Filtered by author: Ellen Miller Clear Filter

Resources for Members and Why Explaining Your Value Is More Important Than Ever

31 January 2025

We know that so many in our US Government and US Higher Ed communities are being upended by uncertainty and the impact of new policies.  We also know you  may need to justify your roles and offices now more than ever.  To help support you, we wanted to share some resources, including some talking points that may be useful: 

  1. First and foremost, please know we are here for you.  Please reach out to IOA (President Sarah Klaper, members of the Board, Executive Director Ellen Miller) or your ombuddies if you need support, a sound board or just a friend.   If there is something you need, please do not hesitate to let us know

Read More

Guidance For Higher Ed Ombuds re: Title IX

Earlier this month, U.S. District Court in Kentucky vacated the U.S. Department of Education’s Title IX regulations published in August 2024.  This means the 2020 regulations are back in force (or remain in force for those institutions who didn’t make the change).  

The 2020 revised regulations limited the ways in which an institution “knows or reasonably should know” of incidents of sexual harassment to give notice to the Title IX coordinator or an “official with authority to institute corrective measures.”    

What does that mean for Ombuds?   

Read More

January Updates

Dear Community, 
We hope you are easing into the new year and enjoyed some time to rest and restore. We have a few updates to share related to the Miami conference, plans for 2026, plans for 2027, and certification.  

1. Educational Events 2025, 2026, 2027
2025 conference 
Government Rate Rooms:  We understand additional government rates rooms are needed for the April 7-9 conference in Miami.  Typically hotels control how many government rooms they will allow in event contracts, so we are at their mercy to add more.  In the interim, we suggest you register at the regular IOA rate to secure a room.  Alternatively, government rates at other Miami hotels can be accessed here or a similar search.    
2026 and 2027 conferences
We understand some members plan to attend conference 2026 in lieu of Miami, so we wanted to give you an idea of what is planned for ‘26 and ‘27. 
We find ourselves trying to balance a myriad of issues:  the climate in many offices is changing, many members are experiencing decreased travel/professional development budgets, and the cost of live, in-person conferences continues to go up.  In addition, we are mindful that only a percentage of our community (in the US and internationally) can travel to in-person events. The Board takes these issues seriously and has been discussing how best to balance all these interests.   
We have concluded that the best way to address these interests is to intentionally plan for virtual annual conferences every few years
That doesn’t mean there will not be opportunities to get together in-person each year.  You may recall the Board’s Education Strategy that was adopted in 2023 added a signature event:  The September Symposium.  With this addition, we have created one live and one virtual event each year.   For the past 2 years, the September Symposium was a virtual event.  That is also the plan for 2025.  
For 2026, we are planning for a virtual Annual Conference and an in-person September SymposiumFor 2027, the Annual Conference will be in-person in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and the September Symposium will be a virtual event.  
For those looking to pick up again in person in 2026, we hope to see you at the September Symposium at a location TBD.  For those worried about travel in 2025 and 2026, we hope this provides some relief.  For those who are not able to attend in-person conferences each year, we hope you feel seen by these plans.   
We learned a lot in those pandemic years, and have learned a great deal hosting the September Symposium virtually for the past few years.  We do not doubt that the virtual experience, albeit different, will be great! 

2. Certification Update
As promised in the December update, we are committed to updating the community as changes are made to Individual Certification and we roll out new Program Certification.   We were energized by the positive response from our December message; it confirms we are on the right track.   
The Board of Certification voted in January to stop awarding Candidate for CO-OP designation.  The primary reason this designation was created was to address the needs of those who were not able to demonstrate organizational compliance to the Standards of Practice.  Given upcoming changes to Individual Certification, there is no longer a need for this designation as certification will be based on individual knowledge and skills.   There are very few ombuds who hold that designation and they will be notified of next steps once the Board has determined the best pathway.   
If you have any questions about any of these issues, please feel free to reach out to Sarah Klaper, IOA President, Ellen Miller, Executive Director or Mollie Berg, President of the Board of Certification.   

Supporting Our Colleagues

As we begin 2025, many of our ombuddies are faced with extremes related to weather and other world events. While much of the US has been impacted by severe cold, snow and ice this week, our colleagues in Los Angeles County are facing tremendous uncertainty related to devastating wildfires.  Their homes and the homes of their friends, family, colleagues and stakeholders have been impacted. If anyone would like more information on how to support, please reach out to our friends at Cal Caucus and particularly Serena Young at [email protected] for more details.  What makes our community special is our connections and support of each other.  Please keep these ombuddies in your thoughts and prayers. 

Starting February 6, we will hold space for a quarterly community wellness check-in on the first Thursday of the 2nd month of the quarter at 8 am Pacific:  6 February, 1 May, 7 August, and 6 November. To join us, please use this link to access the space.   

If there is anything IOA can do to support you, as always - please reach out and let us know. 

 

Exciting Changes in Certification/Last Day to Submit an Application under currrent model: December 31, 2024

We wanted to update the IOA Community regarding the status of Program Accreditation and its impacts on individual certification.  

As we have previously shared, a Joint Task Force was established in 2022 to explore the development of a program accreditation model.  This was the natural next step based both on IOA’s current Strategic Plan and the Board of Certification’s recommendations.  To support the Task Force’s work, IOA hired a subject matter expert to review and benchmark our certification program against others.  The consultant made a series of recommendations that matched the thinking of the Joint Task Force and also confirmed the direction we needed to go.  

One of the recommendations was to stand up a Program Certification model, not a Program Accreditation model, so the Joint Task Force focused on what a properly structured office would need to look like, and how an office can be structured to allow the ombuds to adhere to the Standards of Practice.  Many offices and organizations have expressed an interest in Program Certification to help demonstrate and highlight the importance of both the ombuds function and a properly structured office.  Certain sectors i.e. higher education, government, healthcare, biomed research, also have a culture that values certification and accreditation, so this additional certification will be especially important for those offices.    

Read More

International Efforts: Focus on Canada

IOA's Internationalization Task Force finished its work earlier this year and recommended a series of priorities to guide international activities. This included regional education, greater clarity for the four Regional Advancement Communities (RACs) and exploring how best to advocate and protect the OO model in Europe.

This prioritization identified Canada as the next area of focus internationally. As a result, we have increased our outreach to this important community, developed a Canadian focused Foundations curriculum, and teed up a regional Foundations instructor team going forward. We also participated in a special Ombuds Symposium convened by the University of St. Paul’s Center for Informal Dispute Resolution in May, and held our first Foundations in Ottawa this September.

Did you know that Canada is home to IOA’s second largest group of members? Did you also know that the Canadian Public Sector Ombuds are the largest population of organizational ombuds in Canada with over 120 and counting? There are currently 50 federal government ombuds offices supporting the federal public sector and the community is robust and organized. They have just completed an introductory video building on IOA’s Modern Ombuds video that is available in both English and French for Canadian offices. These videos were shared at the Forum for Canadian Ombudsman (FCO’s) Annual Conference in October:

Read More

Creating and Nurturing Culture at IOA

IOA launched our Organizational Values and Community Norms, and the Concern and Complaint Policy for all IOA participants back in 2023.    

It has been about 18 months since these were approved by the Board of Directors, and we would like to hear your perspectives on their impact via this short survey.   If you prefer, please feel free to reach out to me, or our our Ombuds team

Together, we will build and nurture the community we want at IOA.  

European Ombuds Ready to Meet

 The European Group of Ombuds and Mediation Representatives, a gathering of professionals from large European and international organizations is meeting at SAPs headquarter in Walldorf for their annual conference. This annual event offers a unique opportunity to come together, share best practices, and collaborate on the evolving role of Ombuds in today’s world. 

 "At SAP, we’re excited to not only share our own 15 years of experience as Ombuds in the IT and High-Tech sector, but also work with this group of professionals on topics like AI and tools and best practices in a series of Breakout Sessions throughout the 3-day event," says Carsten Pöschl, Global Ombudsperson at SAP.  At next week's gathering, attendees will dive into workshops, discussions, and explore how technology and innovation can support the Ombuds community in addressing todays and future challenges. A highlight will be welcoming Sarah Klaper, President of IOA and other Ombuds professionals on stage for panel discussions with the group of 60 experts expected from across Europe. 

IOA would like to extend our thanks to the European Ombuds and Mediator Group co-chairs Jutta Reitmeier at Mars and Diana Vermeul, at HarmoniKon and Carsten Pöschl and SAP for their sponsorship and support of this conference.   

Read More

IOA and Higher Ed Ombuds Featured

IOA and Higher Ed Ombuds Featured  
 
IOA was contacted by US News and World Report in August to help shape their story: What Students Should Know About College Ombuds.  We hope this resource will be useful to our Higher Ed Colleagues who serve students.   
ICYMI, Forbes has also published several articles on Ombuds that may be of interest (see E.Miller).  All these resources are posted on our website's resource section for those interested in setting up a program.  

Change is the only constant.... and this one is bittersweet.

12, June 2024 

As you may have heard, Lindsay Jennings - our fabulous Managing Director and Vice President of Business Development at SBI Association Management – has accepted the position of Executive Director of the Orcas Island Community Foundation. This is a very exciting opportunity for Lindsay, as she will have a direct impact in the community she calls home. We find ourselves both celebrating for her and feeling very sad for IOA.  

Lindsay has been integral to the growth of IOA since 2018 and was on the transition team right from the start. She quickly learned all things IOA, devoted 50% of her time to IOA and beautifully managed her team at SBI to support us. She also helped shepherd two executive directors, which is no small task. We have all come to rely on her calm and wise demeanor, sage counsel, and authenticity. So, this will be hard.  

Read More
3 Comments

New Title IX Regulations Note that Organizational Ombuds May be Classified as Confidential Employees

IOA was handed a big win today!  Revisions to Title IX were released Friday, 19 April and IOA is thrilled to see the US Department of Education's inclusion of Organizational Ombuds as employees who may be designated as confidential employees for Title IX purposes.  

Since 2012, IOA has actively commented on proposed regulations and other guidance that addresses both Title IX and Clery Act. In 2022, we upped our game. In May 2022, we participated in an Executive Order (EO) 12866 Meeting on Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities to begin planning seeds.  In the Fall of 2022, we filed comments on the formal Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposal to changes in Title IX. Post filing, we spent several months lobbying US Members of Congress involved in education and safety committees. This resulted in a bipartisan letter that was sent to the Department of Education, supporting our position that Organizational Ombuds may be designated as confidential employees.  

Some Sections from the Commentary:  

Read More