Mentoring Young Faculty

During interviews as part of our interim chair search, one candidate mentioned the importance of mentoring young faculty. I've often thought about what that means. Most people that I talk to agree that mentoring young faculty is important, but few can define what that means beyond learning which committee assignments to avoid. I think in terms of research, it means reading drafts of manuscripts and helping with research design. In terms of teaching, I heard someone today talk about the importance of sitting down, discussing what classes you are teaching and want to teach and how can the department help you in such a way that you know what you're going to teach, your new preps are minimized, and you don't teach a class once and never again. I liked that answer. Probably not the whole answer, but a pretty good start.