All You Ever Wanted to Know about Mentoring!
Thanks to the dedication and hard work of a Soroptimist dream team, SIE will soon publish a comprehensive Mentoring Handbook to be available for download from the Member Area of the SIE website. The launch date is set for the week of the Governors’ Meeting on 26-27 May 2018. Under the leadership of SIE Vice President in charge of Mentoring, Verena von Tresckow-Bronke, SI Germany, the SIE Task Force responsible for this ambitious project consists of Gabriele Kössler, SI Austria; Saija Kuusisto-Lancaster, SI Finland; Katrien Wayenberg, SI Germany; Simone Polfer, SI Luxembourg; Elena Savu, SI Romania; Anna Rosenqvist, SI Sweden and Nur Çağlar, SI Turkey. SIE Scholarship Chair 2017-2019 Maria Luisa Frosio, SI Italy, and SIE Communications Officer Christine Cromwell-Ahrens acted as consultants.
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The SIE Mentoring Handbook will soon be available for download from the SIE website. Mentoring is a tool to help young women move up the career ladder.
Already in the 2015-2017 biennium with its “Soroptimists Invest in Education” theme, Scholarship Committee member Elena Savu was tasked with analysing existing mentoring programmes in various Unions and developing a strategy for the Federation. A survey was conducted as part of the basic research. The results showed the clear need and interest in greater efforts to boost and promote mentoring as a key component in Federation activities. To gain a broader base of expertise for this project, the Unions were asked to nominate candidates for an SIE Task Force. Thus, the dream team was born!
SIE President 2017-2019 Renata Trottmann Probst is equally committed to mentoring objective as part of her biennium theme, “Soroptimists Stand Up for Women”. She put SIE Vice President Verena, herself a former mentor, in charge of the Task Force, and work began on the ambitious project to draft a Mentoring Handbook. After several GoTo meetings and a get-together in Frankfurt, the Task Force has produced a comprehensive set of guidelines on how to initiate a mentoring programme, based on the vast experience of the experts. It also offers practical tips for mentors and mentees. Readers will gain a clear understanding not only of what mentoring is, but also its benefits.
SIE Scholarship recipient Simona Fitcal volunteered to do the graphic design of the Handbook, and what a masterful job she has done! Special thanks go to Elena Savu for her untiring coordination of the written contributions.
The result is a Handbook which will not only provide additional support to existing mentoring programmes, but also inspire other Unions to take the leap! There is indeed something for everyone in this manual. And the benefits of mentoring are indisputable: the programmes raise awareness of our organisation, especially among young women, thus offering recruiting possibilities. In addition, mentoring programmes strengthen our network of professional women.
The next step will be to build a database of mentors who will be available for cross-border mentoring. But the best news is that the committed and enthusiastic Task Force members will continue as ambassadors for the cause!!