Working it for YP!

We’ve had so little summer sun, what’s up with that. It feels like it’s been years since summer. I’m hoping when I go down to Moline this week, I’ll be able to sneak in some rays! I’m excited about this trip as I don’t know what to expect. I’ve been in this field (Economic/Community Development) now for a year and a half, it’s constant changing. I never know what I’m going to be doing each day. I kinda make it up as I go, but sometimes it’s nice. We are still working on a trip to Minneapolis to go and talk with the Bush Foundation; they are who provided funding for the first grant. We’ll see where this pans out. I know the universe will take care of me…but I wish I knew how that plan was going to start!

We had a productive YP week. We had an executive meeting that was perfect timing to build off the momentum that we had from the Great Plains Young Professionals Summit. We are shaking things up and creating some sustainability strategies for the leaders of the network. We also held on social on Saturday that had 17 people attend, which in turn resulted in 3 new members. That’s not too bad of a night! The next day, on a Saturday, we had a charity rummage sale scavenger hunt. We went up and down Hwy 21 and collected items that House of Manna usually asks for. We had four teams competing, one team from Bismarck, and people were so giving. My team was Amy Jo and I, I gotta admit we did pretty well! This was the brain child that I drummed up last year but I wasn’t sure how the pragmatics of it was going to play out. I wasn’t sure if people were going to want to give. WOW…people would take our list out of our hand and start wandering into their house! I deemed the event a huge success and created some good stories! We also had a cook out that night at Josh’s house with a camp fire and barbecuing. We had quiet a few people attend this as well. We are revising our format so we will actually have a weekly YP newsletter which will talk about past events, share about upcoming events, and other member highlights. It’s exciting to see all of the things we’ve done this year. I can’t believe our banquet is coming up in September already! I also found out I was appointed to represent DYP on the State NDYP board.

I was happy to hang out with my girlfriends this weekend. I know that I’m looking for Mr. Right and sometimes I’m not patient with it but I gotta admit the passengers on this journey have been the best part. It’s nice to talk, share ideas, and b1tch about things with women that are all in the same place but with different points of view. We had a bonfire at Aubrey’s house last night….oh I giggled. There was a lot of beer spilt on the patio but I wouldn’t have traded the conversation and camaraderie for anything.

I’m also working on a few creative points right now; one of my goals is to write a book. I’m still working on the vocal point. I have a few ideas but am not sure how I’m going to lay it out or what direction I’m planning on going to. I guess you could say I’m still in R & D! It’s been fun to see that start progressing as ideas begin to spin out.

Next week I'm all over the board...we'll see where it takes me.