Adviser Mentor Program
Receiving advice when you need it is a good thing. Being the one to give the advice is a good thing, too. Walsworth’s Adviser Mentor Program takes the art of giving and receiving advice and brings it to yearbooks.
Each year, hundreds of teachers are faced with the new task of creating a yearbook for their school. These new yearbook advisers often struggle with getting started, finding students to help or staying calm when it feels like there are a million things to do.
While the Walsworth Yearbooks sales rep is the frontline resource for the new adviser by helping with staff training, setting a budget and assisting with deadline submissions, sometimes turning to someone who is doing what you are doing, and has the advantage of having done it successfully, can be an encouraging shoulder to lean on.
The Adviser Mentor Program is about matching experienced yearbook advisers (the mentors) – the ones who have successfully created a yearbook – with yearbook adviser rookies (the mentees) as a way to offer the rookies additional support, camaraderie and wisdom.
The role of the adviser mentors isn’t to replace the sales rep, but to complement the reps’ vital role by offering their unique perspective and love for yearbooks on topics such as:
- Working with the school’s administration
- Grading
- Dealing with parents
- Knowing when encouragement and a calming voice are needed
Are you a new adviser looking to receive advice?
Contact your Walsworth Yearbooks sales rep and asked to be matched with a mentor.
Are you an experienced adviser looking to give advice?
Before saying, “Yes,” here are the requirements:
- A current Walsworth Yearbooks customer
- Three years or more of yearbook advising experience
- Willing to make one contact each month with your mentee – a contact can be a telephone call, email, text message or a chat over coffee
- Commit to be a mentor for the entire 2016-2017 school year
If you meet these requirements, contact your Walsworth Yearbooks sales rep letting them know you are willing to help.
Walsworth will provide mentors with resources such as the bi-weekly Mentor Minute email, which will contain tips, ideas and suggestions.
Mentors will also receive exclusive access to Jim Jordan, award-winning and nationally recognized adviser from Del Campo High School in Fair Oaks, California. Jim knows yearbooks and he knows how to be an effective mentor as a result of running successful mentorship programs in the past. Plus, mentors will probably pick up a nugget or two of wisdom from Jim.
Walsworth mentors may use the title Walsworth Adviser Mentor on official correspondence such as business cards and email signatures. Mentors also will be recognized in our Idea File magazine and on our website and social media channels.
Advice is free, but it’s never cheap when it is given with care and received with enthusiasm.
