Thanks to everyone for sharing thoughts, encouragement, and skepticism. You've shared some great ideas and observations.
I'll spend some time this weekend digesting all of this and I'll try to come up with a straw man proposal for moving forward. I just have to remember that this doesn't need to be something we get right at first, just that we at least try something and see how it goes. (There is probably no arguably 'right' way to set things up, anyway.) -g On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 10:51 AM, Gabe Hollombe <g...@avantbard.com> wrote: > Would this really work with people who aren't already buddies, without >> any sort of tangible incentive? >> > > I've got no idea if this will work. I think the point here is to try and > see if it works or not. > > > >> I just can't see *qualified* people who perhaps already maintain projects >> and >> respond to emailing lists and bug trackers finding the time to meet up >> with someone they don't know, or barely know. >> > > Maybe you're right. But, I saw a lot of hands go up when I asked for > interest at RC7. So, maybe folks won't be able to find the time, but at > least of lot of people _think_ they'd be interested in participating in a > mentoring program. Often, we'll find time for anything we're interested in. > > > On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 10:23 AM, Gabe Hollombe <g...@avantbard.com> >> wrote: >> > At Railscamp 7, I stood up during our Sunday night town hall meeting and >> > shared about how I want to big up myself and find a mentor to help me >> grow >> > as a software craftsman. I asked the room for a show of hands for >> people >> > who would be willing to mentor others and/or would want to have a mentor >> for >> > themselves. There was a fair amount of hand raising, so I volunteered >> to >> > put some effort into trying to establish some sort of mentoring system >> for >> > our community. >> > >> > I'd like to start by asking you: >> > >> > What might want out of a mentor? >> > What do you think might be good for helping to foster mentor/mentee >> > relationships? >> > What ideas do you have to help make this mentoring thing a reality? >> > >> > Let's keep this very open-ended right now and just share anything we >> think >> > might be relevant. I'll take all the feedback and try to digest it into >> an >> > alpha version of a mentoring program. >> > >> > Here are some of my (sometimes rambled) thoughts to start things off: >> > I think mentors should: >> > >> > Meet with a mentee on some sort of regular schedule that works for both >> > parties (in-person or virtually, but I really think that face to face is >> a >> > richer experience) >> > Discuss what their mentee is working on and provide code reviews >> > Share what they're working on with their mentee, to expand their >> horizons >> > Make themselves available for help outside of their normal meeting >> schedule >> > >> > I don't think mentors should need to feel like an expert or an advanced >> > hacker of any kind; they just need to feel like they can help their >> mentees >> > somehow. And, mentors should remember that they'll grow and learn, >> perhaps >> > just as much, as part of the mentoring relationship. When you're >> teaching >> > someone something, you often learn a lot, too. >> > I think the mentoring relationship should be viewed much more as a >> social, >> > friendly commitment to see how you'll work as a pair. Either a mentor >> or a >> > mentee should be completely comfortable swapping out and finding a >> different >> > mentor/mentee if things just aren't working or, or, even if they are, >> just >> > to change things up. I think that what I'm envisioning is something >> that >> > combines the comfortableness of a friendly partnering with the >> reassurance >> > that you've got at least one person who will be willing to field >> questions >> > for you and help you grow. >> > A mentor doesn't need to have all the answers. Indeed, they rarely, if >> > ever, will. But, a mentor should try to help their mentee grow and be >> > willing to learn alongside them in the process. >> > >> > From the practical, 'how do we organize this?' angle, we'll obviously >> need >> > some way for willing mentors to list themselves as available, and for >> > mentees to find them. Something like www.railsmentors.org/ makes sense, >> > though I think we should encourage folks to pair up within their own >> city, >> > when possible, to make face-to-face meetups easier. And, of course, I >> don't >> > want to restrict us to rails only mentoring. We're clearly a diverse >> group >> > of web hackers, and we should keep the mentoring open to anything web >> > hackery related. >> > Ok, thanks for reading this to the end. Now it's your turn to kick in >> some >> > thoughts. >> > -g >> > >> > -- >> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups >> > "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. >> > To post to this group, send email to rails-ocea...@googlegroups.com. >> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> > rails-oceania+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<rails-oceania%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> >> . >> > For more options, visit this group at >> > http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania?hl=en. >> > >> >> >> >> -- >> http://crazyhollywood.org >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. >> To post to this group, send email to rails-ocea...@googlegroups.com. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> rails-oceania+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<rails-oceania%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> >> . >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania?hl=en. >> >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. 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