Potential Mentors Don’t Complete the MPP Questionnaire to sign-up, they create profiles here at learn.prorankllc.com or prorankacademy.com and then just update their profiles.
How To Navigate The PennDOT MPP Rooms for Mentors / Navigating MPP Room Hierarchies & Breadcrumbs
1. First let’s discuss the purpose of becoming a “Potential Prime Mentor”. This process will allow those seeking to win PennDOT Projects that have MPP provisions the ability to see, review and connect the potential pool of proteges that can be utilized for the MPP provision.
- The reason you are considered a “Potential Mentor” is because as a private company, until you are awarded a PennDOT project that has the MPP provisions on it you are not technically a Mentor in this program
2. Now let’s navigate to the group rooms page and filter the room types by Mentor-Protege rooms. You will see all of the MPP rooms that you are enrolled in.
- Let’s make a special note of the Tier 3 Consultant Room and let’s start there.
- The Tier 3 Room for Consultants is where you will find all of the potential proteges who are ready to partner on a PennDOT project. All consultant tier 3 firms will be PennDOT Business Partner Registered & Qualified and all Tier 3 Contractors will be at least Business Partner Registered and have some experience with the work that they are seeking prequalification assistance in.
- The Underutilized Room for Consultants is where you can go to determine which of the (Tier 3 Firms) are considered “Underutilized” per the last disparity study and you can try to ensure you are actually helping PennDOT serve the purpose of this program which is to use more underutilized DBEs
- The additional rooms you see like the PennDOT Mentor-Protege Rooms and the Consultant MPP Room will hold discussions and documents that are applicable to broader groups of program stakeholders.
3. Now individuals who are retired Mentors will see a fifth MPP Group available to them, the Tier 2 Consultant Room .
- These firms in addition to tier 3 firms can be assisted by retired Mentors to better understand their discipline or help build their professional network while trying to become “Ready to Work” for PennDOT
- The main PennDOT MPP room will be good for discussions and access to members that will allow you to ask questions and make suggestions directly to program administrators
4. PRA Group Rooms have 3 statuses:
Public Rooms – anyone can join anytime with the “Join Now” Button. Users may also be auto-added to this based on the profile answers.
Private Rooms – anyone can see the room is there but users not added must request access and be excepted by a room organizer. Users are often auto-added to these rooms based on the profile answers.
Hidden Rooms – Only room members can see the rooms. No access can be requested for these rooms. Users are auto-added to these rooms based on the profile answers.
MPP Rooms have a nesting logic that allows room members to drill down from General MPP Program information at the top/higher level rooms down to more specific information using the “Sub Groups” tab.
The Breadcrumb Feature can be used to navigate back up through the room hierarchy.
The Top Level MPP Room is the PennDOT mentor-Protege (MPP) Room. This room houses discussions, documents, and information that may be of value to all MPP program stakeholders
Making Connections and Sending Messages
1. Understanding the group room nesting is important when you are looking for different MPP Program Participants.
For example, the Top Level MPP Room (The PennDOT MPP Rooms) would be the best room if you’re looking to make connections with a wide variety of MPP Program Administrative Stakeholders and send them messages, they all can be found in the Members Tab of the Top Level MPP Room (The PennDOT MPP Room)
2. To send anyone a message, you must first have a connection with that user.
Simply click the icon of the person with the plus symbol located at the bottom of each member profile image to initiate your connection request.
You can cancel a connection request or a connection anytime
3. Please be mindful of the Room Member Type when connecting and communicating.
MPP Rooms have 3 Member Types (Program Admins, Potential Mentors, Potential Proteges)
Note, that some DBEs are Potential Mentors as opposed to Potential Proteges.
Make sure you are aware of the Room Member Type of the user before sending communications
Viewing Potential Protege Profiles
1. The Tier 3 Room is where you go to see Proteges that are ready to work on PennDOT Projects
2. Direct messages can not be sent until a connection is established with the member.
Feel free to send connection requests and once connected begin a dialogue with any or all potential proteges.
3. When looking for proteges one can click the profile image of any “Potential Proteges” to learn more information about their company.
- A Protege’s Profile will provide additional information on each potential protege to the extent the profile has been completed.
If the firm has a capabilities statement on file it can be viewed directly from its profile by clicking the “View Capabilities Statement” link.
4. Remember, unless the Potential Protege is in the Tier 3 Room, they may not be ready to pair on a PennDOT project.
Potential Proteges listed in Non-Tier MPP Rooms may or may not yet be tier 3.
Please view your respective Tier 3 room for proteges to partner with on PennDOT Projects.
Please check back regularly as more Tier 3 firms could be joining rooms daily.
Remember, retired Individual Mentors can also be paired with Tier 2 firms
Please note that sample MOUs and other resources will be available in the documents section of each respective room. Please contact us at 855-776-7265 or MPP@prorankllc.com with additional questions.