YPW Board of Trustees Update

Hello YPW members!

Last Friday, we celebrated 11 years of attracting and engaging talented young professionals in Wichita. I am proud of all the great work our volunteers do to lead our organization on a forward path, and that our members are doing in the community to lead Wichita on a forward path.

Over the past year, our YPW Board of Trustees and a committee of current and former volunteers have been working on a strategic plan to ensure we are best positioned for long-term growth. At the July Board meeting, the trustees voted to approve a change to our Board of Trustees structure beginning in 2017.

This approved Board structure helps us to accomplish a few goals:

1. We will create additional leadership opportunities for our volunteers and members.
2. We will foster more in-depth conversations and faster decision making at the Board of Trustees level, while ensuring all of our stakeholder groups are represented at the table.
3. We will create space for the Trustees to focus on providing strategic direction and oversight for the organization, as well as provide them the flexibility to attend more programs and events.
4. We will enhance the team chairs’ ability to encourage innovation within their teams and to focus on executing high-quality events and programs.

To make the transition successful, we will need your help! During the month of August, we will accept nominations for our new Board positions. You can find the descriptions and expectations of all of the Board positions on the YPW website here. Once you have reviewed this prospectus, we ask you to consider nominating a YPW member you feel would best be able to fulfill those responsibilities.

You can nominate a team member, or yourself, for this and all of the positions here no later than Thursday, August 18 at 11:45 p.m. All nominees and applicants will be provided a status update no later than Friday, September 2. The 2017 Board of Trustees will then be approved at our September meeting on Monday, September 12. To ensure fair consideration for all potential Trustees, we are asking that all volunteers – including current Board of Trustees representatives – follow the new nomination process.

We thank you in advance for your patience during this transition period. It is our belief that this will be a strong positive change for the organization for the years to come. If you have any questions about the changes to the Board or the process, please contact me at sfinn@wichitachamber.org. We understand there may be some questions that we don’t already have answered. We will do our best to respect the input received throughout the process when developing answers to questions that will inevitably arise.

Thank you for all of your work to make YPW great and Wichita the premier place to build companies, careers, and communities.

Suzy Finn
YPW Executive Director
316.268.1170