NOVICE CHAPTERS 

It starts with identifying a need in a community -- a space, if you will -- for young people in the nonprofit sector to gather to discuss issues that affect their professional lives and the desire to share knowledge, skills, and resources to the sector as a whole. YNPN is eager to support the professional development and career growth of young nonprofit professionals nationwide -- if a local YNPN group has not yet been established in your area,we encourage you to set one up. 

The path each chapter takes in the YNPN network differs from chapter to chapter, but all share key benchmarks, struggles, and successes along the way.This page is dedicated to illustrating key traits, characteristics, and benchmarks for the NOVICE chapter and we hope to provide a general development path for chapters in this key stage of development. Starting up a YNPN chapter is a big responsibility and should not be taken lightly. YNPN National will provide technical assistance, general advice, and walk chapters step-by-step through initial start up phase, but the overall success of a chapter will fall on the individuals that make up the chapter – their energy, vision, and passion will go a long way in building the foundation of a strong chapter within the YNPN network. 

Defining a Novice chapter:

• Less than 2 years old

• Core leadership team of 3-5 people. Leadership team is defined as a chair(co-chairs, if applicable), treasurer, secretary, etc.

• Established in a city no less than 30 miles from the nearest YNPN chapter 

Ideal Benchmarks:

•  At least 200 members on listserv (iModules) by end of second year. This, at first, sounds like an impossible task but is actually a relatively easy objective to achieve. iModules, the IT infrastructure for YNPN, enables chapters to quickly identify and categorize anyone who attends an activity,signs up online, or simply responds to a survey. Collecting data on who your members are then becomes an easy task using iModules, as many of the categorizing terms are already done for you. TIP: at every event your chapter hosts, have a sign-in sheet with fields for contact information -- this is an easy way to collect membership data and keep track of your members.

•  3 main activities within first year of operation. One recurring activity among YNPN chapters is a monthly happy hour for young professionals to simply gather in one location and network. Ideas for workshops and other activities are sparked from informal conversations with attendees at these happy hours. TIP:partner with another local organization to co-host an event, providing the chapter with access to members from the other organization while simultaneouslyintroducing the local chapter to the nonprofit community in the city. 

• At least one person from the leadership team attend the National Leaders Conference. YNPN National holds a leadership conference every year, co-sponsored by a local chapter, that aims to bring key leaders from the nonprofit sector to share ideas, strategize around key concepts, and share best practices for chapters. This is an excellent way for new and emerging chapters to receive more hands-on support and to ask direct questions on important matters of development. YNPN National provides financial support -100% reimbursement on travel costs - to all attendees at the conference. 

Key responsibilities:

• Set up a website and create listservs for your members. Using iModules makes this process easier and every month YNPN National coordinates webinars around specific topics of interest to chapters in and effort to make using iModules easier. 

• Establish a national liaison contact person for YNPN National. This facilitates communication between the chapter and National and provides a ready source of support.

• For first year of operation, set quarterly communication dates with YNPN National to share key issues/challenges facing the chapter and to allow YNPN National to provide targeted resources for the chapter.

• Use YNPN logo on all electronic and written communication.