Check us out on “The Hardline with Kevin Hardwick” show at 10:30-11 a.m. this Sunday, April 26 on WBEN 930AM. Buffalo Niagara 360 Program Manager Ann Mestrovich, along with BN360 members Ryan Grady from Freed Maxick & Battaglia and April Sroka from Greatbatch, Inc. and I will talk about advocacy, the political process and how both can directly relate to young people's personal and professional pursuits.
This is an interesting topic and one that comes up in our discussions often - how to get young professionals, aka the future leaders of our community, state, country - involved in advocacy. I can tell you from personal experience on political campaigns that - at least before last year's presidential election - when candidates at any level of government are looking for "crunch time" votes, they never direct their attention at young people. When they go to the well, they go to unions, senior citizens, veterans... And the reason is simple - when it comes to politics and advocacy, that's where the action is.
That's something that needs to change. The future of our community, state, country is being shaped by elected officials responding to people who are not the future of our community, state and country. We see what the results are - ever-increasing taxes, government overregulation, out-of-control spending. In the private sector, we're talking about doing business leaner through better technology, sounder planning and strategy and programs like Six Sigma. Government has not followed suit. The state budget that was passed earlier this month was done solely with the present time in mind - no thought was given to the future. As young professionals, we need to take a stronger stance against that happening again.
I urge you to tune in on Sunday morning, and to get involved in the discussion here at the Partnership as part of Buffalo Niagara 360. Let's talk about how young professionals get involved, and more importantly, why we should!
2 comments:
Heard the show on Sunday. It was a good spotlight for the 360 program. After hearing the program, I was really impressed in the way that the reps. from 360 handled themselves. Which got me thinking, maybe the 360 program could create a speakers bureau of sorts. The idea being that the community at large could call on 360 when they need a "young professionals" point of view for these like panel discussions, political debates (moderators?, economic forums, media interviews, etc.
Eric, this is a great idea! We'll definitely look into this and see how we can identify ways to get YPs more public speaking opportunities via BN360. Thanks for your comment.
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