Georgia McBride, author and founder of YALITCHAT.ORG mentored my Creative Writing II: Revising Your Novel course (to cover my Writing and Literature Breadth) in Summer 2010:
As a writer, my revision process is to finish the first draft, set it aside for a few weeks, go back and read it over a couple of times, then send it off to a beta reader. This course forced me to step outside my normal routine and look at the revision process in a more organized way. After an initial review of the material--as well as feedback from my mentor, other authors and teen readers-I was able to define and work on the following: up and down moments for the protagonist, tracing major plots throughout the chapters and making sure there are up and down moments, creating more conflict, showing the best and worst characteristics of the main characters, reducing meaningless chatter, pacing, creating distinguishable characters, changing and developing relationships between characters, and thinking more like a teen, but writing like an adult.
Creating a revision outline helped considerably. It gave me a guideline to work with and I am hoping to adhere to it as I continue to revise the remainder of my novel. Even though I only revised the first 50 pages of my fourth novel, I can now apply what I've learned to my future books.
The wonderful Kristi Edwards, formerly of the Arizona Community Foundation, mentored my Nonprofit Explorations Course in Spring 2010 where I learned the basic overview of certain aspects of running a nonprofit. I learned how to write a mission statement, a vision statement, a value statement, and a case statement. I created a fictious board of directors, staff job descriptions, wrote an action plan for an event, and created evaluation forms for board and staff members.
Chantal Sheehan, former CFO of New Global Citizens, had the formidable task of mentoring my Sustainable Financial Mgmt course in Summer 2010. She did a great job even though I was thinking I could've benefited from an Accounting 101 class before jumping into this one. In this course I determined which type of organization I would have, analyzed financial statements of 3-4 nonprofits (including that of Chantal's employer), and learned the steps to take to protect my future organization from fraud.
The most work I've done to date has been in my Fundraising and Resource Management course, mentored by Maureen Baker, Mgr of Individual Giving, at MIM (Musical Instrument Museum). I learned so much from Maureen, it's ridiculous: became familiar with fundraising terminology, honed my writing skills by drafting a number of documents including a case statement, annual appeal letter, letter of inquiry, proposal and budget, prospect profiles, e-newsletter, event committee letter, acknowledgment letter, and membership campaign letter. Through role play, I rehearsed common fundraising-related scenarios including an in-person gift solicitation, thank you phone call, leading a development committee meeting, and giving an "elevator pitch." I also gained an understanding of important concepts, practices, and strategies for implementing a successful fundraising campaign, including strategies for donor identification, cultivation, solicitation, and acknowledgment/recognition. I even designed an event and prepared related documents such as a flyer, budget, plan, and timeline. Utter craziness, that, but it was so great.
Spring 2011 is nearing a close. Chantal is now the Executive Director of NGC and I'm lucky enough to have her as a mentor again this semester for my Human Relations class. Shoshana Ross, Volunteer Mgr for Free Arts AZ is my mentor for my Volunteer Mgmt course as well this semester. The semester ends May 5th and I'll be sharing my self-evals of these courses around that time.
The pros of this program definitely outweigh the cons (searching for and asking complete strangers to mentor my courses). I've been learning so much from my mentors so far, that the minute I graduate next year, I feel like I'm going to be so ready to open The Write Zone.
I'm like SpongeBob right now, soaking up all this information like a sponge to squeeze out later. Now that I'm a member of a couple of local nonprofit organizations--and have subscribed to the ASU Lodestar Newsletter--I'm attending more seminars, workshops, forums and whatnot. I'll be sharing my thoughts on those in upcoming posts.
The more I immerse myself in this sector, the more excited I am to leave my current job and get started on my real career. LOL.
IF YOU'D LIKE TO BE A MENTOR FOR ONE OF MY CLASSES, PLEASE CHECK OUT MY "COURSE MENTORS WANTED" PAGE AT THE TOP, IN THE SIDEBAR.
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Your advice/suggestions/tips/best practices about the nonprofit sector are appreciated.