Should we create a pool of Mentoring materials to share with all communities?
Yes, I like this idea and will be happy to contribute!
No, I see too many downsides and will share them through a response to this post
0voters
Dear Mentors,
What do you think of collecting your mentoring materials into one pool, so that other, less established communities, could use it?
It could also help other, well established communities get inspiration about their existing mentoring materials.
We’re thinking of a pool of links, organized by topic,
so that you would still own your resources and they would be kept updated with your ongoing changes.
Materials: Many countries have presentations and docs where they list their Mentoring materials, as a kind of syllabus, for mentors to make sure they review all the required topics with their mentees.
Where: We can decide on this at a later time, when we see if there’s a demand for it, and if leaders are able to share their counties’ materials.
I think this is a good idea on the surface but may be problematic in reality when you think about many differences among communities and even countries just as we had many debates and still having major disagreements about what should be on our wazeopedia. There will be many topics that may be different or simply wrong for each country if we let mentors use a pool of information.
I believe it would be best if countries that are close to each other that are similar guidelines work together to come up with what is best for them. Let’s not forget that there are many languages and what we have in English may not translate well for others. We cannot just assume everyone’s mother language is English. We must respect that we have many languages and many great native speakers who are well-qualified to be able to create and use mentoring materials that are right for their communities.
Our formal mentoring materials may be too advanced for some. In the past, we shared templates and main topics to get others started and expand on that. I think, putting together the materials to teach is a big part of why mentoring is great and successful, and what the best approach needs to be taken to teach to ever-varying levels of editors. We had a team of people who contributed to creating the best tool we have today. As we evolve others continue to help us improve and adjust our tools over time. this helped us to become better mentors and understand how to use them.
Thanks for sharing.
We agree there are complexities to making this kind of pool universal.
This is a need that has come up several times, from all types of communities.
We’re concerned that communities without an established Mentoring system won’t know who to reach out to so we thought some kind of pool of information can help.
We’re hoping to start getting applicants from people interested in being Mentors in the coming days (full process mentioned here).
We hope to assign a guide to all new mentors.
For less established communities, a short list of linked topics to cover during mentoring could go a long way.
We can wait to see if the need does arise, and then decide on creating a pool only if needed.
I’ll keep this thread posted in case we end up going with this idea.
Hello Harmonization on the merits would be welcome while preserving,
I think, the operation put in place by certain countries.
But it could actually open up a serene dialogue and above all reassure,
I believe, certain editors who don’t really dare to embark on this adventure which, in the end, is so rewarding!
Thanks for sharing.
Good to know you find this idea helpful - you’ve been amazing with handling all the Mentoring requests in your country!
We can circle back to this idea in a few weeks, when we pass the peak of the Mentor recruitment process, and see the new mentors are missing a resource like this.