Please note - this IS NOT a marketing exercise for myself. Considering my short length of active involvement (as opposed to sitting on the sidelines and taking) in this community, and the number of incredibly smart and helpful people I have met along the way, it would be a bit insulting to them for me to be nominated, let alone accepted as an SAP mentor.  However, I do have a blatant appeal to your self interest, to your patriotism and even the interests of your employer

Read Mark Finnern's recent post, Nominate the next SAP Mentor to join us by TechEd, then think if there's anyone you know (whether they're a co employee, an employer, a customer or who ever) that fits the criteria.  Obviously, there are major career and SAP community benefits for anyone who becomes an SAP Mentor, but think wider than that....

Criteria for becoming an SAP Mentor are based around not just the nominees technical skills, but also their abilty and willingness to spread their knowledge, and to work to improve SAP products.  Now, there are two SAP mentors in Australia (Graham Robbinson and Tony De Thomasis) out of a total of 90 or so worldwide.  I can see this number, and their involvement in the community, being used by SAP and / or the Community itself as a metric to determine where they (that is, SAP and the Community) should use their resources.  Not just how much marketing SAP does in Australia, in this example, but also how much attention SAP pay to the community in that market.  In other words, more SAP Mentors in Australia may mean a more active engagement by SAP in the Australian market. More interest by SAP in Australia could mean

• more active promotion of SAP, meaning more SAP work in Australia (for everyone),
• more active involvement by SAP in local conferences and traing...
• more knowledge aof and familiarity by customers,
• (here is the blatant self interest part)  more interesting work

Yes, I am interested in growing the numbers, the market, in Australia. Because thats where I live. But replace Australia with your geographic location, or your employer, or ....

By nominating someone for the SAP mentor role, you are activly driving SAP and the SAP community in that person's direction.