Match Made in Heaven

For the past year gsSCENE has done everything they can to spread the word to local nonprofits on why they should have and NEED young professionals on their nonprofit boards. With the gsLEAD program, we are slowing making progress. A post from The Good Counsel Blog shows that this pairing of young professionals and nonprofit boards are a better match than one might think!

"Assuming a nonprofit organization has the right young individual for board service, it can be a mutually beneficial experience. The right candidate has to be a person who has a deep passion for the mission of the organization. I would never advocate putting a twenty-something on a board just because he/she fills a demographic hole. The individual MUST believe in the organization mission, or it doesn’t matter how old he/she is, it won’t be a good fit.

Those dedicated young professionals who really love an organization have oodles of value. It’s often up to the board’s leadership to know how to channel this talent productively. For example, many young professionals have large online networks and know how to build them, something many nonprofit organizations are trying to do.

Young professionals are often very savvy at online marketing and social media strategies. Even if they are not willing or able to run the online presence for an organization, they are usually willing to teach someone else how to do so.

Additionally, younger people tend to be more generous with both time and money than the boomer generation (based on disposable income). Many young people are more willing to give up time to an organization, which many groups will tell you can sometimes be more valuable than money."

Posted by The Good Counsel, by Dania Toscano Miwa on August 29, 2011. To read full blog post click here.

Reaching a New Group!

Today gsSCENE participated in the Coastal Carolina University Career Fair. When we signed up to have a booth, we looked at it as a way to get more exposure and maybe get a few graduating seniors interested in our program. This demographic is a great base for gsSCENE to draw members from because here are people that are "fresh" to the workplace and WANT to get involved! But after getting to the career fair and seeing the response, we were amazed!

Our booth was slammed! I was so happy to hear all the students talk about how they had heard about us and how they really did want to get to know more people when they graduated and got into the working world. Of course, many thought we were hiring or trying to get interns and while some immediately left us when we told them we weren't, the majority stayed and seemed very interested in what all we had to offer.

So hopefully at our April 7, birthday celebration we will have a lot of new faces! If you see someone at the event you don't know....go talk to them. Isn't that why everybody is there? To network and meet new people? And you think you know everyone, after meeting this whole new group of young adults...you don't!

Always Amazed at the Benefits

Since gsSCENE started it has always amazed me of the different opportunities and benefits the group has been given. It seems venues and restaurants all want to host gsSCENE for events and businesses want to know how to get young professionals at their location. Obviously, it goes against what everyone thought when gsSCENE started that it wouldn't last and there weren't any "young professionals" here.

Recently gsSCENE members have been given another one of these amazing opportunities to participate in a really cool event. Terri DeCenzo from Coastal Carolina University spoke with me about getting gsSCENE members to a speaking engagement and book signing for Elizabeth Gilbert. For those of you that don't know, Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of Eat, Pray, Love. A New York Times Bestseller and even a hit movie staring Julia Roberts! Litchfield Books has set up for her to come speak at Pawleys Island Community Church. Unfortunately sometimes news of events along the Grand Strand don't get the attention of everyone and people end up missing out on some great events and opportunities.

For gsSCENE we are lucky to have groups, venues and people in our community making us aware of these events. And it's even better when we get special invites. So don't just look at gsSCENE as networking at gsSCENE events, you can network at all events. And you when you network you can find out about more networking!

Details of the event are on our calendar and we hope to see you there!

Are YOU the next YP of the year??

gsSCENE and the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce have been recognizing the Young Professional of the Year going on three years now. Each year the amount of applications and nominations we receive is growing! It amazing me at all the wonderful things young professionals are doing on the Grand Strand AND to think that they are all part of gsSCENE. It also makes me wonder, why are people so shy in letting people know what they do.

In this award, self nominations are encouraged. And no, we aren't just saying that. A lot of times young people are very modest and a lot of people aren't aware of all they actually do. Especially when people are active in several groups like gsSCENE, Rotary, church groups, alumni groups and many more. So in reality YOU are the only one that can give yourself proper credit. AND you shouldn't be modest and not let the world know all the great things you do! So if you are this person or you know someone like this...nominate yourself and nominate your friend and get them to let you in on all that they do along the Grand Strand.

Nominations are being accepted until August 25 and you can get more information at gsSCENE.com.

The Blog and gsSCENE Heat UP

I will be the first to admit the gsSCENE blog needs to pick up it's feet and start blogging more! So as we roll into year of committees, projects, events etc. The blogging will get a makeover!

gsSCENE has been on somewhat of a summer break...but that break is about to end in a BIG way! We have some awesome new projects and events coming up. On July 30 alone applications for gsLEAD and gsSCENE Ambassadors are due. These are two GREAT ways to get involved with the organization AND get involved with the community. We have a the gsSCENE Summer Happy Hours at Market Common where gsSCENE members can enjoy a relaxed happy hour every Friday night at a different restaurant at Market Common followed by awesome live music by a variety of different local bands.

So now that gsSCENE has taken a little summer vacation, we are ready to get things moving again!

Your gsSCENE Membership Card

Hopefully you have your card and hopefully you have tried to use it at any of the participating vendors. And a bigger hopefully is that they took the card and recognized it to give you the discount. When gsSCENE first came out with the membership cards, some establishments weren't accepting them. The cards were new, staff weren't aware of them or maybe they just missed the staff meeting where they were covered. BUT as the year has progressed, the cards are getting more attention and they actually work! No one wants to be that person that tries to get a discount and gets turned down, so some might not even try, but even if your waiter or waitress don't know about it, have them ask and chances are the discount will be honored.

Keep checking out the web in the next few weeks to see the NEW venues participating in the membership cards. Let's just say not only does gsSCENE allow you to network with all kinds of young professionals, but we also help you stay on your budget!

But the Socials are Too Big!

Ok it's official, gsSCENE's socials are large. In fact some say too large. We want more socials. We want less socials. We want smaller socials. We want larger socials. We get it all the time and trust me gsSCENE TRIES to be everything to everybody. So we created something that we think might help some of the issues. Starting Feb. 4 as a new member (or an old one) you can come to our new member orientation. Why you ask? Well for one, we will have our new ambassadors there. These folks are there so that everyone will know SOMEONE at gsSCENE events, big or small. They will welcome members as they sign up for gsSCENE and introduce them to existing members in the group. gsSCENE feels this is a great way to not have people feeling the socials are too big and hard to meet people.

There are also several other options for those that don't even want to go to the large socials including Morning Rush, educational classes and new member orientation.