From: SonOfLilit <sonoflilit@...>
Date: 2007-02-15T08:02:43+09:00
Subject: Re: Adopt-a-newbie? Based on actual experience.

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This seems like psychological overkill to me - it would scare the hell out
of newbies if they are anything like me.

I think the mentor should just know that he may always say "listen, this is
too much for me, please find someone else who has more time" and it's
totally OK.

About Vincent's wiki suggestion, yes, that could work, only:

1) I don't have time to setup infrastructure.
2) The infrastructure I'd really want to exist is some form of recording and
public display of all willing mentoring sessions. Perhaps an email address
that both sides are asked to CC conversations they don't mind sharing to (or
a gateway between the sides) and a nice website allowing anyone to browse
the conversations.

That would make a GREAT learning resource.

What'd be even better is to provide recorded chatrooms for whomever wills to
use them. Perhaps 37signals' chat system would do? Is it manageable with it
in a free way?

Aur Saraf

I'd be really thankful if someone else takes up infrastructure management,
as I really can't ATM.

On 2/15/07, Jim Clark <diegoslice@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> >> I would be interested, but I think it would depend on the adoptee not
> >> just the adopter. I would not want to end up being the fount of
> >> knowledge and turn into a crutch for the adopted person.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Aur Saraf
> As far as the adoptee taking undue advantage of the adopter's time and
> willingness to help, I've been on teams where we use Social Contracts to
> outline expectations and responsibilities from the start. This provides
> a good framework for resolving clashes. For instance, if the adopter can
> devote 2 hours per week yet the adoptee is asking eight detailed
> questions per day, the Social Contract can be used to remind both sides
> of the match to what they have agreed to.
>
> Doing a quick search on Google for mentoring agreements, I found a
> simple one at:
>
> https://www-personnel.salford.ac.uk/docs/Code%20of%20Practice%20on%20Mentoring.doc
> where Appendix I was a simple example agreement, Appendix II was
> 'Periodic Mentoring Partnership Review' and Appendix III was 'Monitoring
> and Evaluating the mentoring relationship'. Perhaps this is overkill and
> people would prefer much more informal arrangements (if any) but I still
> think it is a good idea to synchronize the adopter and adoptee's
> expectations early on. I would hate to see the fallout of a bad match
> overshadow the success of the remaining ones.
>
> Regards,
> Jim
>
>
>
>
>

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