As recommended by the Model Mentoring Program Task Force, the Executive Board has approved the establishment of a specific, Web-based AVMA Mentoring Program.

The cost is expected to be $55,200 for 2004 and approximately $50,000 per year thereafter.

The board also agreed to continue the task force for an additional year (cost, $12,200) to assist in implementing the mentoring program, and authorized $57,200 to promote and market the program to AVMA members.

A board member asked whether the proposed plan was the best one. Dr. James E. Nave, who as AVMA president in 2000-2001 proposed a mentoring program, was at the April board meeting. "The best in our profession (were on the task force)," he said, "and they believed in what they did."

A Web-based product/tool called Open Mentoring, from Triple Creek Associates of Littleton, Colo., is the vehicle for the program. Participants will identify their needs and areas of expertise, and design a self-directed mentor-mentee relationship.

The task force was created in 2002 as the result of a recommendation from the Member Services Committee, which the board had charged with establishing a model mentoring program for the AVMA.