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+1 to this idea. I have benefited tremendously over the years from kind people taking me under their wings. Many of us try to do this one-on-one, but some kind of introduction service would be a huge benefit for the community, I would think. Mentorship is a great example of a robust solution - a solution that addresses more than one problem at once. I suspect that this would not only improve our diversity as a community, it might also solve some tech leadership / succession planning problems and maybe expose some training needs. Bess On Nov 27, 2012, at 4:20 PM, Nathan Tallman <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > This is a slightly different topic, but relates to Kelley's post: Does > code4lib have a mentor program where more inexperienced geeks can pair up > with someone to guide their development? I don't have anyone like that in > my network, but would really like to. I don't mean to discount the existing > resources on code4lib or this list, which both have been very useful. I'm > sure I could just start by attending some of the conferences, but for more > inexperienced people they can be a bit intimidating, albeit inspiring. > > It would also be a way to directly engage minorities. > > Just a thought. > > Nathan > > > On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 6:20 PM, Kelley McGrath <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > >> I'll second the idea of approaching people individually and explicitly >> asking them to participate. It worked on me. I never would have written my >> first article for the Code4Lib Journal or become a member of the editorial >> committee if someone hadn't encouraged me individually (Thanks Jonathan!). >> >> It would also be good to find a way to somehow target the pool of lurkers >> who maybe aren't already connected to someone and get them more involved. >> >> As far as anonymous proposals go, we recently had a very good workshop on >> implicit bias here. Someone brought up that found significant changes in >> the gender proportions in symphony orchestras after candidates started >> auditioning behind screens. There are also lots of studies about the >> different responses to the same resume/application depending on whether a >> stereotypically male/female or white/black name was used. Probably it's >> impossible to make proposals completely anonymous, but it would be an >> interesting experiment to leave off the names. >> >> Kelley >> >> PS Interestingly, I wouldn't instinctively self-identify as a member of >> the Code4Lib community, although my first thought is that that has more to >> do with not being a coder than with being a woman. >> >> >> ************************** >> Kelley McGrath >> Metadata Management Librarian >> University of Oregon Libraries >> 1299 University of Oregon >> Eugene, OR 97403 >> >> 541-346-8232 >> [log in to unmask] >>