London's Mentor Program is lead by Rhonda Carpenter since 18.04.2008 on the London Forum (Post: 424755.1).
The original program was started by Hannah Davis on 05.02.2008. Below are her words about the program.
London is starting a mentoring program! This idea has been very successfully put into effect in other cities and is very beneficial to newer players. The idea behind this is simply this: Anyone who is new and maybe a little confused about the complexity of the Popverse can sign up to be assigned a mentor. The name of this mentor will be sent to the new player and they are then free to ask any questions they may have about Popmundo.
What is a “Newbie”? I realize this can and has and will continue to be defined many different ways, but for the purpose of our program, I thought it best if we lay down some actual ground rules for this.
The way I see it is the learning process is never done in this game. I've been here for going on three years and I still learn new things all the time. That said, I don't intend to take characters older than 100 days. By that point, the players should have a good enough handle on things that they won't need more than the occasional insight, which of course they can easily get from the Newbie Forum. And, of course, I'm sure I speak for everyone affiliated with this program when I say we're more than willing to lend a helping hand regardless of how long you've been in the game, but please save the actual “official” mentoring for those who will benefit most from it.
As for donating free items to new players, I am discouraging donating any but the basic books (genre, stage skills, instruments) as these are the most vital to actually be able to play the game. Once a player has at least these skills, they should either turn to the local university or check out government programs for career books and opportunities. Of course, if you want to other books to players with your own money, I can't stop you. But with the money that is donated to this program, I will only be providing the more basic books, so that there is enough to go around for many people.
I hope this seems fair to all of you involved in this program. If you have any concerns about this, let me know. These are just general guidelines and can be changed if enough people want them to be.
Note to New Players: This is not necessarily meant for you to get free items. Granted, some of the people who are kind enough to do this service may be willing to give books or teach their skills to help advance your career. However, please don't beg or be rude to your mentor if they can't do this. If you need help with some of the more basic books, let me know and I can arrange that for you. Or if you would like to learn at the London University, please see this thread: Message: 315732.1.
Donations If you would like to donate to this cause that is just as wonderful and appreciated as becoming a mentor. We're taking all sorts of donations, not just monetary. If you are interested in donating money, books, instruments or anything else please contact me via PM. If you want to donate money, there has been a bank account set up at Boonk for just such a purpose (transferred from The Bank Of England, as that was Hannah's account). You may contact me at anytime if you wish to see the list of transactions for this account. The Account ID is 879595 and it currently holds 797735 USD. A spreadsheet of donations and expenditures can be found here.
Also, if you'd like to sell books and instruments at cost in your stores to help new players, let me know about that too!
The list of Mentors cand be found here.