4. Mentoring Groups

Running your mentoring group

This module covers guidance on running your mentoring group. It includes:

  • Goals for your group
  • How the Stitch team will help you set up your group
  • Agendas for each of your first 4 group meetings
  • How to answer questions from Pioneers

Goals for your group

We are much more concerned that you and the Pioneers in your group find the experience of the Pioneer Program enriching and rewarding, than meeting any specific measurable targets or goals.

Having said that, some of the things that will indicate that your Pioneer Group has been a success are:

After the first month, all Pioneers in the group will have:

  • Posted at least 3 Activity Suggestions
  • Posted a “kickoff” activity for their local community
  • Reached out to local members to encourage them to get involved

 After the second month, Pioneers in your group will have:

  • Set up a recurring monthly activity for the local community
  • Created other activities based on their own interests

By the third month, the Pioneers in your group should have:

  • Earned their Community Champion badges after organizing 3 activities
  • Encouraged other members to post and suggest events and activities

And finally, by the fourth month, the measures of success to look for include:

  • The Pioneers in the group decide to keep the group running, using it to provide support and encouragement to each other as they continue to nurture their own local communities
  • You feel the experience has been enjoyable and has given you a chance to build new connections

Setting up your group

The Stitch team will be responsible for the initial setup of your group. Here is how the process will work:

  1. You’ll tell us your preferred time & day of the month time for your Mentoring Group, as well as what date you want to start. (For example: third Sunday of the month at 4:30pm starting in June; first Monday of the month at 8pm starting in July; etc)
  2. Stitch will create the Mentoring Group as a Private Group on Stitch, and assign you as the owner
  3. Stitch will list your group in the list of “Upcoming Groups” we provide to Pioneers who register for the program.
  4. Pioneers will choose whichever Mentoring Group suits them the best
  5. Stitch will inform you when a Pioneer chooses your group, so with instructions on how to assign them to the group
  6. You schedule your first Mentoring Meeting for the date you specified

What to cover in your first meeting

  • Introduce yourself & outline your own experiences on Stitch (10 mins)
  • Ask each Pioneer to introduce themselves, talk about their background and what they hope to get from Stitch (30 mins)
  • Review the “First month tasks” they should aim to complete in the next month, as outlined in Module 3 (10 mins)
  • Q&A (10 mins)

What to cover in your second meeting

  • General welcome & social chit-chat (5 mins)
  • Ask each Pioneer to recap how they went over the past month, general discussion (25 mins)
  • Share any info Stitch has given you about progress of the program, outcomes, guidance, etc (10 mins)
  • Review the “Second month tasks” they should aim to complete in the next month, as outlined in Module 3 (10 mins)
  • Q&A (10 mins)

What to cover in your third meeting

 

  • General welcome & social chit-chat (5 mins)
  • Ask each Pioneer to recap how they went over the past month, general discussion (25 mins)
  • Share any info Stitch has given you about progress of the program, outcomes, guidance, etc (10 mins)
  • Review the “Month 3 tasks” they should aim to complete in the next month, as outlined in Module 3 (10 mins)
  • Q&A (10 mins)

What to cover in your fourth & final meeting

 

  • General welcome & social chit-chat (5 mins)
  • Ask each Pioneer to recap how they went over the past month, general discussion (15 mins)
  • Share any info Stitch has given you about progress of the program, outcomes, guidance, etc (20 mins)
  • Discuss next steps plans for the group (10 mins)
  • Q&A (10 mins)

Answering questions

You should expect that you’re going to get a lot of questions from Pioneers about Stitch as part of the program. While that’s a big part of being a mentor and making them feel supported and encouraged, the goal is for you to focus your energies on being a mentor, not in providing general technical support to other members.

In general, the sorts of questions you should expect to answer (with help from the Stitch team, where necessary), include those which relate to:

  • The Pioneer Program itself
  • Advice about running events and activities
  • Advice about growing the community
  • Advice about motivating and dealing with other members in your local community
  • The Stitch Community in general

The sorts of questions you should not expect to answer include those which relate to:

  • Technical questions about the Stitch web site or app
  • Guidance about how to use Stitch
  • Pricing or membership plans
  • Bug reports or defects
  • Asking you to escalate an issue to Stitch Support or a member of the Stitch team
For any questions that fall into those categories, please ask them to Contact Stitch via the More menu inside Stitch. 

Congratulations, you’ve made it to the end of Module 4! Please move on to Module 5 when you’re ready.