We need mentors in the Uplands
Clerk-to-Clerk matched 31 pairs in January. It could not match six mentees, and five of those six are in Districts 11 and 12.
The arithmetic
The Uplands have twenty-two municipalities across two districts, most under 1,500 people. They have the state’s highest clerk turnover — which means the most new clerks — and its lowest CCRO rate, which means the fewest people who meet the usual mentor bar of five years and a credential.
The two facts cause each other. A new clerk with nobody to call leaves within three years, and then there is another new clerk.
What we are relaxing
The Membership Committee has dropped the CCRO requirement for Uplands mentors. Five years in the role is enough. If you have been a clerk in a small Clearwater town since 2021 and you have never certified, you know things the person who took the job in March does not, and that is the entire product.
We are also matching across the district boundary and, where nobody suitable is within reasonable distance, by phone only. A monthly phone call from two hours away beats nothing.
What it takes
One call a month for twelve months, and permission to be interrupted. No curriculum, no reporting, no cost. It earns no education points, which the committee has discussed twice and declined to change, on the grounds that people who volunteer for points make worse mentors.
Volunteer · or phone the office on (555) 555-0100.