If you’re involved with local sports, attending at least two of this weekend’s four workshops on avoiding or solving local sporting disputes is probably a good idea.

So says Marie-Claude Asselin, the executive director of the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada located in Quebec.

Hypothetically, Uncle Fred sponsors the local rep team and his niece keeps getting picked but there are others who are more skilled. How do you avoid the conflict in the first place, and how do you deal with it if a player feels wronged, and wants somebody to take a second look at the selection of the team.

Team selection, said Asselin, is a common source of conflict.

Asselin said the dispute resolution centre was formed in 2003 by Ottawa to handle matters at the national level, and has evolved into the body that handles all disputes arising out of doping cases.

“At the time there was a concern there was a lot of unfairness in the sporting system, discrimination, sport disciplinary matters that were not properly handled,” she said.

Asselin said relying on the courts to handle disputes in sports can be costly, and the courts may not be able to respond in time to issues that require expediency, such as the need for a second opinion before the scheduled tournament three weeks away.

The resolution centre is built to respond quickly, and while its mandate is focussed on the national level, its does provide service for a fee at the local level, she said.

Asselin said 40 per cent of the disputes they handle are settled through mediation.

The centre also provides an education component at no cost to help inform local sporting organizations about how to avoid disputes, and how to manage them if they do arise, she explained.

Cynthia Colas Livernoi, the centre’s education and communication coordinator, will be delivering the four workshops Friday through Sunday.

Asselin said the four workshops will focus on the team selection process, the potential for conflict of interest in small sporting organizations, the establishment of an internal appeal process and the main causes of disputes and prevention strategies.

Almost everybody involved should probably attend the workshops on the main causes of disputes and conflict of interest, particularly parents and members of the board of directors overseeing sporting organizations, Asselin recommended.

She said coaches and high performance directors and committee members should consider attending the team selection workshop while administrators of the sporting bodies might want to see how to set up an internal appeal process.

The 12 strategies the centre has developed to avoid disputes are all based on best management practices, Asselin said.

The executive director said when a dispute does arise, the centre recommends mediation as the first step. The challenge is to get both parties to recognize the centre as the body to mediate the dispute, she said.

Asselin said where there is a central sporting body involved, if the organization is confident it did nothing wrong, it should welcome the review as a means of demonstrating it followed its guidelines.

An organization that allows for an appeal process, whether it be internal or external, is an organization showing confidence that it’s doing a good job managing the organization, Asselin believes.

She said in cases where the parties pursue a settlement through arbitration, the process can be expensive – $250 an hour for the arbitrator – and the parties must sign an agreement that they will accept the decision.

This weekend’s presentations by the dispute resolution centre is being organized by Sport Yukon.

Sport Yukon vice-president Dan Poelman said the workshops will be provided at no cost to participants other than their time, will run between two and three hours, and will be held in the board room at Sport Yukon on Fourth Avenue.

• Friday, 3 p.m. – Building team selection policies;

• Saturday, 10 a.m. – Identifying and avoiding conflict of interest in sporting organizations;

• Sunday, 10 a.m. – Best practices of conducting internal appeals;

• Sunday, 1 p.m. – Causes of disputes, prevention strategies.