Stymied!

Today I received the latest Canadian Arbitration and Mediation Journal, and with it, what is probably my final renewal notice for membership in the ADR Institute of Ontario, Inc. The fee for 2009 comes to $267.75 with GST, and includes membership in the ADR Institute of Canada. I'll be honest here; print journals such as the aforementioned seem outdated and almost irrelevant when almost everything pertaining to mediation can be found on the internet, for free. Like so many other specialty journals, this one seems to compliment the insiders who contribute articles and provides space for advertisers to sell their services, but I seriously question the value of continuing to publish print copies when all of it could instead be made available on the ADR web site. I wonder how much of my $255 fee goes towards such waste.

Of course insiders, those who earn a good living through mediation and arbitration and who have a vested interest in keeping their names in print, would strongly disagree, I'm sure. My perspective, as someone who believes wholeheartedly in the process of mediation but who will probably never earn a penny at it, may seem rather distorted. Yes, the fact that I can not afford the $267.75 to maintain my membership is galling - I'm out of the club now, and my dreams of being a 'real' (i.e. able to earn money) mediator seem further away than ever. I joined the ADR with the hope I could earn Chartered Mediator status, but soon found out that would cost a further $500 to apply, plus the costs of insurance, as well as needing to show what percentage of my mediations were paid (zero as a volunteer).

So yes, I've soured on institutions and will let my membership expire, unnoticed, as I am not in the game. I will hopefully return to volunteering my services where I can be of help, mainly in victim offender, youth justice and community mediations. This is what I believed in from the start, and is where I belong. The money can stay where it's always been, with the lawyers.