Mentor/Mentee Program

[sdoebler]

I'm heading up our mentor program for the coming season. Wondering if other areas have similar programs? Essentially all new officials are encouraged to get a mentor and volunteer to receive one. We then solicit current referees for volunteers to be mentors. We have a focus on officials in our "New officials class" prepping to take the test for the first time and work their first season.

Some things that we are doing
1. Pairing new officials and mentor geographically as to make it easier to get together
2. Laying out expectations from both parties, including feedback communication and encouraging rules knowledge and solid mechanics. Also on the mentee side reaching out frequently as you can only get out what you put in.
3. Working with assignors to pair mentee lower level games with mentor varsity games for observation and feedback.
4. Offering the program to current officials who feel they could use a mentor to advance. While the reception maybe low I think that these folks would be very engaged.

We are all pretty aware of the new officials attrition rates and want to do what we can to mitigate this in our association. Interested to hear if there are other programs like this and how they work. What works well what does not work? Open to other ideas to make the program the best for all parties involved.