Thank you for taking the time to visit this page and see what being a mentor is all about. We are always happy to have new members join our team and we look forward to working with you. This page is designed to give you a little bit of information about what is involved in being a mentor, what your duties are, and some general guidelines that we have for our mentoring program.

Sometimes it's easy to forget when you're facing a computer screen that the people you are interacting with are actually real people somewhere. So if you make the choice to become a mentor and undertake to help our new guild members, it is important to keep in mind that it is a commitment you are making. You cannot agree to help them and then forget about them.

Becoming a Mentor

1. Rank of Apprentice. We require you to have a guild rank of apprentice or higher as a demonstration that you are familiar enough with guild rules and operations to advance yourself in rank. It's important that you are able to help new guild members learn the guild rules, and this shows us you are able.
   
   
2. Reminders. You cannot have received a reminder from guild monitors within the previous month. If you have, you are still more than welcome to submit an application, but we will put it on hold until you have been reminder free for a month. We realize that sometimes reminders are given for pure accidents, but in the best interests of our new members we need to make sure the people they are assigned to help them learn the rules are capable of following the rules themselves :o)
   
   
3. Time. The time requirement for being a mentor varies depending upon the needs of a given mentee. It is essential that you be able to check in at the VERY least every other day, but preferably daily. You should be able to spend anywhere from 5 to 60 minutes at a time helping to explain questions.
   
   
4. Patience. Patience is essential to this mission :o) Most newbies are lost and confused and not even always sure of which questions to ask to find out what they are trying to know. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries at explaining things in order to get the point across, and you have to be able to not lose patience or get frustrated with them.

We reserve the right to place your application on hold or to refuse it outright, but YOU always have the right to ask us why we have done so, and we will be more than happy to explain.
The Mentoring Process

Once you are accepted as a mentor, we create a file in our records with your user name and the information you provide to us. Only the academy staff sees the information. When we have a mentee show up on our doorstep looking for a mentor, we will look at the information they provide us with and try to pair them with someone of the same gender, age group and time zone, if at all possible.

You are under no obligation to accept a mentee that we send you. We will send you a neomail that includes the new member's information and ask if you are able to take him or her on. If for some reason you are unable to mentor that particular person (due to perhaps a gender difference, age difference, personal disagreements, etc.), feel free to say so. We would rather assign new members to someone who would feel more at ease helping them than put both you and them in an uncomfortable position.

IMPORTANT:

1. When we send you a mentee's information, we will wait only 3 days (72 hours) for you to respond saying whether or not you are able to take them on before we will reassign them to someone else. Therefore, it is very important that you let us know as soon as possible either way. Three days is a long time to wait for someone who has no clue what they are doing. Our goal is to keep new members from getting into trouble, and we can't do that if they are stuck waiting for a mentor.
   
   
2. For the same reason, it is very important that you let us know if you are going to be away. Then we will know not to send mentees your way until you are there to receive the neomail. When you don't tell us you are away, it wastes three days in which a new guild member is waiting for someone to help them when they should not have to be waiting.
   So, if for some reason you were unable to tell us you would be away, or you simply did not, if you have a neomail from us regarding a mentee, always check to make sure you've not received another neomail telling you not to contact them, as we do not want them to be confused by having more than one person write to say they have been assigned as a mentor.

Once you agree to take on a mentee, there are several things that you need to do:

1. Introduce yourself. You need to send a neomail to your mentee and introduce yourself and let them know that you have been assigned as their mentor. Encourage them to send any questions they may have to you.
   
   
2. Respond. Try to respond to your mentee's neomails as soon as possible. Many are patient individuals and will write to you and then wait until you respond. However, sometimes impatience can get the better of them and they will post their questions on the board if they do not receive a response in a reasonable amount of time.
   
   
3. Watch the Board. You need to watch the guild boards. You don't have to read everything but skim for your mentee's name. If you see them having trouble or asking questions on the board please remind them that they should ask you. Explain the trouble and help them correct it or answer their question. If you are unable to answer a question, let us know and we'll help you.
   
   
4. Inform. It's important that you don't simply wait for your mentee to come to you with questions. Assistant_Dean's petpage contains a lot of information that most new members are not aware of. So instead of waiting for them to come to you, take the first step. Ask them about different areas.
   
   
5. Contact. If you are not in regular contact with your mentee, make it a point to send them a check up neomail at least once a week. Sometimes they are shy about contacting you, or feel they may be bugging you with too many questions. A little note just to say hi and ask them how they are doing, what they're up to, and if they need help with anything can make you feel more approachable. Do not simply assume that because they are not writing to you that they don't need help. Never tell your mentee that you are too busy for them as that will discourage them from contacting you.
   
   
6. Report. If you have tried contacting your mentee 3 times or more and they have been unresponsive, if they have left the guild, or if they have told you that they feel they are okay to go it solo, please let us know :o) We send out monthly mentoring reports to collect this information, but you do not need to wait for the mentoring report. We enjoy hearing from our mentors and learning how they are doing and receiving comments and suggestions on the mentoring program.

Absences
We know that neopets is a game, and like all games, people require a break from it every now and then. This is more than fine, but it is EXTREMELY important that you let us know if you are going on vacation, are not going to be on neopets, or will be without internet access. You have a person who is relying on you to help them learn their way around and it is extremely inconsiderate to just disappear on them. So this is what should happen if you are going to be away (3 days or more):

1. Contact Us. Write to us and let us know when you are leaving, and when you are going to be back (if you know) We will make a note of it on our calendar.
   
   
2. Contact your mentee. Write to your mentee to let them know that you are going to be going away. Let them know that they can send any questions they have in the meantime to booklovers_academy, and that you will contact them when you get back.
   
   
3. Let everyone know when you get back. Neomail us as well as your mentee when you get back and you can resume mentoring them.

If we know you're going to be away we can make sure your mentee is looked after. If you don't tell anyone, they simply think they are being ignored. So please exercise a little bit of consideration.

IMPORTANT: We regularly check to see the availability of our mentors. If you have not told us that you were going to be away, and we see your lookup says that you have not been seen in 10† days, you will receive a neomail from us. We know that the "last seen" counter only resets itself when you log out of and back into your account. So we will send you a neomail to see if you are indeed around Neopia. If we receive no response, your mentees will be reassigned to new mentors and you will be removed from our mentoring program, and you will have to reapply at a later date. Again, this is not something that is personal - we merely have to act in the best interests of our new members to ensure they are receiving the help they require.

Graduation
Sometimes your mentee will let you know that they think they've learned enough and are ready to go it on their own. Or they will simply stop asking as many questions and you can write to them to ask if they feel they are good to go on their own. Under NO circumstances should you ever TELL your mentee that they are ready to graduate. They will either come to it on their own, or they will lose interest and disappear. You should always make yourself available to help them out in the future, even after they are graduated.

Once again, thank you for your interest in the Academy's Mentoring Program. We are proud of the time and effort that all our mentors put into helping new guild members. We do have high standards, but upholding them gives us the ability to hold our heads high and say with pride that we have one BRILLIANT team of mentors. We always welcome questions, comments, or other feedback that anyone has about our mentoring program.

~The Academy Crew