I began writing this letter as I was participating in a Zoom call hosted by the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals to help Collaborative communities around the world schedule events celebrating the United Nations’ World Creativity and Innovation Week on April 15-21, 2022. The annual WCIW encourages communities and nations worldwide to support the theme of the year, which is linked to one of the central philosophies of the United Nations. The theme this year is “collaborate.” This is such a unique opportunity to promote what we, as Collaborative professionals, do on a daily basis. FACP is in a fortunate position to lead the world in this celebration because Holly Haggerty, our web site designer, has been involved in WCIW for a few years and she brought this idea to me, which I shared with our FACP Board and the IACP. With the leadership of Sheila Furr, Karen Sacks and their committee, we will hold creative events in which you and your fellow Collaborative professionals can participate this April. We encourage each practice group to schedule a special event in your community, and to coordinate that with Sheila and Karen. This is an exciting, once in a lifetime event/coincidence that creates an opportunity for us to explain to the public what we do as Collaborative professionals. Please join us.
We are working very hard to plan our annual conference on June 9-11, 2022 at the J.W. Marriott Tampa Water Street. The committee, led by co-chairs Karen Middlekauff (Orlando), Tammy Berman (Ft. Lauderdale) and Jessica Felix (Tampa), have created a wonderful program that will educate, inspire and entertain you. Please look for the official registration information that will be sent to you very soon. Our keynote speaker will be my friend, Ron Ousky, one of the pioneers in the development of the Collaborative Process. Ron is an inspiring speaker, so do not miss this opportunity to hear and meet Ron in person.
Congratulations are in order to all of us, but especially to Evan Marks, a Collaborative attorney from Miami. If you have not heard, the Collaborative Process was presented for the first time during the Family Law Section/AAML Family Law Cert Review course at the end of January by Evan. Everyone said that Evan was excellent and represented us well. But there is more! Evan took it upon himself to ask the Family Law Section Executive Council to have the Section present an introductory Collaborative training. A task force will be appointed to look into this possibility. This could be a huge movement toward exposing many more family attorneys to the Collaborative Process, which would certainly benefit Florida’s families and our FACP members as well. Look for more on this development.
Finally, I hope you have all marked your calendar for the first-ever IACP Forum in Florida, which will take place at the Gaylord Palms in Kissimmee, Florida on October 27-30, 2022. Collaborative professionals from around the world will gather in our backyard to learn together and share ideas. If you are serious about becoming the best possible Collaborative professional, you should not miss the 2022 IACP Forum. I hope to see all of you there.
