Find a Mentor

By James Gibson APSNZ EFIAP

WITH THE UPDATE to the PSNZ website now up and running, you may notice a few changes here and there – one of the most recent changes you will find in the Member’s area.

As you scroll down you will find a link to “Find a Mentor”. We have been working on how to implement a mentoring process for some time and have had several requests from members over this past year. To help put people together we have created a simple form for both mentors and those looking for help. Simply fill the form saying what you would like help with, or if you are willing to offer help – likewise, if you are happy to mentor on some topics, and are also looking for guidance in other areas, just fill the form in twice!

It is not intended to be a prescriptive process – we are not defining *anything* about how you receive feedback, nor will we be expecting you to pass an exam or fulfil certain criteria to be accepted into the mentoring program. All we are going to do is try to match up those offering help with those asking for it.

The way the mentor and mentee communicate with each other is entirely flexible; you can chat over the phone, by email, zoom/skype, or at a coffee shop if you happen to be nearby (though we are not matching people geographically).

If you have a specific goal in mind, write it on the form as that will be a big help to us and your mentor… even if you find the goals move over time.

Clearly there’s no guarantee that you will meet your goals – like everything in life you only get out what you put in, so you’ll need to keep working and learning to improve. Having said this, if you and your mentor feel it’s not working out for some reason, you just have to let us know.

Clearly, this process will only work if we have enough members looking for and offering mentoring, so please get involved if you are able to help! PSNZ’s role is purely to administer the scheme and try to ‘match you up’, so please bear with us as we develop our processes around this.

Roughly every six months we’ll check in with you to see how things are going, and as the scheme develops we may ask for your thoughts or help to improve things and help photographers grow.