The Young Professionals of the American Camp Association – Illinois Section will be hosting their second annual social event at the Mid-states Camping Conference at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, Illinois. The event will begin at 10:00 PM and will include coffee, drinks, and desserts as well as a variety of activities including a Baggo tournament, craft projects, door prizes, and music. The event is open to all conference participants.

Gail Johnson will be the featured speaker at the ACA Illinois Young Professionals meeting on March 22nd, 2007. The meeting will be held at the RAM brewery, www.theram.com, in Schaumburg and will begin at 12:00 PM. To RSVP please contact Graham Little at 847.854.3511 or littleg@ymcaofmchenrycounty.org. All camping professionals are welcomed to attend.

Gail Johnson founded Face to Face Communications, www.face2facetraining.com, and Training in 1997 to fill the need for customized training in the increasingly competitive workforce. Ms. Johnson’s strong communication background gives her a 21st century perspective on training needs:

“Strengthening communication skills between workers and managers, workers and peers, and especially workers and customers is the key to success in this Communications Century. In a strong economy, high turnover or unmotivated employees can turn black ink to red faster than any price war. The company that invests in employee development has the competitive edge.”

Ms. Johnson has designed and delivered hundreds of communication-related workshops throughout the United States. She also taught college-level speech communication courses prior to founding her company. Ms. Johnson earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Master of Arts in Communication Studies from Northern Illinois University. She is a member of the Association for Training and Development. The Illinois Chamber of Commerce has named Face to Face Communications and Training a designated Training Provider for its ITP grant program.

Ms. Johnson’s individualized approach to training has earned her a loyal client base that has grown primarily through referrals. Her client roster spans a broad range of industries, including telecommunications, banking, travel, architecture, legal, health-care, as well as local governments, school and park districts.

The YPs will be there in full force - and the National Conference Team has asked for our help!

• ACA needs dinner ‘hosts’ to take a group to a pizza place (hold the map, play tour guide - even if you’ve never been to Austin!) [Tell us you’ll help]
• Open Mic Night support - it’s like an evening program at camp - help keep things organized, tune a guitar [Tell us you’ll help]
• Open Mic Night acts - sign up here.

So, while the YPs around the country wait to see what the Board’s Task Force decides this spring, we are moving ahead with Phase 3 of the YP Strategic Plan: Communication and Distribution. Over the next couple of months the YP Committee will be sending out and managing communications that concern a variety of topics, such as:

- National Conference Previews
- Features on SCLA / Student Efforts
- Section Meetings and Regional Conference Previews
- Accreditation and New Standards Information
- Voting
- Emerging Professionals Events

The YP Committee wants to know what you are doing in your section. What ideas do you have about YPs, Students, and Emerging Professionals? One thing is for sure - you have a lot more answers than we do and we would love you to share them. There are three ways to do this:

1. Go to acayp.org and post a blog entry on the site about what you are doing
2. Contact the YP Committee (youngprosinfo@acamaillist.org) to publish on the big List-Serve
3. Go to the YP Site at http://acacamps.org/youngpros and post your program through our standard form and we will send it out to the List-Serve for you!

The YP Committee presented three options to the Board and the Board decided to take a more in-depth and comprehensive look at YPs and similar groups. This new Task Force is also looking at how YPs, Students and Emerging Professionals all connect. Their response and approach shows how far YP has come and how important to the fabric of ACA the YPs are.