Mentor Lounge
Who we are
The Mentor Lounge has been formed as a place for mentors (or ex-mentors, or would-be mentors, or help group members) to come and relax and be informal.
We are an open and friendly environment, where you can ask mentor Q&A stuff (especially when that group is having chat errors), speculate about the Volunteer program, gossip, joke, vent (nicely!), or just be with your friends.
We have few rules, apart from the main ones of following the Tao of Volunteers, and of behaving in the kind of way you would like other adults to treat you.
Mentor Lounge Charter
There are three main points to the group charter:
1) Follow the TOS, the Tao of Volunteers and the Community Standards.
2) Remember the Golden Rule and be kind to others. And use common sense.
3) We all have issues with SL performance from time to time - there can be multiple causes for this - however this is NOT the place to criticize individual Lindens. If you need to do that - take it to IM. If you have a tech question or comment feel free to voice that. We are all here to help and offer support - but we are NOT here to abuse the people who help make our Second Life possible.
All members are allowed to send out group notices - however there are some guidelines:
1) Notices must have relevance to the mentoring programme or be used to promote non profit events and charities.
2) Notices may be used to share full perm gifts providing the person sending them out has created them or obtained written permission from the creator to distribute them.
3) Notices may NOT be used to promote your own for profit business. However - using them to share information about cool sims, great shops you may find and live performances inworld is fine (common sense stuff).
Finally -- we are all adults and need to be treated as such -- everyone is equal in this group and everyone is taken to be a caring, kind and helpful person of good judgement. Therefore policing the group and restricting notices should not be necessary. And anyone can invite other mentors to join the group.
This charter may be subject to revision if and when the need arises.
Mentor Lounge History
The group was started by Marisa Naheed after she left another mentor group. She added Tid Kidd as a co-owner, and in quick succession, Nava Muni and Alisa Seesaw were added to bring the group owners to 4.
Despite our origins, we do not exist as rivals to any other group, seeking as we do (in the spirit of the Tao Of Volunteering), peaceful co-existence with any other group that has similar aims to ourselves : support of the volunteers program, respect and affection for our fellow residents, and the sharing of knowledge. We seek to be positive, and to grow in that spirit.
Within a few weeks our numbers have grown to over 100, and we aim to grow further as more mentors and helpers seek to find a safe, supportive, nurturing, and informal environment for their talents.
What we stand for
We want a group where people are unafraid to speak out and express themselves; can have fun, vent their frustrations, help their fellow residents, and support each other in an often challenging and difficult environment; be passionate about their beliefs and their interests and their loves; just simply pass the time of day with their friends.
Remember, there are people whose first language is not English, also people who have a variety of physical and / or mental problems in RL - be compassionate and tolerant : we simply don't know enough about the RL circumstances of the person in front of us, so let us not judge them!
We stand for the Tao Of Volunteers, and for all the positive ideals stated by a wide variety of different help groups.
What we won't stand for
Some residents believe that the employees of Linden Lab ("The Lindens") are a fair target for their frustrations. No. Lindens are ordinary people, just doing a job, trying to make Second Life the best experience it can be. We won't tolerate negative criticisms towards Lindens or, for that matter, anyone else.
We also expect our fellow group members to behave like the mature adults we consider them to be : so the sadly wisdespread internet practices of flaming, abuse hidden behind anonymity, intolerance, etc, we do not tolerate.
Do as you would be done by, that's all we ask.
Conflict Resolution
We don't expect everyone in the group to like everyone else, that would be unreal. And sometimes, any of us may read what someone else has posted and be personally offended, even though it doesn't seem to be against our Charter. If this happens :
- if you fall out with another member of the group for personal reasons, then really, that is a matter between yourselves, not the Group. If any of us as individuals can help to "patch things up", we will be glad to try. All we ask is, please don't bring personal conflicts into the Group.
- if someone's post in the group offends you, please raise that with them in IM. It may be that it was completely unintended, or a misunderstanding, and can be easily resolved. The Moderators are really only involved if posts are clearly offensive.
If someone is repeatedly offensive, then we will talk to them about it, and ask them to stop. If they don't, then they will be warned that they could be ejected from the group. However, this will ALWAYS be made clear (and why) - we will NEVER be arbitrary, and we will try our very best to be consistent.
Structure
We have no officers in this group. We expect our members to be mature, to behave accordingly, and to "police themselves". In the weeks since we formed, the owners have had no reason to change this policy, which so far is working well! (A thank you and a big credit to our membership).
All members are allowed to send Notices (see the Charter, above) but we do ask that these be non-trivial : the test is, if it could just as easily be said in the Group IM, then please do so. Notices are something of a burden on login, and sometimes cause communications to be capped. We do make an exception for Alisa's daily joke, which lightens the mood a lot and which we would all miss if it were not there...
However, the structure can and will be revised if circumstances change and make it necessary.
An invitation to the Lindens
There are one or two of you in the group already - we cordially extend an invitation to any others of you who would like to join our group.
Resources
We hope to put together a mentoring pack to make available to ALL mentors (whether in this group or not). This will contain items to assist new residents in the early stages of their Second Life.
Any feedback and help towards this will be gratefully received !
The future
We aim to grow in membership, in resources, and in the positive spirit that we so passionately believe in. We ask all our members, present and future, to assist us in these aims, and to grow with us. Per ardua ad astra