By Katie Swanson, Ombuds Day Task Force Committee Volunteer

The second annual Ombuds Day has come and gone leaving many amazing highlights from this year’s events and theme – Ombuds: Unusual Name. Important Service. In case you may not be familiar with all of the back story behind Ombuds Day,be sure to check out the ABA Journal on What are ombuds? The ABA provides a primer on special day.

A major point of focus surrounding Ombuds Day 2019 was the effort behind pushing cities, states, universities, and so forth to make a proclamation that would recognize the second Thursday of every October going forward as Ombuds Day. And the effort by those involved paid off in a very meaningful way with the response received. On the state level, proclamations were received from Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, North Carolina, New Mexico, Washington, Arizona, and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Joining in as well at the city level, Boulder, Denver, Aurora, Anchorage, East Lansing, Des Moines, and King County in Washington have proclaimed Ombuds Day moving forward. This is only the beginning when it comes to proclamations as the efforts continue so be sure to stop by the Ombuds Day Toolkit for all the details and keep watching for who is added to the list next.

IOA Executive Director Chuck Howard gave the keynote address at the Ombuds Day event held on 10 October 2019 in Washington DC. Read on for the full transcript of Chuck's speech.

Hello, IOA — from your Volunteer Coordination Committee (VCC)!

IOA is a volunteer-driven organization, and there are so many great individuals already contributing their time, skills, and energy to advancing work within IOA, but there are still phenomenal volunteer opportunities that await eager individuals!

The Volunteer Coordination Committee (VCC) is excited to share the following open IOA volunteer opportunities. We encourage you to review the below opportunities and get involved with IOA!

By Charles L. Howard, Executive Director of IOA 

As I near the end of my first month as the new Executive Director of IOA, I want to give everyone a brief update of what I have been up to. Even before I officially started, I met with Marcia Martinez-Helfman and Lee Twyman in Philadelphia to get a lay of the land and make sure that we were aligned on what our goals are for this new position. Since the first of September, I have been primarily engaged in a learning and listening tour—having orientations with leadership and SBI on finances and operations and participating in the monthly meetings of various committees and task forces. I have also had my first Executive Committee and Board meetings. Along the way, I have helped respond to external inquiries and have been engaged in planning for my role as the keynote speaker in the Washington, D.C. Ombuds Day event and a subsequent Ombuds Day event at Quinnipiac Law School here in Connecticut on October 15^th. I have been making plans for presentations later in October to university risk managers and to participate with Jessica Kutcha Miller in attending the public hearing and having a poster presentation at the Action Collaborative sponsored by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. I am still excited to be a part of IOA and look forward to finding ways to be useful in expanding the reach of this important profession.  

By Roy Baroff, COOP® , Faculty/Staff Ombuds, NC State University

Hello, IOA -- from your Strategic Alliances and Partnerships Committee (SAPC)!  

We wanted to provide a quick update and extend an invitation. This is still a fairly new committee, and we’ve been working to build relationships to promote, provide member services and protect the ombuds profession. One project is to firm up connections with like-minded organizations, and we are working to confirm and document reciprocal agreements around conference invitations and exhibiting. Two are right around the corner, and you are invited to say hello and stop by IOA tables next week at the USOA conference in Hawaii (Liz Hill - Associate Director of the Ombuds Office, University of Colorado Boulder ) and ACR in Tucson (Caitlin Hendrickson – Ombuds Program Director, University of Arizona). Many thanks to Liz and Caitlin for representing IOA. If you are attending and want to help staff the table, then please contact them directly.

by Roy Baroff, COOP®, Faculty and Staff Ombuds, NC State University

This is part of an ongoing series of conversations between an IOA Board Director and an IOA member.  In mid-August I, Roy Baroff (RB), spoke with Amanda Dean (AD), asking about her journey into ombuds practice, how IOA helped along the way, and what else IOA could or should be doing. We had a pretty far-ranging conversation; here’s a summary, and I hope you enjoy it! I really appreciate Amanda for sharing her time and her journey with us!

 RB: Could you start by sharing how you got into ombuds work?

By Jacqueline Berzon, former corporate lawyer, current mediator and aspiring ombuds

How do you sell a service that nobody knows? How do you sell a service without being able to demonstrate its positive results? How do you sell a service nobody thinks is needed? How do you sell a service no one has experienced before? It is hard.

My name is Jackie Berzon. I'm 43 and I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I am a mother of two boys, a spouse, a lawyer, a mediator, an organizational coach, a foodie (this is not a minor detail!) and lately a lunatic promoter of the the organizational ombuds role in Argentina.

There is still time to register for an exciting course taking place in Cartagena de Indias this October!  

The International Ombudsman Association (IOA) and the University of Los Andes are sponsoring an International Course on Labor Dispute Resolution based on IOA’s Foundations of Organizational Ombudsman Practice course. The course will take place in Cartagena de Indias on October 21-23, 2019. This is the first-ever IOA course offered in Colombia. The course will be conducted in Spanish. 

Course Description: Workplace conflict frequently emerges, whether it be in the classroom, public entities, or private companies. When conflicts are poorly managed, they cause declines in productivity and morale, consume time and resources, and trigger stress that can manifest physiologically. Such conflicts can cause long-lasting negative effects and costly legal/administrative fees that commonly result in unsatisfactory outcomes for the parties involved.

By Marcia Martínez-Helfman, 2019–2020 IOA President & Lee Twyman, Chair, Executive Director Search Committee

Dear IOA Members & Supporters,

The selection of an executive director concludes IOA’s organizational transition to a hybrid management model. We are pleased to have received a large number of very strong applicants deeply interested in the work of the IOA. Earlier this year, finalists were interviewed and the IOA Board of Directors unanimously agreed to offer the Executive Director position to Chuck Howard. Chuck will officially begin on 1 September 2019.We are delighted to announce that Charles (Chuck) Howard has agreed to serve as the inaugural Executive Director for the International Ombudsman Association.

By Kerry Egdorf, IOA Board Member & Chair, Nominations and Governance Committee

On behalf of the IOA Board of Directors and with great appreciation, IOA says goodbye to two members of the Board who have resigned due to personal and professional commitments. Ruthy Kohorn Rosenberg served on the Board from April 2018 to July 2019, including one year of service as the IOA Secretary. Elaine Shaw served on the Board from April 2018 to July 2019, including four months of service as the IOA Secretary. We are grateful for their passion and participation! 

This July, the Board of Directors elected Ronnie Thomson as the new 2019–2020 IOA Secretary. Congratulations, Ronnie, and thank you!

By Christina Sabee, PhD, Employee Ombudsperson, San Francisco State University & Jessica Kuchta-Miller, CO-OP®, JD, Staff Ombudsperson, Washington University in St. Louis

A recent IOA press release about IOA’s participation in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s (NASEM) Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education describes an exciting collaboration among 28 founding organizations and more than 50 sponsoring organizations. This initiative focuses on prevention, response, remediation, and evaluation of policies and practices for addressing sexual harassment on college and university campuses. The process of developing this collaborative began with the issuance of a June 2018 report from NASEM that focused on understanding the climate created by the sexual harassment of women on college and university campuses and in which the organizational ombuds role was featured. From there, NASEM hosted a convocation in November of 2018 during which members built on the recommendations from this report and other sources to discuss strategies and share practices that might address this important issue. The Action Collaborative was announced as an idea at this convocation.

By Cynthia Joyce, University Ombudsperson, University of Iowa, and Marcia Martínez-Helfman, Associate Ombuds, University of Pennsylvania and IOA President, 2018-2020

Marcia Martínez-Helfman: At the Annual Conference in New Orleans this year, I had the good fortune to meet Cynthia Joyce, a long time IOA member who has had a mixed experience with the organization. At my urging, Cynthia shared with me more about her concerns. The conversation was substantive, frank, and enlightening for both of us. Although each of us would be shortly going our separate ways from NOLA, we both wanted to keep talking and felt it would be instructive and constructive to share our exchange with a wider audience. So here we are. Our hope is that this is the beginning of an extended dialogue between the membership and volunteer leaders, through monthly blog posts, taking us to a better IOA! I want to start by asking Cynthia how long she’s been an IOA member, and to tell me about the early experiences with the organization, some of which left her with a bad taste in her mouth.

Cynthia Joyce: Marcia, I wanted to start on a lighter note and point out the connection between our two offices. The reason the University of Iowa has an ombuds office is Penn. A former UI president, James Freedman, came to Iowa from Penn, where he had served as a faculty ombuds. When he arrived on the UI campus, he asked where the ombuds office was, and, when told there wasn’t one, asked a faculty committee to explore the idea of starting an ombuds office. I think history matters, and I appreciate the fact that our office started in a positive way, providing a needed resource to campus, rather than evolving out of a crisis.

By Elisa V. Enriquez, LCSW,CO-OP ®, Senior Associate Ombudsman, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Chair, IOA Membership Committee

The International Ombudsman Association (IOA) was established in 2005 with the merger of the University and College Ombuds Association (UCOA) and The Ombudsman Association (TOA) following a period of transformation that led to establishing standards of practice for organizational ombuds. These standards were established on the pillars of neutrality, independence, confidentiality and informality. IOA’s mission is to “support and advance the global organizational ombudsman profession and ensure that practitioners work to the highest professional standards.”

In the 14 years since the inception of IOA, it has been acknowledged that some members must abide by institutional policies within their organizations which can limit their ability to fully adhere to the Standards of Practice, or SOPs. This has led to misunderstandings and those members often feeling excluded. There is tension over what it means to be an association of those in support of the organizational ombuds profession and those who should or should not be a full member of IOA. If members are not able to practice to the Standards, but are able to support the mission and conduct themselves professionally, they are considered full members in good standing by IOA.

By Kim Fulbright, University Ombuds, University of Cincinnati 

Wind tugging at my sleeve
feet sinking into the sand
I stand at the edge where earth touches ocean
where the two overlap
a gentle coming together
at other times and places a violent clash

Gloria Anzaldúa[1]
Borderlands/La Frontera

By Ruthy Kohorn Rosenberg, University Ombudsperson, Brown University
IOA Board Member

I hear your footsteps slowing on the stairs.Hesitating at the top, You leave the carpet for the wood
Noticing the last direction, directions followed like bread crumbs
In this maze of a building.
And you
Hover just outside my door.

What will you carry through that door?
I will welcome whatever you bring.

I pause and breathe,
Gathering.
I still the aviary in my mind; fluttering, hopping, swooping.
Emails not returned, conversations just ended,
Emotions swirling from moments ago, not yet dealt with.
They finally take their places on the roost, and quiet.
My body poised

By Tim Hedeen, Professor of Conflict Management and University Ombuds, Kennesaw State University
and Jennifer Schneider, Student Ombuds, University of South Florida

✔ Do you like sunshine, history, and architecture?
✔ Do you enjoy meeting with other bright, like-minded people?
✔ Are you an ombuds in the southeastern region of the US?

If you answered affirmatively to any of the above statements, then join us in Savannah, GA this summer!

By Mauricio (Reese) Ramos

The traditional U.S. workplace has changed. Decades back, if an employee disagreed with an organization's policy, the employer would point to the door and remind the worker that if they didn’t like it, they could work someplace else. If an employee wished there was a telecommuting option, or that a designated lactation space was available, or medical benefits for same-sex partners were offered, the response tended to unequivocally be, “You don’t like it here? There’s the door.”

Nowadays, when an employer disregards employee concerns, employees voice their dissension. If you’re an employer, and are seeing the signs but disregarding the message, you better start listening because there’s a storm brewing.  And this time, employees are demanding to be heard. If you fail to listen and change, you will lose high-performing employees, damage the reputation of your brand or organization, and ultimately risk compromising your organization’s mission due to the disruption caused by disgruntled employees.

Sometime in this new century something shifted in the relationship between employers and employees. I noticed it when I was with a certain organization. When I first joined, when the new hires had a specific concern, their concern was typically dismissed.  Management’s message was, in short, that new hires should learn the system and adapt to it.    

By Camilo Azcarate, Ombuds for the European Southern Observatory

Ombuds are expected to act as agents of positive change for organizations. This is arguably one of the most important long-term contributions of the role. SoP 4.6 states that “The Ombudsman identifies trends and concerns about policies and procedures, including future issues and concerns… and provides recommendations for responsibly addressing them.”

However, this part of the role has not been, in my view, carefully explored. I am not aware of specific guidelines to help us identify what type of trends should concern us, and which recommendations may be most useful to address them. We may greatly benefit from more guidance on this part of our practice.

I believe it is useful to have a fixed point, a north star, to help us navigate the often treacherous waters of organizational life. This is particularly important if we are expected to serve as agents of change. For me, this star is human dignity.

By Hans Kohler, Conflict Resolution Specialist and Ombuds

I was recently talking with one of the owners of a company that I have been contracted to work with, and he was asking me about the benefits of hiring an ombuds. Besides all of the regular and most common questions, he unexpectedly asked, “If you would have to make an analogy about being an ombuds, what would that be?”  

My answer was quite simple: an ombuds is like a Band-Aid.

I imagine that many of my ombuds colleagues are frowning...screaming...yelling "Say what?”… and so on. I still stand by my analogy -- being an ombuds is like being a Band-Aid. If this analogy makes you think of a Band-Aid as a treatment for symptoms instead of causes, take a step back and see the multiple utilities of it. I hope to show you how this Band-Aid analogy in a way that is creative and unconventional.

Swag noun \ ˈswag \ 
Free items given away to promote a resource, event, or product

Marketing an ombuds office isn’t always easy. Eye-catching promotional items really help spread the word and create excitement about what ombuds have to offer. However, limited time (and budgets!) can make it tough to come up with clever slogans and nifty designs.