.

Your columnist was a volunteer board member for about six years.

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Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com