To our YPT Members and Friends,
As we draw closer to the Thanksgiving holiday, we wanted to be sure that to say thank you for supporting us through our second year of YPT! Given your backing, we’ve had a great year! After our rookie season in 2012, we focused on putting on a diverse set of programming including tours, evening panels, and our popular “Beers with Peers” series in 2013. Our organization charted into new territory by providing different scale events including smaller-scale “GrubWithUs” dinners and speed networking, geared to help transportation students get a sense of future career opportunities.
While we strived to expand upon our programming, we also made significant strides as an organization. At the year’s outset, our board established a “HIT List” (High-priority, Immediate, Transportation-related) of seven goals for the year. We were fortunate to achieve or exceeded each of those goals. As an example, we are currently on pace to exceed our goal of 200 paid YPT members by the end of the year, nearly doubling our membership from 2012 and making us one of the biggest YPT Chapters in the United States. In November, YPT also took a lead role in organizing Transportation Camp in Berkeley. This year’s unconference had over 200 transportation enthusiasts in attendance. We’ve included these highlights and others in our 2013 Annual Summary, which is linked here. We are pleased to share this with members to reflect how your $20 dues are being used and as a benchmark of our progress from year to year.
In addition, we recently welcomed new YPT SF Bay Board of Directors who were elected in late October based on their candidacy statements and a member vote. We are pleased to have several board members return for another term while we also say farewell to others who have been part of YPT since it’s inception. Even if you are not on the board, we welcome member participation and feedback at our monthly meetings or would encourage further involvement as a board committee member.
In this, our third year, the board’s primary goal will be to consolidate the quality of our offerings to our members and firmly establish YPT as the premier forum for young professionals to network and learn about the latest developments at the forefront of our field.
Hot on the heels of Transportation Camp, an exciting schedule of events is forming! To get things going we’ll host an informal East Bay Happy Hour on December 11 in Oakland. In addition, we are hard at work planning what is becoming a rich tradition for this chapter: a marquee kick-off event scheduled for late January. We are also eager to develop a number of promising ideas for facility tours, Beers with Peers, student-specific functions, and member-only events. Events aside, our goal is to further the preparatory work of last year’ Board and set up an Advisory Committee that will assist immeasurably with guiding our growth over the coming years.
As befits a rapidly-growing organization, we have a very promising year ahead. We welcome you on the ride ahead.
All the best,
