Mentoring programs depend on a complex personal and professional relationship between a novice teacher and a veteran teacher. The study described here was designed to add to the knowledge of mentor roles, benefits of mentoring, and obstacles to mentoring. This report is based on the first of two meetings with a diverse group of mentor teachers (N=24). During the meeting, subjects were asked to describe and categorize related elements which expressed their ideas of mentoring roles, benefits, and obstacles. Consistent with the literature, findings indicate that: subjects appeared to be the most at ease discussing mentor roles and the most uncomfortable discussing obstacles to mentoring; subjects clearly drew on their own experiences as mentors in discussing roles and benefits; and they often found it difficult to classify elements cited. As a group, teachers emphasized assisting beginning teachers in terms of curriculum and instructional needs and providing them with ongoing professional support and encouragement. The subjects generally described the mentor as somone serving as a coach or a quasi-mentor, and less frequently as a role model or a mentor who had significant personal and professional influence on a novice teacher. (Contains 15 references.) (LL)