yep! Summer Events - Kickball and More

Although the weather might not fully indicate that summer has arrived, we are in the final stages of planning several yep! events for the summer.

On August 22nd, yep! will host our sixth annual Kickball Tournament. If you have not played Kickball since grade school - the tournament is a great way to have fun and help yep! raise funds for two local charities.(Erie Arts Museum Youth Art Fund and KaleidAScope) The event will take place on August 22nd at the Harborcreek Community Park and will start at 8:00 AM. Each team - of 12 to 16 players - will play in a minimum of three games during the tournament. In the past, teams have developed creative names and outfits to show their spirit and determination to win the title of kickball champions.

Registration is $40.00 per person ($35.00 for yep! members) and can be completed online at www.yepkickball.org. The cost includes breakfast, lunch, and an afterparty Downtown once the tournament is completed. If you have any addtional questions, please e-mail Steve Reichard or visit www.yepkickball.org. Sponsorships are still available for corporations and organizations that would like to participate.

Yep! is also coordinating volunteers to staff the Children's Area during Discover Presque Isle. Volunteers are asked to work one hour (or more) shifts during the July 25th and 26th event. (From 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM) For more information on how you can help, contact Molly Reichard.

Finally, we are hosting a First Time Home Buyer seminar on July 20th. The event will be held at BrewErie at 6:00 PM and is open to yep! members and the general public. Local housing experts will discuss the impact of the first time home buyer credit and other strategies to purchase a home.

RSVPs are required and can be made by completing the form located here.

We are working on several events for the Fall and 2010 and I will post more information about them as it becomes availalable.

See you at the next event!

First 100 Days

Over the next few days, we are going to hear a lot about the first 100 days of the new Obama presidency. Although I am a few weeks late, (since the 2009 yep! Leadership Team started January 1st) I would like to take a few minutes to update everyone on our progress since the beginning of the year. (118 days to be exact)

In my first post to this blog, I outlined some of our goals for 2009. Using that list as a benchmark, we have made substantial progress since the beginning of the year.

Successes
1. Generation E Leadership awards was held on April 24th and over 300 individuals attended. Even during a recession, the local community embraced the event and it was an overwhelming success.
2. New Events. Our goal was to increase the frequency and diversity of yep! events. We held a financial planning seminar and will be launching the yep! Dinner Series next week. In addition, the Membership Meeting, HR Seminar, and a Summer Adventure are planned for May and June.
3. Generate member value. A preferred vendor / membership card will be distributed to the membership in May. We also have created events that are discounted for members and employed new communications techniques to reach a larger audience.
4. Growing membership base. The list of paid yep! members is increasng and we are working to continue that trend for the remainder of the year. (Thanks to everyone who has joined or renewed their membership this year)

Items we are working on
1. Finalizing some internal structure. The longevity of the organization will depend on our ability to manage transitions between leadership teams. We are in the process of creating additional policies and procedures to ensure that the organization can provide for the membership.
2. New partnerships. The leadership has been working on a few new partnerships and collaborative projects to help fulfill some needs of the organization. One is between the Non-Profit Partnership - Earthforce - and yep! to develop green teams to make a greater inpact in the local community. More information can be found here.

Thanks to our leadership team and our members for the work that they do to make the organization what it is today.

yep! @ You Lead

Since yep!'s inception, we have worked to become more active in the local and statewide communities by working to create a better environment for young professionals to thrive in Pennsylvania. In the past, our Civic Engagement Committee has worked on the local level to organize political debates and forums to educate our members - and the community at large - about issues that impact our age demographic.

yep! -like many young professionals organizations from across the Commonwealth - can help politicians connect to younger voters in many different ways. In addition, each organization can provide the perspective of their membership to help create better legislation and overall impact in Pennsylvania.

A few days ago I received a e-mail from Erin Molchany at PUMP - Pittsburgh Urban Magnate Project - about an initiative she is working on with Pennsylvania State Senator Rob Wonderling.

The initiative is called You Lead and to quote their press release is " a statewide effort to engage citizens age 21 – 34 in policy with the goal of the program to make Pennsylvania a premier state for young adults to live, work, and start a business. By providing a forum that welcomes discussion about issues and public policy throughout the state, and by working together with individuals from all regions, young people will be empowered to advance a legislative agenda that brings a fresh perspectives and creative solutions to Pennsylvania’s challenge of attracting and retaining new generations of residents and business owners.

On November 19, 2008, YouLead hosted a conference in Harrisburg with young people, entrepreneurs, educators, and legislators to discuss the issues important to Pennsylvania’s youth. The result was a number of proposals centered around three areas: Entrepreneurship; Education; and Empowerment. This winter, we have been working on legislation to address these issues, along with organizing a statewide young person’s network, and developing a platform for the younger adult population of the state to have their voice heard in Harrisburg."

I will be traveling to Harrisburg next for the kickoff of the YouLead initiative and look forward to working with the yep! leadership team to help us make a larger impact.

yep! WQLN Interview

yep! was featured on the March 1st edition of We Question and Learn. Thanks to Tom Pyz and WQLN for conducting the interview.

Click here to listen to the interview

About the program:

We Question and Learn" is dedicated to being a community interest program devoting an entire hour to interviews with Erie's prominent leaders, business people, educators, focusing in on business and technology as well as interviews with community development leaders.

Video killed the radio star

WPSE-AM 1450 interviewed Rebecca Styn and I about the 2009 Generation E Leadership Awards that will be held on April 24th at the Bayfront Convention Center.

The clip recently aired and can be heard by clicking here.

Thanks to Ron Slomski and his staff for helping us get the word out about yep! and Generation E.

Opportunities in the Erie Region

An added bonus of being yep! President is that you learn a lot more about all of the organizations in the community. I have had the privilege of meeting with several groups since January and have found that many of them are looking for young professionals to get more involved. In addition, many local employers contact us on a regular basis when they are looking to fill job openings.

yep! advertises these opportunities on our website and also via our monthly newsletter that is sent to our members. Be sure to check our opportunities page for the latest volunteer and job positions that are available in the region. We also added a Indeed.com search box on the site to help you locate positions that are posted on local and national job boards.

yep! in the News

I apologize for not posting sooner - this month has flown by. In the last month yep! has hosted several new events and we have been in the news fairly frequently.

On February 17th, about thirty people attended the first Professional and Leadership Development Committee event - Dollars and Sense - at the Erie Technology Incubator. A panel of local experts talked to attendees about banking, litigation, insurance, taxes, and financial planning. The committee is working to hold similar events each quarter throughout 2009. Thanks to Phil Gallagher - and our panelists - for organizing the successful event. WJET featured the event the day before and the day of the event as well.

Yesterday we held a press conference to announce the 2009 recipients of the Generation E Awards. Started five years ago, Generation E recognizes individuals that are making a difference in our community. Rebecca Styn - Generation E Chair - and the entire organizing committee have been working over the last few months to make the 5th Anniversary of the event the most successful in its history. For the first time, yep! will be going green with Generation E. The new logo, materials using recycled paper, and even the awards made out of recycled metal - will encompass an overall green theme that yep! is embracing. Yep! will also award a Green Award to a company or organization during the event and we are accepting nominations at www.generationeawards.com. The press conference - including interviews with Rebecca and I - were featured on several news outlets.

WICU

WJET

Last but not least - yep! will be featured this weekend on We Question We Learn on 91.3 FM. The hour program will feature a thirty minute interview about yep!. Once the program airs, it will be available for download in MP3 format and I will post it here. For more information about the program, check out the WQLN website.

Thanks to the yep! leadership team for all of their work on these events. More information will be posted here - on Facebook - or the yep! Website - as we finalize our plans.