Duty Mentor Guidelines

Serving as Duty Mentor

The Duty Mentor must be a member of the Disclosure Scotland PVG Scheme and either a trustee or a person authorised to act as Duty Mentor by the Prewired Board of Trustees.

The Duty Mentor for a given session should be agreed at least one week in advance. If the designated person is unable to attend the session in question, they should arrange for one of the other authorised Duty Mentors to take their place.

Duties

Setting Up and Signing in Attendees

  1. Arrive at the venue at least 10 minutes in advance.
  2. Don the ‘Duty Mentor’ lanyard, make yourself obvious and write your name as Duty Mentor on the Prewired whiteboard.
  3. Make sure you have the attendees list, which consists of Eventbrite signups and long-term members. Read the details to make yourself aware of any serious allergies or medical conditions amongst attendees present that evening. Put the list somewhere you can remember for the duration of the evening.
  4. Greet attendees and parents as they arrive, focusing on ones who look new (or ask if they’ve been before); invite them to choose somewhere to sit and make themselves at home. Make sure they have their own laptop or know where to find the Prewired ones if not.
  5. For new attendees or those looking a bit lost, ask what they’re working on. Make suggestions or refer them to another volunteer if you’re busy.

Welcoming New Volunteers

  1. Greet new volunteers and explain how Prewired works.
  2. Make sure that they read the New Volunteer Guidelines then and there.
  3. Get them to sign printed copies of the following documents (there should be copies in the folder in the cupboard):
  4. Enter their name and email address in the Volunteers Register and check whether they are a member of the Disclosure Scotland PVG Scheme.
  5. Encourage them to join the Prewired Slack workspace and invite them to the #mentor channel.
  6. Give them a Visitor lanyard to wear during the session and remind them to return it at the end of the evening.

During the Session

  1. Generally oversee things. Rather than focusing on one attendee, check on all of them and find volunteers for those who need help.
  2. Deal with any problems not involving coding (e.g., being unwell or upset) and record any accidents in the Accident Log.

End of the Session

  1. At the end of the session, thank attendees and parents as they’re leaving and remind them to come back next week!
  2. If there any young people who are still waiting to be collected by their guardian at the end of the session, make sure that at least two volunteers (including the Duty Mentor) remain at the venue until they have been collected.
  3. Take any feedback from attendees, parents and volunteers to report back to Board.