Young Proteges:  YP Fayette Pairs Mentors with Young Professionals, Makes Leadership the 2012 Priority 

YP Fayette (Young Professionals of Fayette County) started the year focusing on Leadership. On Thursday, January 5, the first Lunch with a Leader featured  Kerry Kohnen, President of Kaiser Permanente of Georgia. Kohnen inspired young professionals through personal testimony, career insight, and a tour of the Kaiser Permanente Fayetteville location. 

Kohnen shared that it was important to “never set the bar too low.” Through personal stories, he made suggestions for how to live with career and life balance, and he touted the importance of mentorship. 

Mentoring is the other leadership development offering that YP Fayette has launched this year. Under the direction of Adalene Holley with The Harbin Agency and Sarah Smith with the Fayette Chamber, Young Proteges was launched on Monday, January 9 with the YP Link Breakfast. 

Young Proteges is a six month mentoring program pairing members of YP Fayette with  established, successful Fayette Chamber members. The purpose is to help the Young Protege  work on career goals  and integrate into the community. 

Providing insight and value as mentors are: Linda Pirog with Senior Helpers, Trey Ragsdale with Kaiser Permanente, Antoinette Reilly with The Harbin Agency, Pam Young with Southern Conservation Trust, Connie Durham with Mary Kay, Phil Smelley with TCIS, Greg Detwiler with Georgia Power, Virginia Gibbs with the Fayette Chamber, Jim Mothorpe with Capital Investments, Scott Hollowell with LPL Financial, Irene Edwards with Bank of North Georgia, Irene Edwards with Bank of North Georgia, Mark Gray with State Farm, Doug Bates with CMIT Solutions and Rick Barnes with Minuteman Press, Jason B. Thompson, Esq with Jason B. Thompson Law. 

Lunch with a Leader and Young Proteges are both sponsored by Kaiser Permanente. Lunch with a Leader is a quarterly event, visit www.fayettechamber.org for details under the events tab. Young Proteges 2012 class is established, but will be offered again. To get involved in YP Fayette’s leadership and networking programs, email Sarah Smith at info@fayettechamber.org.

Meet Your Local City Council Candidates 
Monday, Oct. 10, 5:30 – 7 pm

REGISTER (members only)

Join the Fayette Chamber on October 10th from 5:30-7:00 for an evening reception with light refreshments. You will have the opportunity to hear from your local city council candidates. Each candidate will have two minutes to address the crowd.

There are some exciting new developments on the Leadership Fayette front.  We are in the process of reaching out to alumni with the goal of finding ways to reconnect those who have graduated from Leadership Fayette.  The list is almost complete, and soon we will begin planning an event. 

In an effort to make sure that Leadership Fayette continues to meet the leadership development needs of our members and the community, we will be developing a new curriculum for the program.   There will not be a Leadership class this fall; however, we anticipate the new curriculum will be ready for a Fall 2012 class.  

Stay tuned for more exciting details on the alumni program and next year’s Leadership Fayette class!