This document provides information about the YP Leaders Academy, including introductions, details about YPIowa and its committees, membership information, and tips for connecting with business leaders and re-energizing a young professionals group. It discusses forming committees to engage members, communicating events, focusing on either quantity or quality of members, and succession planning to ensure leadership transitions smoothly.

1. YP Leaders Academy
Looking Towards the Future

2. Introductions
• Your Name
• YP Group Name
• Location of YP Group
• Your role in YP Group
• Your company
• “A day in your city”

3. YPIowa
• ABI Foundation
• GLUE & Greater Midwest Rural YP Group
• National YP Summit, Florida
– Sept 24 – 28
• Other Successful Statewide Groups
– North Dakota, Florida, Pennsylvania & New Mexico
• Currently 96 YP groups in Iowa
– 49 are Jaycees

4. Membership
• YPIowa Membership = $20 per year
– $20 off Leadership Conference Registration
– IA.biz Magazine subscription
– YPIowa Pin
– Monthly Newsletter sent directly to you
• Facebook, My Space, LinkedIn

5. Executive Committee
• YPIowa Board
– 15 board members on a 3 year rotating terms PLUS
up to 3 assigned board positions
– Virginia Anderson, President; Kori Heuss, Vice-
President; Lynn Olberding, Secretary; Angela
Rheingans, Treasurer
• YPIowa Board opportunities
– Applications due by October 1
– Discussion will take place at 4th Q Board Meeting /
YPIowa Leadership Conference

6. Executive Committee
• YPIowa Funding
– Sponsorships & Events fund this organization
• Host for YPIowa Events
– Applications for 2009 Leadership conference
due July 15, 2008
• YPIowa Sponsor local YP events
– If you would like to list YPIowa as a sponsor
for your groups event, send your request to
info@ypiowa prior to event.

7. Volunteer Opportunities
• Committees
– Communication Committee
– Advocate Committee
– Connect Committee
– Education Committee

8. Communication Committee
• Todd Lovelace, Chair
• Monthly Newsletter
• Website
– Feature events on Main Page
– Link to your YP group
– Promote events on Events Page
– Speakers Bureau (working on)
– Best Practices – under Education Committee
– Pay for local YP Group Fees (working on)
– Blog & Forums

9. Advocate Committee
• Jessica Palmer, Chair
• We are a 501 (c) (3) so we can not take a stand
on an issue, but we can inform
• YP Day at the Capitol – spring of each year
– 2007 – signed the Generation Iowa Commission Bill
– 2008 – got an update on Generation Iowa
Commission and learned how to lobby
• Legislative Bill Wrap-up (working on)
• How to contact your legislator (working on)

10. Advocate Committee
• Generation Iowa Commission
– SWOT Analysis
– Iowa Best Practices: How to Recruit & Retain
– Road map to recruit and retain young people
in Iowa
• www.iowalifechanging.com/generation
• www.generationiowa.com

11. Connect Committee
• YPIowa Annual Leadership Conference
– 2004 – Ames
– 2005 – Des Moines
– 2006 – Cedar Rapids
– 2007 – Sioux City
– 2008 – Muscatine – Amanda Landers-Each, Chair
– 2009 – TBD – will be announced at the conference
• Job Ambassador Program
– Amanda Brend, Chair
– Consideriowa.org Request

12. Education Committee
• Amy Jennings, Chair
• Meet with YP Groups
• Survey YP Groups
• Provide Best Practices
• Round up Example Documents
• Share YP stats
– IPTV
• Help Start-up new YP groups
• Put on YP Leaders Academy

13. Boosting your membership
& Increase member
participation

14. Note – stats here were based on a survey done at
the beginning of the year where 24 groups filled
out the survey.
Please make sure to check with Wade sometime
today to make sure we have the correct e-mail
addresses for your organization.

15. Membership
Affiliate Group or

18
Non-Affiliate Group 16
Chamber
- 14
Economic 12
-
Development Group 10
Affiliate
8 Non-Affiliate
6
How is your group set- 4
up? What has been 2
your experience?
0
Starting

16. Membership
Annual Dues

What does it cover? 10

How does it compare 9

to other groups? 8
Where else do your 7
 < $20
funds come from to 6
$20 - $29
cover costs? 5
$30 - $39
What VALUE do they 4
 $40 - $49
3
gain by being a $50 - $60
2
member? 1
0
Yearly Dues

17. Membership
Set the goal for your

group –
6
Are you going to try and be
5 
a group with large number
of members
< 50
4
50-99
Are you going to be a

3
group of involved members
100-200
– typically a smaller
200-300
2
number of members.
300+
1
0
# of members
Quantity vs Quality

18. Membership
Note – a high number of people or an

increase in membership can sometimes
help when recruiting sponsorship dollars…
Or – A focus on the numbers can cause

people to see you more of a social club....
So, it’s a fine line!!!

19. Membership
YPIowa Board member representing
Burlington, Brenda Wischmeier
“If you waste too much time on the
members who do not show up, you can
loose your active members.”

20. Membership
Focus of YP Group

Social

Charitable

Professional Development

Civic

Any others?

21. Membership
IMPACT

By making an impact on your community,

your group becomes a group that people
want to become a member of. YPs love to
feel they can make a difference.

22. Membership
Challenge from April Girard, Keokuk YP

People are so busy nowadays that it makes it difficult for people to devote the extra

time after work or on the weekends. I keep coming back to the fact that if each
person did a little it would make a huge difference and wouldn’t take that much time
from each person. How do we get that message across to the communities and YPs in
Iowa and especially the smaller populated areas? I once hear that most people would
volunteer if they were only asked. I wonder if we have a message going out to the
state of IA and the YP communities stating that we are asking for help, kind of like
what JFK said; “… what can you do for your country.” We should be asking “What can
you do to help IA and your fellow neighbors and YPs?”

23. Membership
Form Committees –

This allows members to feel like they are

making a contribution
What committees do you break up into?


24. Membership
Form Committees –

Break up the jobs to keep committees active

Keep some committee commitments short

Hold committees meetings before general

membership meetings
Focus on membership by having an individual

or committee focused on this specifically.

25. Membership
Structure

Get in groups of 4 and discuss your

organizational structure and how that works
with your committees

26. Membership
New Member Orientations

Breakfast / lunch / evening

What do you do?

Membership application

 Name tags
 Profile on website
 Orientation
Buddy system with old members

Greeter committee


27. Membership
Social Events

Should target a wide array of people

How to avoid being portrayed as the drinking

club?

28. Membership
College Student Recruitment


29. Membership
Communication

How do you communicate your events?

E-mail

E-vite

Website

Phone Calls

Do you have a website presence?

Examples on YPIowa.com


30. Membership
Amy Jennings, YPIowa Board member
representing Des Moines area wraps it up
well…..
“Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. Ask
members what they want to see and get them
involved in a leadership position or committee.”

31. Membership
Time to MOVE! Choose a card

32. Connecting with Business
Leaders & Gaining
Community Support

33. What is a YP?
Is there an age limit?

34.  Utilize Media Sources on every thing your YP
group does – Press Release & Press
Conferences
Announce annual meeting
Announce new board members
Announce all activities
Announce all changes
 Choose to hold an event that is specifically to
gain respect of the community, even though you
don’t necessarily market it that way. Any
examples?

35. Avoid bringing up if alcohol will be at
events.
If asked, just mention drinks will be
available and then mention the main
reason you’re there.

36. Sponsorship vs Corporate Tour
 Sponsorship  Corporate Tour
Specific reason for your Inform community and
meeting is to ask for city leaders about your
YP group’s activity
their financial support
 Fundraiser Give examples to go on
each of the boards
Your group is giving a
product or service in
exchange for a
donation.

37. Get the word out about your group
Talk at other Service Clubs
Maximize Meet & Greets
Invite business leaders to professional
development events or hold them at their
place of business
Volunteer at other non-profit activities
Other ideas of how to get your message
out?

38. Have a PowerPoint ready to talk about the
history of the group and where you are
today
Rely on data & local demographics to help
prove why your support is needed
Use Survey Monkey as a resource
Prepare an Annual Report

39. During a meeting with Business Leaders –
 Show the emotional side of it
 Show how you are making an impact
 Explain your plan for building the young professional community
 Talk with them about showing their support by asking their
employees to become members representing their businesses.
 See if there is anyone they recommend to become a member of the
organization
 Talk about building leaders for tomorrow
 Explain how you are there to help them
 Ask! You must specifically ask.
 Ask for double what you expect to get

40. How to get in front of the top leaders?
Chamber assistance
Ask those you’ve met with to introduce you
to others that should hear your message
Advisory Board
Large annual event
fundraiser
networking event
Community seminar

41. Kyle Kelly, Past President of SCGO says
“key is to show value to business leaders,
and their respect and support will follow”

42. Time to move! Choose a card

43. Re-energizing your YP
Group

44. Re-energizing your YP
Group
• Get out of the Habit –
• Think outside of the box and
create something new vs doing
what comes easiest

45. Re-energizing your YP
Group
• Speed Networking
• Big Dream Gatherings
• Executive connection – CEO
Luncheon Series

46. Re-energizing your YP
Group
• Define Networking –
• It’s when you make connections
that will lead to something
• Strictly Socials are social
events. Don’t try and make
networking part of socials.

47. Re-energizing your YP
Group
• Make things fun and entertaining
• Ask for feedback
• Refresh Committees
• Change it up!

48. Re-energizing your YP
Group
• Ice Breaker ideas? Throw ball & write it
on board
• Ideas on how to change it up?
Throw ball & write it on board

49. Re-energizing your YP
Group
• Survey Monkey
• CEO Luncheon Series
• Share your personal
involvement in other parts of
the city
• Share your business profiles

50. Succession Planning

51. Succession Planning
• Make sure your leaders understand the History
of your group – why you started, how you
started – understand the mission.
• Make sure your entire board can’t turn over at
the same time – stager the terms lengths
– How long are your terms?
• Learn to Lean on one another, especially during
busier times at work

52. Succession Planning
• Create bylaws and board structure which
includes a future president & past president as
board members. This helps ensure the next
person in line for leadership is being trained.
– Chair / Vice-Chair
– Ex-officia
– Have open seats allowed in your By-laws

53. Succession Planning
• Document important changes so it can be
passed on to future boards.
– Be clear in your by-laws what committees /
leadership roles do so it can always be referenced
• Examples on YPIowa.com
– Bylaws
– Articles
– Budget
– Event Planning

54. Succession Planning
• Identify successors
– Make sure to give them trial run tasks to ensure they
can handle the position
• Nominating Committee
• Greeters Committee assignment
• Continually work on developing your group
members leadership skills
• Strategic Planning

55. Strategic Planning
• Planning is setting the
direction for something and
then guiding one to follow
the direction
• Determines where an
organization is going, how it
will get there and how it’ll
know if it got there
• Ensures key leaders are all on
the same page
• Increases effectiveness
• Solves major problems

56. Strategic Planning
• Defines the realistic goals
and timeframes
• Goals communicated to
all team members to
develop a sense of
ownership
• Provides measurable
goals to give reason to
celebrate success

57. Strategic Planning
• If you haven’t done one yet.
• New Group Starting
• New major venture
• When having a “come to
Jesus” meeting on group
• Once every three years
• Action plans should be
updated yearly, but discussed
quarterly

58. Strategic Planning
• Review your group’s purpose or desired result
• Survey and understand your YP group
• Analyze the situation – SWOT
• Establish goals
• Establish strategies & assign responsibility
• Physically write the plan
• Acknowledge and Celebrate Successes

59. Strategic Planning
• Goals and Objectives should be SMARTER
– S – Specific
– M – Measurable
– A – Acceptable
– R – Realistic
– T – Time frame
– E – Extending
– R - Rewarding

60. Strategic Planning
• Involve the right people
• There is no “perfect” plan
• Start simple, but start!
• Consider having a consultant or facilitator
• Be engaged to communicate the plan
• Build accountability – who’s doing what when?
• Deviating from the plan is okay, it’s not a set of rules,
it’s a guideline
• Most importantly………

61. Strategic Planning
Celebrate Successes!

62. Succession Planning
• When you look back on a group, as things
change, your group changes….
• How do you feel your group is doing in this
category? Is the change positive? What is it you
feel your group can do to be better prepared and
understanding the changes? Write down… with
your permission these will be shared on the
website forum (with no names) as examples.

63. Starting a YP Group
Guide to start

64. Thanks for your
input and participation!
Dates to remember
7/15/2008
- RFP for Conference due
10/1/2008
- Board Applications due
10/10/2008
- YPIowa Leadership
Conference in Muscatine