Ombuds Services

An Ombuds is a person appointed or employed by an organization who assists individuals in the resolution of interpersonal and intrapersonal conflict. An Ombuds is an independent, informal, impartial and confidential resource.

Venn Mediation provides organizational ombuds services under the umbrella of MWI, a a nationally recognized dispute resolution firm based in Boston.

Conference Ombuds

Conferences should be safe, welcoming, and inclusive for everyone. But where should an attendee turn if they wish to voice a concern? Despite the fact that staff members are properly trained, complaints and concerns cannot be dealt with impartially, independently, or confidentially. The conference ombuds team at MWI provides informal, independent, neutral, and confidential support to your members and is a resource for conference participants to voice any conference-related concerns.

A conference Ombuds provides services before, during, and after a conference. Ombuds work directly with an association by developing an Ombuds Charter to define the scope of the services. They also create a marketing plan to inform participants about the availability and role of the Ombuds. During the conference, Ombuds will be available to listen to conference participants' concerns in a confidential and safe environment. 

Specifically, ombuds provide conference attendees, members, prospective members, association leadership, and sponsors with a confidential resource and safe place to:

• Raise concerns
• Brainstorm ways to resolve concerns
• Get answers to questions
• Deal with a challenging situations
• Listen to feedback and report it (while maintaining the confidentiality of the visitor), and
• Feel safe knowing they have a designed neutral to turn to for assistance if/when needed

Ombuds will provide an anonymous and confidential report to the organization with trends and concerns raised during the conference. Organizations will be made aware of issues that they might otherwise have overlooked. As a result of these insights, future conferences can be improved, and policy changes can be made.

Outsourced Organizational Ombuds:

Outsourced Organizational Ombuds help raise and resolve issues within the workplace. An ombuds:

• Provides employees with the opportunity to address and resolve a variety of problems and issues.
• Connects employees to resources, policies, and guidelines.
• Acts as a confidential and informal contact to resolve concerns
• Keeps conversations and identity confidential (except where there is an imminent threat of harm).
• Can act as a facilitator or mediator.
• Does not keep records on individuals but does keep and provide anonymized feedback to leadership.

For more information, contact MWI's Josh Hoch at 617-895-4028 or josh-ombuds@mwi.org. Mention Venn Mediation sent you.

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