(Cross posted from roadraceautox, but know some don’t post over there.)

For a few years now I’ve pitched the idea to SCCA of developing a mentor program. They liked the idea, but for whatever reason it’s just never happened at least on a larger scale. From what I understand there are a couple of regions out there that have some form of a mentor program, but I’m not aware of them. If NASA has a mentor program, it’s certainly not easy to recognize at least from their national website.

As you might guess, I have quite a bit of contact with people new to motorsports. I’m in the process of creating a new website where the contents will be available to people for free, and Ryan Davies volunteered to create a chat form (thank you!) where people can ask various questions. Even with all of this, I know there would be quite a bit of value in establishing a mentor program. So why not?

Might any of you be interested in helping with something like this? It could be anything from making yourself available as a mentor, assisting with the creation and implimention of this program, contacting regions and/or other clubs to make them aware it exists, to other tasks. You choose how much you’d be willing to put into this.

Prospective Mentors: you don’t need to have a considerable level of experience in which ever type(s) of motorsports. The goal is really to make someone new to the sport more comfortable. You also don’t need to commit to a significant amount of time. Could be as simple as introducing yourself, answering a few e-mails, possibly being okay with some phone calls, to whatever you decide. I (hopefully we) will develop a questionnaire for mentors and students to appropriately find suitable matches.

At least in the beginning, I want to keep this fairly basic otherwise it’ll become too overwhelming and probably stop with this thread. What suggestions do you have to develop a mentor program? Anyone interested in helping with this? Think there are too many obstacles and efforts should be spent differently? Nice idea, but too much work?

- Added onto this, wondering if a similar volunteer mentoring program would be worthwhile.