Subject: IETF 101 Quick Connections (formerly Speed Mentoring)

From: Alexa Morris <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2018 11:21:43 -0800

Working Group Chairs,

IETF 101 is almost here and we are looking forward to seeing you in London.

Please consider participating in IETF Quick Connections (formerly Speed Mentoring) at IETF 101. We will hold a one-hour Quick Connections session on Sunday, 18 March from 15:00-16:00 in the Sandringham room of the Hilton London Metropole, directly prior to the Meet and Greet.  Beverages and snacks will be provided to all IETF Quick Connections participants. Pre-registration is required and participation is strictly limited to the first twenty mentors who register, so please sign up only if you are confident that you will be attending IETF 101 in London.

The IETF Quick Connections program is a quick and effective way to be of help to a variety of IETF newcomers. You will spend five-to-ten minutes with each match before moving on to another person. While this is not a lot of time, it is enough to cover the basics (e.g. areas of interest) and then of course you are encouraged to continue the conversation throughout the meeting week. We anticipate that you will speak with fifteen different people in this one-hour session. Newcomers consistently report that this session is one of the most helpful components of the IETF newcomers' program. 

After the IETF Quick Connections session concludes, we encourage you to remain in Sandringham to participate in the Newcomers' Meet-and-Greet from 16:00-17:00.

Register as a mentor for the IETF Quick Connections session here: https://goo.gl/forms/En1pJkSZZOzGHHis2.

Regards,

Alexa Morris
IETF Executive Director

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From: Jeffrey Haas <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2018 16:27:50 -0500

On Tue, Mar 06, 2018 at 11:21:43AM -0800, Alexa Morris wrote:
> Please consider participating in IETF Quick Connections (formerly Speed
> Mentoring) at IETF 101.
[...]
> Pre-registration is required and participation is strictly limited to the
> first twenty mentors who register, so please sign up only if you are
> confident that you will be attending IETF 101 in London.

I can't speak for others, but I often can't commit to this.  I have more
often than not found that the timeslot was open on short notice, and have
wandered over to fill in.

So, regretfully, if these are the new rules, I'm out.

-- Jeff

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From: Karen O'Donoghue <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2018 22:31:09 +0000

> On Mar 6, 2018, at 4:27 PM, Jeffrey Haas <[email-masked]> wrote:
> 

Jeff,

These aren’t new rules. They are the same ones we’ve been using for the last several meetings. It is a balance between having no one and having a flood of people. Generally speaking we haven’t hit our quota of 20 people yet, and we have welcomed walk-ins. I personally have gone out recruiting when we are too short on signups. Having people sign up gets more of a commitment, allows us to plan, and gives us a list of people to send reminder emails to on Sunday afternoon. Please feel free to drop by to see if more mentors are needed. 

Please also note that we have two need IETF Mentor Program Leads, this is their first IETF so they are being thrown into the deep end in some sense, and feel free afterwards to provide them feedback on how to improve this program. 

And… thank you for previously supporting this activity. 

Karen

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From: Mary Barnes <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2018 17:13:06 -0600

Karen,

I'm curious as to what feedback you might have gotten the attendees of this
event, in particular as opposed to the Newcomer Meet 'n Greet. Personally,
I find this event to be a lot more effective both because the space is less
crowded and more quiet and you don't have to pick out the newcomers
yourself - they come to you ;)

I had one newcomer at the Meet 'n Greet in Dallas  that was standing by
himself, so I went up to introduce myself and put my hand out to shake his
and he literally turned away from me.  So, I feel like I do my community
service in the mentoring event much more easily than in the other.   As a
shy person in general, I find the other more challenging and I know we all
have a bad habit of visiting one another at the Meet 'n Greet.  I had
previously suggested some sort of game or door prize where you collect
those little tickets and each person gets one when they talk to somebody
new to encourage more interaction - orange ones for new comers - blue ones
for chairs/ADs .    Then maybe a free social ticket to whichever WG chair
and newcomer get the most?

In cases where I don't know much about the area a mentoree is interested
in, I've told them that if they see me at the Newcomer's, I can help find
and introduce them to someone in that area. I've never had them take me up
on that, but it would be good to encourage them that we really mean that.

Regards,
Mary.

On Tue, Mar 6, 2018 at 4:31 PM, Karen O'Donoghue <[email-masked]> wrote:

> These aren’t new rules. They are the same ones we’ve been using for the
> last several meetings. It is a balance between having no one and having a
> flood of people. Generally speaking we haven’t hit our quota of 20 people
> yet, and we have welcomed walk-ins. I personally have gone out recruiting
> when we are too short on signups. Having people sign up gets more of a
> commitment, allows us to plan, and gives us a list of people to send
> reminder emails to on Sunday afternoon. Please feel free to drop by to see
> if more mentors are needed.
>
> Please also note that we have two need IETF Mentor Program Leads, this is
> their first IETF so they are being thrown into the deep end in some sense,
> and feel free afterwards to provide them feedback on how to improve this
> program.
>