Mentorship Committee
Jobs Manual

MENTORSHIP COMMITTEE

(FORMERLY JOBS FOR PHILOSOPHERS OF EDUCATION COMMITTEE)

A.     Committee Description & Membership

The PES By-Laws describe the Committee in Article I, Section 7:

“A Mentorship Committee of at least three members shall be appointed by the incoming President to staggered terms of two years. The Chair shall be appointed by the President in consultation with the committee members. The Mentorship Committee shall select one of its members to serve as a non-voting liaison on the Commission on Professional Affairs. The function of the Committee shall be to promote equal opportunity employment practices by members of the Society and their affiliated institutions.  The Committee will take responsibility for regular communication with the members of the society on issues related to the employment of philosophers of education, using such vehicles as newsletters, email, and scheduled sessions in annual meetings of the Society.”

A goal of all [Mentorship Committee] events is that we seek to represent a diverse group of professionals. When inviting panelists, attention is given to this diversity. Attention is given both to the panel of a current year as well as previous panels. In addition to considerations of gender, race, and ethnicity, [the Mentorship Committee] also considers geographic diversity, the programs that panelists graduate from, and the type of schools that panelists currently teach at. 

Logistics:

• For the past three years, [the Mentoring Committee] has used Google forms for people to register for events. This is free and easy to maintain.

• From Google forms, the chair has a relatively up to date contact list. This list is often shared with the president of PES.

B.     Role of the Committee Chair

The primary role of the [Mentorship Committee] chair is to facilitate a small event at the Annual Meeting that supports graduate students and early career professionals. The purpose is to provide this population with practical information about job searching and job success. The focus has been primarily on tenure track positions. Another purpose is to provide opportunities to network with peers and more senior faculty. Finally, a goal is to help early career people feel more at home at PES. For this reason, we try to coordinate any activity to occur either before PES or within the first few days.

C.     Timelines and Triggers

August: 

• Reach out to the [Mentorship] Committee, the program chair, and the president of PES. Through coordinating these conversations, the chair determines the appropriate avenue for [the Mentorship Committee] at a particular conference.

• Reach out to potential funding sources to support the [Mentorship Committee] event (such as large graduate programs, the universities of [Mentorship Committee] members).

• Review committee member terms and be in touch with the PES president. The president appoints new committee members, typically after a discussion with the chair.

September-October: 

• If [the Mentorship Committee] wants a session on the program, the chair or members put this session together.

• If [the Mentorship Committee] wants to collaborate with another committee to put on the [the Mentorship Committee] event, the chair also reaches out to that committee chair. In recent years, [the Mentorship Committee] has worked with the Membership Committee.

October-November:

• The chair works with the committee on the [the Mentorship Committee] PES event. This may involve a few conversations or a more sustained communication depending on [the Mentorship Committee’s] event.

February: 

• [The] chair reaches out to invited speakers by this time if [the Mentoring Committee] is sponsoring a panel that is not part of the official program.

• [The] chair makes sure that the [Mentoring Committee] event is being highlighted. This involves contacting the Communication Director as well as the Executive Director to publicize the event. The chair also reaches out to contacts at large graduate programs, the contact person for GSCOPE, and an email list of past participants.

• [The] chair works with the hospitality chair if rooms or food are needed.

March:

• The chair reaches out to the President of PES as well as the Program Chair to stop by the event at PES and greet the attendees.

• The chair facilitates the PES [Mentoring Committee] event.