Tribune-Review - January 29, 2008

Young Professionals Pursue social, business ties.
By: Debbie Black
For the Tribune-Review

For the members of Young Professionals of Indiana County, the organization provides a way for its members to network and socialize while closing the gap between those who are beginning careers and those who are already established professionals.

In less than a year, the organization dubbed YPi has grown to about 40 members, according to Jason Colinet, 24, secretary and treasurer of the group.

The organization’s success came after the Indiana County Chamber of Commerce backed its formation and founding executive members developed plans to appeal to young professionals.

“It was about timing and waiting for the window of opportunity,” said Heather Reed, the organization’s president. Reed, a grant writer for Indiana Regional Medical Center, saw the need for young professionals to connect and network.

“I grew up here, and I went away to college at Lock Haven,” said Reed, 27, a native of Marion Center now residing in Indiana. “As soon as I came back, I saw you want to meet the well-established business people. I tried to start it up then, and we had about 10 people show up. It was disheartening.”

A small group of young professionals formed YPi last spring under the direction of the Indiana County Chamber of Commerce.

“YPI is to help people bridge that gap between college and getting established,” Reed said. Membership is open to professionals aged 45 and younger and is a socializing and business networking organization.

“When we started YPi, I viewed the group as a sort of pre-Chamber group with the focus being on networking,” said Michael Krug, 32, of Indiana, who serves as vice president. “However, after going through the creation process and meeting with other like-minded people my own age, my opinion has changed slightly. Not only do I get networking opportunities, but have become a part of a community, and have made several friends from within the group. It's that kind of atmosphere that I believe can truly lead to even more successes for the future of our county.”

Krug, a partner of the business technology consulting firm Digital Razor in Indiana, helped establish the organization to appeal to a younger demographic.

“YPi creates an environment that tends to be more inviting to our demographic,” Krug said. “Young professionals can be hesitant to seek out networking opportunities within the Chamber due to the age differences. We provide and create fun events for our demographic where such opportunities are more comfortable and bridge the gap to welcome young business people to the Chamber. We listen to our members and create social and networking events based on their input.”

YPi shares some common goals with the Chamber including promoting economic development and civic engagement.

“From the Chamber’s end, there was a need to overcome that there is nothing to do here,” said Colinet, the Chamber’s membership coordinator. “It’s a great way to meet and network with other young professionals. We invite all members to Chamber functions. We try to engage the members and find out what they want to do.”

The group held its first event, a mixer, last May and continues to grow as more people learn about it, according to Colinet.

“We’re going through the growing pains,” Colinet said. “We’re getting members every month. I get to meet a lot of people I wouldn’t normally have met.”

Reed said the group creates an atmosphere and holds events that appeal to young professionals.

“In the time I’ve been here, I see the county developing and there are things to do here,” Reed said. “We’ve provided an avenue to get together. We have a variety of things to do. We have sporting events, paintball, coffee mornings, and we had sidewalk movie nights. We had a wine tasting event.”

The group recently held a morning mixer and cosmic bowling. Aside from the social aspects, the group is working to form future leadership and strong community networking.

“Having an organization such as ours puts us in a unique position being that the group contains the leaders of the future,” Krug explained. “We work with the Indiana Chamber and learn from their experiences so that we may better serve our communities in the decades to come. By taking advantage of such a learning/mentoring opportunity, we ensure the direction of our county is secured and continuously moving forward.”

Upcoming events include an Open Forum for members in February and a socializing and Hockey Night February 22 when the group will meet at 5 p.m. at Cozumel’s Mexican Restaurant in Indiana and then meet for the Indiana Miners Hockey Game at S&T Arena at 7:30p.m. A section for YPi will be reserved at the game and the cost is $15.

YPi is accepting new members and the annual fee is $50 for employees of an Indiana County Chamber of Commerce member and $100 for employees of non-members.