Dear Collaborative Friends, Helping to bring peace into the lives of families is a privilege and leading an organization of peacemakers is an even greater honour. I am truly honoured to be the president of the IACP for the 2022/2023 year. As we emerge from the pandemic, we are discovering a new world. Our own priorities have changed. Our clients have changed. How we interact has changed. More and more divorces are high conflict. The uncertainty of the pandemic continues to haunt us. Anxiety is rampant. We are not returning to the way things used to be before the pandemic. Our world is different. What is consistent is that families, and the world, continues to benefit from our work as peacemakers. Over the course of the next year, I challenge you to bring more people into the role of peacemaker. Encourage like-minded professionals to get trained, to join their local practice group, their state or provincial association, and to join IACP. If we truly want to bring peace into the world, we need to start locally by getting more professionals engaged in the Collaborative process. More people doing what we do will make the world a better place. Furthermore, the more Collaborative professionals, the more Collaborative cases for everyone. It is a win-win. I invite you to step up and make an even bigger difference in the world. Get involved in your local practice group. Get involved in IACP. In addition to our great IACP staff, the work of IACP is done by volunteers serving on committees. I encourage you to apply to serve on a committee. When I first joined an IACP committee, I was intimidated and felt I had little to contribute. I was welcomed by the committee members, built trusting friendships with professionals from around the world, and eventually became comfortable contributing to the work. It is like anything in life…the more I contributed, the more benefits I enjoyed. Eventually, I applied to serve on the Board, and then the rewards became even greater. So please consider applying to serve on a committee and to join the Board of the IACP. We are already starting to organize the next Forum. It will be just down the road from me in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Every year I attend the Forum, I learn so much and become a better professional. I come home energized with new ideas and enthusiasm. Frankly, I become a better human being. It is daunting to follow in the footsteps of our great past presidents. I am so grateful for their continued support and advice. I am equally grateful for the members of Board of Directors. Their talents, spirit, and wisdom will be relied upon by me over the coming year. Lastly, I thank my wife, Nicole, and my whole family, for supporting me as lean into my service to IACP and the Collaborative community worldwide. My door, phone, and email inbox are always open. Please connect with me anytime so we can find ways to bring more peace into the world, one family at a time. Let’s get more people on board so that we can reach the tipping point, transforming the way families resolve conflicts worldwide. We can do this together. Thank You, Brian Galbraith IACP Board President |