Young Association Professionals (YAP) yapstar.org

Greetings, young association professionals!

Just thought you all should know that the awesome SocialFish team that is Lindy Dreyer and Maddie Grant, have taken me on as their intern for the summer. As their #3, I have taken upon myself the duty of protecting all of you YAPstars from spam and will be working from behind the scenes for their blog and newsletter. In addition to all that, I'll be helping out with the event Buzz2010 that they are co-hosting with SmartBrief.

Lindy has definitely infected me with her excitement for Buzz2010. She loaned me her copy of Groundswell by Charlene Li. Now I get to hear Charlene speak about ideas from her new book Open Leadership on June 16th. What's cooler than that?

As a junior at Virginia Commonwealth University I am studying mass comm with a focus in advertising. Sure, I may be figuring out what exactly it is that I would like to do with my life, but I do have some idea of what kind of work environment I would like to be in. This is how the idea of being in an organization with open leadership really appeals to me. I mean, who wouldn't want to work in an environment where elementary ideas such as respect, sharing, and forgiving failure are celebrated?

Sites like facebook and twitter can take up a lot of time, but I am discovering how tools like that can help any kind of organization connect -- be it a group like YAP, an association like ASAE, or your own family.

Lindy and Maddie have pointed me towards all sorts of great blogs and feeds to add to my RSS reader. There is so much learning to do! I would appreciate any of your suggestions.

-Adrienne Kerr