President’s Letter – September 2019

Going Rogue?
I’ve spent the last two days with the Fellows and Facilitators of the FACP Leadership Institute. The commitment and passion of our upcoming Collaborative leaders to change the way families divorce is inspiring! 
Thanks to Dr. Deborah Day of Orlando, Adam Cordover, Esq. of Tampa Bay and Brian Galbraith, who came all the way from Canada to teach our emerging leaders about courage, leading change, creating mindful and magical moments. 
Change takes time; every new collaborative case, each new client interaction, and every time we introduce Collaborative process to a person who’s hearing about it for the first time, we are changing the world.
Each of us must feel the urgency of the work and contribute to the effort. We are all part of the team. Learn from your colleagues who have thriving Collaborative practices. They don’t sit around waiting for Collaborative cases to just happen. They are out networking and spreading the word of Collaborative divorce to every audience they can find. Everyone is a potential divorce client—or has the ear of someone who is or will be going through a divorce.
Let’s tell and repeat success stories! Talk about the Collaborative case in which, even though there was Intimate Partner Violence, we helped the spouses reach a respectful resolution. 
Other great marketing ideas from our Leadership fellows:
Brevard Collaborative President Tiffany Loris invites Brevard County court clerks to their meetings. And they come! The clerks are recommending Collaborative process to self-represented parties and are using www.BrevardCollaborative.com as a resource for client to find Collaborative Professionals. 
Tammy Berman, MHP Neutral in Plantation, a member of CFLI www.collaborativefamilylawfl.com and Choose Collaborative www.ChooseCollaborative.com has assembled an inter-disciplinary team that teaches about Collaborative divorce to law students Nova Southeastern University Law School. 
I appeared on the Life Changes radio show talking about Collaborative Divorce: https://lifechangesnetwork.com/peaceful-divorce-with-guest-elaine-t-silver-esq-and-musical-guest-cynthia-brando-on-the-life-changes-show-540/
Social media—each of us should have links on our own web sites to our local practice groups, to FACP, www.CollaborativePracticeFlorida.com and to IACP, www.CollaborativePractice.com. 
FACP will have a table at the FLAFC annual conference in Orlando September 25-27. www.flafcc.org/event/2019-flafcc-annual-conference-orlando-fl. Craig Fabrikant, FACP Board Secretary, is the President of FLAFCC. FACP President-elect Robert Merlin, and members Paul Garcia, Lana Stern, Keith Grossman, Josh Shilts are all presenting at FLAFCC. If you will be in Orlando for FLAFCC, contact Jennifer Frank, Esq., Jennifer@FrankFamilyLaw.com to help staff the FACP table. 
There’s still time to sign up for 20th Annual IACP Forum in Chicago October 24- 27. Details on an FACP gathering at IACP are in the planning stages. 
I charge each of us to do at least one thing each week to spread the word about Collaborative Divorce to someone who doesn’t already know. Let’s build the movement and the change we want to see. This isn’t “going rogue;” it’s building a movement. 
FACP’s research survey is up and running again! It’s on the About FACP page of the FACP website:  www.collaborativepracticeflorida.com/florida-academy-of-collaborative-professionals. (No password needed) We need every Florida Collaborative Professional to ensure that one survey is submitted for each Collaborative case—whether or not a final agreement is reached. We don’t know what we don’t measure. Imagine the positive impact if we were able to report thousands of successful Collaborative cases with hard data as to time and expense.
 
Collaboratively yours,
Elaine Silver
FACP President