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'I AM EMPOWERED'
...Who We Are?
Life is all about learning from your failures and celebrating your successes no matter how big or small they may be.
Recently, the board and I held an Organizational Planning Retreat where we spent a weekend together discussing this "Movement." The retreat was facilitated by Yolanda Glover from the Non-profit Center of Milwaukee.
Although there were many things discussed, the goal was to talk about, operate and implement our new policy and procedures that were organizationally voted on at the July general body meeting. Additionally, we set out to complete our 2009-2010 calendars, and we were unsuccessful in completing it within the initial time frame.
So where are we today? Today the Milwaukee Urban League Young Professionals are bigger, better and operating much smarter than we have historically. The board and I have decided to focus on the Movements' 5 Point Agenda:
- Education and Youth Empowerment
- Health and Quality of Life Empowerment
- Civil Rights and Racial Justice Empowerment
- Civic Engagement and Leadership Empowerment
- Economic Empowerment
This means that each event that has the MULYP logo attached will be directly connected to one or more of these tenants.
Who we are as an auxiliary, is directly connected to these five stated critical issue areas.
Community Service will still have a significant role organizationally, but we will focus on this more. As an auxiliary to the Milwaukee Urban League, we will make every effort to support our affiliate through our community service by each member performing 40 hours of community service this calendar year, in which 25 of those 40 hours will go directly to our affiliate. We are currently working with our affiliate to secure dates, so that we can make that information available to you as soon as possible.
Our membership is our most valued asset, but we have continued to struggle in getting members engaged with the committees. We have also struggled bringing members out to our community service events. It is our hope that by streamlining our activities and going for quality versus quantity that we will have greater participation from the over 200 paid members that we currently have.
The Milwaukee Chapter of the Urban League Young Professionals is one of the most respected organizations in the national movement. We have this distinction because of each of you took the time out to pay your dues, and participate in the community service events that we have provided for you. Be aware that your participation is greatly appreciated!
Even in all of our successes, there are still areas of improvement that we are trying to work on. Know that you have a very dedicated and passionate board that puts this movement before their personal interest.
I want to personally thank each of our board members for your commitment, time, talent, resources, and most importantly your support of me whether it is in disagreement or support. You keep me on my A game!
We are entering into our Centennial year as a national organization, and you will see the new logos (100) on all of the national correspondences. There is a complete centennial calendar from the national office, so everything that we do organizationally now until July 2010 is in recognition to our Centennial celebration next year.
What are our expectations as supporters of the Urban League Movement? The expectations are few, but important:
Each member is being asked to take the "I Am EMPOWERED" pledge. The National Urban League is seeking to get 8 million people from across the country to take this pledge. The pledge speaks directly to our 5 point agenda, so I implore you to visit www.nul.org, and take the pledge, and encourage others to take the pledge as well.
Wal-Mart has stepped up to support the Centennial celebration by becoming a key sponsor of the I Am EMPOWERED campaign. Soon you will begin seeing and hearing 'I Am EMPOWERED' advertising through mainstream media outlets. Take the time to get familiar with the pledge, so that you can be an informed ambassador of the Movement. This way when people ask, you will know how to respond.
The success of this campaign is all of our responsibility, so please do all you can to support this campaign.
Lastly, as the President of this wonderful organization, I pledge to you that I will do my best to continue to serve this organization to the best of my abilities. Admittedly, I have had my challenges of keeping up with all of the demands of this position, but I do not take this position lightly. I continue to grow and learn, and because of you I stay challenged. You may often hear me refer to our Movement as an organization of leaders. Each of you is very talented, and brings to the table a wide array of expectations. I will do all that I can to meet the needs of each of you.
I am so honored to serve this mighty Milwaukee Movement! ...I Am EMPOWERED!
Yours In the Movement,
Richard M. Badger
President
Milwaukee Urban League Young Professionals
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