Mentorship

NetCom Project

Mentorship

NetCom Project Mentorship

MENTORSHIP SYSTEM MANUAL Introduction The Mentorship System is a project that offers help to new locals or weak ones. The main idea behind the Mentorship System Project is to give experienced locals the chance to share their practices with inexperienced locals that need help. This way a possibility for collaboration between the two locals is given.

The experienced local is “Mentor Local” and the inexperienced one is “Mentee Local”.

Usually, it is established between locals in the same country or area.

How can a Mentee Local find a Mentor Local?

If your local is new and/or needs some help, you can ask another local in your area to become your Mentor Local or ask your Network Commissioner to help you find one.

Network Commissioners are always available for their locals, so the locals can ask them for any suggestion.

What’s next?

After Mentee finds a Mentor Local, Mentor should appoint one person (board member or another experienced active member) who will be the contact person for the whole period of mentorship. Why one person? It is easier to contact one person and not a whole local, so the Mentee Local would know who to contact first. It is good if they have already met, since it will be more comfortable for the Mentee Local to ask them for help. Contact person is responsible to update members of both locals about events and future plans of another local. Also, contact person should inform the Network Commissioner on how the Mentorship goes. If six months pass without updating the Network Commissioner, the Mentorship will be terminated.

No matter if the board members of the two locals know each other or not, they should introduce themselves, and try to connect as much members as possible with each other. For example, by creating a common mailing list or facebook group, by establishing the Grandparent System or Board Swap between the locals, etc. This can be done also later or through the whole period of mentoring.

NetCom Project Mentorship

What should the Mentor Locals do?

After the first contact, they should remind the Mentee Local that they can help them in many ways and the Mentor can offer more than simple advices.

Accepting to be a Mentor Local means that you should take some time for the Mentee Local, as you are doing for your own members. Below there are many ways on how to work on the Mentorship System. They are not mandatory, but they are suggested.  Show them what AEGEE spirit means and try to get closer so they can feel as part of the AEGEE family.  Mentor can invite Mentee Local’s members to its events or SU: Mentee’s members can be involved in organizing to learn how to deal with it, or, if possible, be participants free of charge and attend workshops and social part  Mentor can include Mentee’s members to its LTCs or they can organize LTC together, somewhere close to both of their towns.  Mentor can organize a gathering for a weekend, where members of both locals can meet in one of the towns. Members can host members of the Mentee local, have a tour around the town for the guests or make a barbecue.  Non-AEGEE events, like student fairs, conferences and presentations at the Mentee’s town, can be visited by the Mentor Local’s members, where they can present and promote AEGEE and help the Mentee Local to learn more about AEGEE, as well to attract more people to join.  Share ideas and materials between both locals. Mentee local can have fresh ideas on a topic. Mentor can share existing materials (especially if the locals share the same language) like presentations, booklets, PR materials or whatever can be considered useful.  In case Mentee Local doesn’t have someone experienced around, Mentor can help them for Knowledge Transfer. With the help of the Network Commissioner, they can figure out what is most important for the new board at the beginning of their term. Then, remember how it was when Mentor started and advice the Mentee. If locals are in the same country, Mentor can help with administrative/bureaucratic stuff as well as with PR and FR strategies.  Organizing an exchange is a great chance for Mentor and Mentee Locals to meet. Firstly, it can take part at the Mentor’s town, just to show to Mentee how an AEGEE event looks like.

They can choose the topic together.  Mentor should encourage the Mentee to apply for ERASMUS+ grants, most preferably to the ones that the Mentor Local is already involved in.  Show the rest of the members of both locals and the rest of the Network how great experience it was and share it: on Facebook, Twitter, website, blog, mailing list, etc. It will motivate others to join!  Keep active communication! Mentor should not suddenly stop taking care of the Mentee Local (or otherwise). When one activity where they meet is almost over, they ought to start thinking of the next occasion to meet. Keeping contacts is really important. After this, board members of Mentee Local can ask for advice a person that is responsible for a specific task (HR, Local Activities, etc.), in case they need help with it. Mentee Local shouldn’t hesitate to ask!

NetCom Project Mentorship

Board Swap This is an idea that originated at NWM Leuven in November 2012. It is a fun way to get some new experiences as a board and to get insights into the internal structure of different locals.

Goals – To explore the network; to learn from one another by first-hand experience; and to help smaller locals develop their organization.

Who – All boards in an area can join. There are three different types of locals that need to be distinguished however.  You have the big locals with a fulltime board.  The second one, are the locals with a part-time board.  The last ones are the small locals and also the contacts.

How – There are different possibilities.  The first one is a function related swap. This is a swap where only people fulfilling a certain function in the board do an exchange. The minimum should be two though, to make sure the members feel comfortable, but also to make sure they are not the alone in relating their experiences back to their own board.  The second possibility is swap of almost the entire board (there always needs to remain at least one board member of the local as the visitors do not have the passwords and access to members lists (in this case the best is to have the secretary stay at first and then do a function swap between secretaries later). The duration can differ from 2 (for part-time boards) to 4 days (for full-time boards) to make sure there is a relatively complete experience.

However not all boards can learn an equal amount from one another. So the following four combinations have been made:  Fulltime with fulltime board (a three to four days full swap);  a part-time with part-time board (a two or three days full swap);  small local with a part-time board (a job shadowing of two or three days);  and lastly a small local with a fulltime board (this is more of a visit, to experience what a large local is like).

A last thing that should be noted is the keeping of a diary. This is to ensure that experiences are remembered to be related to the board of the own local. It can also be (partially) shared with the visited local to show what the most remarkable things were.

Selection of couples – The choice should be made by people who know which locals can really learn from each other, but leaving it up to the boards might result in having the same exchanges between the same locals. Therefore the idea is to have the Netcom choose the locals.

NetCom Project Mentorship

Grandparent System The grandparent system is a way to help new members of a local to understand what AEGEE is.

Each new member (grandchild) is coupled with an experienced member (grandparent). The experienced member is responsible to guide the new one and to answer any questions they may have about AEGEE and its structure. The grandparent ought to motivate their grandchild to participate in events (for example, by sharing their experiences, inviting them to travel together for an event, etc.). A grandparent can have more than one grandchild.

Usually the Human Resources Responsible of the local’s board is responsible for the Grandparent System.

During the Mentorship System between locals, the Mentor can offer/donate grandparents for the Mentee Local which is full of inexperienced grandchildren.

When will the Mentorship be over?

The Mentorship is over when the Mentee Local feels that they don’t need help anymore. This doesn’t mean that Mentor and Mentee Locals will stop communicating and sharing each others’ ideas. They can continue being close and if they wish, they can sign the Twin Antennae Agreement.

NetCom Project Mentorship

Board Swap

This is an idea that originated at NWM Leuven in November 2012. It is a fun way to get some new experiences as a board and to get insights into the internal structure of different locals.

Goals – To explore the network; to learn from one another by first-hand experience; and to help smaller locals develop their organization.

Who – All boards in the region can join. There are three different types of locals that need to be distinguished however. You have the big locals with a fulltime board. The second one, are the locals with a part-time board. The last one are the small locals and also the contacts.

How – There are different possibilities, the first one is a function related swap. This is a swap where only people fulfilling a certain function in the board do an exchange. The minimum should be two though, to make sure the members feel comfortable, but also to make sure they are not the alone in relating their experiences back to their own board.

The second possibility is swap of almost the entire board (there always needs to remain at least one board member of the local as the visitors do not have the passwords and access to members lists (in this case the best is to have the secretary stay at first and then do a function swap between secretaries later). The duration can differ from 2 (for part-time boards) to 4 days (for fulltime boards) to make sure there is a relatively complete experience.

However not all boards can learn an equal amount from one another. So the following four combinations have been made: Fulltime with fulltime board (a three to four days full swap); a part-time with part-time board (a two or three days full swap); small local with a part-time board (a job shadowing of two or three days); and lastly a small local with a fulltime board (this is more of a visit, to experience what a large local is like).

A last thing that should be noted is the keeping of a diary. This is to ensure that experiences are remembered to be related to the board of the own local. It can also be (partially) shared with the visited local to show what the most remarkable things were.

Selection of couples – The choice should be made by people who know which locals can really learn from each other, but leaving it up to the boards might result in having the same exchanges between the same locals. Therefore the idea is to have the Netcom choose the locals.