NEW Summit closes

After almost a year of preparation, the 3rd International Young Professionals Summit has finally come to a close. If has been a fantastic effort by everyone involved.

Firstly we'd like to thank all the delegates who were able to make it to the event. Delegates represented over 25 different countries from around the world, one third of them from Africa. We would also like to thank our sponsors and partners, specifically Coca-Cola Great Britain who assisted in supporting the attendance of our many African delegates.

We will soon provide information to connect into our recorded virtual summit (including Jeffrey Sachs keynote), and summit outcomes. Watch out for those updates.

New Sponsorship

We would like to welcome on board another sponsor of the International Young Professionals Summit!

Coca-Cola Great Britain has kindly entered into an agreement with IYPF to assist delegates from developing nation attend IYPS. We are extremely grateful for the support, and will allow the event to have a good mix of young professionals from both developed and developing countries.

NEW Global Youth Enterprise Conference. Washington, DC. September 15-16, 2008

Making Cents International is excited to announce the Global Youth Enterprise Conference will take place in Washington, DC September 15h- 16th, 2008 at the Cafritz Conference Center. Designed as a participatory learning event, this conference aims to support youth enterprise and entrepreneurship programs and policies achieve greater effectiveness around the world. It will build on the outcomes of the first-ever Global Youth Microenterprise Conference, which Making Cents International organized for 270 practitioners, policymakers, educators, youth, and members of the private sector from 28 countries in September, 2007.

Making Cents is planning this year for 350 participants to share their promising practices, unique approaches, and groundbreaking ideas that help youth develop the necessary skills and opportunities to start their own businesses or seek quality employment.

For more information, please visit: www.youthenterpriseconference.org or contact Whitney Harrelson at 202-783-4090.

IYPF Brief - TNEP & Climate Change Resources

The Natural Edge Project (TNEP) is a group of young professionals that has been an IYPF partner for 5 years. One of TNEP's main areas of work in the last 3 years has been focused on researching and communicating the most cost effective solutions to mitigate climate change.

The Natural Edge Project in partnership with Griffith Uni and ANU created a new online Sustainable Energy Solutions to Mitigate Climate Change Portfolio. This Portfolio shows how young professionals can play their part and help their families, friends and workplace rapidly achieve cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.

For more see http://iypf.tigblog.org/post/364009

New Partnership: Brightest Young Minds (Australia)

IYPF is proud to announce a new partnership with Brightest Young Minds(BYM). BYM aims to foster a new model of leadership in the up and coming generation of young Australians through a 5 day life-changing event that provides 18-25 year-olds with a platform to launch their own social initiatives and affect issues that they are personally passionate about. An example from 2007 was can be found here: www.bipolarexpedition.org.

The applications for the 2008 BYM summit(for Australian delegates) are now open, and can be found on their web site.

AGM Documents online

The documents prepared for the AGM and minutes of the meeting have been uploaded and can be found on the Membership AGM page.

• Presentation of IYPF Annual Report for 2006/2007
• Presentation on IYPF Strategic Plan 2007/2009
• Financial Reports for 2006/2007 Financial Year
• Director's Declaration
• Director's Report
• Minutes

New Directors elected to Board of Directors

Congratulations to those successfully elected to the Board of Directors at the recent AGM. The successful candidates were:

• Morse Flores (Swizerland)
• Constance Walyaro (Kenya)
• Jodie Nelson (Australia)

It was a very close ballot this year, we had a field of 11 very high quality candidates from across the globe. Hopefully those that were unsuccessful can find other ways to contribute to IYPF.

See Board of Directors for more information.

Get your IYPS applications in [Applications Closed]

While the 3rd International Young Professionals Summit in Manchester is still a while away yet. The due date for IYPS applications is fast approaching!

The aim of the Summit is to bring together young professionals for networking, capacity building and information sharing around our core theme of “How young professionals can help to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals " and specific topics will include:

• Governance, economy and education
• Women and gender equality
• Healthcare and HIV / AIDS
• Environmental sustainability

For more information about IYPS, please go to the IYPS website

IYPF AGM

The IYPF will hold its 2007 AGM in Brisbane, Australia on Monday 17 December from 6:15 for a 6:30pm start and will finish at 7:15pm. The AGM will be held in the Community Meeting Room, Ground Floor, Brisbane Square Library, 266 George Street, Brisbane.

At the AGM, the IYPF membership will elect 3 new Directors to serve on its Board. The IYPF is currently calling for nominations from its membership for these positions. Please see the Director position description and director nomination form. Note that only IYPF members are eligible to nominate - you can become an IYPF member today by applying online.

The official AGM notification will be distributed to IYPF members on Monday November 26 along with details of director candidates, proxy and ballot forms, and other business to be conducted at the AGM.

For any queries, contact Cameron Neil, IYPF CEO, on cameronneil@iypf.org.

IYPF Stands Up Against Poverty

In October 2007, IYPF membes joined with millions around the world to Stand Up Against Poverty - commiting themselves to act to achieve the MDGs and demanding governments do the same.

Click on this link to download the report: http://www.iyps.org/iyps08/regional_local_events.htm

IYPF turns 6 today!

Congratulations IYPF!

• 2007-2009 Strategic Plan launched
  
• IYPF Organisational Climate Change Strategy launched
• StandUp with IYPF on Oct 17
• New and Improved Web Site Launched
• Streamlined Membership Registration - Join Now
• International Young Professionals Summit Application Form Released - Download

Coming soon:

• Staff Recruitment & Development Program. E-mail brittjacobsen@iypf.org to register your interest

ANNOUNCE: IYPF Stragic Plan Launched!

Posted by Gregory Nelson on 4th October 2007

Earlier in the year I wrote about 2007 being an exciting year for IYPF, and with IYPF´s 6th birthday here, we are now on the verge on seeing some major things coming into fruition. So far this year we have seen:

• Plans for IYPS progressed significantly. Nearly a year out we have had 250 expressions of interest.
• The Stand Up events are shaping up well. We got a tremendous response for position to help support the events - nearly 150 people applied!
• The new web site has been deployed, which has resulted in a doubling of traffic coming into the site, excluding the explosion of interest in the site once it was changed over.

For IYPF's 6th birthday, we are making a number of announcements on new things happening that will set IYPF up for years to come:

• A new membership system, making it easier to sign up and become involved in IYPF. In the past 6 months alone over 800 people have looked up information on joining IYPF.
• Making public the strategy that will be carrying IYPF forward for the next three years
• Implementing a new recruitment program that will build upon IYPF's internal capacity.

Together these will establish a foundation from which many new and exciting things will come. If you would like to see a simplified public version of the document, you can find it here. I would encourage anyone who is interested in how we are moving forward to contact me at gregnelson@iypf.org, or add me to your MSN at amorpha_@hotmail.com.

About the author: Gregory Nelson sits on the board of IYPF where he heads up the Strategy Working Group. Over the past 6 months he has worked on developing the 2007-2009 Strategic Plan among other internal reforms.

ANNOUNCE: IYPF Climate Change Strategy

In September 2007, after 6 months of Board and staff discussion and input from members, the IYPF developed a climate change strategy. The purpose of the strategy is to guide the IYPF's activities over the immediate to short term to enable it to be carbon neutral and to set an example to its members and partners of the importance of action on global warming.

The 2007 Strategy, to be reviewed at IYPS 2008 next August, includes the following actions:

• Undertaking a study to develop a greenhouse gas inventory for the organization
• Convening a sustainable Summit in 2008
• Developing indicators of environmental performance that the organization will report on at regular intervals
• Educating members on climate change

For the full strategy, download it here. Send any comments to climate@iypf.org.

Make a difference…Change the world

There are some who seek to make a difference. There are some who seek to change the world. Is this you? Are you sitting on an idea that you feel can create a positive impact in your community or beyond? Are you developing a project but just cannot get it started due to lack of support? IYPF can help you!

By successfully applying to become an IYPF-approved member project, you will gain support from the IYPF Implementation Team. Your designated member contact will liaise with you, providing a connection to a network of skilled people and partner organizations. Often, too, ideas for sourcing funds can be provided.

IYPF has worked with projects such as the Barefoot Power in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Fiji, Basics for HIV/AIDS Control Project in Uganda, and Empowering Youth for a Better tomorrow in Zambia. Although these projects vary in their focus, they are all aligned with the IYPF values and vision of a global community of young professionals creating a better world for current and future generations through local and global action.

To download the project proposal format, take a look at the flow chart, or just to find out more about our service, log on to http://www.iypf.org/member-projects.htm.

About the author: Ailene Castro has recently joined the IYPF staff as a MPA – External Communications. She will be working on strengthening external communications for the organisation and providing links for people who wish to join the IYPF network.