NCRS Mentoring Program

[John M.]

Re: Flt. cars for Texas Regional

I was one of those Mobile OJs with Dave and John.
Tagged along more for new C4 knowledge rather than points.
It was one of my best OJ experiences in 23 years of NCRS membership!

[Tom R.]

Re: Flt. cars for Texas Regional

John Marsico (another educator) and I judged together in Mobile. We had two OJs that stayed with John and I for all 5 cars because John and I included them in what we were doing. They didn't just hold the clipboard. Any judge that is working with OJs needs to think of himself as (and act as) a mentor. Because that is exactly what he is.

I judge chassis and when we have an OJ, they are crawling under the car and looking at items to be assessed. I attempt to stay one step ahead and direct them, if missed to what I'm seeing. I'm asking them questions and to me that's the mentoring process. Like others, I've served in roles as educator, trainer and facilitator and work to see some critical thinking. However, as noted above, this takes time and works when the workload isn't eight cars.

To me OJ is your mentoring program. If its not working as is, then its as Terry suggests that the skill set among those charged with overseeing an OJ are lacking the prerequisite skills. I believe I'm agreeing with Dave on this.

[Michael J.]

Re: Flt. cars for Texas Regional

A good point Tom, and yes I think the idea is that there are judges you don't want being mentors to OJs or any others. So they must be selected carefully.

[Ed H.]

Re: Flt. cars for Texas Regional

To all that have replied to this thread. First, I would like to know who and when was this board formed or appointed. How would those of us who have an idea, that might take a different tack, but possibly an exciting one, to the COMMITTY OR APPOOINTED MEMBERS, who could listen, digest, then evaluate an idea and working plan. I feel the board needs to be transparent on a matter that effects those of us in the judging field. I have spent many K honing my skills as have my fellow Master/Red hat judges. We all take pride in our efforts to judge and have our Corvettes judged. Next year I will place my last Corvette on a judging field, this due to the fact the good lord has my timecard in his or her hand and won't be too long before it gets punched. Stay safe, keep your head town, your powder dry, it has become a jungle out there.

[Terry M.]

Re: Flt. cars for Texas Regional

Michael & Tony
What you have heard is where that program is at. We are still feeling our way with it, and as we find changes are needed we will implement them. There isn't much organization because we want the flexibility to make changes as needed. As such the programs hasn't grown very much. It will be implemented at Regional and national meets so it grows slowly since there are few of those events each year..

I am not sure that even when it has grown to the point that the program is as firm as it will be that a curriculum and syllabus will ever work. My thought is we need the flexibility to meet the participants at whatever level they come to us, but the steering committee will have the decision in those kinds of matters. My teaching experience is in a far less structured environment than either of you so perhaps I carry that bias with me. I have never had a firm program for the Advanced Judging Seminar and it seems to have worked well over the years, but then someone else might work better in a more structured environment.

We are working at the mentoring program and it will continue. So far the participants seem to receive it well, and that is most important.

Please note this above post I made two days ago. That, in a broad brush way, explains some of the focus. The program is still under development. Please note that it is still being developed. I will say it again: IT IS STILL BEING DEVELOPED.

Until the program has developed to the point that a presentation can be made to the National Judging Chairman and the Board of Directors there is no reason to make all this public. A small group can be more flexible and react to ideas more quickly. I now regret my earlier posts because all the ideas that have been put forward in this thread have already been debated by the Ad Hoc committee. All this thread has served is to get many pants in a wad for no good purpose. I know y'all think you have new ideas, and write eloquently for those ideas, but we have been there already.

As Tony told you, the original focus was those who have already achieved a level of judging and the thought was to use a mentor system to improve their judging skills. When this proposal was presented to several Team Leaders in an informal way the feedback was negative with concerns on the part of those Team Leaders regarding the time it would take to judge cars if a judge was mentoring someone.

I was personally sympathetic to that point of view from my own experience at several chapter meets several years ago where I was asked to do essentially that. To say it was a disaster in terms of time is an understatement, and my observation after it was over is that the mentorees did not get a significant amount of knowledge from the experience. However, the killer for that idea was the opinions of the Team Leaders that were approached.

At that point Tony missed some meetings due to his workload and at the same time our focus shifted to new people and away from the more moderately experienced judge -- that is, away from someone already on the judging track. We tried to set up a system that wouldn't interfere with judging. That system is still in an experimental stage and is, in my opinion, not yet ready for prime time. My personal hope is that if the work with the newbies can progress over the years that everyone is comfortable with it (just like everyone is now comfortable with the Advanced Judging Seminar) a mentoring program can be developed for people already on the judging track. I believe that progress will take a long time. A dear friend who has passed used to say: "The Team Leader wants a deep bench." He was right years ago, and I believe that thought is still right. We can develop that deep bench. We just have to figure out how to do that with the least upset to the judging system.

[Don H.]

Re: Flt. cars for Texas Regional

Very well put Terry.