Personal Mentoring Statements - a step forward in establishing a mentoring system for communities on steemit

Three weeks ago I put up a post exploring how a Mentoring System could help improve retention rates on steemit.

That post received a number of very positive responses both from experienced steemians offering to act as mentors and from newcomers to the platform who were keen to have a mentor.

There was universal agreement that a mentoring system would be good for steemit and would likely improve the retention rate amongst people starting out on the platform.

In my post I proposed a 7 stage process for setting up a mentoring system that culminated in some form of Graduation Post Contest for rewarding both mentor and mentee.

This proposed system was fashioned partly on my experience of the inbuilt mentoring system in the online game Entropia.

However it was clear from the comments of the people offering to become mentors that they would not be looking for any form of direct reward for being a mentor. They would be more than happy to take on role for furthering the success of the platform.

This was revealing and totally reassuring. People on steemit are different. The whole ethos of the platform, particularly around communities like the homesteaders community (but also I am sure elsewhere), starts from the basis of giving not taking.

I have therefore spent the last couple of weeks thinking through how we can move forward with some form of mentoring system.

While my starting point, and my home base for this, is the homesteading and prepper community I see anything we can take forward being equally applicable to any part of steemit.

Personal Mentoring Statement

Following the well trodden KISS maxim of keeping it simple I have come up with the idea of the Personal Mentoring Statement.

In the absence of any more formally structured and implemented system at a DIY level mentoring just comes down to a personal relationship.

A mentor offers help, advice and support to a mentee that will benefit from that help, advice and support.

For that relationship to work each party needs to get to know and trust the other.

To start that process I am suggesting that anyone offering to be a mentor should post a Personal Mentoring Statement laying out details about who they are, their experience and what they can offer.

Potential mentees can then comment on those posts and initiate a conversation with the potential mentor to see if they might be compatible to work together.

The mentors can periodically post updated versions of their Personal Mentoring Statement indicating how many 'vacancies' they have available at that time.

To make it easier for potential mentees to find available mentors any individual community could perhaps weekly or fortnightly publish lists of mentors and their Personal Mentoring Statements.

If appropriate the tag of pms could be used for Personal Mentoring Statements - #personalmentoringstatements is beyond the permitted 24 character tag length.

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Personal Mentoring Statement - structure

A suggested format for a Personal Mentoring Statement (PMS) might be :

1. Who am I - age, gender, location / timezone, real life occupation etc

2. My experience on steemit - when joined, reputation, projects involved in, goals and ambitions etc

3. What I can offer as a mentor - availability, help with formatting, voting support, introductions etc

4. Type of mentee that I can work with - particular interests, locations / timezones, posting style etc

Individual mentors would be free to give as little or as much information as they want to. Some might just want to offer up a very barebones PMS. I am sure we will quickly find out what works and what doesn't.

One might suggest there should be minimum criteria for being a mentor, for example a minimum of 3 months experience on steemit and a reputation of at least 55. I am more inclined to let every potential mentor decide for themselves if they feel ready to act as a mentor.

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If people think this is a suitable way forward I am happy to post my Personal Mentoring Statement to get the ball rolling.

From the previous mentoring post @elew, @gardengirlcanada, @goldendawne and @wwf all volunteered to become mentors.

What do you think of the Personal Mentoring Statement idea? Would you be willing to post a PMS?

If the idea takes off then meeters and greeters like @goldendawne can tell new steemians about the Personal Mentoring Statement scheme.

Am I still over-egging the pudding and making this all too elaborate and complicated or is this worth pursuing?

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You might also be interested in some of my other posts :

• 888 Followers - Time for a Festive Season Giveaway for all my followers

• Steemit coming alive in Wales - First meetup taking place on Saturday 10 February 2018 in Lampeter

• [FICTION CONTEST NOW CLOSED] Christmas Day in 2050 - list of entries - winners will be announced by the weekend

• SteemRadio - schedule of all the steemit radio shows - week beginning 18 December 2017

• The Steem is Rising - 2018 is going to be a good, good year - are you feeling the buzz?

• SteemCommerce - Businesses accepting payment in steem (v 1 @ 15 December 2017)

• Double Down Chicken Disaster Strikes UK Homesteading Community

• I Believe in Steem - Five things I can do to help steemit grow

• Where in the world can I spend my steem? Real World Outlets that accept Steem / SBD

• Homesteaders & Preppers on steemit - smashing through the 250 mark - v10 [22 Nov '17]

• SteemTowns - connecting the virtual with the reality - would it be possible?

[ graphic by @pennsif ]