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AAV MENTOR PROGRAM |
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Outline for AAV Mentor program The AAV mentor program is an outreach program intended to welcome both veterinary students and new AAV members to both avian medicine and the Association. A pool of established members who are willing to be members will be compiled. This pool can be collected by several means.
For veterinary students, the first step is to identify those interested in avian medicine.
For new members no recruitment is necessary. · A brief survey of interests is made. · Consider a check box on membership application indicating if they have an objection to being contacted by a mentor. · Mentors are assigned based on either region or specific interests within avian medicine. Mentor Responsibilities The first and foremost responsibility of the mentor is to establish a dialogue with the student or new member. The first contact can be done by email, telephone, or a letter. These methods should be done in sequence and even repeated if necessary until a response is received. More persistence can be given to contact with students than to new members since the students have requested joining the mentor program for the individual mentor. A sample letter is attached. Obviously, this should be personalized Welcome students and new members to AAV and avian medicine. Student membership is fostered by one of several means.
Personally invite mentee to Conference and invite to meet personally. Offer a visit, tour, or externship at your clinic. Offer help in finding educational opportunities. Meet with mentee at local/regional/vet school based meetings. Offer to buy a meal for mentee. An unfortunate note that I guess we need to make these days: A large proportion of veterinary students and new graduates are women. Mentors must take care that sexually explicit language, or anything that might be construed as inappropriate advances are avoided. A suggestion of sexual harassment could crush this program in its tracks. Sample letter Hi __________, Thank you for your interest in the Association of Avian Veterinarians (AAV). I’m __________, and I’ve been an AAV member since _______. When I graduated from veterinary school, my knowledge of avian medicine was rudimentary at best. When I came to my first conference, some of the members took me under their wings (pardon the pun) and made me feel welcome. Through the Annual Conference, the Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery, and other materials from AAV, I learned nearly everything I know now about birds. I have been to 17 AAV conferences, and each year I learn something new! The network of friends and colleagues that I see every year are lifelong friends and this group always leaves me re-invigorated to practice. In addition to what it does for me, I feel good about my AAV membership because we fund both avian health research, and avian conservation projects. Funding for these areas are always lacking for “minor-use” species like non-production birds. We at AAV realize that avian medicine education is limited in many veterinary curricula and would like to extend you the opportunity to join with the premiere avian medicine and surgery organization in the world. I feel so strongly about the AAV that I would like to sponsor the first year of your membership. After that, the student rate of $25 will entitle you to the many benefits of membership. August 4-9, 2007, we will be having our annual conference in Providence, RI. This is a great opportunity to meet and speak to veterinarians in a nearly every aspect of avian medicine and surgery. I would love to sit and have a chat face to face. In the meantime, I would be happy to have you visit my practice for a tour or to set up an externship. If you have interest in special aspects of avian medicine, I could give you some names of the real “experts” in the field. AAV truly is the window into the exciting and rapidly changing field of avian medicine. My role is to help you get the most from the AAV. Contact me if there is anything I can do to help you in this capacity.
Sincerely, Name |
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