New Member Mentorship Program / Process that's Working Really Well
Tamara Staton
331 Posts

Hi all!

This is a repost from our Greater Pacific NW Leadership post, so if you saw it there, feel free to disregard this message! 

Thought I'd share a system / process / program that's working really well in Portland, in case you want to try it in your chapters as well!
Feel free to respond with questions or provide feedback about this or how similar programs work in your chapter!

It was Daniela Brod, Portland GL, who came up with the idea and Francine Chinitz who mostly organized the process, but I have been great fan of it - both as observer and participant twice! I think it really makes a difference when it comes to getting new members active. It is a pretty simple process.

Samples
Below is the sample sign-up sheet that we pass around during the meeting. At the break or after the meeting, we match people up by area of town (and maybe temperament if possible.) I also included a sample email we send to connect the new and experienced member. I tried to get these emails sent within a day or two of the meeting. 

Resources
The experience members who have signed up to be a CCL mentor/buddy are season members. But we have thought about sending experienced members the attached set of questions and group contacts.


Survey
I sent a survey to the experience mentors (and a similar one the new members). I would send you the report, but I can’t export it easily with the free version of Survey Monkey. Overall the feedback was very positive. Based on the feedback, I added the section that says “If your buddy doesn’t contact you in a week, let me know and I’ll find a new one for you.” One person suggested meeting in groups (in case someone doesn’t want to meet 1:1), but we decided against it because it made logistics harder.  Someone else suggested making it clear that the new member can reach out first as sometimes the experienced member is busy. Several people said they “hit the jackpot” with their buddy. We’ve had people become liaisons, table and find DC conference hotel roommates from these meetings. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NDFHYVZ

Let us know if you have questions.

Best,
Francine
503.419.8280
 

Sign-up Sheet
      
New or Experience Member?NameEmail AddressPhoneArea of Town to MeetTime (Day/Evening/Weekend)
      
      

Sample Email

Subject Line: 

CCL Buddy!

Hello Jane and Joe,

Thank you for attending yesterday’s Citizens’ Climate Lobby meeting! I hope you both got a lot out of it.

Congratulations and thank you for your interest in participating in mentoring program. Below is the contact info for each of you. Please reach out to each other to coordinate a day/time to meet. (Let me and/or your buddy know if I made typos.)

 

NameTimeNeighborhoodEmailPhone
Jane SmithAnySEjane@gmail.com(503) 555-533
John DoeEveningsSE, NE, N Downtown-weekdaysjoe@gmail.com(566) 545-5555

Jane – John prefers to communicate by text. I will send him a text to let her know about this email.

If you are not able to connect with your buddy after a week, let me know and I’ll find you another match.

Let us know how it goes, we'll be eager to hear! 

Thanks!

Francine

Replies

Forum help

Select a question below

CCL Community's Sitewide Forums are an easy and exciting way to interact with other members on CCL Community.  The Sitewide Forums are focused on subjects and areas of general interest to members.  Each forum consists of topics that members have posted, along with replies from other members. Some forums are divided into categories to group similar topics together. 

Any members can post a topic or reply to a topic.

The Sitewide Forums are open to the entire CCL community to create, comment on, and view online discussions.  Posts and comments should address the subject or focus of the selected forum. 

Note: Categories can only be created by community administrators.

Guidelines for posting: (also see general Community Guidelines)

  • Don’t see your question or topic? Post it.
  • Be thoughtful, considerate (nonpartisan) and complete. The more information you supply, the better the better and more engaging the conversation will be. 
  • Feel like cursing? Please don’t.
  • Ask yourself, “Would my topic post reveal sensitive or confidential information?” If so, please don't post!

Flag/report any offending comments, and then move on. In the rare instance of a comment containing a potentially credible threat, escalate that immediately to CCL.

If the Sitewide Forum has no categories, select the "Add Topic" button at the top of topics window. 

If the forum has categories, when you click on "Add Topic," a dropdown list of the categories appears. Select the desired category and then "Add Topic."
In either case this brings up a box to enter both the topic subject and topic text.

If you have questions or wish to add comments on a posted forum topic, open the post and click the blue “Add Reply” button at top. You can also click on the “Reply” link at the bottom of the original topic posting.

This opens a text box. Add your reply. You can also add documents by dragging a file into the text box. Click “Post” at the bottom of the reply window This will add your reply to other replies (if there are any), sorted by oldest on top. 

If, however, you want to reply directly to someone else’s reply, click on the “Reply” link at the bottom of their reply. 

When replying to a topic post or a topic reply it may be helpful to quote the original text, or the part that your reply is referring to. To quote a topic or reply, click on the "Quote" link at bottom of post. 

When you do this the full text of either the post or reply will be pulled into a reply text box. If desired, you can remove parts of the quoted text in order to get the portion you are interested in quoting.

You can subscribe to notifications of new postings from any of the Sitewide Forums or forum categories. To subscribe, select the green “Subscribe” button at the top of the forum. Click on dropdown arrow to select frequency of notification.

If you are already subscribed, the button will display “Unsubscribe.”  Select it to unsubscribe or select the dropdown arrow to modify frequency of notification. 

Note: If you subscribe to a Sitewide Forum, such as "Media Relations" that has categories (such as "LTEs and Op-Eds"), you will also be subscribed to all the categories. If you wish to subscribe to only one or more of the categories, unsubscribe to the parent forum and subscribe individually to desired categories.

.

If you see a topic post or reply that interests you or that you like, you can click the “Like” icon at the bottom of the topic post or the reply. This lets the poster know that the topic was helpful. It also contributes to the topic’s popularity, which influences where it is listed in the "Popular" forum tab. There are also additional reactions available for members to use. Mouseover the "Like" icon to choose one of these options: Love, Clap, Celebrate, Insightful, or Interesting.

CCL Community Guidelines

  • Discuss, ask and share
  • Be respectful
  • Respect confidentiality
  • Protect privacy

More guidelines
 

CCL Blog Policy Area Categories