With your stack of mentor and mentee applications in hand, you are ready to enter into the selection and matching process.

Application Review

Selection

Matching

Finalizing the Matches

Escape Clause

Application Review

First review each application to make sure that you have all the information you have requested. Applications should be screened for preliminary acceptance into the program based on the applicant's readiness, potential and suitability for participation.

If an applicant leaves key sections blank, or does not lead you to feel that they have a clear sense of the program's purpose and goals as well as their own purpose and goals for participation, you will need to decide if you want to request further information or disqualify them. It is recommended that you talk with those that you feel have promise but whose applications may not show their best selves. These may be just the type of participants who could benefit most. You may also choose to conduct additional phone interviews with candidates, depending on the number of applicants and your available resources. This is often helpful for gathering additional information. Some candidates may not answer the questions well in written format, and may provide significant and helpful information through a personal discussion. In the end you will need to select those candidates who show the greatest readiness and commitment. The IAA conducted both the written application and oral interview processes for their candidates.

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Selection

Secondary screening should be aimed at determining how the applicants' expressed needs can be met within the available pool. If you find that there are applicants that you do not feel you can place, it is better to inform them that a "suitable match is not available at this time" than to force a match that is not likely to work. Remember that being successful in one's career does not automatically make one a good mentor. Conversely, all emerging or mid-career professionals do not make good mentees. Those mentors or mentees who appear ridged in their expectations, unable to flow with the matching process or judgmental with regards to persons of a different generation, working in different arts disciplines or particular organizations, may not be the most open to this kind of professional development experience.

IAA has a stated selection criterion that they can use internally as well as include on the mentor/mentee applications. Thus, applicants can fully understand how their application will be reviewed as well as know that a limited number of participants will be selected. In addition to the individual criteria, IAA strives to ensure that the participant pool encompasses a balanced representation of artistic disciplines, organizational size, gender and race/ethnicity.

Mentor Criteria

• Demonstrated willingness and ability to prioritize and cultivate a mentoring relationship;
  
  
• Demonstrated commitment to the field of arts administration; and
  
  
• Ability to meet the stated needs of mentee applicant pool.
  
  

Mentee Criteria

• Demonstrated readiness for an intensive, one-on-one learning opportunity;
  
  
• Clarity of stated need for such an opportunity;
  
  
• Demonstrated willingness and ability to prioritize and cultivate a mentoring relationship; and
  
  
• Demonstrated commitment to the field of arts administration.

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Matching

With your select pool of applicants in place, it is time to pair your partners. There are several different ways to match mentors and mentees.

• Allow mentees to identify with whom, from a list of available mentors, they would like to be paired;
  
  
• Allow mentors to select top three choices from the list of mentees, with a staff person or committee making the final decision;
  
  
• Allow mentors and mentees to have access to applications and allow them to make their selections;
  
  
• Have mentor and mentees meet in a group session that allows them to get to know each other - they can provide feedback about possible matches that can be reviewed and considered with staff making the final decision; and
  
  
• Staff or a selection committee reviews all applicants and makes the selections with no input from participants.
  
  

There are no right ways to implement the matching process. Identifying a method that is comfortable for you and your committee is the key. IAA's planning committee developed a strategy that incorporates several of these practices*:

1. Interested individuals complete the full program applications;
   
   
2. Using stated criteria, IAA staff and a small working group from the mentoring committee narrows applicant pool to maximum 40 mentors and 40 mentees;
   
   
3. Selected applicants are notified and asked to attend orientation/training session;
   
   
4. IAA staff creates one page profiles of all mentor and mentee candidates that includes the following information from the applications:
   

• Name, but no contact data;
  
  
• Number of years in the current position and years in arts administration field;
  
  
• Work history with titles, years held and organizations;
  
  
• Five words that best describe the applicant;
  
  
• Strengths; and
  
  
• Areas for improvement (mentees only);
  
  
• What they expect from a mentoring partner; and
  
  
• What they hope to get out of the program.
  
  

5. These profile sheets are made available to participants at an orientation. Using the profiles and the information they gather about one another from the orientation, they are asked to create a "Top Five List" that includes:
   

• Their top five mentor or mentee choices from the profiles; and
  
  
• An explanation for each choice, i.e. "Why they are the best match for me."
  
  

6. Once the preferences are submitted, the staff and organizing committee completes the matches with sensitivity to the preferences. Mentee's choices get first priority, mentors have second priority. The organizing committee matches those that are left, using information from the applications such as goals and expectations as their criteria. The IAA staff and organizing committee reserve the right to override requests if they feel there is strong reason to pair participants differently.
   
   
7. The matched participants are notified and given contact information. They are instructed to make their first meeting within two to three weeks.
   
   
8. The IAA staff checks in with each participant three to four weeks after match is made.
   
   

You may need to explain to the participants or others how you made the matches and you must feel that your process is sound, fair and easily understood. It is also important for them to understand that that we do not always learn the most from people who are exactly like us. Sometimes, the most knowledge can be gained from someone we might consider our opposite.

If you choose not to allow mentees to make their own selections or if the organizing committee will not to be guided by their preferences, you will need to agree on a strategy that fits within your needs. This can be done through a pairing of those who have complementary goals and purposes for participation as well as mentors with experience that could be most beneficial to mentees, based on his or her stated needs.

It must also be said that some part of the pairing process is intuitive. Having knowledge of the community and those who work in it can be very helpful for knowing who might make a good match based on the applicant information and personal interviews. This process is first and foremost about creating a relationship between two people who seek to gain something through the exchange of ideas, experience and information. There are no formulas to ensure a perfect match.

Ultimately the most successful matches are between people who share similar goals, desired outcomes and values and whose expectations for the program participation are aligned. The first step towards accomplishing this is to be sure that the matching process has been implemented in a way that connects those with similar expectations, goals and desired outcomes. Keep in mind that some of these outcomes will be intrinsic rather than overtly measurable. A careful application and interview phase should help make identifying congruencies easier.

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Finalizing the Matches

Once the matches are made, each member of a suggested pair should be asked to formally accept the match before it is finalized. This could include the exchange of summarized information about the person with whom one is matched and some specific notes about why the particular match was made. For example:

You have been matched with Joe Smith, Executive Director of The Main Street Repertory Theatre. Joe has had significant experience throughout his career with your first priority goal, board development and recruitment. In addition, you share a commitment to finding creative solutions to administrative challenges and sharing open lines of communication.

Allow each participant to discuss the match with you or an appropriate member of the organizing committee before they accept it. Sometimes someone who is unhappy with the choice initially can feel more confident when the selection process and the reasons for the match are explained. If the participant is unwilling to accept a match, you may have to ask them to apply in a future program period if there are no other available and appropriate matches for this year.

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Escape Clause

While you hope that every match you make results in a state of pure mentoring bliss, it is important to realize that sometimes the chemistry just is not there. There should always be an option for a participant to ask for a no-fault separation from his or her mentoring partner. When this happens:

• Remind your concerned participant that we often have the most to learn from people who are our opposites - whether in personal style, educational background or another arena.
  
  
• Encourage pairs to consider this and to discuss their reasons for wanting to end the partnership with each other in a constructive manner and to work toward a resolution together first. Be prepared however to facilitate this process if necessary.
  
  
• Facilitators will need to decide how to handle partners who decide to end their relationship before the end of the program period. You may choose to attempt re-matching both partners if the separation occurs within the early stages of the program and if appropriate matches are available.
  
  

*Because the number of mentor applicants was lower than expected for the pilot year of IAA's program, members of the planning committee identified likely mentors based on the stated needs of selected mentee applicants. When mentors were recruited, they were informed which mentee we wished to match them with and why. If the mentor expressed interest in participating, mentees were then notified and asked to approve the match.

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