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The Mentor News
ISSN 1708-9034

(February 11, 2005)

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Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will
pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally
disappear.
So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won't matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you
lived on at the end.
It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought but what you built, not what
you got but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, or
sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate
your example.
What will matter is not your competence but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many
will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.
What will matter is not your memories but the memories that live in
those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and
for what.
Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.
It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.

To download a color copy of this poem, visit
http://www.charactercounts.org/pdf/whatwillmatter-1203.pdf

("What Will Matter" copyright 2003 Michael Josephson; reproduced here with permission.)

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~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) ~

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JOIN THE PEER RESOURCES NETWORK
Do you know someone who could benefit from becoming a member of the Peer Resources Network. Although you are receiving this free newsletter, every 45-60 days, members of the Peer Resources Network receive a monthly newsletter with more information, practical tips, announcements, mentor program descriptions, and research summaries every month.

In addition they receive toll-free coaching and consultation for all mentor program development issues as an additional benefit of membership. Members also receive print versions of Compass: A Magazine for Peer Assistance, Mentorship and Coaching. This magazine has become the only advertising-free, professional, peer-reviewed publication on mentoring, filled with timely articles and practical suggestions from experienced mentor program leaders.

Our non-profit organization is sustained through memberships in the Peer Resources Network. The low fee for a one-year individual membership is $75.00 and the fee for an institutional membership is $140.00 for a year. These fees are scheduled to increase after January 1, 2005. So why not "gift" someone you know to a membership? For more details on benefits as well as a secure online form to sign-up, go to http://www.mentors.ca/PRN.html.

As a special offer to Mentor News readers, if you sign-up to become a member of the Peer Resources Network, you automatically become eligible to win a free admission to the Friends for Youth Mentoring Conference (see Mentoring Conferences and Events in the next section) in Redwood Shores, California.

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"Destiny is not a matter of chance, It is a matter of choice. It is not something to be waited for, but rather something to be achieved."

~ William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925) ~

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MENTORING CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS

18th Annual International Mentoring Association Conference
April 6-9, 2005
Marriott City Center, Oakland, California
www.mentoring-association.org
Tel: (269) 387-4174
cedu_ima@wmich.edu

Friends for Youth Mentoring Conference
April 25, 2005
Redwood City California
Tel: (650) 559-0200
elsy@mentoringinstitute.org

Tutor/Mentor Leadership Conference
May 12-13, 2005
Northwestern University Law School, Chicago, Illinois
www.tutormentorconference.bigstep.com
(312) 492-9614
tutormentor2@earthlink.net

2nd National School-Based Mentoring Conference
June 14-16, 2005
Fairmont Hotel, Kansas City, Missouri
www.youthfriends.org or www.sbmentoring.org
janssen@youthfriends.org

European Mentoring & Coaching Conference
December 1-2, 2005
Zurich, Switzerland
0114 225 5210
d.f.megginson@shu.ac.uk
Call for papers, proposals, cases, research studies (due March 18, 2005)

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OPPORTUNITIES FOR MENTOR NEWS READERS

Participate in a Research Study. Mette Hersby, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Exeter (Great Britain) is examining what it's like to experience a mentoring relationship. She is seeking participants to complete on online survey that has been approved by her research committee supervisors and the Ethics Committee of her university. The survey, the results of which are anonymous and confidential, takes about 10 minutes to complete and can be found at: http://psy.ex.ac.uk:9006/survey/entry.jsp?id=1098794802429.

Attend The Power Within Conference Professional Development at a Discount. On March 18th, 2005, Mark Burnett (Producer of “Survivor” and “Apprentice”), Marcus Buckingham (“First, Break All the Rules”), Dr. Lance Secretan (“Inspire - What Great Leaders Do”), Loretta LaRoche (“Life Is Not A Stress Rehearsal”), Mike Lipkin (“The Power to Persuade”). Dr. Phil McGraw (the "Dr. Phil" TV-show) and Herb Cohen (“You Can Negotiate Anything”) will appear live at the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre at an event called The Power Within.

Peer Resources has arranged a discount for Mentor News readers to attend this event (as well as both the Edmonton and Toronto venues - see below). The regular price for the public to attend this full day event is $329 but we have arranged a special rate of only $229, if you call the number below now and reserve one of the advance General tickets. That's a 43% savings off the regular price, but event organizers have guaranteed this discount for only a limited time. In addition, if you purchase five tickets, you can receive a sixth ticket free.

The same line-up of speakers will appear live at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton, Alberta on February 18, 2005 with Nicholas Boothman ("How to Connect in Business in 90 Seconds or Less") taking the place of Mike Lipkin. The special discount is available for this event, but for an even more limited time period because of the rapidly approaching event.

On April 29, 2005 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre The Power Within for Women will take place and the speakers includes Naomi Judd ("Overcome Adversity through Personal Focus"), Christiane Northrup, M.D. (Mother-daughter Wisdom: Creating a Legacy of Physcial and Emotional Health"), Yolanda King ("Embracing Your Leadership Power: Workforce Diversity"), Loretta LaRoche ("Enhance Productivity Through Stress Management"), Mary Lou Quinland ("How to Market to Women"), Lynne Cox ("Improve Performance: Conquer Your Fears"), and a special musical performance by Colette Baron-Reid.

All speakers in each Power Within event will be in person (no satellite or video feed). Speakers will present between 45- 60 minutes in consecutive order, and the purchase of a General Admission ticket includes access to the full day event along with an event guide/program that contains articles from
contributing speakers. During the breaks, some of the speakers will be signing books outside the
main event room.

Please contact The Power Within Inc., the company coordinating the event, today to reserve your tickets for either Vancouver, Edmonton, or Toronto. Call toll free: 1 866 994-2555 Ext. 229 and be sure to let Joesph know that you received this information from Rey Carr at Peer Resources. Please remember that the tickets we have reserved will be issued on a first-come, first-serve basis, so call now. For complete event details please visit http://www.powerwithin.com/. (Note that the speaker line-up may have some changes, so check their website for the most up-to-date presenters.)

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USE THE LATEST MENTORING LITERATURE TO GUIDE PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

Peer Resources continually scans the professional and popular literature for articles, books, videos and other useful reference materials. They provide a brief synopsis of the work as well as citation details and summaries in a searchable format on their site at www.peer.ca/SearchB.html. Each month the Peer Bulletin includes some of the many citations added every week.

Three new books that are part of a series called "The Spirit of Mentoring" by Robin Cox have been added to the Peer Resources' Top Mentoring Books list at http://www.mentors.ca/topmentbks.html. Book one in the series, Nurturing the Spirit of Mentoring - 50 Fun Activities for Young People, includes 10- to 20-minute easy to use, fun activities, requiring little extra preparation. It is ideal for use in form/class periods, life skills programs, and youth groups.

Book 2, Encouraging the Spirit of Mentoring - 50 Fun Activities for the Ongoing Training of Teacher-Mentors, Volunteer Mentors and Youth Workers, also includes 10- to 20-minute easy to use, fun activities, requiring little extra preparation. Ideal for use for anyone wanting to promote the spirit of mentoring amongst volunteer adult mentors, teachers, coaches, youth and social workers.

The third book in the series is The Mentoring Spirit of the Teacher - Inspiration, Support and Guidance for Aspiring and Practising Teacher-Mentors, is a user-friendly resource aimed at promoting the spirit of mentoring amongst all who work with young people (teachers,coaches, youth workers).

As a bonus, the author has given permission to each purchaser to photocopy pages from the books for distribution to activity participants. The author also provides a one-day seminar to help leaders put the ideas into practice as trainers. The author has 30 years experience as an educator, sports coach and School Principal. Since 1999 he has been working in the field of youth mentoring, training over 600 volunteer adult youth mentors, as well as Peer Mentors in school-based Peer Mentor programmes. His website shares some of his resources in youth mentoring and it is continually being updated. His belief is that through nurturing and encouraging the spirit of mentoring amongst all who work with young people, the levels of absenteeism, bullying, substance abuse, inappropriate sexual behaviour and youth suicide amongst many of our young people will be reduced. A major way of achieving this is to affirm, encourage and inspire teachers to develop the spirit of mentoring in their interactions with young people, teachers being one of the most important influences (after parents/caregivers) in the lives of young people. For information about the workshop, go to http://www.yess.co.nz/OneDaySeminar.html. To purchase the books, go to http://www.essentialresources.co.nz.

Hood, S.B. (December, 2004). Learn from the best: What it takes to implement a top-notch mentoring program in your company. Canadian Business, 77, 24, 107-110.

The author identifies 10 elements that must be present for a great mentoring program. Mentoring programs must (1) address specific business objectives; (2) have top-level support; (3) train mentors; (4) not rely on a single formula for matching; (5) facilitate clear expectations; (6) distinguish bosses from mentors; (7) recognize the limits of telementoring; (8) identify boundaries or limits of mentoring; (9) evaluate success; and (10) build on corporate culture. In addition the details of four mentoring programs at high-profile Canadian companies are included.

Godwin, M.L.H. (2000). The Sister to Sister Mentoring Program. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Regent University.

This dissertation evaluated the Sister to Sister Mentoring Program (SSMP) conducted at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Kings Bay, Georgia. The SSMP was designed to develop a mentoring relationship between senior military leadership and junior enlisted female sailors. It united with other programs to assist in proactive training in the areas of spiritual, moral and personal values development. In the SSMP senior military females served as mentors, offering their expertise to encourage the junior enlisted females in achieving excellence. By working with the command and other military sponsored organizations, the mentors assisted in improving the mentees self-image as sailors, women and mothers and helped them prepare to serve their country with distinction.

SJB Research Consulting, Inc. (April, 2004). E-mentoring for women of color in engineering and science: Final report to the engineering information foundation. New York, NY: Author.

MentorNet received a grant from the Engineering Information Foundation to analyze data collected as part of MentorNet’s annual evaluation of its e-mentoring program for women in engineering and science. Statistically significant differences in the needs, experiences and perceived benefits were found for African American, Asian American, Hispanic/Latina and Caucasian students and mentors. African American students especially, but also Asian American and Hispanic/Latina students wanted a mentor to discuss issues of race/ethnicity with them. Caucasian mentors felt less comfortable than women of color in discussing such issues. However, student satisfaction with e-mentoring was not related to race or to whether a student was in a same-race or cross-race match. In fact, students of color were more positive than Caucasian women about the range of MentorNet features that supplement one-on-one ementoring. Students of color directly attributed to MentorNet both increased motivation to succeed in their field of study and the fact that they get through the academic year. The difference between students of color and Caucasian students on these two variables was statistically significant. Written comments volunteered by students illustrate how important it was to them to have their e-mentor cheering them on from the sidelines as well as providing strategies for learning, time management and other factors that enabled students to persist in their major. E-mentors of color were more apt to experience a number of benefits, significantly more so than Caucasian e-mentors. The most dramatic difference was with the e-mentors’ own increased self-confidence. Also significant were improved supervisory skills, improved skills for recruiting new talent, better networking skills for making contacts with others, renewed commitment to their field, insight into what it’s like to be a student today, the opportunity to pass along what they have learned and reflection about their own career. The full study is available at: www.mentornet.net/documents/about/results/evaluation/.

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The Mentor News is a free publication of Peer Resources, 1052 Davie Street, Victoria, British Columbia V8S 4E3 Canada. Back issues are available online. To subscribe or unsubscribe send an email to info@mentors.ca. If you know of anyone who might benefit from receiving this newsletter, please pass it on. (All items in this newsletter have been selected or adapted from The Peer Bulletin, a paid subscriber publication for members of the Peer Resources Network. Copyright is held by Peer Resources.)