I know that Pinnacle 'spins' that the mentor program will help speed upgrade and thus 'help you out'. I personally feel the real purpose of the mentor program is really to help out management with Captain shortages. I also thought the change in upgrade standards accelerated the resigning of former Chief Pilot. IMO, you got a dead cow' as a gift (dutch saying). From what I recall, there was so much friction about lowering the original upgrade standards that the mentor program was one way to make the lower standards more palatable. In defense of the mentor program, there are a lot of good FOs that don't meet the current requirements that will be good Captains once they get the Mentor program under their belt and the CRJ is an easy airplane to manage. Mentor Captains have A LOT of responsibility AND liability doing what they do. Finally whether the mentors consiously do it or not in light of the managment labor relations there, they are helping management help solve Captain shortages.