Synthesis
This synthesis reflects participants' small group discussions during the Summer 2024 CLASP GRANTED convening.
Participants in this paired summer convening discussed ideas around CLASP affinity groups and mentoring, including a priority list of the structures for each. Discussions produced a list of resources and models for how CLASP could approach mentoring and affinity groups as well as what resources CLASP might need to provide.
The first hour-long convening focused on mentoring opportunities and the second meeting focused on affinity groups. There was overlap in ideas that were mentioned. Participants identified formal and informal ideas for topics, design, and audiences. Participants identified Coffee Chats as a current mechanism for mentoring that could be built upon, perhaps some by having one or two per year that are dedicated to open time, 'no agenda' meetings, that allow participants to socialize and discuss issues they're dealing with at the moment, as well as a couple 'new-member onboarding' meetings, with groups coming together to brainstorm on a topic, perhaps led with presentations by experts and followed with discussion. Affinity groups could also spin off of Coffee Chat topics, where applicable. In addition, there is a plethora of expertise in the CLASP community as well as in the Collaboratory, but these are often difficult to navigate, particularly for newcomers. Often our offices work in isolation, but a directory of members and their expertise that could be used for others to reach out to could not only tap into this expertise, but also help to build community.
In terms of structure, a 1:1 mentoring structure could be difficult to set up and manage. Alternative suggestions were to make mentoring and/or affinity groups around geographic region (state, region), institution types, and/or around particular identities. These could be collected via a survey. While groups formed around these characteristics would be helpful, it was also noted that the group should be careful not to inadvertently create silos.
In addition, a program to help onboard newcomers could be helpful - topics for this group could include introducing the Collaboratory (and how to use it), and other resources such as programming (e.g. Coffee Chats) and the listserv, which might also make them less intimidating. An onboarding process for mentors/leaders with a set of guidelines and best practices for mentoring could be provided. Making the Collaboratory easier to navigate would be helpful. Also, in terms of logistics, a website, a Zoom room (or other meeting software), a dedicated calendar with meetings/events, and an inventory of members with their/their institution's characteristics would be helpful tools to help organize and implement meetings. A suggestion was also made for utilizing retirees as mentors or to help with logistics.
Formal
- Someone was part of a women's mentoring group that had people sign-up to be mentors or mentees.
- Another person did the NORDP mentoring program, but there were challenges in terms of the match and the mentees needed as a PUI.
- There are also challenges in recruiting mentors with the expertise to meet an individual mentee needs. Group mentoring might be a better format?
- The expectations and intensity of 1:1 mentoring can be a lot for the people involved. Is there a lower intensity model that would work better for CLASP members? Group mentoring.
- A 'higher tier' of one-on-one mentoring might be available for someone who needs more hands-on help
- sorting potential matches by institutional type
- matching people by state so they can discuss state by state opportunities
- there should be onboarding for mentoring - onboarding expectations - setting up X meetings and these are the topics - structure in the beginning, and let it be organic after
Informal
- Annual in-person meetings allow for themed conversation groups and building relationships, (we could use the breakfast table format to help form groups around similar interests/)
- Coffee-talks could be used for a "new-member" orientation once or twice a year.
- getting to know people; develop community
- Community of practices around specific topics. Affinity groups based on job type or institution type or geographic region (state) etc. This might be structured in a way that is less intense for the mentors.
- Regional meetings
- 'No agenda' meetings for people to shoot the breeze and get to know each other without a very structured format. If we know each other we can lean on each other (as we have time) to answer questions and get help. Could be regional or other affinity groups
- Listserv works less well for some new people because it is big and intimidating.
- People who are new to CLASP - one kind of mentoring - how listserv works, how Collaboratory works, Coffee Talks, help orient people into how things work, to help people get involved from the start, those who are brand new. It's a bit of a challenge to understand this group when people are new
- regional meetings good idea, but hard to get off the ground due to distance - perhaps a few zooms is enough to create community on a local/regional level
- forming workgroups on certain policies - joining a group not just for the document but also for the community aspect
- networking and collaboration – with faculty, within SPO offices, between CLASP institutions
- There are a fair number of us who have operationalized our offices (needed structure and/or rebuilding and/or repair). Having peers to help you walk through that would be helpful.
- It could be great to have a place to have guidance for leadership as women in higher education / in your office / with faculty. What it means to be women in this helping position.
- There can be a sense of isolation in our work. Our work is so different from the rest of our institutional teams. Creating a sense of community to just shore each other up in a more structured way is an opportunity.
Other comments
- Someone mentioned the benefit or connecting with other CLASP members in the same geographic area. More comments in support of regional affinity groups/cohorts to provide additional support through CLASP.
- It could though be a can of worms to talk about identity. Either we go all the way or not at all. If it's not going to be an intersectional conversation, it might not be a good idea to go there at all. We do have a growing number of men too. Let's think through the complexities. Are we equipped yet? It might mean bringing in outside expertise.
- People could identify a long list - their expertise or what they bring to the table - there are mentoring platforms - survey that captures their expertise, ie someone whose been through a NSF desk audit - what are people's preferences - one on one or group - just a resource list? If someone receives interest from several people, they could turn into an adhoc group
- When you join, maybe there's a survey that puts you into buckets - e.g., MSIs, HSIs, etc. - so others know where you are. Part of survey could be identifying if you want to participate in mentoring/affinity groups.
- How to define "peer group" - could be more flexible - regional, MSIs, - people could move among a variety of options, if built into a structure to allow people to bounce in and out of groups - it's not one size fits all (flexible model)
What is already being done? Share resources and models of existing mentoring structures and resources (inside and outside of CLASP).
- CLASP is already doing great work through coffee-talks, maybe build on this
- Coffee talks are already happening that allow group mentoring on certain topics but also ad-hoc (some experts share, or groups come together to brainstorm on a topic)
- Breakfast tables at CLASP conferences for newcomers
- Formal 1:1 mentoring - One example: pipeline for NCURA leadership that involves both 1:1 and group mentoring monthly - is about leadership skills in general (not grants mgt skills) The Leadership Challenge - used as a model
- Informal mentoring - people reach out to trusted sources in CLASP off-list.
- Look at our institutions' attempts to have mentoring programs - there's a chemistry that may or may not work - allow mentoring to form organically?
What do you need from CLASP to further this work?
Infrastructure
- Need a way to identify mentors and mentees
- Some type of searchable database, or somewhere to put all the institutions, or how to find other places, for people who are new.
- A directory could be useful.
- The Collaboratory is hard to navigate
- Some scaffolding for new people to help them understand what they know and don't know to make it easier to figure out what to ask for in terms of topical help. Maybe a quick start guide to the job(s) to the Collaboratory etc. along with some norms and guidance about how to interact with the mentors.
Best practices
- Guidelines and suggestions for mentors about what their person might need and not know to ask for (or how to ask).
- Guidelines, suggestions, onboarding for mentors (maybe some sort of feedback to and about people who are going to continue mentoring new people?).
- Common resources for mentors, onboarding mentors so whoever is doing that mentor onboarding doesn't have to recreate the wheel each time the mentors turn over.
- A common language.
- Support to us become mentors - compensation, protections. Help to enter into the agreement with each other.
Other comments
- CLASP could be more proactive in reaching out to other institutions - reaching out to other people who aren't engaged.
- Maybe also a report back to our supervisors that legitimizes our time mentoring?
- There are also levels of mentorships - a phone call is different than a continuous relationship.
Convening 3.2 - Affinity Groups
What could affinity groups look like (e.g. themes/topics, who is involved, communication style/format/frequency, etc.)
Topics
- Professional development affinity group - share resumes, job descriptions
- Spin-off working groups from coffee-talk
- Affinity groups could be formed by types of office - but let's not silo people - sometimes connection and mentoring we want is outside of that box. It would be nice to know who the other hybrid offices are.
- affinity groups by office stage - based on the article that Amy C-S and Cara at Bowdoin wrote
- Interest in affinity group for CLASP members from underrepresented identities
- How to (carefully) talk about how CLASP people can influence DEI. Being sensitive to those who can and who cannot do this work depending on where they live and the institution type.
- State by state groups who can help navigate specific, place based, challenges and opportunities.
- Comparison to NORDP affinity groups: institutional type (PUIs, medical centers), subfield of work (humanities/arts/social sciences, honorifics), and embodied identity (RD pros who are immigrants, incoming group for LGBTQIA+ folks)
- Short-term groups aimed at tacking a particular challenge (as opposed to ongoing group)
- Retirees support current CLASP members as consultants or mentors or experts
- A group could also match new people with other new people for support.
Time/Structure
- It would be good to have a sense of structure and set times. That way people know when they can pop in.
- Some of these groups will form their own times - but maybe there's one set time where there are break-out rooms. Kind of like at conferences where there's a one-hour slot for specialized tables. It could be for urgent topics, while there might be a different structure for ongoing affinity groups (e.g., offices of one).
- Having a time could help with not being siloed.
- Two paths: a regular structured event ("breakfast tables"), but also a mechanism for activating something that's organic.
- Structure - it could feel restrictive - what if we developed something that's a lower scale version of the types of software that connects students with mentors, or students with alums? Even just an Excel spreadsheet? Where are the topics or spreadsheets where you could lend expertise, want to be part of a conversation, level of engagement.
- Another idea - there could be pop-up affinity groups, like there was with the Mellon affinity group.
Other comments
- Create a one or two-pager of parameters or guidelines on how to start an affinity group (longer term, informal groups) or working groups (shorter-term topical group) might encourage people to step up and start one.
- AirTable might be a good free tool to help organize lists of members to help identify experts, potential affinity group members, etc.
- part of the annual survey - asking for characteristics; based on replies - do we need one on one or groups; like Linked In where we note ideas/topics that we could present on
- Need to think about the number of groups that are offered--members can become burdened by trying to become a member of too many.
What resources would be needed from CLASP to make this work?
Matchmaking
- Sort out groups by registration - keep people together and make visible to each other
- Match new people with more seasoned people for learning (again with sorting) and setting the information about what the group is for.
- Group composition guidelines - not too hierarchical - anyone can join and "help".
- Coffee talks with a follow-on mechanism for a smaller community of practice to form and learn or do something together. Something topical and timely (the Evergreen State College calls these 'disappearing task forces' while the DTF acronym is problematic, the idea of a temporary group to do a specific thing is interesting.
Infrastructure
- Web structure or spot in Collaboratory to keep notes or discussion from the affinity groups, or lists of resources discussed or shared during affinity groups.
- Perhaps a CLASP zoom account
- Consistent calendaring to help people hold specific times - either for a structured meeting or for something that is emergent and timely
- CLASP becoming more of a formal structure so there's admin support to manage this data and other activities.
- Some kind of platform/file storage solution--could be connected to the Collaboratory. Useful for managing meeting agendas/minutes and documents/other artifacts generated by the groups.
- It would be really helpful to have a searchable CLASP membership list with name, position, school, location, etc. so people can search for others to invite to a group.
- This discussion has brought up the need to institute Dues or payment model to help fund this work long-term. This work is difficult without a high-functioning website and collaboratory structure.
- Pay and organize retirees to be able to come back and do things when people need it - temporary staffing, mentoring, asking, keeping a list of people who have retired who want to be available for.
- CLASP appointed people who can help a member/participant get help around a specific topic/need. "I need...X. Please help me figure out if this is most appropriate for a mentor conversation, a coffee talk, a listserv question or if I need to help organize a speaker around this.
Organizational
- Coffee talk organization - people who want something show up and the time unfolds depending on what people need so need the scheduling.
- Like idea of groups being organically derived from the membership's ideas, but want CLASP to provide messaging about the full program of affinity groups so that it's more cohesive (not individual leaders having to advocate for their group). This would also let us monitor groups and figure out what to sunset or what to expand.
- Thinking about what is formal and what is informal and how to sort out for people who are looking at the calendar what is informal/personal/private and what is more formal/recorded and available later.
- Help figuring out growth and planning for the bigger group.
- Codified group norms; guidance on creating small group norms. Clarifying the code of conduct.
- definitions of rules for the group--who takes notes, who facilitates, etc.
- Guidance for what meetings are going to be about supporting each other and allowing for frank, maybe vulnerable, conversations and what other ones are mostly about information transfer and are not private and could be recorded and watched later.
Other comments
- Links out to other PD groups or other organizations who have relevant resources - a way to daylight these opportunities for CLASP members, and maybe having people in those groups coming back to CLASP in some way to get that information back.
- Coffee talks happen twice a month. There is FOMO so people want to attend them. And also - it's already a lot of commitment to go to these, so CLASP needs to sort out how much to offer so the burden is reasonable.
- Inventory other affinity groups so that we're not reinventing the wheel--there may already be good opportunities through other groups for some discussions, and this would let us focus our energies.
- Are there platforms that have built-in Zoom capabilities (so you're not dependent on one person to start the Zoom every time?).
In terms of volunteer power, please list any projects/priorities related to mentoring and/or affinity groups that you would be particularly interested in working on in the next one to two years.
- CFR offices (or offices of one).
- grant writing, research development, recruitment into field (broaden participation)
- grants administration - post-award related, bleeding into accounting related
- Online ethics group community of practice – RECR
- create ideas about the connections form
- generate templates for how we capture the data on member profiles
- thinking about some short-term affinity groups based on particular job challenges folks might be going through
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