About Us

Vision and Mission

Our vision is to be recognized as the network that enriches family relationships through better organization and communication.

Our mission is to provide the best possible tools for parents in divorced and separated households to communicate and organize their lives.

History

The OurFamilyWizard® website was created out of necessity.

My name is Paul. I have three children with my former spouse. Both my former spouse and I have remarried. My wife, Dara, has a daughter with her former spouse who has also remarried. Dara is a flight attendant and works irregular hours. Scheduling with all of these interests in mind is extremely difficult.

The task of trying to schedule our family plans for the holidays was more difficult than usual. Like many families, we found ourselves having to make our plans while respecting the interests of a former spouse and the needs of blended separate households. We had scheduling mishaps due to poor communication. Our inability to communicate effectively resulted in conflicts that made the holidays more difficult for everyone. The holiday season for me has always been a time of hope and a time when children should have fond memories. I did not want to have a cloud over any special times again.

I thought there must be a better way to exchange information and schedule. In a world awash in communication technology, my thoughts turned to the Internet. I looked for a site for communicating; scheduling and sharing information with my former spouse that would help remove stress from both our lives. There were bits and pieces of applications all over the Internet, but nothing offered exactly what I was looking for. I wanted a unique site designed for separate households and built with features to accommodate families that live apart. I could not find such a site. For my children's sake, I wanted to create one.

I talked with Dara about the idea of having a unique website where we both could communicate with our former spouses. It would be a place to manage, schedule and share information cooperatively and efficiently about our children. Dara gave me many more examples of difficulties that could have been avoided and situations that could have been simplified through such a website. She particularly liked the idea of non-verbal communication and scheduling.

I expressed my frustration to my cousin, Kathy, who has been a family law attorney for over twenty-five years. We talked about how useful an interactive website could be. She consulted with other family law attorneys, mediators and parenting consultants, as well as her husband, Deon, who is a retired engineer. Their son, Jai, attended the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management and has a degree in finance and entrepreneurial studies. Jai's fraternity brother, Larry, was a Chief Technical Officer for a national network service provider. This combination of talent and experience was the impetus for the creation of our website.

As our project progressed, we learned that several others who were working with our project had been touched by difficulties of divorce. Our programmer and his fiancé grew up in divorced households. Our consultant and our graphic designer are both single parents. Everyone contributed ideas to the site from different perspectives and life experiences. We found creative, sensitive talent with a clear understanding of our mission. We also discovered that the website could be invaluable for families separated by distance as well as for busy families who could use assistance with the coordination of work and family schedules.

We will continue our work to refine and upgrade our site to offer you the best product available. We welcome your comments and value your opinions.

Sincerely,
The OurFamilyWizard® website

Company Bios

Kathleen Kissoon - President and CEO
Kathleen Kissoon has over twenty-five years of Family Law experience. During 1986 she founded the predecessor to Kissoon, Clugg, Linder, Dittberner and Edmuston Ltd., a highly respected law firm in Minnesota which limits its practice to family law. She has served as a settlement conference referee, is a frequent lecturer for continuing legal education programs, and is an author of the "The Practitioner's Guide to an Effective Family Law Practice". She has considerable experience with business operations through her own business ventures. Her responsibilities include general oversight and planning, providing ideas, data, and contacts to further our business plan, assisting with marketing to professionals, general financial planning and maintaining banking relationships.

Deonarine Kissoon - Chief Operations Officer
Deonarine Kissoon is a retired engineer. He worked at Control Data as a principle engineer for approximately twenty years. He is very experienced in project management and development. Deon is responsible for general oversight, planning and execution of projects, coordinating site development, overseeing the progress of site development, providing ideas and identifying resources.

Jainarain Kissoon - Chief Financial Officer and Director of Marketing
Jainarain Kissoon is a recent graduate of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota with majors in Finance and Entrepreneurship, and a minor in Philosophy. He has worked for three years in sales and marketing. He also has two years of experience in accounting and bookkeeping. His responsibilities include the day to day management of the company's financial matters (accounts receivable, accounts payable, financial statements, cash flow analysis and projections, and credit facilities), marketing to professional groups, and developing e-commerce sponsorships and affiliations.

Lawrence Patterson - Chief Technical Officer
Lawrence Patterson served as the Chief Technical Officer at Origix. He has over ten years of experience in computer network design and implementation. He also has substantial experience in sales and customer support. Larry's responsibilities include overseeing site security, maintaining the physical infrastructure, overseeing the maintenance of servers and connections, evaluating our technical needs and providing direct and indirect technical support. 

Paul Volker - Executive Vice President Paul Volker is the originator of the site's concept. He is an airline mechanic and an entrepreneur. Paul is responsible for providing ideas, data, contacts and research to promote our vision, mission and goals. He is also responsible for identifying and marketing to consumer groups, parenting consultants, visitation expeditors, court services and others as well as assisting with marketing to professionals.

Dara Wegner-Volker - Secretary and Director of Customer Relations
Dara Wegner-Volker is a flight attendant with Northwest Airlines. She is responsible for much of the concept development of the site. She has considerable experience with customer relations. Dara is responsible for promoting our vision, mission and goals. She is also responsible for providing customer support, actively marketing our site to consumers, consumer groups, mediators, parenting consultants, visitation expeditors, court services and others.