On 20/03/2013 01:23, Spencer Dawkins wrote: > On 3/19/2013 8:01 PM, Ben Campbell wrote: > >> I think this means we should closely consider the goals of a mentoring >> effort. Is it to help them navigate the IETF structure, personalities, >> and immune system to get something done? Is it to help them become the >> next generation of IETF leaders? I suspect those two goals do not lend >> themselves to the same approach. > > Yeah, I agree with Ben here. > > I'd go further and suggest that helping people get something done is a > good thing, and at least some of the people who have gotten something > done are more likely to to hang around, but if people want to be part of > the next generation of IETF leadership without actually getting > something done first, encouraging them may not take the IETF to a happy > place. Correct, we wish to convert successful participants into long-term participants and future leaders, and the first step is converting new participants into successful participants [RFC4144]. However, I think an important part of that is ensuring that people do *not* focus exclusively on a specific target, even if they are busy people as Ben said. Brian