The Secular Student Alliance gets over 200 requests per year from students who are interested in starting a secular group at their school.  At the same time, we've heard from a number of the leaders of established groups that you'd like to know if a new group is starting up in your area.  Because of that interest, we're starting a program where you can reach out and mentor those students working to start a group on another campus.

Why Mentor?
The benefits of a mentoring program are many.  Helping others is a great experience and can teach you a lot!  The student working to start a group has a friendly supporter nearby that can offer tips and pointers.  You're closer to the group than we are, and can let us know if you notice any problems that the new group might not recognize.  And, of course, you'll have a nearby group to cooperate with for events and more!

How Does Mentoring Work?
We'll send you the contact information for students in your area, and we'll let you know if a new request pops up.  We encourage you to get in touch, to help answer questions and offer advice, point out some strategies for starting or growing a group, and just generally being a friendly face the group starter can relate to.  If you can and want to go visit the new group in person, great!  You can get as involved as you'd like to be, whether that means just checking in once a semester or helping plan cooperative events.  

What's Expected of Me?
We really need you to have experience running a campus group.  We have found that even the experience of running an off-campus group is too different to have you really be an effective mentor.  It's fine if you ran a campus group 20 years ago, but you need to have done it. 

If you're still running a campus group, we expect that you won't let your own group flounder while you're helping the new group- not that we think most of you would, but much like your classes come before your group, your own group comes before the new group.  Lastly, we want to be informed.  We don't need to know that the new group is holding a pizza party on Thursday, but we do want to know if the group is facing obstructions from its administration, when the group becomes officially recognized by the university, or if you come across questions that you don't know the answers to.  We're always here to help.

How Do I Sign Up?
If this sounds like a program you'd like to get involved in, contact our campus organizer!  Let us know who you are, what school and city you're in, and what position you hold with your group.