Subject: Re: [ietf-mentors] First experience meeting 'mentees'

From: Lucy Lynch <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2013 03:30:50 -0700 (PDT)

On Tue, 30 Jul 2013, Tony Hansen wrote:

> My mentee and I exchanged a couple of emails and I was able to answer a
> couple first-order issues that he had, such as "do I need permission
> from the WG chair to come to the WG meeting or join the mailing list?"
>
> We agreed to meet up at the newcomers meet and greet and were actually
> able to do so. We then spent a good half hour talking. I also spent some
> time talking with other mentees who had not found their mentors.
>
> I too feel that my mentee will have a better first experience.
>
> I think the key is providing a space where "no question is too dumb to
> ask and no question is off the table". For my mentee and some of the
> others I spoke with, something I noticed was that once they got over the
> shyness of asking the first question, and found that I was open and
> willing to answer it, a whole flood of other questions started pouring out.

Much of my experience mirrors Tony's but I had a slightly different 
experience that most in that my mentee was also an ISOC fellow (and I 
actually picked up a second mentee after the reception on Sunday).

I sent several emails up front and we identified a few folks we knew in 
common which helped tease out interests. I sent also links to things like 
the agenda and calendar tool and the ISOC Rough Guide. We actually built 
draft agendas after our Sunday face-2-face tailored to declared interests.

With my assigned mentee, we meet on Sunday morning and attended IEPG
together - I made a few introductions there and we were off and running.

I checked in over the week at breaks, in shared meetings, and by email. 
The piece of advise that seemed to help the most was "don't try to do 
everything"! Both folks found their own way fairly quickly but we made a 
good connection and we'll all stay in touch. They've both gone home with
better contacts and a long list of reading to do.

This a a great program and I'd be happy to play again -

- Lucy

>    Tony
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