General Mentoring Program Considerations:

Before entering into a mentoring arrangement, mentors should consider:

• How much time can you commit to providing mentoring?
• What is it that you would like to get out of a mentoring relationship?
• What strengths do you have, and what is the best way to pass on these skills to someone else?
• What experience do you have that will allow you to provide constructive advice and feedback?
• What boundaries do you wish to set for the relationship?

Your Role as a Mentor

As a mentor you have many roles, including:

• A professional listener
• An observer
• An “adult” educator
• A professional resource
• A monitor
• A coach

A mentor should also remember that the mentee will ultimately make his or her own choices. If your mentee chooses a path or option that you do not recommend or agree with, try not to take it personally. Your protégé may be more ready or comfortable to take the chosen course of action.

Also, don't expect your mentees to work for you for free. At times it may be desirable for a mentees to work on a specific assignment to learn or develop a skill. In most cases, it is best if the task is a sample assignment, rather than a client project. If you feel comfortable giving your mentees an assignment related to a fee-based project you are working on, we suggest offering a stipend or some other form of compensation and don't forget any non-disclosure details.

Remember that both mentors and mentees will learn from each other.   The relationship will be as fruitful for you as it is to your mentee.

Pilot Program Considerations:

We are leaving the structure very informal due to the wide variety of needs of the Chapter membership.  The process may also be somewhat slow getting started since we are gathering both volunteer mentors and mentees simultaneously.  Our goal is to kick off in September 2008.

The 2008-2009 Program will be 9-months in duration.  This does not prevent you and your mentees from personally deciding on continuing the mentoring relationship that you have established.  It only means that your TCC leadership will be evaluating the results and revising it for future program years.

Our goal is to have 15-18 mentees paired with mentors.   We are asking for mentee resumes this year based on your feedback and we think it will be much easier to facilitate the matching process with this additional information.  As we proceed through the year, we will seek your feedback and ideas on how to improve the Program.

We realize that you are a busy professional and that your time is extremely valuable.  Even though there is no formal minimum time requirement over the 9-month period, we ask that you and your mentee try to achieve a goal of approximately 90 hours over the 9-month period for the mentoring relationship.  Admittedly, every relationship is different based on a number of factors, but mentoring has to be of real value, and value is hard to achieve without some investment by the parties involved.  The amount of time generally needed is also one of the factors the Board wants to evaluate for future program years.

Additionally, to help us evaluate the needs of the Chapter membership and to evaluate the overall program we ask that once you and your mentee(s) have been paired to complete a simple and short Mentoring Agreement and provide a copy to either of the individuals listed below. 

We plan to kick off the program in September 2008, depending on the amount of participation and our ability to successfully match mentors with mentees.

Yes, I want to be a Mentor!!!

If you are a current member of Tyson’s Corner Chapter and wish to be a mentor, please obtain the Mentor Form from Peter or Alex (contact info listed below) and submit it to either of them.  We will contact you when we’ve reviewed your information.

Mentors that have previously participated in TCC’s Program DO NOT have to resubmit the Mentor Form.

Aaron Drabkin
VP - Mentoring Program
703.891.1073 office
adrabkin@microtech.net