In response to Denni and Christopher,
I have been in my company's mentoring program for over two years, providing guidance to high school students at LaGuardia High School, which prepares public high school students for professional careers in dance, music or drama (the movie and TV series Fame both dramatized student life there).
Now in it's 14th year, it is the longest running and most successful of my company's volunteer programs.
The key is sponsorship and organization.
First of all, New York City _has_ a mentoring program for its schools. There are mentoring coordinators both at my company, and at the local high school. We organizers all meet each other at least three times a year.
At Wikipedia, I used to follow newbies around and offer them help, but then I got swept up in Jimbo's proposal to have a Mediation Committee and an Arbitration Committee. I agreed to serve as a mediator, both on the official (appointed) committee and later in Alex's grassroots (elected) Member Advocate project.
These things didn't bear much fruit, because they are "courts of last resort". Advocacy, mediation, arbitration -- these are all legal mechanisms by which we turn the gears of justice.
Wouldn't it be better to plant seeds? And water them? And give them sunlight and fresh air? (That is, guidance and praise and encouragement?)
My response to the Six Month Experiment of having committees is that it takes a lot of the work load off of Jimbo's shoulders and that it performs a necessary task rather well. But it is not sufficient, in and of itself, to provide the nurturing and nourishment needed for Wikipedia to grow to full flower.
We need something more, like a Mentoring System.
Ed Poor, aka Uncle Ed