- Young Execs of Austin Head Honcho Golf Tourney
- Second Annual Do Gooder Games
- YNPN Professional Development Series - Generational Leadership
- Mentoring 101 with Cookie Ruiz and Rachel Frank
- Leadership Gap Breakfast Talk-O
- Coats for Kids Service Project
- An Evening with Robert Egger
Young Execs of Austin Head Honcho Golf Tourney
YNPN participated in the Young Execs of Austin Head Honcho Golf Tourney a couple of weeks ago. It turns out we won an award! Let me preface that with the fact that we definitely enjoyed ourselves and proudly represented YNPN! Drum roll, please...."And the most anticipated award, WORST SCORE, goes to..." you guessed it...YNPN!!!! Congratulations to the YNPN participants Abby Williamson, Flor Zapotechne, Emily Speight, and Amanda Teske.
Second Annual Do Gooder Games on April 24, 2008 a huge success!
YNPN Austin, along with co-presenters NENA (of the LBJ School) and the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service, hosted the Second Annual Do Gooder Games on Thursday, April 28th.
Mother Egan's Pub was the site for fierce competition emphasizing nonprofit knowledge and creativity, with zany challenges ranging from trivia and analogies to Twister and a round of "Are you smarter than a CEO?" against Regina Rogoff.
The team from CASA of Travis County took home the $400 jackpot while the LBJ School of Public Affairs team received the unannounced $100 mini-jackpot, The funds will be donated to CASA of Travis County and the Great Society Fund for social entrepreneurship, respectively, proof that you can have fun while doing good.
Check out photos of the winners, the losers and the uncensured good times here: http://flickr.com/photos/dogoodergames
YNPN Professional Development Series – Generational Leadership, April 18, 2008
With a room full of people, Pamela Owens, President of Edge of Your Seat Consulting, held an intimate Q&A aimed at providing a Generational Leadership action plan that was informative, helpful and useful. Pamela candidly shared her experiences and lessons learned. Audience members left with answers to their most pressing questions: as young professional, what should we be doing right now, what and how we should be learning from the previous generations, the advantages of having an advanced degree and many others. Pamela taught us to talk less and listen more, to let our work speak for itself and to own our faults. She stressed that professionalism is key and perception is everything!!
Most importantly, Pamela shared her three most important take away tips:
1. Learn how to manage your boss and your work.
2. Find an accountability team of allies that is cross generational, cultural and gender.
3. Have an honest, self-reflection. Ask "Is it me?" more often.
Mentoring 101, February 27, 2008
On Wednesday, February 27th, YNPN held it's first event in our Mentorship 4-part series. Mentorship 101 was a great learning experience and would not have been a success without the wisdom of mentor Cookie Ruiz, Ballet Austin's Executive Director and mentee Rachel Frank, former Major Gifts Director at SafePlace. Cookie graciously shared her thoughts on mentorship and the many aspects important to a successful mentor relationship, while Rachel's insight into how a mentor can truly benefit a young professional was priceless. We truly appreciate the openness Cookie and Rachel brought to the event and are certain they've set the stage for the mentorship events to follow.Many thanks to those who were able to join us that evening. We look forward to seeing you and those who couldn't make it at our future events, which will cover more in depth the topics that Cookie and Rachel brought to the table. If you or someone you know would like to be more involved in our Mentorship series, please email megan_hartman@yahoo.com and keep an eye out for our next Mentorship event in May.
Leadership Gap Breakfast Talk-O, January 31, 2008
This week kicked off the first of four breakfast discussions centered on the notion of closing the leadership gap. The goal of the initial forum was to educate and share information with regard to the upcoming transition; to address questions and raise awareness. With a room full of GenXers and GenYers, Kimberly Caldwell led the audience in a sixty minute conversation that covered the gamut: Who we are talking about, who the situation affects, what experts know and do not know, why this happening, what barriers currently stand between generations and when we can expect to feel the pressure. Audience members actively shared their own experiences, feelings, thoughts, ideas and questions. The morning ended with participants telling us (YNPN) what would be most useful and helpful for them to begin preparing for this change individually, and within their organization.Coats for Kids Service Project, December 6, 2007
Over a dozen YNPN members met at the Palmer event center last Thursday to sort coats in preparation for the Junior League’s Coats for Kids Distribution Day. We caught the tail end of the sorting effort and were more than glad to leave early in order to gather at Zax Pints and Plates for, well--pints and plates. Conversations ranged from mixing motherhood with a nonprofit career to hospitality customs in Kenya and beyond! We hope you'll join us in the future.An Evening with Robert Egger, October 16, 2007
Thank you to everyone who helped at and attended the Robert Egger event on Tuesday. It was a wonderful night of music, conversations and radical thinking! Thanks especially to Havilah Tower and The Seekers, Robert Egger, and the members of our planning team (Kelly Stewart Nichols, Amy Hyman, Rachel Christ).
For those of you who weren’t able to attend, here is a brief attempt to summarize Mr. Egger’s comments – or at least my interpretation of them:
· We are working in a nonprofit sector that isn’t “rockin’”, which is why minorities and young, energetic employees are “knockin’”
· In order for our sector to grow and remain viable in the not-so distant baby-boomers-retired future, we need to not only create new ideas, but stand up for them and believe in them
· We, as young people in the sector need to demand a voice at the table with our sector’s leaders, as well as our country’s leaders
· We are 10% of the workforce with an economic share greater than the GNP of India – we deserve that voice, but aren’t given that respect by our nation’s leaders
· We need to get past the notion of nonprofits as “charities that do random nice things” and see ourselves as a common movement
· We need to shed the “make them come to us” model and start going to them – the volunteers and resources are out there and excited to work with us
· YNPN has the opportunity and obligation to work towards revolutionizing the state of nonprofits to work for us and future generations, because the current system has gotten bigger, but not better
Obviously, these are a few bullet points to summarize an hour-long, highly motivating and inspirational talk from Mr. Egger. It is also a call to action. To borrow from a bumper sticker “I strive to be as good of a person as my dog thinks I am,” it is time to become the organization Robert Egger thinks we can be.