Mentoring as Defined by LCAS

A friendly, informal relationship to provide teaching, coaching and encouragement in the field of astronomy.

Characteristics of the Mentoring Program

The process should be informal and voluntary.  Anyone can participate. Anyone can be a mentor or protégé.

Encourage “Just-in-Time” or single subject mentoring.

Types of Mentoring

·         New member for orientation to the club and the club activities.

·         On-going learning and development to improve skills.

·         Leadership for those who demonstrate leadership ability and want to develop core leadership skills.

Program Objectives and Alignment

Focus on new member mentoring and provide support for on-going learning and development.  Address leadership mentoring in 2004.

Integrate the program into existing processes

·         The member packet

·         The Web site

·         Regular meetings and the newsletter to deliver information.

Keep the process simple with low maintenance.

·         Make it easy to ask for mentoring assistance.

·         The process should be self-sustaining through individual networking.

·         Content is between two parties and not prescribed.  A protégé could have several mentors who teach different things.

Deliverables

This program overview document.

A description of the mentoring process.

A Mentoring Request Form.

Mentor candidate profiles.

 

Measuring and Maintaining the Mentoring Program Effectiveness

Monitor the number of mentoring requests submitted and follow-up to determine how many requests were completed.

Solicit “Success Stories” and present lessons learned at one regular meeting per year.

Monitor retention of members.

Use this knowledge to review and improve the mentoring process annually.