How to pursue a grassroots mentoring program: with an IMA grant, we developed a program for chapters that matches students and professionals in a unique mentoring program

Management Accounting Quarterly, Wntr, 2004 by A. Anthony Falgiani, Martin J. Coe, Joel Thompson

In January 2002, we received an Innovations in Accounting Education Grant from the Institute of Management Accountants that enabled us to establish a Grassroots Mentor program through a local IMA chapter. The thrust of this program is to provide a strong partnership at the IMA chapter level to provide mentors to accounting students. The program's mission is twofold. For students, the goal is to help develop their managerial accounting knowledge by promoting IMA membership and providing certification information. For IMA members, the program is an opportunity to share their knowledge and expertise with those eager to learn. Due to the initial success of this effort, the mentor program is now institutionalized in the Illowa Chapter.

DEVELOPING THE PROGRAM

We sent invitations to participate in the program to members of the Illowa Chapter and to professors and students at colleges in the Quad Cities area (Moline and Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa). The letter explained the benefits of the program to mentors and students as well as what would be expected of them as participants. Thirty-four students and 20 mentors volunteered.

Our plan began with the creation of a model we hoped could be utilized by any local chapter that wanted to establish a mentor program. Knowing that not all members had experience in mentoring, we searched for a tool that volunteers could use to develop their mentoring skills. We purchased CDs of How To Be A Great Mentor[TM] ... in under 30 minutes (1) for distribution to mentors. We knew some of the IMA volunteers might not feel comfortable playing the role of mentor, so we wanted to provide them with training opportunities. This program was designed to be flexible, enabling the mentors to choose the areas in which they wanted training.

The next step was to create a packet for both mentors and students that outlined the benefits of the program and included a schedule of activities, a sample discussion sheet, a progress chart, and other items to ensure the success of the program for each student and mentor.

After developing the program, we officially launched the IMA Illowa Chapter 2002 Mentor Program at a luncheon on March 19, 2002. Students and mentors had a chance to meet each other and discuss program logistics, as well as see a presentation that discussed the program and how everyone could benefit from participation. The luncheon was very successful, although not all participants were able to attend (85% of the mentors and 44% of the students attended). The students who attended the luncheon (results discussed below) reported greater overall satisfaction with the program.

RESULTS

After the initial luncheon, mentors and students were free to design their own relationships. The grant provided funds for students to attend monthly chapter meetings, so some mentors met with their students there. A few of the beneficial results of the program were:

* Membership growth--the mentor program facilitated our support of 35 new student members this chapter year.

* CMA/CFM candidates--one student member decided to take a CMA review course and take the CMA exam.

* Chapter/Student partnerships--our chapter developed a formal partnership with one university, Western Illinois University (a student IMA chapter was formed in the year the program began), and informal relationships with Augustana College, Mount St. Clair College, and St. Ambrose University.

* Student attendance at IMA meetings--because mentors brought students to IMA meetings, the chapter's meeting attendance increased.

At the end of the program, we sent a survey to the participants to get their feedback. Fifteen of the 34 students and 11 of the 20 mentors returned them.

Table 1 shows the results from the student surveys. While the results for "I received valuable information" (3.33/5.0) were not as high as we would have liked, the lower scores came from students who reported difficulty in contacting their mentors. The students reported the benefit from the kick-off luncheon as high, 4.38/5.0. While the rating of "overall benefit" by student respondents was 3.27/5.0, the score was 3.75/5.0 for those who attended the luncheon. Clearly the kick-off luncheon succeeded in its purpose of helping to foster a relationship between students and their mentors.

While students did report a high willingness to continue in the program and to serve as mentors later in life--both categories scoring 4.0/5.0--the most disappointing score was in relation to how much they learned about the IMA. Perhaps the solution to this is to ensure that mentors are prepared to discuss the benefits of IMA membership with their students, or perhaps students participated in the program because they already knew a great deal about the IMA. Nevertheless, more students attended the Illowa Chapter meetings as a result of the program, which encouraged the growth of the student chapter. It should be noted that the student chapter is at a campus 80 miles from the Illowa Chapter, so students from the Chapter had some limitation in participating with their mentors.