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1. It's Our 4th Birthday!
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4 years ago today, at the closing ceremony of the International Young Professionals Summit 2001 (http://www.iyps.org/IYPS_2001.html), the International Young Professionals Foundation was launched. It was a great celebration then - the closing of our inaugural event that had been 18 months in the planning - and now, 4 years on, its even more reason to celebrate. We have continued the work initiated at IYPS 2001, we have convened our second Summit, and we have grown from our initial group of 120 young professionals from 20 odd countries to a global network of over 2500 across more than 100 countries.

Join us in celebrating - its your achievement too!

Read on, send us your thoughts and feedback and stories!


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2. History and Future of IYPF
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To commemorate the occasion of our 4th birthday, we have put together a PowerPoint slide show, with some pictures, that remember some of the milestones and highlights to date and provide some insight in to where things are heading in to the future.

You can download and view the PowerPoint at our website http://www.iypf.org. Just click on the link on the front page. Its also available in Adobe format for those who don't have PowerPoint or have problems with the file.


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3. AGM INFO
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While thinking about the past and the future on our birthday, we wish to notify you of one of the important events for the organisation each year ... the Annual General Meeting.

This year's (2005) Annual General Meeting - will be held on Saturday 3rd December 2005 in Melbourne, Australia, as part of the Engineers Without Borders Inaugural Annual Conference (see http://www.ewb.org.au). While details will be confirmed later, the current arrangements are for the AGM to be held from noon to 1pm on Saturday 3rd December at the EWB conference venue - University of Melbourne, Parkville Campus, Copeland Theatre (see http://www.unimelb.edu.au and go to 'campuses' and 'maps'). You will be able to follow the many signs around the University of Melbourne campus to find the Theatre. We will meet in the foyer from noon and head to the meeting room at about 12:05pm.

At this meeting the IYPF management will present the work the company has undertaken in the past year and outline its directions for 2006 and beyond.

A key element of the AGM is always the election to the Board of Directors. At this AGM, the IYPF's members will elect four young professionals to the Board of Directors for the next two years. Alan Wu and Melanie Ashton (http://www.iypf.org/about.htm#directors), who are one year in to their 2 year term, will continue on the Board. Any current 'Ordinary' (paid) member of the IYPF is eligible to nominate to be a Director.

To learn more about what being a director involves, you can download the position description here - http://www.iypf.org/Downloads/Board-director-pd.pdf.

It is a two-year commitment to high level engagement with the IYPF's governance and strategic direction and you are accountable to its membership. You will gain invaluable experience in running a global not-for-profit organisation and an intimate knowledge of the operation of the IYPF. You will play a key role in leading the organisation and determining its operation, direction and success in to the future.

If you are interested in becoming a director, nominations must be made in the prescribed form (attached), and an Ordinary Member of the IYPF must nominate you - this may be yourself. Another Ordinary Member must also second you. However, should you not know another, the IYPF staff will arrange the seconding for you.

Nomination forms must be returned to iypf@iypf.org no later than Friday 4th November 2005. Nominations received after this date will not be included in the ballot information to be sent to members prior to the AGM.

If you are not yet an Ordinary (paid) Member, but would like to nominate, you must arrange your membership, including payment, by Thursday 10th November 2005 to be eligible (see section 9 below on becoming a member). If you are unsure of your membership status, ask us at iypf@iypf.org.

Similarly, if you would like the right to vote at the AGM or via proxy ballot, or to raise any business at the AGM (see below), you will need to finalise arrangements for your membership prior to Thursday 1st December 2005.

Members have the right to require a special resolution be included in the agenda of the AGM. If you require a special resolution, this must be delivered in writing to the IYPF by Thursday 24th November 2005. Please refer to the IYPF Constitution for further details relating to special resolutions. You can download and view the constitution on the IYPF website here: http://www.iypf.org/membership.htm#AGM.

Official notification of the AGM, including the agenda, proxy information, and voting information, will be distributed to Ordinary Members in mid November.

The minutes of previous AGMs and previous Annual Reports are available online here http://www.iypf.org/membership.htm#AGM. The 2005 Annual Report, minutes and other documentation will be available here also after the AGM.

Regards,

Zengyi Zhao
IYPF - Company Secretary


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4. IYPF Member Project Services
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The IYPF Implementation Group helps IYPF members turn their ideas for creating a sustainable future into successful projects and ventures. IYPF has recently reviewed its services so it can better help members lead and run effective and world changing sustainability and social change projects. The team has just recruited a number of new volunteers to assist with Member Projects and are beginning to work with existing and new member led initiatives.

A large percentage of youth led projects fail to deliver anticipated outcomes due to a number of factors: inadequate project planning; insufficient or ineffective project promotion; and an inability to execute the implementation strategy. IYPF's Implementation Group aims to increase the chance of project success through offering young professionals access to a full suite of Project Support Services.

To better understand the work of our Implementation Group and its Implementation Support Services, go here http://www.iypf.org/member-projects.htm.

If you have a project that you are interested in presenting to us for our support send an email to memberprojects@iypf.org.

If want to talk to us about our Implementation Support Services, make suggestions on useful products and services we might offer, get involved with coaching, mentoring or supporting member projects, and/or join our Implementation Team, please send an e-mail to alexandrameldrum@iypf.org.


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5. IYPF Local Events Services
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Similar to the IYPF's Member Project Services, the IYPF has almost finalised the development of its Local Events Services. The Local Events Service and Team, led by Chuma Casius, will assist IYPF members to organise events in their communities, workplaces, organisations, etc. that help to create a better world for current and future generations. These might be social events to network young professionals or the community, workshops to inform people on particular topics or create action plans on local challenges, fundraisers for a local project, or even a workplace dinner.

The IYPF's Local Events Team will be compiling a range of generic resources to assist everyone in organising local events. Where required, we will also assign a mentor / advisor to assist you in creating your local event successfully.

Through working with our members, we will create case studies, tips sheets, and other resources. We also envisage creating 'local events packages' related to organising particular types of events.

The Local Events Team will also be helping with the implementation of the Blueprint Project (see http://www.iyps.org/blueprint) in Southern Africa in 2006. The Blueprint Project is one example of an 'event package' we will develop for our members to utilise locally. The various elements of the Youth & Sustainable Consumption workshops may become another next year.

For more information, to get involved in the Local Events Team, to contribute event organising resources, or for anything else, contact Chuma on chumacasius@iypf.org.


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6. Current IYPF Directors and Staff ... and Your Opportunity to Get Involved
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The IYPF attracts amazingly talented, energetic and courageous young professionals from around the globe to its membership. We are lucky enough to have many of them volunteer in various roles, giving of themselves to run the organisation.

You can read the bios of our directors and staff - and see their pictures - on our website: http://www.iypf.org/about.htm

At the moment, we have a lot of things happening and are searching for more volunteers to help us with particular projects, tasks and activities. You can stay up to date with roles we are looking for here http://www.iypf.org/employment.htm or by indicating your interest to our Human Resources person, Britt Jacobsen, via brittjacobsen@iypf.org.

As a quick snapshot of opportunities currently:

* a membership administrator, based in Canberra, Australia, to respond to membership queries, process membership applications, facilitate membership payments
* a financial officer / assistant, based in Canberra, Australia, to assist the CEO in managing the organisation's finances, preparing monthly and end of year accounts
* an Australian Make Poverty History Campaign liaison, to facilitate the IYPF's involvement with the MPH Campaign, communication between MPH and the IYPF's network
* facilitators for the Youth Employment Summit Australian Country Network (http://projects.yesweb.org/YES-Australia), would need to be Australian and have an interest in youth employment matters, may be 3 - 5 facilitators
* a content producer and newsletter editor / coordinator to keep growing and developing the IYPF's monthly newsletter, role involves planning future volumes, managing teams of writers and sourcing appropriate content, editing and desktop publishing the final product, sending the newsletter to members, can be located anywhere in the world but must have a good mastery of English
* a Local Events team member to work with Chuma on providing assistance to IYPF members who want to organise local events in their communities, based anywhere in the world
* Australian Youth & Sustainable Consumption working group members to assist with implementing the project in Australian communities, disseminating information to networks, writing and editing articles, training to run youth workshops see http://www.iypf.org/IYPF-projects.htm#YouthSC
* regular writers and contributors for our monthly newsletter


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7. Communities and Mailing Lists
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Communities
One of the IYPF's strategies for achieving its mission is the facilitation of online networking between young professionals - whether that be connecting those with similar interests, from the same region, engaged in the same profession, working on similar activities, or however you would like to connect with others. In our information and knowledge society, many of the communities we belong to have no relationship to our local place, but rather use the Internet to connect us to people that we share something in common with.

We have a number of communities already established and operating. We invite you to join those. If you can't find what you are looking for, and want to create a new network or group, let us know. Providing it fits with the IYPF's mission and values, we can work with you on it, promote through our newsletter and other avenues, and put links to it on our website. If a current group that you join is not as active as you like it to be - get involved and start facilitating more discussion! These groups are there for you to use and benefit from.

For a full list of the IYPF's regional and topical communities that you can join, go to:
http://www.iypf.org/IYPF-campaigns.htm

There is also a general e-mail discussion group for all interested parties to join that is not related to any one topic or region. Go to the following link for more information:
http://www.iypf.org/IYPF-email-lists.htm#discussion

Mailing Lists
In addition to the communities and the discussion list, you can join our e-mail announcement list to receive our free monthly newsletters plus any other special announcements from the IYPF. This is a low volume, announcement only (no discussion) list. You will not receive on average more than 2 e-mails a month.

To join and for more information, go to:
http://www.iypf.org/IYPF-email-lists.htm#announce


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8. Resources Online
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There are many presentations, papers, reports, and other resources available online, either on the IYPF website, or linked from our site.

You can find most of them on our Downloads page here:
http://www.iypf.org/Downloads.htm

Some highlights that might interest you:
* Youth & the Millennium Development Goals report
* IYPF Submission to the International Commission for Africa January 2005
* Research report on Sustainable Consumption: Young Australians as Agents of Change
* IYPF Annual Reports to date
* Papers on including young professionals in the global governance system
* IYPS 2001 Resolutions

Also, the backlog - all 31 volumes! - of the IYPF's monthly newsletter are online here:
http://www.iypf.org/news.htm

If you want to make a presentation on the IYPF in your organisation, community or whatever, in addition to using the one we created for our birthday, you can also use this template (we will create a new one sometime soon so stay tuned to the Downloads page):
http://www.iypf.org/Downloads/InternationalYoungProfessionalsFoundation.ppt


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9. IYPF Membership
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The IYPF consists of 'Ordinary', or paid, members, associate members (free), and its extended network (those who are on various e-mail lists that we operate, have had some contact with us, etc. but who have not submitted a membership form for associate or paid membership). As you are receiving this e-mail, you fit in to one of these categories.

Our paid members form the core of the organisation. Their membership fees help cover the costs of our work. All our staff and directors are paid members. They vote at the AGM and have input on the activities and direction of the organisation. All our current 'ordinary' members have paid a once off joining fee - while our fees were designed to be annual, during our start up and establishment period we have not implemented this.

If you are an associate member or someone in our network, and would like to become a paid member, you can find the membership information and forms here:
http://www.iypf.org/membership.htm.

As indicated throughout this e-mail, now is a great time to join. The AGM is coming up, there are lots of opportunities for your involvement, and there are some great services to help you be effective sustainability practitioners and social change agents.

There is a link from that page on how to pay. We understand the difficulties with facilitating international payments and the transaction fees and we are currently working to implement solutions to this to reduce costs and make it easier for everyone.

We also need you to note that, as per the information at Section 6 on staffing, we don't' have a membership administrator ... so we will need you to be patient with us!

Becoming an associate member is very easy to do. You just need to download and complete the membership application form and send it to us. No payment required. By doing so, you official become part of our network and we can maintain better communication with you in to the future. The membership forms are here:
http://www.iypf.org/membership.htm.