The ACR International Section (ACRIS) currently has almost 400 members from 28 countries, and is one of the fastest growing ACR Sections. If you are not already a member, please join us in networking and promoting a culture of conflict resolution throughout the world! If you are seeking networking with other conflict resolution practitioners, we encourage you to join us at the International Conflict Resolution Networks Portal on LinkedIn.

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Members!  Don’t forget to sign up on LinkedIn.com and join your fellow Section members in the ACRIS Networking Group!

Update and Save the Date!

Dear Section Colleagues

We hope the first two months of 2010 have treated you well. We send a special hello to all of our new members. Welcome to the section! We’d like to share some important news.

Save the Date! International Day, September 1, 2010

Due to the enthusiastic response and turnout last year in Atlanta, the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) International Section is continuing the tradition of holding International Day at the ACR Annual Conference.  ACR has chosen beautiful (and easy-to-get-to) Chicago for this year’s conference.  We will hold International Day on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010, the day before the main conference activities begin. International Day has become the premier networking event for conflict resolution professionals with a global focus. Your section leadership is currently designing a compelling line-up of presenters and activities, and will share a preliminary agenda in the coming weeks. We welcome your ideas for creating an exciting International Day. Please email us at 2010acris@gmail.com.

Highlighting section members’ articles and writings

We’d like to highlight the interesting articles and other work that our section members have published in the past six months. To do that, we will be sending out a special e-mail bulletin to the section that compiles our recent work, listing the title, a one-sentence description, and a link to the article/book/blog. We’ll also provide the links on our website. If you have published something in the past 6 months, please send us by March 12 the title, a brief one-sentence description of the work, and a link to where we can find it online. Articles in Spanish and other languages are welcome. Please send to 2010acris@gmail.com

Upgrading the Website

Our section website is long overdue for an upgrade to make it more valuable for all of us. As we start to make some changes, we welcome your thoughts on how to make the website more compelling and relevant for you. Again, 2010acris@gmail.com is the best email, though feel free to email your co-chairs directly as well (emails below). While you’re online, check out the Association for Conflict Resolution International Section Group on LinkedIn (linkedin.com), a great networking tool.

Breaking Down Language Barrier

Given the strong interest from our Latin American colleagues in the section over the years, the section has tried to offer material and presentations in Spanish. The feedback we’ve received is that we need to do more. One effort we’re undertaking is getting volunteer translators to translate select materials, tele-seminar transcripts etc. from ACR and its sections that the volunteer finds particularly compelling. If you are interested in helping with this effort to break down language barriers, please let us know. We hope to start posting material in Spanish to our website as part of the planned revamp.

We look forward to hearing from you, and wish you well in all your endeavors.

Best regards,

David Plumb, dplumb@cbuilding.org

Luis Oré, luis.ore@orasicg.com

International Section Co-Chairs