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Well the first attempt at this mentor program ran a little rough, but for the most part i think it was helpful. I polled all of the novices i could find in the afternoon and they all said their mentors were great and that they helped in a big way.

The program would be twice as efficient and twice as easy on the volunteering mentors if we could get as many mentors as novices.. we were halfway there yesterday so we doubled up novices to mentors. This was a little tricky logistically but between the mentors and their novices i think everything got worked out in the end.

I also talked to a lot of the mentors and it seems that they all enjoyed teaching and helping their novices and as a bonus many got a lot of rides and looks at the course befor their first run.

The original plan which assumed enough mentors was to pair them up by car type or request ahead of time, email the mentors their novice, and let them communicate before hand. However this got messy fast when few than expected mentors were available and some didnt know if they would be there or not, etc. I think even if it was mostly figured out ahead of time, we'd still need a meeting to organize the extras and deal with no-shows.

For next time:

MORE MENTORS!
Schedule time for the mentor stuff during the novice meeting.
MORE MENTORS!
bring SCCA rulebook
MORE MENTORS!



Please give some feedback and ideas on how it could be a better/smoother program.

And again, thanks to all the mentors who helped, it was much appreciated.

I always enjoy helping out novices, but there was an issue with work assignment conflicts, especially for Donna since she had a 2-4 rungroup novice assigned but was scheduled to work 2. I also had a 2nd rungroup novice but since I worked 4 it wasn't as much of a problem except he worked 1 so cold not ride along before running. Either we need to be assigned only novices that run the same rungroup we do or when we have a large turnout like this make it our work assignment, I don't think we would have missed 8 or 10 workers yesterday.

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SPIN or WIN!
there's no glory for going slow.

yeh it is kinda complicated, so feel free to help me think this out, all.

A) match mentors to novices in same run heats.
pros: they can ride together, they can work together,
cons: it can get busy during the run heat w/ all the car swapping.. especially w/ two novices

B) match mentors to novices in opposite run heats,
pros: easy to exchange morning rides.. two novices would be easier to manage
cons: both would have to work afternoon heats..

i was in situation B yesterday w/ two novices and i think it worked out nicely.

it'd be great if mentoring could count as your worker assignment, but thats an issue out of my hands and the word from above is NO.

i also think the mentor nametag idea worked. i had a lot more random people come up and ask me questions than ever before. i could be because they announced i was the novice coordinator, but i think the name tag was a big part of it.

also, maybe this can be a one time thing for first time novices. once they have an event under their belt they can probably manage on their own. This would reduce the number of needed mentors a lot. Any novice of course would be free to ask anyone (especially mentors w/ nametags) for a ridealong, etc so its not like they would be cut off or anything.

Nametags? What nametags?

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SPIN or WIN!
there's no glory for going slow.

yeh only about half the mentors got them. Ryan kept forgetting about me and started his meeting while i was trying to do somethign and then dismissed everybody while i was trying to keep them. the microphone wins

Everything worked out well for me and my two novices yesterday. We were all in the same heats but worked out being split up between the grid lines to make the ride alongs easier. Everything flowed pretty smoothly, even though things were a little rushed as we parked one car in the grid and had to run to the next. It is a great feeling knowing that you have helped someone improve and gain some knowledge in what they have to do next time to continue improving. The only thing that was hard was that one of my novices asked if I could ride with her on her last two runs but I had to go sign in for my worker assignment but she did get someone else to ride with her. So it all worked out. Overall a great day and a great first event. The Mentoring program is definitely a success.

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2010 Honda Fit Sport
Couple of bicycles

I posted this in another thread, but to have everything in one place here it is again...

I have one thought regarding the novice mentor program. It was a little chaotic that morning to find a mentor and make arrangements to ride, have a rider etc. By that time we had already picked our work assignments, etc. Maybe for the future, when a novice registers online they can request a mentor (if they have worked with one in the past) or they could get an e-mail from Dan with contact info for a mentor and they can make arrangements before the event even starts. In the event of a walk-on novice have a couple of mentors in reserve to pick them up. Again just a thought....

I had a novice co-driver with me on Sunday and I was his mentor for the day. If I was supposed to have another person assigned to me, I applogize for adding any confusion. Maybe in the future we can ask the mentors if they have anyone they are specifically working with. From there we can take novices and mentors and place them into an open "pool", if you will, that the novices can draw from if they want help.

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Rodney

'08 Bullitt mustang, CAM 7
Autox VP '09-'10, President '11-'12, interim President 2nd half of ‘14
proud recipient of the Bowie Grey service award '12
Now just a guy driving a mustang....

Maureen and I both really appreciate the mentor program. Keith Vail rode with us on both of our morning runs and really helped us stay on course. After each run he explained where we could gain speed and what to avoid. The mentors and the novice school really made our first autocross experience a blast. Charlie Smith was an excellent instuctor in the novice school and he also spent time with us on Sunday. I can imagine how difficult it would have been to just show up and try to negotiate the course without all the help.

Thanks to everyone.

Charlie

Dan,

I think the efforts were a success and I'm looking forward to helping a few more people out in Sanford if I can make it.

The real reason I think this program will work, and I hesitate to give this secret away, is because as a novice mentor you get to see the course at 3/4 speed. Plus, if you run before your novice, they can ride along with you on your first run and it serves as a huge icebreaker for them.

The toughest thing is picking a novice with a cool car. Fortunately, I picked a novice with an S2k.

^^great to hear.

^yeh it worked out well for me too.

i'm trying now to figure out teh best way to organize and match up novices to mentors before the event.

would a seperate section on this forum be a good idea? send the link to it in the novice registration email and tell em to go and ask for a mentor? then anyone who wants to for that event can just match up? that way only the people who want a mentor get them and anyone in the club whos a nonnovice can pick em up as needed on an event by event basis.

the only con is that it assumes all novice are semi computer/tech saavy. but come on its 2006! hah

Dan,

I've been thinking about matching up the drivers based on car styles too. I think this is important so the new guys and gals can see what their cars are really capable of with an experienced driver. At my first event, I rode with Shawn and was absolutely blown away at the car's capability. One easy way to do it, is at the end of the novice meeting (provided the mentors are present like they should be), they can briefly introduce theirselves and say what they drive. Then when the meeting adjourns, the novices can flock to the instructors with similar cars.

yeh but thats kinda what happened last time and was a bit chaotic. id like to get it done before the event somehow and just do that for few stragglers leftover.

i expect the number of novices who need mentors to go down from last time and probably again after the next event. they should only need to be mentored once or twice

I worked with Maureen and Charlie Monroe and we got linked up because they were driving a Miata and so was I so it all worked out very well. I do think that it is important to have a mentor in a similar car if possible so that the novice for the same reasons as Matt stated above.

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2010 Honda Fit Sport
Couple of bicycles

yeah, I tried to set up cars as similar as possible when making the sheet. At the least I think FWD/RWD were together appropriately. I didnt think of the run heat issue, it sounds like maybe that is more important.

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traded the ultimate driving machine for a hatchback.....