Young Professionals looking for like-minded crowd

Dressed in slacks and button-downs, jeans and shirts, and representing fields from finance and law to education and engineering, a new group as diverse as their dress and backgrounds gathered for just the second time, brought together by a common link – they’re the young professionals of Kootenai County.

In the boardroom of Coldwell Banker in Coeur d’Alene on a snow-laden Monday night, nearly 30 individuals showed up as part of the just-forming Kootenai County Young Professionals organization. Though there are no restrictions on age, the loose-knit group is hoping to attract a like-minded crowd in the interest of community development, member networking, leadership, and encouraging young professionals to stay in the area.

“I know that when you move to a new community, it’s hard, hard to meet new people that are like-minded,” said Besse Bailey, 28, a commercial lender at Mountain West Bank in Coeur d’Alene and an organizer of the group.

She said that some young professionals choose to leave the area out of frustration and that the new group will offer members a social outlet, as well as providing a means to help the community through mentoring programs, philanthropy and to help local businesses retain and recruit young talent.

Following the example of similarly formed groups in areas such as Boise and Spokane, Bailey and Luke Malek, 26, the executive director of the Post Falls Urban Renewal Agency, decided early last month to hold a get-together to gauge interest in the idea. “We feel there’s a large need for what we feel we can provide to the community,” Malek said.

Since that first meeting, they “have had a tremendous response from young professionals that want more information on the organization, as well as others that want to be a part of the foundation of the organization,” Bailey said in a forwarded message before the second meeting.

The young professionals’ group will also serve as a way for members to tap into the wealth of resources available in the county, Malek told those gathered at Monday’s meeting. “That’s a problem for young professionals because there are so many resources out there, but it’s difficult to go out there and aggregate them” for their benefit, he said.

Among the topics the group discussed were a membership fee, which hasn’t been set but will probably be about $20 a year, and structure and formation of a board, which will be made up of six committee chairs: social, membership, community involvement, education, marketing and finance. In addition, members whether to align with or join any Kootenai County chamber of commerce. “We want to affiliate with all of the chambers, we want to be a resource for them,” Bailey said, adding that “how we affiliate with them we don’t even know.”

Mostly though, the current goal is to establish a core group of dedicated individuals to help the organization gain footing, while also recruiting more informal members through word-of-mouth, the organizers said. “The only way we can be impactful in the community is with members,” Bailey said. “We do want to give back. We know that there is so much in the community that needs to be done.”

For some in attendance, they are hoping the organization will gather steam and provide a professional reservoir for the community at large.

“I just came (so I can use the organization) as a resource for my students,” said Levi Cushman, a 26-year-old business education teacher at Lakeland High School in Rathdrum. “They see professionals as like bankers and accountants, they don’t see like the dentists or the other types of professionals that came here tonight.”

Tim Herzog, at 60 years young, was the oldest attendee at the meeting. As a longtime North Idahoan, politically active resident and small-business owner, he liked the Kootenai County Young Professionals organization’s focus on community involvement and networking opportunities without having any set political affiliation.

“This is a great attempt because the other clubs I’m involved with, they always say there’s a lack of young people,” Herzog said. With the meeting’s attendance and apparent purpose, he added “I would say they had some success. It’s going to take time.”