Mentor? Mentee? Mentor you? Mentor me? Let’s all get mentory, Portland

A few years ago, the primary complaint about the Portland startup scene used to be pretty consistent. “Lack of funding.” It seemed to be the one thing upon which everyone could agree to complain. But then companies like Act-on, ShopIgniter, Urban Airship, Puppet Labs, PHP Fog, and COLOURlovers had to go and shoot that full of holes.

No worries. We found something else to complain about: “Lack of mentorship.”

Well, I’ll be damned if the folks working on the PDX11 front haven’t gone and tried to make that complaint a thing of the past as well.

That’s right. Mentorship is one of the primary focii of the PDX11 effort. And come July 19, they’re going to reveal what they’ve been up to.

What’s up? Well according to Skip Newberry in the Mayor’s office:

The July 19 meetup will include a three-part presentation. First, we will provide an update a quick update on the Mentor Network, it’s charter, and the discussions that have occurred to date. Next, we will provide a quick update on the development of a Mentor App. Third, we will have a representative from each of the major mentor programs give a quick overview of the kinds of mentoring services that they offer. Finally, we would love to have a number of small breakout sessions to solicit input from attendees. Toward that end, would it be possible to set up some chairs and/or tables in small clusters? I can pull together some staff to help if that is a possibility.

Our goal for this meeting is to build support for a multi-pronged, collaborative approach to strengthen our existing mentor networks. For example, some prospective mentors/mentees have expressed interest in facilitating more informal, ad-hoc, group mentoring opportunities to solve specific, short-term issues. Others have expressed interest in whether PDC might help to create dedicated community space for use by mentor groups and software usergroups. These are all topics worth exploring. Additionally, it would be helpful to learn from each of the existing mentor groups what, if anything, the public sector or the community generally might offer in the way of additional support for those programs.

Got a thought or two about how that whole thing should be structured? Well you’re in luck. They’ve put together a survey on the mentor program and they’ve love for you to respond.

Want to do more than respond to a survey? Great. Show up at Urban Airship on July 19 for the PDX11 Mentor Network General Meeting. And get to mentoring. Or menteeing. Or being a mentor and being mentored. Or whatever.

Portland could really use it. And no one has quite the knowledge you do.

For more on all of the programs, visit PDX11.

Published by Rick Turoczy

More than mildly obsessed with the Portland startup community. Founder and editor at Silicon Florist. Cofounder and general manager at PIE. Follow me on Twitter: @turoczy View all posts by Rick Turoczy