Second Life Mentor Coaches/es

Welcome to a brief look at Coaches 2.0! This page is a work in progress.

Second Life Mentor Coach is an entirely opt-in role within the Mentors group that is perfect for Mentors out there who would like to provide education in a classroom-like setting. The role of the Mentor Coach within this program is made up of volunteers that, aside from usual volunteering at their leisure, help other Mentors and residents excel in skills that can increase the ability and efficiency of volunteering by offering classes.

Mentor Coaches Responsibility and Requirements:

A Mentor Coach's responsibility is to host classes for other residents, especially new residents, which can help develop a certain skill or help build certain characteristics that can increase the ability of the learners to become immersed in or accustomed to Second Life. Classes are not run or maintained by Linden Lab. The role of a Mentor Coach is entirely opt-in, so the responsibilities and class development are left to individual Coaches to maintain. Beginning August 1st, to remain in good standing with this role, a Coach must host and report at least one class per month to remain in good standing for the following month.

Members who do not meet the minimum upkeep of one (1) class held each month will be removed from the role the following month of inactivity. The running total of Second Life Mentors in the Coaches role will only reflect an active number of Coaches for quality of membership and tracking purposes. Removal from the Coaches role does not inhibit your ability to volunteer or host classes in the future.

Existing Coaches joined under different requirements, set in Q3 2007. However, as needs have changed in the last year, all Coaches must meet the new requirements to maintain good standing and maintain role membership. Questions about this should be directed to VTeam. A meeting regarding modifications to this role will be held in July, 2008. Further information about guidelines and how to report class results to remain in good standing is described below.

Important Guidelines Before Hosting

As with any Second Life Mentor activity, the Tao of Volunteers, TOS and Community Standards apply.
Classes hosted by Mentors imply no direct endorsement from Linden Lab. You should be sure to mention at the start of your event that your opinions and methodology are not necessarily endorsed by Linden Lab as well.
Classes must be PG.
Classes should not offer any L$ incentives or prizes. Likewise, classes must be free, and free of advertisements, please! Classes are not for commercial or financial gain.
If you hold your class on Linden or communal land, be sure to clean up your belongings when your event is finished. Visitor counters included! :)

How To Schedule Your Class

Classes should be scheduled as an Event in the Education category if you plan to allow any resident to attend. For information on posting Events, please see this link.
Priority use of shared space on the mainland is based on scheduling through the this wiki page. For example, it is okay to host a class in Tenera the same day you published the Event, but make sure to check this article to make sure that space has not already been documented for use at that time. The first to list their class has fair use and rights to the land for the event.
If you are hosting a class at SLVEC for Mentors specifically, these events may be scheduled alternatively here.
A nice touch for the classes would be to have the materials set up on a wiki user page for fellow residents to reference during and after the class, but this is not required. Wiki editing can be alarming at first but it’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it – feel free to contact a Mentor Scribe or check out the Quickie Wiki Intro page for tips on getting started.
Looking for special Coach-organized events and programs to take part in? Check out the Mentor-Managed Event Organizing page for ways to organize with other Coaches and view a list of opportunities.

Hosting Information

Please feel free to introduce yourself as a Second Life Mentor for these events! This is a great way to show the community our collective contributions.
Please make sure your activated group tag is one of the official Second Life Mentor tags while hosting the event.
Any dispute arising from Second Life Mentor Coach led classes needs to be handled through resident-to-resident peaceful, TOS-abiding resolution, Abuse Reports as needed, or the support portal at secondlife.com. VTeam will not be able to respond to issues of abuse at these events. In some cases this may pose a challenge; please teach at your discretion, and when you are in good spirits! Hint: Find a way to explain or plan for this at the start of the event!’’
Class management (quantity of attendees/delivery of the content) is solely at the discretion of the host(s). Good teachers know that improvements to education is fluid – aim to improve and excel!

Possible Class Locations

Tenera Volunteer HQ

Oak Grove Stage

60 minute auto-return
Located Here

Lime Stage

60 minute auto-return
Located Here

YOU MAY HOST CLASSES ON YOUR LAND IF THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS ARE MET FOR THE PARCEL ON WHICH YOU HOLD THE CLASS:

The class and parcel content must be PG.
Land must be a non-for profit space.
Should be advertisement free.
No classes in shops or at malls! :)

Suggested Class Focuses for Q3 2008:

UI Basics
Search Basics
How to Find and Join Communities and Projects in SL
Traveling in Second Life

A major focus for Q3 will be to help out brand new residents. Bonus for topics that attend to that focus, but do not feel limited by these options!

Class Reporting

Coaches must create a notecard that states their name, the title, date, and time of the event, and optionally, how many attendees showed at the event. This notecard should be placed in the Coach Class kiosk at SLVEC, across from the volunteer orientation stage, in the same terminal as the Voucher receptacle. If you provide an attendance count for your events, feel free to contact a VTeam member at the end of the month to get a running tally of how many residents you personally have helped!
If you submit a notecard with the above details, you will be considered in good standing. The kiosk receptacle will let you know immediately if the notecard has been received. VTeam will keep a running tally of the number of events you have hosted in a given month. If you have any questions about your standing within this role, feel free to contact a VTeam member.
Orientation Coaches: To remain in good standing, you do not have to host separate Coach classes. Orientation sessions count toward your good standing membership. Your submittal of the attendance list via email will be recorded so you do not have to submit a notecard to the Coach Class receptacle.

Second Life Mentor Coach 2.0 Sign Up:

Mentors Teaching Mentors Sign Up

How to Voluntarily Exit this Role

Leaving the Mentor Coach role behind and returning to the Everybody role can be accomplished by speaking to a VTeam member during one of their office hours, found here: Volunteer Specialist Office Hours