[Jon Stratis]

It's interesting to see how many mentors everyone has, but it doesn't give you the entire picture. As some here said, there are different levels of involvement. Is one full time mentor equivalent to two half-time mentors? What about a mentor that shows up once a week?

Additionally, a lot can be said for the student to mentor ratio. If you have a very low ratio (for example, more mentors than students), that could be indicative of issues on the team - a lot of part time mentors, more mentor-input and less student input, or a general lack of organization from having too many people who could see themselves as "in charge". The reverse is also true - a very high ratio (very few mentors with a lot of students) could indicate a lack of personal interaction/inspiration with the students.

So, what's the right number? Traditionally, we've had 20-25 students with 6-8 mentors (all full-time), or about a 4:1 ratio, which seems to work out pretty well - Having the students work in pairs means each mentor helps two pairs each meeting - essentially bouncing back and forth between them to help provide guidance, a sounding board, and oversight, while still giving the students plenty of autonomy to experience things for themselves. That said, things are starting to look pretty interesting with this upcoming season... we just got done with our summer camp, and had 16 new students there! I don't know if this is an anomaly or due to finally having a build space at the school... but it means we'll be on the big side of "normal" this year (we were on the small side last year, with a bunch of graduating seniors), and if the recruitment numbers hold through next year and the year after we might turn into one of those "big" teams... Yikes! How do you handle it when the ratio gets to be 8:1?