YPW’s Vision 2020
For the past year, the Young Professionals of Wichita Board of Trustees, its volunteers, and other stakeholders have worked diligently on a revised three-year strategic plan. At the November Board meeting, the Trustees approved a new strategic plan for the organization, effective from 2018-2020. Over time, members, volunteers, and community stakeholders will see a gradual implementation of the plan to reach the final strategic vision for 2020.
The strategic plan includes a few key pieces: revised focus areas, restructured action teams, and an emphasis on strategic marketing.
As part of this plan, Alejo Cabral – currently YPW’s Program Coordinator – will be promoted to YPW Director effective January 1. In this role, Cabral will assume leadership of YPW, an affiliate of the Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce. A new Program Coordinator, a position for which we are now hiring, will join him. (Click here for position description and application instructions.) Current Director, Suzy Finn, has resigned her position with the Chamber and YPW effective December 22 to take a new role with Wichita Public Schools in January.
Revised Focus Areas
Our members have told us that they have three primary reasons for joining YPW: making professional connections, making personal connections, and professional development. Therefore, our 2020 Vision includes a renewed emphasis on three focus areas: Connect, Develop, and Impact.
Our teams will continue to plan regular events that provide our members and guests with the opportunities they need to connect to each other for personal and professional reasons, to connect to things to do in our community, and to connect with community and business leaders. Members will see increased quality in events, as well as new ways to connect to each other more easily and more often through other connection opportunities.
There will also be an increased intentionality in the planning of our professional development opportunities. Programs like YPW Leadership Academy, Group Mentoring, and Board Placement will be reviewed and refined. New programs may be added to meet other professional development needs of our members.
Ultimately, the efforts to Connect and Develop our members will lead to more opportunities to Impact the community. Our goal as an organization will be to create impactful people who have the connections, skill sets, and leadership capacity to effect positive change in our community in their individual ways. Our role will be to intentionally connect our members to the opportunities and people necessary to take the next steps in their individual and collective journeys. We will then celebrate those successes through our communication channels.
Restructured Action Teams
To support our revised focus areas, we will be restructuring our action teams in a manner that best allows those teams to produce high-quality programs and events. The final layout of those teams and the transition plan are still to be determined. 2018 YPW Chair, Zach Wiggins, and 2018 Volunteer Representative to the Board, Lindsey Lankford, will form a small committee to develop the strongest plan and work with our current volunteers to implement it. All current volunteers will be invited to remain active volunteers and participants in the organization, and new volunteers will continue to be invited to help guide the work of YPW.
Emphasis on Strategic Marketing
Past YPW staff and volunteers have worked continuously to share information about the events and programs our other volunteers have planned. Since 2013, our organization has increased its membership, the number of investors and sponsors, and the total number of volunteers. The successes we have had as an organization are largely due to the word of mouth promotion of our amazing volunteers and members. In the Vision 2020 plan, the YPW team will refocus on telling the story of YPW, its members and volunteers, its stakeholders, and the Wichita community.
We will commit to hiring a marketing and communications intern on a regular basis to support this focus. We will work with the local universities to recruit those interns; however, we encourage our members and volunteers who know of great candidates to connect with Alejo Cabral for more information at any time throughout the year.
