Silke Hansen

Senior Conciliation Specialist, Community Relations Service

Interviewed by Julian Portilla, 2003

This rough transcript provides a text alternative to audio. We apologize for occasional errors and unintelligible sections (which are marked with ???).

I can think of at least one example, where we faced the dilemma of one party needing a written document, and the other party simply would not sign an agreement. It wasn't going to happen. The way we got around it in that case is I ended up writing a letter to both parties, saying based on the mediation session was held at such and such dates and explaining what my recollection was about what was agreed to in the end. I included that if they disagree, please let me know and I'll revise it. It was slightly tweaked after that, and corrected. The one party didn't have to sign anything but the other party had a document they could present, so that they could proceed with what their need was.