: Dan, I disagree that anything to do with the "special mentoring" be under the
: Acadamy. The acadamy at that point would be ineffective if they havent already been able to bring the member along. More than likely a fresh set of eyes and a different approach is needed. Maybe, just maybe, the mentor program at large needs revamping anyway to include those who just didn't get while in the Acadamy. Keeping that in house is the worst thing we could do to that member for the obvious reason that the acadamy environment hasn 't worked for them. And as far as mentor resources go, the mentor program needs serious reworking anyway. I am a mentor on two ships and have YET to see an email from Rob regarding any new members.
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: -John

(Before I go into my reply, I should just point out that Rob does email mentors about new members. The only reason you - or me, for the same matter - have not been assigned mentors is because there hasn't been a need. Most new members pick the Academy, so their mentor is already pre-assigned. And of the remaining few that choose not to go to the Academy, only a few request a mentor. Check the stats in the last few PDept reports for the numbers... Trust me, the program is working as well as it did back when I was running it.)

John, I don't disagree with you that there are some advantages to having the PDept take charge of the mentoring. Our mentors do this type of 'one-on-one' work already.

My concern, as Jack has already pointed out in his other post, is that the run-of-the-mill mentors are recruited and given resources to help them mentor brand new members. Most of their work is focused on helping navigate the system, basic posting etiquette, developing posting styles, etc. I think it's a far-cry from helping a member who has been in the club for 3 months and still has very specific issues.

Even if we decide that our mentors generally have the knowledge and resources to help this type of member, think about the process. A mentor will be assigned. They will introduce themselves. They will observe the first few posts. Those first few posts may not demonstrate the problem. The mentor waits a bit longer. There's not much contact between the mentor and the mentoree, because other than the specific problem, the mentoree knows most of the stuff the mentor is used to showing. When the problem does demonstrate itself, the mentor won't know everything that has been tried (he may have heard, but he wasn't part of it) - so he, perhaps unintentionally, started giving advice the mentoree has already heard. The mentoree gets frustrated, etc.

As you can see, it's not that great. Now let's imagine if it was a mentor assigned by the Academy who already has experience with the mentoree. Their on a brand new ship. There are no other cadets or new members around. The mentor already knows what has worked and what hasn't. They both know each other, and ideally already get along (probably part of the selection process), so they can get straight into trying other methods and examples to help the mentoree. The mentor will be on alert for the exact problem, and can deal with problem posts as soon as they come up, without the CO or XO having to step in.

Do both ideas have advantages? Sure. Do both have disadvantages? Sure. But I think the Academy-run mentoring idea has more advantages and less disadvantages then the PDept-run mentoring.

-Daniel