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Contributed by Frank Thorogood

The Oxford dictionary defines a mentor as an “experienced and trusted advisor”.

Almost all people have an instinctive fear of public speaking.
It takes courage to join a club, but then a new member is faced with a whole series of procedures and rituals used to conduct club meetings and complete the training program.
This can seem overwhelming to new members but has become routine for the more experienced.
Therefore, club mentoring's basic role is for the more experienced members to “hold the new member’s hand”, explain anything unclear to them, and be available to advise and help them as and when needed, including outside of club meetings.

The greatest problem is to match mentors with mentees. This is particularly true in newer clubs.

Here are a few suggestions for a successful club mentoring program:

• The club committee should compile a list of possible mentors. These should be the more experienced members, or, even if new to the club, those with some experience in public speaking, teaching, etc., or have shown particular ability to understand the club’s functions and objectives.
• Having obtained the potential mentors’ agreement, the VP of membership should prepare and maintain a list showing the mentors and their mentees, with a maximum of three mentees per mentor.
• This list should be given to each new member on his entry into the club, and they should choose their mentor from those still available on the list, even if after waiting for a few meetings to get to know them.
• Mentor and mentee should exchange telephone numbers and email addresses and link up on modern communication methods such as Facetime, Whatsapp, Skype, etc.

They can meet socially where the mentor can explain simply the educational program and the club procedures and duties and answer any questions.
Subsequently, the mentor remains available at the mentee's delicate moments, such as their first speech, correction of language, etc.

However, the new member should not become completely reliant on the mentor and should make an effort to understand the training program and the various members’ roles using the material available.