Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Got an hour together today.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: So I want to welcome you to the 2025. Now, mentoring program launch. It feels like it's been months in the making, and you know it has. But it's wonderful to have you all here.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: If you are comfortable and happy with keeping your cameras on, please do. It's it's nice to see everybody's faces and and get some feedback rather than talking into the void.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: And I would do also if you keep yourself muted, we're not talking just because we we have well, over a hundred people on the call today, and more coming in as we go so a little background noise can go a long way.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Might kick off.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Is, Lou.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: You're with us today, Louise Wayne.
Louise Weine (She/Her) - Melbourne: Yes, I am.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Hi Luke.
Louise Weine (She/Her) - Melbourne: Good Army!
Louise Weine (She/Her) - Melbourne: Hello!
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Louise Wayne is the CEO of Nawa, and I've asked her to come in and join us for Kickoff today. And lead us in acknowledgement of country, and a little bit about the Nawa network before we get into the nitty gritty. So over to you, Lou.
Louise Weine (She/Her) - Melbourne: Thanks, Alicia. Hello, everybody! It's really exciting to have you all here for the launch of the Naway mentoring program 2025.
Louise Weine (She/Her) - Melbourne: I wish to acknowledge that I'm zooming today on wurundjeri land, and I pay my respects to the wurundjeri elders, past, present, and emerging, and I also pay my respect to all 1st nations, people joining us in this mentoring program in 2025.
Louise Weine (She/Her) - Melbourne: The mentoring program is really important to Nawo.
Louise Weine (She/Her) - Melbourne: That's an understatement. Really, we have mentored
Louise Weine (She/Her) - Melbourne: over well more than a thousand people over the last few years. And we see the impact happening firsthand all the time we hear the impact happening because we speak to people throughout their careers. And I cannot tell you the number of people that have told me that the Nahu mentoring program has kept them.
Louise Weine (She/Her) - Melbourne: firstly, in operations and helped them to identify the path that best suits them and their career. So
Louise Weine (She/Her) - Melbourne: we're really excited about the impact of this program, and I'm so delighted that so many of you have registered to be a mentee and volunteered to be a mentor in 2025. So thank you to all of you. And may your journey be a really productive and yeah
Louise Weine (She/Her) - Melbourne: fruitful one, both within the confines of the Nahu program, but also beyond, because we also know that lots of people maintain their relationships beyond the actual formal program. So
Louise Weine (She/Her) - Melbourne: yeah, looking forward to launching today and just a little bit about Nahu, the network. You can be really proud to be part of this growing network. We have 98 member companies across multiple industries, 9 industries all together that come together to form the Nahu network. And we're all about
Louise Weine (She/Her) - Melbourne: attracting, retaining, and developing careers for women in what have been traditionally male oriented industries and workplaces.
Louise Weine (She/Her) - Melbourne: Things are changing, and we're pleased to see greater gender balance across the board. But we've still got a long way to go, and we'd love to see all of our member companies get to what we refer to as gender balance and how we define that is 40% female representation at every level
Louise Weine (She/Her) - Melbourne: in operations. That's when we know we have done a good job. And we've got that gender balance happening. So 40% female, 40% male and 20%, allowing for wherever the balance may fall. So we're not saying 50 50 is right. And we're also enabling space for our non-binary colleagues as well in that conversation, so
Louise Weine (She/Her) - Melbourne: welcome to the Nahu network. Thank you for being involved in the mentoring program and back to you, Alicia.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Thank you, Lou.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Fantastic. So I'll just go through a bit of what we're going to cover today. Obviously welcome. Welcome, everybody. A quick overview of the now a mentoring program. Including the program structure. I'm going to go over that relatively quickly. Because they is covered in the onboarding sessions.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: I'm going to talk a little bit about Nahu Gem, because it is our 1st engagement with our Nahu gem mentors and mentees. Today we're going to talk a little bit about time commitment. So what can you expect? What is sort of your investment from your end in the program?
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: And then we're going to hear from 3 of our it says former participants is still to them still participating. But our mentor of the year award winners from 2023, 2024, and also our Nawa X talk winner from 2024 is going to share a bit of their reflections on the program and their experiences, along with perhaps some tips and tricks, to get the most out of the program for yourselves.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: We're going to open it up for a bit of a discussion, particularly those of you who have been here before putting on notice would love to hear some tips and tricks and things that you would like to share with people who are engaging with us for the 1st time.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: and we'll allow as much time as we can for Q. And a for any questions towards the end, before we officially declare the program up and running. I know some of you are already in contact with each other have already set up meetings rearing ahead.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: But we'll officially launch and get the party started.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: So I do want to start with a short video. That was from
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: done around women in manufacturing, and particularly by the Victorian Government. We had some funding support last year to support women in manufacturing and actually in energy industry in Victoria to participate in the program.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: So, Madeline, if we can start the video, we'll double check that the sounds working for everybody.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: And then we'll start talking about the program overview.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: When I started studying food science, I've always pictured myself working in a role that really heavily incorporated the theoreticals of science, and then actually applying them to a realistic problem. I think manufacturing does that perfectly. I was lucky enough to relocate regionally to Strathmur and working regionally in that sort of community is incredible.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: My role at Bega is formulation specialists, which means, I take the raw materials we have and turn them into a consistent quality end product.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: The Nahu mentoring program was actually recommended to me by the female manager I have. So I applied, and was really lucky enough to be paired with Sandra, who had worked at Bega before the Nahu mentoring program was established by a group of women from logistics, supply chain and manufacturing to connect women coming through all of those different industries through my mentoring relationship with Courtney, I try and
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: support her through making her aware of various resources that are available out there. The Narwa mentoring program has been great for me to have another female role model to be able to say, here are some good solutions
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: to be able to deal with conflict in people, because I think that's what young women struggle with the most for many women. They still find themselves as one of few and sometimes still the only woman in a team or on a site. And that can be a challenge, so that experience really requires us to provide some support, so that women who have
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: exceptional skill sets can bring those to the table confidently, even if it means that they're standing out a little bit from the crowd. I really get a lot of joy out of mentoring, particularly someone like Courtney, who has such a strong desire to learn. I find that really satisfying, I hope for a day when we don't actually have to focus on gender, and that everybody's valued for the diversity that they bring
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: to the workplace. And I want to see a manufacturing industry that is drawing upon 100% of the Talent pool. My favourite parts of manufacturing is, I'm never bored. There is always.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: It's always something to learn. It's an excellent career choice and really stable.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: The job security is fantastic.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Thank you for the video sharing.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: So that's a bit of context, I guess, of
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: what is now what we're here for. And obviously with the expansion into. Now we're gem as of last year, as well, supporting male leaders across operations to be better prepared, upskilled and able to actually further gender balance within their teams and businesses as well.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: So what is the program overall? We are Australia wide. But with some international participants, if we have any, I know we've got someone from New Zealand. If we have any of our other international participants here today, please feel free to say hello in the chat.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: The program has sort of expanded in popularity over the years, and even a bunch of our members, whilst being Australian based, also have offices globally. It's been wonderful to invite some of those staff and that talent from other international offices to participate as well.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: So the program duration from today, officially 17th of February, finishing up on the 31st of October. So by finishing up, I mean all of your mentoring sessions should be completed by the 31st of October, and we will then be having our end of program a celebration event in mid November.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: It involves a bespoke matching process. I do want to thank you for your patience with that process by bespoke matching. It is literally me and a spreadsheet, reading through all applications and working out how to get the best possible matches across mentors and mentees.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: I think there is a small number of you who are still waiting for that warm Intro email. And I'm doing some last minute tweaks, but we will have that confirmed but for you this week.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: So we have structured sessions aligned to Nahu learning priorities, particularly for the Nahu Circle format.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: and of course your one on one sessions are really flexible for you to be able to get out of them what your particular need is for this program. So you might have a particular career aspiration that you're wanting to aspire to. And you're looking for some guidance and support. Or there might be a particular challenge that you're trying to address, and you're looking again for that guidance, ideas, and support of how you might best navigate it.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: And of course, we provide professional growth and networking as part of the program. So there will be networking opportunities throughout. And towards the end of this presentation. Actually, we'll show you a list of the few that are coming up imminently.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: So the program format you would have seen this in either the either of the onboarding sessions, either Mentor or Mentee. We have our mentoring circles, a group of 4 to 6 women
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: emerging or mid career and aspiring to move into leadership roles. That's 7 sessions of 90 min duration across the program, timeline
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: for your one on one, any function across the operational business. And again, that more flexibility to address a particular issue that you're looking for. That's a minimum of 4 1 h sessions within the timeframe. A lot of people do more of the minimal expectation is those 4 sessions.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: So I do want to highlight
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: with people in operations and giving working across time zones. And all of these things. It is
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: really important for you to try and lock in your sessions as early as possible. So set your 1st meeting absolutely. But if not before that during that meeting, try and lock in your calendar when you are going to meet for the rest of the program, and life happens, and those times might change. But if you've got them in your calendars.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: then you can at least you know, have a hope of, I guess tarving out that time, particularly if you're in circles. And so you're trying to coordinate calendars across up to 7 people working shift work, Fifo family responsibilities part time. All of those things
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: I do want to touch on the gem program. That gem program is our gender equality men program.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: We currently have 19 men from across 10 different companies will be participating this year and have another company looking to come on board last minute.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: The aim of it is to believe in is around again our key mission of driving change to support gender balance at all levels, and acknowledging that we have a lot of male members of Nawa. We have a lot of male leaders within our network, and some of the feedback we were getting in previous years was
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: really want to help really want to be involved.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: not sure how to be involved in what feels like a women oriented space and network.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: So last year we piloted the dem program to look at upskilling men who want to contribute meaningfully and effectively around gender balance in their business.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: And after some feedback from the pilot, we've tweaked the program a little bit as well to have a more compressed timeframe, and we have the second cohort going through this year. So a delightful welcome to any of our gem mentees who are joining us today, and also our mentors going forward.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Just what do we include? So the Naur tools, resources and hosting platform.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Hopefully, you have seen the 2025 Nawa resources page. If not, that is absolutely a place to go after the launch today. It not only provides you. Thank you, the link, Madeline, for the link in the chat.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: It provides you with some of the templates and sort of starting documents for your 1st session, your planning and goal setting session. But it also has a whole heap of different resources that are underpinned by the learning priorities around. There's podcasts. There's videos, there's articles.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: and we will be updating it throughout the year as well as good. Content comes to light.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: If you have any wonderful content that resonates with you that you think should be up there. Please feel free to email mentoring@nao.org.au with a link
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: and we'd love to, you know, bolster and sort of fill out even further that resources page.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: So, aside from the network, you've got your planning and goal setting session, your 1st get together with your mentor and or fellow Mentees. So that's your space to do a little bit of storming and norming, getting to know everybody or each other. And of course, setting out what you want to get out of the program
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: so that you're really clear, I guess from the start what your desired outcomes are, and you can work towards that throughout.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: There's the structured mentoring sessions. You will have invite only networking events just for your cohort. I know I've had a few calls, particularly from mentors keen to meet other mentors and other people that are participating in the program more broadly. So we'll look at, making sure we have those opportunities for you, both distinctly for the mentoring cohort, but also for the Nahu network. More broadly.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: And finally, we've got our celebration event at program End
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: last year. It was in Melbourne the year before it was in Sydney. We haven't decided on a city for this year, but I am open to bids. I'm of course, in Great Southern. Wa, so I have a couple of Nawa members down here in Cora, but all surrounds. But I don't think it's enough to to pull everybody down here. So any bids for perhaps a capital city. But we want to run the program
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: program celebration in. Please feel free to send them through. For those of you who aren't able to attend in person, depending on where it is it is live streamed, and there is a curated sort of online experience to complement that. So you don't miss out
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: looking at the time commitment. So what are we expecting? Oh, I've got a vote for Adelaide. There we go.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: I can see the bits coming in in the chat
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: the time commitment. So January was obviously matching and introductions today is the program launch have been asked
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: to remind people there is a baseline Mentee survey coming your way. If it hasn't already, and I know people don't love spending their time on surveys, but it's really valuable for us to know where for Mentees, where you're starting.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: so we can start to actually track, impact over time and see how effective the program is. And Madeleine's just put the link into the chat. As well. Please feel free to open that up into a tab, for now I'm seeing votes for Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide Hobart.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Tessie, that could be pretty great.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Yeah, we've got a few votes coming through. So the survey, if you can fill it out, it does really help us to be able to track that impact over time. And that is what we're here for is about progressing and developing careers going forward.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: your mentoring sessions. So, starting from now through to end of October, your one on one is the minimum of 4 1 h.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: All your circles are 7 90 min sessions
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: for our gem people. We'll be kicking off 11th of march. You should have the invites in your calendar. Now for 5, 1 h info sessions, and you'll have 5, 1 h mentoring circles as well with smaller circles for the gym
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: running through about until about the end of May
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: in July. For the overall program. We have the mid program check-in for Gem. We'll have end of program check-in.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: We ask that all structured sessions are finished by the 31st of October, and then yes, the program conclusion and celebration wherever we end up, having that
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: now I've just thrown, you know, 25 min of solid information at you, and much as I do love the sound of my own voice. I love the sounds of other people's voices more so. I would like to invite our mentors of the year from 2023, and 2024, and our Noaa X talks winner from 2024 to share a bit about their experiences in the program, and any tips or tricks they have.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Belinda.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Can I nominate volunteer, nominate you to go first? st
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Belinda is the head of engineering and technical support and water and environmental services for Sydney Water.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: and was our 2023. Our mentor of the year.
Belinda Bright: Alicia really appreciate the opportunity to say hello and welcome and welcome back to all our wonderful mentors.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: You've gone on mute, Belinda, you're on mute.
Belinda Bright: Sorry. I thought I'd unmuted me. Okay, sorry. Welcome. Welcome back, and you know, thank you for the opportunity. I just wanted to
Belinda Bright: to share what a ride you're about to embark on, or if you've already been on one, it's another ride with another set of wonderful Mentees. What I love about this program is, I just love the insights and the energy that we share with our mentees. I find it a fantastic break in my day to step back and reflect on
Belinda Bright: some of the things that I can share more broadly, and I guess that forces me to reflect on what I've been successful at, and where I've also learned some hard lessons, which is often a nice way to reinforce to me. You know what I am doing right.
Belinda Bright: and also to further inspire me in my leadership journey with my own leaders. The resources that you've got are wonderful, and I would be lying if I didn't say that I don't use them with my own teams at times as well. So there's that wonderful benefit that you have of sharing those resources, and, you know, sort of continuous improvement journey, I suppose, and what I'm doing with that now is again, I'm looking to
Belinda Bright: start to encourage more people to be mentors. So it's that pass the baton on. So I'm really grateful to Nawo for the frameworks that you provide the opportunities and the energy, and that enables me to just continue to extend that ripple more broadly with, you know, I'm sure we've got stacks and stacks of ripple starters on this call. So, thanks, Alicia, that's me.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Thank you, Belinda.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Jacob, are you with us today?
Jacob Chretien: I am, I am. I am.
Jacob Chretien: So I'm just gonna start with what Belinda said.
Jacob Chretien: I think that's you know when when it's done properly. Then you don't need to embellish, but I will add it. Well, I'll add a couple of things. So Jacob Creations my name, I'm the chief technology and innovation officer for Opal. I just just had an opportunity to pick up some new responsibility. So I'm enjoying that now. If I think back on my opal or my my now journey
Jacob Chretien: this is year 7 for me, and and I was very fortunate to be be nominated and and won the mentor of the year last year in a pretty no, not a pretty, a very, very tough field. So it was a real honor and a pleasure to to be in that position for those of you that are mentoring.
Jacob Chretien: Welcome back. It's you're back because you enjoyed it the 1st time, or the second time, or the 3rd time, for those of you that are new. Welcome. And it's gonna be fun. You're gonna you're gonna learn some things that you didn't know about yourself. You're gonna be challenged
Jacob Chretien: and you're going to challenge both your mentor and hopefully others in your in your team if you're doing a circle.
Jacob Chretien: The opportunity, as as was mentioned before by Belinda, to to be able to do the the networking piece. Don't underestimate that. That's a huge opportunity. And there's a lot of horsepower in that.
Jacob Chretien: And on top of of the journey. I guess the the ability to learn something from the information that's presented and the other experiences from the people in your team. So I'm I'm doing a mentoring circle this year, and that's usually what I enjoy doing. And and I found that not only do the people in the teams
Jacob Chretien: every year walk away with, I guess, a different perspective on the discussion points, but also I walk away, being challenged, and
Jacob Chretien: and I guess, enjoy the the growth that comes out of being exposed to so many different perspectives on life, and also just just the topic. So you're in a fantastic spot. Naw, has has certainly given me a lot that that I I can see the growth in myself, and
Jacob Chretien: my wife can, too. But I think it's it's more than just the program. It's it. It has ripples. That's a great way to say it. So yeah, welcome. And thank you for the opportunity to to share. Looking forward to meeting my team this week.
Jacob Chretien: hopefully.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Thank you.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Wonderful to hear from you both.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: I'm also going to invite Shelly Haslett to come and share with you as well. So Shelley was the 2024 winner of what's called the Nawa X talks edition. So for those of you familiar with Ted Talks, it is unabashedly modeled on that.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: And what that opportunity looked like was some professional training from speaking and presenting coaches on how to share your journey in a Ted style. Talk
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: of 8. Was it 8 or 14 min, Shelley?
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: See here.
Shelley Haslett (She/Her): 10.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: 10, okay.
Shelley Haslett (She/Her): Yeah. Landed right in the middle.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Right in the middle there. 15 min presentation. But Shelley then presented live at the end of year celebration for cohort last year, and I've invited Shelley to share a little bit about her Nawa mentoring journey and experience going forward as well. Thank you, Shelley.
Shelley Haslett (She/Her): Thanks so much. So I was in your seats in 2022 as a now Mentee.
Shelley Haslett (She/Her): I had a really great mentor, who really took the time to listen, and gave us space to sort of
Shelley Haslett (She/Her): explore and learn it was a group. So you know, we we got to bounce off each other, and that was really fabulous.
Shelley Haslett (She/Her): And what I'm really excited about for all of you is that mentoring has had such a profound impact on the direction of my life and career. I think when I went into the 2022 program, I was at a bit of a crossroads. You know, I wanted to move up into senior food technologists when I was not a senior, and I was also questioning whether maybe I wanted to do something else with my life.
Shelley Haslett (She/Her): And
Shelley Haslett (She/Her): at the start of last year I did move up to Senior food technologists. And then, at the start of last week I actually moved into project management, which was one of the things that had come up in that 2022 program. So what what else could I do? That's linked to food technology. And and here I am executing that a couple years later. So
Shelley Haslett (She/Her): you know, if you go in with an idea of what your goals or gaps, or take the time to reflect just like the Mentees do before you go into those meetings.
Shelley Haslett (She/Her): It'll really help you to get the most out of it. You can, and get some really directional guidance from your mentors. And they're all really lovely. I met a lot of them at the event last year, and you're in for a real treat. So that's fantastic.
Shelley Haslett (She/Her): That's all I've got to say for today. I think.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Thank you, shelly, and thank you, Jacob, thank you, Belinda, who's had to drop off, but see it in the recording.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Thank you so much for coming and spending some time with us today. And of course, Jacob, thank you for joining us for year 7 to continue as a mentor for the program.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Yay.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: I want to open up the floor a little bit now. I know we probably have some of our experienced mentors or former mentees on the call as well. Aside from Shelley and Jacob and Belinda
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: wanted to open it up, either in the chat or to come off mute.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: If there's anyone else who has particular tips and tricks or things they would like to share with the latest 2025 cohort.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: So things that really worked for you systems you put in place particular, you know, habits that you might have embedded ways of working
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: anything like that.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: That you might be keen to share.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: lose, put in the in the chat. There, what tips do you have? For everyone to get the most of this experience?
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Is anybody feeling brave to come off mute.
Kerry Pronk: Hey? Alicia, this is Kerry pronk! How you going.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Hi! Carrie! Welcome!
Kerry Pronk: I 1 of the things that I would say after having mentored for a few years. Is that put yourself out of your comfort zone really quickly and contribute. So there are no silly contributions. I often find. There are some people in the group who are really happy to speak and to contribute, and some who are a bit more cautious and take a bit more time to warm up. But my advice to anyone who's feeling a bit
Kerry Pronk: bit kind of nervous about speaking up or feeling a bit, as other contributions might not be valuable. All your contributions are valuable and dive in it really adds to the to the conversation and to the circle and I think everyone gets a lot more out of all of those contributions.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Thank you, Carrie.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: I could see a couple of comments in the chat, so Jake has mentioned at the 1st meeting, agree to your meeting schedule and stick to it. If that make does make everyone's lives easier. There's a logistics Tip
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Gaynor. So advice for mentees to engage fully and prioritize the time to do so. This is a form of self care. And that's 1 thing I do really love about the now mentoring program. And I think over the years that I've been involved, that's become really clear that for a lot of people
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: this is a form of self-care. This is this is a time that you are setting aside to prioritize you, your goals, your aspirations to get support with your challenges.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: And
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: that's not just about work, you know. That's about you as a as an overall human being and being able to to function. And I know in our onboarding sessions we did talk a little bit about well-being being a part of this, and that the the lessons you learn, and the advice you gain, and the things that you share in these sessions.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Is not just about your professional or employee life, but also about how do you show up more broadly for not only your workplace, but your family, your community? Other people that are valuable to you.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: So yes, thank you for that, Gaynor.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Lu said, echoing the Put yourself out there, really quickly clearing Terry Carrie's comments into the chat.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: and Jacob put in a bit of time to prepare for meetings, so you'll get more out of the discussion absolutely. If you can. Make sure that you are coming to your sessions, prepared the short amount of time you know it. It will fly those 60 min, that 90 min they're gonna fly by.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Being able to maximize that facetime that you have with either your mentor or your circle is really great if you can have all of that sort of preplanned
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: any other tips and tricks from those who have gone before. I carry. Try not to last minute cancel. Yes, please.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: You know our volunteer, our mentors are volunteering their time and expertise.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: and they're often very busy people that it can be hard to reschedule and get back into their diaries at late notice. So partly, I guess, that when I'm talking about how you're showing up
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: where possible, show up like physically. Show up to your sessions. Obviously, you know sometimes that can't be helped, and and things do happen. But unless it is one of those sort of emergency type things. Please do show up and and honor. I guess the contribution that your mentor and your fellow mentees are making to that time and space.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Tip from the narrow side. Any questions or issue emerge. Yes, get in touch with us sooner rather than later. Something comes up and you're struggling with being able to fit into your work, plan or commit, or some significant life, change
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: some particular challenge with with your partnership, or something like that. Do email us at mentoring@nawa.org.au as soon as you can, so we can help you get on top of it, Asap.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: I think that the most heartbreaking thing I ever have is when we get towards the end of the program, and then someone goes. Oh, yeah, I I didn't get all my sessions in, because something happened, you know, back in March or May, and it was something that could have been easily remedied, and and fix for them to be able to get the most out of the program.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Shelly's commented great opportunity to get a picture of your broader goals outside of your current role, and think of how you want to get there. Yes, so
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: some people are here to talk about the next clear career step and getting some support that way.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Other people and I guess part of the advantage of the narrow network is, you can also see what other roles are out there, and what other industries are out there, and get a little bit of exposure to people that are working in those type of roles or industries and see whether maybe you aren't doing a direct up, you know, upward trajectory. Maybe you're going to shift sideways as your next role. Or maybe you're going to Upskill and
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: or Reskill and start to to move in a different direction, and you can get some advice and ideas and exposure to those type of things through the malware network
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: any other tips and tricks, particularly if anyone wants to come off mute.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: I think that's been a great list so far
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: there isn't any more. We might leave it at that last chance.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Okay, if anyone is middle of typing, we will pick it up coming up in the chat.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: But we've talked about networking, and then our network and how to get involved
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: want to share a slide here. Madeline's put together. Thank you. On some of the upcoming opportunities at the moment
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: outside of the mentoring program. So as a participant in the Nahu mentoring program. You also have access to a whole range of activities and events run through Nawa.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: This is just a list of things happening from now through to the end of March.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: A range of them are in person events acknowledging that the Noaa mentoring program is virtual.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: You might have, you know, a bit more of a pinch out of wanting to actually see physical people. Post pandemic, or we're still in a pandemic. But you know, not so high exposure, risk, etc, so many restrictions. So there is a speed networking event in Perth in 3 days. There's a walk and talk in Brisbane.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: There's online activities as well. Headshots and hot coffees in Newcastle. I saw a few people posted. They wanted the end of Year celebration to be in Newcastle. So for those of you there, perhaps going and getting headshots and hot coffees with other people across the narrow network
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: sage event in Adelaide. So we do have site Tours quite a lot through the year as well. So talking about that exposure to different industries and workplaces and roles, you can actually go into different workplaces and see, how do they function? What does that sort of work look like?
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Interestingly, the ones at wineries and breweries seem to sell out really, really quickly. So oh, and chocolate
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: I think pigs, chocolate, and the like. So any of those delightful consumables make sure you get in quickly.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Yes, the chocolate factories.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: There's 1 event up in cairns for those of you in Northern Queensland.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: an inclusive, equitable and leadership. Webinar Gladstone.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Hang on. It's Gladstone, isn't it? I've gone up and worked
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: in Gladstone for a bit through engineers without borders, and I called it Gladstone. And
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: yeah, that that nailed me as an outsider pretty quickly. So Gladstone.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: and finally, Orica is doing a Kuraging island site tour.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: It is Gladstone, is it? Oh, we got contention now.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Okay, I have to remember which way it's supposed to go.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: So, as you can see, there's a whole range of in person events, we also run series of webinars. Checking in chats. What a job! Throughout the month! So for those times where you don't have something sort of in person that you can go to. Please join online and make the most, I guess, at this opportunity overall.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: We've also got our socials. So join us on Linkedin. We are also on Facebook Instagram. And now we're podcasts.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: I'm trying to think, where where will we access those Lou Madeleine.
NAWO Team - Madeline Cooper (she/her): The what a job podcast, wherever you get your podcasts, basically.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Awesome.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Okay. So podcast, Eric, addict, Apple, etc.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: So there's a lot of opportunities there, I guess. Sort of saying for 2025 outside, you know, over and beyond the program to be able to participate.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: and just a note from there, Madeline, an online event that connects with the mentoring program is career club session on developing career growth skills. So the link there is in the chat
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: heaps to do.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: I can't believe it. I'm actually finishing my talking bit early.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: which is amazing, because that just doesn't happen.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: But that does allow, of course, actually some reasonable time for Q. And A.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: So before I do open it up for questions and answers and general discussion. Just let you know as we iterated before any issues, anything going on, please email mentoring@nawa.org.au and myself or others in the team will get back to you asap. We really want to support you to to thrive through this experience and have the best possible experience you can. So don't hesitate to reach out.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Do we have any questions.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: or if no questions, any comments. Comments are welcome, too.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: I can stay silent for a while until it gets awkward.
Louise Weine (She/Her) - Melbourne: Alicia. Are we still doing the Linkedin group? And do we need to cover off any info about that.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: I'm looking at other options just because engagement hasn't been great for Linkedin Group. I'm really happy to kick it off again.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: But I am wondering whether a Whatsapp group might actually be a better option share resources, or whether there's some other way that we can maximize sort of engagement across
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: the mentoring group to connect sponsor presentation session.
Jennifer Ison: Sorry, Alicia, can I just back? Was it, Louise that made that comment? This is Jen. I'm from Sydney Water. I did, because I'm down as a mentor. And yes, I I think
Jennifer Ison: literally. About 11 months ago I reached out to that Linkedin group to see if I could just
Jennifer Ison: check in with some other mentors. Mentees, I'm sure, would want to do the same. And yes, it was a very quiet group. I asked a couple of questions didn't get much back. So I'm very interested that I mean, I'm coming from a mentor perspective, that there is some sort of a you know, an avenue for us to be able to just check in with one another, share the tips and tricks in a bit more of a safer space.
Jennifer Ison: that'd be great, even share resources. I just think that's that would take the program to the next level.
Jacob Chretien: Yeah, I'd I'd support that. Also, I think Linkedin is probably a better better platform to do that.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Okay.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: lying that I'm hearing some support for the Linkedin Group. I'm very happy to set up my Linkedin group for this for Co. This cohort. So let me go back and see how we want to set up the logistics for that, and then everybody will receive an invite to be able to have those create a space, to have those conversations and spit share those resources.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Is there a sponsor presentation? Yes. So
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: I put mentioned it in the onboarding session and that it will be supplying more information about it throughout March, because I didn't want to bombard everybody with a whole heap of information going forward. But the final session that you're running as your mentoring
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: part of your mentoring program. We do really encourage to be a sponsorship session.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: So this is an acknowledgement that mentoring is a wonderful tool for your career progression.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: But sponsorship alongside. It is an also amazing lever to get you moving forward in your career. And so we do like to embed within the mentoring program and mechanism for you to be able to identify leaders within your organization, who have the reputational capital and ability to speak on your behalf
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: and support your career aspirations going forward within the business. So we look to equip you with the tools of how to communicate with that, how to identify the sponsor, communicate with that person, and then actually set up in your final session a bit of a like a 5 min kind of
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: what's it called elevator pitch around what you've got now, the program, what you're looking for, your next career steps to be, and how you feel that person can help and support you in realizing those goals. So more information coming out of that in March.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Let me just see
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: just got a question about circles when you're replying to the warm Intro email. Do you send your responses back to the Mentor or the whole group ideally, the whole group. It's your opportunity to introduce yourself to everybody, not just the mentor. So do please reply all to them
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: last session. Talk of doing a possible coffee! Catch up within capital cities!
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: We, Madeline, we've got A lot of our committees are setting up sort of coffee catch ups throughout the year. Is that correct? They will link
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: mentoring people in.
NAWO Team - Madeline Cooper (she/her): So I would recommend just joining one of the existing networking events that are happening. In capital cities. And if there are other mentors or mentees joining you can connect that way.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Yeah. So they the committees out. You know, the Nahu groups outside of the mentoring program itself do often run coffee, catch ups and other in person events, and we really encourage our mentoring participants where possible, to go and join and participate in those. So it'll not only be people in the mentoring program, but others more broadly from the Nahu network that you'll get exposure to
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: further guidance available to support mentors
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: instructuring sessions. So we did the the onboarding session
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: for mentors. There's also a video that was linked in the email from that from Megan Mccracken, who is one of our experienced circle mentors who gives a presentation about how to best structure your circle sessions to reduce, admin and also increase effectiveness and the outcomes.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: So maybe, as we send out the recording for today might send a link to Megan's video again.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: because her presentation was fantastic at going through that.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: But, Russ, if you have any questions. Going forward about how you want to sort of set up and structure your sessions. Please reach out to mentoring at Nawa, and I'm really happy to have a yarn about that
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: mentee from Japan. Hi.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: a Linkedin account. So other ways of staying engaged through the the online events. So go on to what's on the what's on page@nawa.org.au, and you'll be able to see all of the online events that are available to participate in and luckily your time zone, of course, is is same as Western Australia. So hopefully, a lot of those will be, you know, at a time that will work for you.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: No worries
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: events in the near future. For wa, apart from the one upcoming. So that's just for the next. Within the next month the Wa committee tends to be pretty active.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: So
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: between Perth sort of CD and the Pilbara in particular, which is sort of the 2 hubs. I guess that we have a lot of our members. I'm sure you'll see more regular events coming up in person in Wa across those 2 sites
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: any other questions?
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: If if not, that's fine. If you hang up this call and instantly think of something you want to ask or wake up at 3 am. Like I do, and think of something that you wanted to ask.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Please, just email mentoring@noah.org, and really happy to, you know, respond to you not at 3 Am. But at a reasonable hour, and answer your questions so, and there's no, you know there's no silly questions. We're all. We're all learning. We're all going on this journey together. I'm excited about it. I really hope you are, too.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: And if you'd like. I'm happy to give you sort of 6 min back into your day. That's enough to boil a kettle. I think so. You can make a couple before your next meeting. Bit of a comfort. Stop whatever you need.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: But thank you so much for joining us here today. I'm delighted that you're a part of the program, and I'd like to announce it officially launched.
Alisha Taylor-Jones - NAWO Mentoring Program Manager: Thank you so much. Everyone.