[ SHOWGSD-L ] "Mentor" - the Verb - The Action Word!!
- From: "David Fritsche" <d_fritsche@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <jackkilgour@xxxxxxx>, "list" <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:36:41 -0800
?To MR. Jack Kilgore...
I love you bud, and you need to keep posting. AMEN!
Dave
-----Original Message-----
From: Jack Kilgour
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 9:55 PM
To: list
Subject: [ SHOWGSD-L ] "Mentor" - the Verb - The Action Word!!
I am inspired to post by the recent Board Meeting and the positive-minded
people on this list working together to address our depleted funds, low
attendance and membership levels and our overall slump in morale. Barbara
Williams offered a great analogy. It gave us an outline on how to find our
roles in this dilemma - the "head" (Parent Club) and the "body" (the rest of
us!)...in a follow up email she identifies a tangible "disconnect" between
the number of "interested" German Shepherd Dog Fanciers (low) and the
breed's "popularity" (#2 - high)! Yes, the gap is significant.
If you are not a supporter of our current Parent Club, and/or if you don't
associate with local breed clubs and gatherings, then I suggest you stop
reading this now....there's nothing much in this for you! I you are a
"rooftop sniper" type who waits for the "moment" to seize someone's attempt
to reenergize and reunite, I'm sure you'll have plenty of opportunity to
find fault in my opinions.....HOWEVER, If you are like me - if you care
about the future of our breed - if you want our numbers back - if harmony
matters - please give me some leeway while I attempt to toss out a few
theories and solutions.
I'd like to suggest we take a hard look at the word "mentor", and perhaps we
might start putting that word in action! A mentor can be defined several
different ways. "A wise and trusted guide and advisor" is a great one in
my opinion. That definition describes a person - the "noun". I have
mentors in many different areas of my life, and the world of purebred dogs
is no exception. There are certainly those wise souls I trust and who have
guided me and advised me when I needed the help. Now, as a new judge, I'm
relying on more and more of them than ever to assist me in my new
"profession." I am a hungry mentee and I'll find my way, but not without
their assistance.
I believe the word "mentor" is first and foremost a VERB. If we are a
mentor to others we should not think of that as a title, but rather a CALL
TO ACTION. If we ACT as guides and advisors, we need to budget some time
and energy for the newcomer or the "not-so-new-but-on-new-ground" people in
our sport.
Mentors and mentees, In my opinion the following verbs apply to our Clubs'
needs right now.
Attract
Orient
Educate
Train
Coach
Retain
Attracting new members includes all the important elements of Marketing. I
do not specialize in that field but I know enough to agree with Barb and
others who are calling for more advertising, more activities, more awareness
of our wonderful German Shepherd Dog. One way some breeders do this over
and over is when they promote their local and/or national club to new puppy
buyers. Keep that up - those new people will one day lead our Clubs and
will work to better our breed!
Check out the great definitions of the verb "orient". I like this one - "to
direct toward the interests of a particular group." Once we attract new
people, we need to expose them to the wonders of our German Shepherd Dog
world. Herding, search and rescue, protection, conformation, obedience,
rally, agility, companion dog and BEST FRIEND. Our breed is versatile and
it is strong and it is ATTRACTIVE and so we need to orient people on that
matter.
Supposing we have done so, and let's just say the newcomer is most
interested in handling in the conformation ring. Our next job as mentors
would be to "educate" that person - there's the Standard, the AKC/CKC
organizations, the rules and regulations, show entries, etc., etc. To take
people to the next step - to get them "trained" to do the job, we first need
invest our energy and time explaining what their role of handler is all
about. Encourage questions, generate dialogue - ensure understanding. This
may sound methodical, and in many ways it is, but the purpose of education
is to endow the learner with knowledge, choices, and confidence! It also
has a softer side, does it? Taking this time with someone new tells them we
care - about our breed and about them.
Now the person we attracted and oriented has decided on handling her dog in
the show ring and has be educated on how it works in theory. She is
involved, she is enthused and she's maybe even decided to join the a local
breed club and our national one. We now need to give her the "training" to
do the job. We need to transfer the knowledge into a set of skills. That
could mean one-on-one handling classes, getting her together with local "dog
workouts" or scheduled conformation handling classes. From a trainee's
point of view, for success to prevail, it should be a matter of "tell me -
show me - let me - let me again - - give me feedback and let me again". So
if your mentee needs to learn how to show the dentition on her dog, explain
to her how you're going to do it, then do it, then let her do it a few
times, then give her feedback and let her do it again. Training is awesome
because it finally gets the mentee in motion. Likely our handler is
starting to feel a sense o
f belonging and kinship to the sport. Getting the trainee ready for her
first time in the ring is an awesome experience. Most of us have helped
someone do this, haven't we. Mentorship has it's rewards.
"Coaching" is it the next level. Think of it as taking a person to a point
of optimal performance. Our same handler who is now our fellow-member, and
who is trained and experienced in the ring might still want to improve. A
good coach will observe the handler in the ring and have a positive, private
conversation later. That discussion should include plenty of input from the
handler, focus primarily on what is going well and offer one or possible two
areas for improvement.
If we do these actions well - if we proactively involve ourselves in the
lives of the less-experienced, are we not well on the way to "retaining"
them big time and full-time? If we are leading by example, are our mentees
not apt to become mentors too? Is this all measurable? Will our books
balance and our numbers rise? I believe the answer to all is "YES".
Our trusted leaders who are working hard to solve our current crisis need
our support - our respect and our ACTION. Ultimately the future of our
breed will not be directed by 10 or 20 people. It will need to be a
grassroots effort and we all need to be in motion.
If Barb Williams is right (I believe she is) then we should look to our
Board as just one part of the body - in her analogy she gave them the role
of the head/brain. We asked them to lead us and guide us in the right
direction. The rest of the body - the arms - the legs - the torso - the
parts that MOVE the body - the parts that DO the work is the rest of
us....are you one of "us"?
Jack Kilgour
"mentee" of MANY in search of a few more
"mentor" to a few in search of MANY more
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POST is Copyrighted 2011. All material remains the property of the original
author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind
are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the
Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Each Author is responsible for the content of his/her post. This group and its
administrators are not responsible for the comments or opinions expressed in
any post.
ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY
MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS
PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY
FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE
PROSECUTED.
For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxx
VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://showgsd.org
SUBSCRIPTION:http://showgsd.org/mail.html
NATIONAL BLOG - http://gsdnational.blogspot.com/
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