We learned at a meeting last Thursday that Young Professionals of Reno County (YP) is at a crossroads. Active participation in the organization has declined sharply since 2020, and YP needs to find ways to reach people again if it is going to regain the relevance it had in its heyday.
YP is far from alone in that. Organizations of all sorts have seen membership and engagement numbers fall since the COVID pandemic. A lot of people became more of homebodies in the spring and summer of 2020, aided along by on-demand streaming entertainment.
But civic organizations and social clubs are essential parts of their communities. Many organize their members to do volunteer work, put on events for the broader community, raise funds for worthwhile projects, or some combination thereof. Beyond even that, they are vital to connecting people and helping weave the social fabric of their communities.
It isn’t just “networking” in the sense of trying to advance one’s career. Getting to know and becoming friends with people who work for other employers, in other industries exposes members of these organizations to new ideas and connects them to people with different expertises.
The more interconnected communities’ social webs are, the more likely it is that someone knows someone else who can help them solve a dilemma and the bigger the problems that community members can tackle. Vibrant civic organizations—whether YP, Civitans, Kiwanis, Lions, Rotary, Soroptimists, or others—make their communities more resilient. The health of these organizations is both a measure of and contributor to a community’s overall social health.
YP, with its focus on relatively young people, also benefits the community and its members by helping them put down roots. Young people are more likely to stay and invest in a community that they feel like a part of and where they have friends, especially when those friends also make plans to stay long term. At YP’s town hall last week, we heard from several “alumni” who count people they met through YP among their closest friends more than a decade later.
YP even played a role in The Hutchinson Tribune’s evolution into a full-fledged print newspaper around this time last year. Tribune publishers Joey and Lindsey Young were YP members in the past, and Joey Young said at the town hall that lessons learned, ideas developed, and connections made through YP were vital to the development of The Tribune.
We don’t have the answers as to how YP can refresh the interest of young professionals in 2026. Societal factors much bigger than YP are involved.
YP is in a somewhat unusual position for an organization struggling to engage people. It doesn’t belong to a wider organization. It doesn’t have a state Young Professionals conference that officers can go to and ask what is working for other chapters. It doesn’t get a quarterly national newsletter that board members can read for ideas. In short, YP doesn’t have a statewide, national or international network to draw on.
But that same situation means that YP has the freedom to decide what it wants to be and do in Reno County. It doesn’t have a national charter or bylaws it has to abide by. If they can agree among themselves, the members can choose to do what they want to do. If we were to give YP any advice, it would be to do exactly that. Find the things that the current members want to do and will actually show up for, and do those things—and invite other people along. Make it fun, whether it’s purely social, professional development, or community service.
That should give the organization time to brainstorm and experiment with ways to connect with more people again. It’s easier to show up despite struggles when you are having fun along the way.
And know that there are people, businesses and organizations that appreciate what Young Professionals of Reno County has done in the past and can do again in the future.
– The Hutchinson Tribune Editorial Board