Committee Directory | Committee Manuals | College Scholarships Mentoring Program | High School Writing Competition | Archives

Welcome

The Orlando Chapter of STC, in conjunction with UCF, is proud to announce its 2007-2008 mentoring program, pairing veterans from the front lines of industry with talented technical communication students. The goal: to bridge the gap between industry and academe.

For details on eligibility and commitment, please click on the links below and read the following information.

		Program Summary
		Building a Bridge from Industry to Academe
		Definition of Mentoring
		Guidelines and Procedures

To apply for the Orlando Chapter mentoring program as either a mentor or a mentee, click on the link below and follow instructions.

Application Forms

Once you have been notified of selection, click on the link below and follow instructions.

Agreement Form

Download the Contact Log, a simple record that teams are asked to maintain and submit at a few points during the one-year process and at the end.

		Contact Log
		Suggested Reading
		Contact Information

Definition of Mentoring

Mentoring is a way for more experienced technical communicators to share their experiences with new or less experienced "protégés." A mentor acts as a trusted counselor, or guide, who assists the mentored protégé in setting and achieving goals for developing career direction and skills

By participating in a mentor/protégé relationship, mentors develop valuable skills that can further their personal and professional development as well.

The relationship between mentor and protégé^* requires honesty, openness, commitment, and effort by both individuals. If they are willing to put forth the effort, there are enormous benefits to be realized.

In a mentoring relationship, mentor and mentee:

• Identify objectives, goals, and developmental needs.
• Define and establish a plan to accomplish mentee goals.
• Meet regularly in person or via phone or e-mail to review and evaluate progress.

A successful mentoring relationship benefits those involved through increased confidence and a sense of direction. The relationship provides a risk-free learning environment in which to offer career guidance.

Mentoring relationships can develop between individuals within an organization, between individuals in two different organizations, or between students and STC professionals.

Mentoring is NOT

• Casual advice
• Necessarily for everyone
• On-the-job training
• A guarantee of a successful career
• — STC Guidelines for Mentoring Programs

^* For our purposes, we have adopted the term mentee instead of protégé. Not all lexicographers have swallowed that coinage yet, but we believe it is a matter of linguistic reality at this point. To any linguists purists who take umbrage, deal with it! :)

Application Forms

The Orlando Chapter of STC invites you to apply for its 2007-2008 mentoring program. To apply:

Step 1: Download pre-assessments and applications for mentor or mentee.

• Mentor Pre-Assessment
• Mentee Pre-Assessment
• Mentor Application
• Mentee Application

Step 2: Type answers on forms.

Step 3: Save forms as "lastnamePreAssessment2007.doc" and "lastnameApplication2007.doc"

Step 4: E-mail completed forms to:

• Mentors – mentorship@stc-orlando.org
• Mentees – mentorship2@stc-orlando.org

Following applications, the program coordinators and chapter president will establish mentor-mentee teams that provide an optimal match of goals, skills, and styles. Your program coordinator will e-mail you your team information and invite you to the mentoring kickoff via e-mail.

Agreement Form

The mentor/mentee agreement form is designed to serve both as a preliminary outline of participant goals and as an icebreaker for a team's first face-to-face meeting.

Step 1: Download the mentor/mentee agreement form.

• Mentor/Mentee Agreement

Step 2: Arrange an initial meeting between mentor and mentee, and discuss questions on the form.

Step 3: After the meeting, type your answers on the form.

Step 4: Save form as "mentorname-menteenameAgreement2007.doc"

Step 5: Print and bring to the kickoff.

Step 6: E-mail form to: mentorship@stc-orlando.org and mentorship2@stc-orlando.org

Mentors and mentees will be introduced at the kickoff.

Contact Log

Regular contact (via face-to-face meetings, telephone conversations, and e-mail exchanges) is the key to a successful mentoring relationship. Keeping a simple log is an excellent way to ensure that this essential communication occurs. It also constitutes a low-maintenance record-keeping vehicle to help the program coordinators track and report on the program's progress.

Step 1: Download the Contact Log.

Step 2: Record meetings and other key communications with brief entries on the log.

Step 3: When reporting to program coordinators, save form as "lastnameLogdate.doc"
       (for example: "Smith080102.doc" would be John Smith's log for January 2, 2008)

Step 4: E-mail log upon request to the coordinators:

• Gail Lippincott: mentorship@stc-orlando.org
• Alex Garcia: mentorship2@stc-orlando.org

Suggested Reading

• Lori Allen and Dan Voss, 1997. "Mentoring Pairs Experts with Novices to Promote Growth," from Chapter 12 of Ethics in Technical Communication: Shades of Gray, John Wiley and Sons. Excerpt available from Dan Voss at daniel.w.voss@lmco.com.
• Larry Ambrose, 1998. A Mentor's Companion, Perrone-Ambrose Associates, Ltd.; available at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0967008301/qid%3D1060128446/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/102-0052852-1936917.
• Gail Lippincott and Dan Voss, 2001. "Leveraging Resources: How an STC Chapter Can Support Education in Its Community and Professional Development for Its Members," see section entitled "Instituting Mentoring Programs, Technical Communication, Vol. 48, No. 4, November, 2001, pp. 449-464 (mentoring section, pp. 457-458), available at http://www.stc-orlando.org/education/mentor/LeveragingResources.pdf.
• Rita W. Peterson, 1989. Mentoring Handbook, published online at the University of California-Irvine, available at http://www.gse.uci.edu/MentorTeacher/Contents.html.
• Society for Technical Communication, 2002. "Guidelines for Mentoring Programs," AD-109-02, available at http://www.stc.org/PDF_Files/AD-109-02.pdf.
• Bonnie Spivey and Dan Voss, 2003. "Bridging the Gap Between Industry and Academe: Orlando Chapter and UCF Launch Mentoring Program," in Orlando Chapter's Memo to Members, July/August, 2003, available at http://www.stc-orlando.org/newsletter/2003/memo_2003_08.pdf.

Contact Information for Program Coordinators

If you have any questions or comments about the program, please feel free to contact either or both of the program coordinators, Gail Lippincott at mentorship@stc-orlando.org, or Alex Garcia at mentorship2@stc-orlando.org.