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I recently gave a presentation at the International Youth in Nuclear Conference (IYNC) in Cape Town, South Africa, on the key aspects of a successful young generation in nuclear organization.  Being that one of the new goals of Clean Energy Insight is to share information with the entire NA-YGN Organization, I’d like to share an abridged version of the presentation with you here.

Presenting at IYNC in Cape Town, South Africa

First off, the basics:

• What is a young generation in nuclear (YGN) organization?

A YGN chapter is an important tool for professional and personal growth for young members of the nuclear industry.  Here are some examples of YGN’s from around the world:

European Nuclear Society - http://www.euronuclear.org/welcome.htm

South African Young Nuclear Professionals -http://www.saynps.co.za/

North American Young Generation in Nuclear - http://na-ygn.org/index/index.html

I am a member of AREVA’s Charlotte, NC chapter of North American Young Generation in Nuclear (NA-YGN).  NA-YGN’s Mission Statement is as follows:

“The mission of the North American - Young Generation in Nuclear (NA-YGN) is to unite young professionals who believe in Nuclear Science and Technology and are working together throughout North America to share their passion for a field that is alive and kicking.”

NA-YGN activities around North America include:

• Uniting different sectors of nuclear science and technology.
• Representing  the interests and ideas of young nuclear professionals within the industry at industry gatherings and international conferences.
• Facilitating industry growth through  enhanced recruiting and retention.
• Public communication and education.
• Networking and professional development.

So, how can you create a successful YGN in your office?

By first focusing on three key areas (in order of importance):

Individual

promote individual growth and development of your colleagues’ personal and professional skill sets

Community

work to improve the local community through established and coordinated volunteering activities

Industry

if you improve the abilities and skills of your individual colleagues, and actively participate in community volunteering activities, the nuclear industry and your company will benefit in the long run

In my NA-YGN Chapter,  we accomplish these goals through what we have come up with as the keys to a successful chapter:

Keys to a Successful Chapter

Habitat for Humanity Mud Volleyball 2009

Responsibility Leads to Leadership

Give everyone in your chapter a chance to lead by fostering their personal interests and skills.  Here is an organization chart of our NA-YGN committee members from our chapter in Charlotte: (Click image to enlarge)

Notice that we have many different positions.  There is no set organizational chart that every NA-YGN Chapter must follow.  We create these positions when a need is identified, or when an individual approaches the committee with a new idea on how they can help increase our effectiveness and visibility.  For example, we recently created our “International Liason” position this year in order to get more involved with some of our colleagues overseas.

We also started a “Civic Involvement Project” this past year.  With these new activities, our NA-YGN Chapter will attempt to advance the nuclear industry by educating the general public and policy makers on the benefits of nuclear energy.

Also notice that we have several “Co” positions.  We do this for several reasons.  One is that the position requires a lot of work and involvement that may be taxing on an individual, so we get another individual to help out and share responsibilities.  Another is that some positions require a year of training and turnover before an individual is expected to be able to fully take on the responsibilites that the position requires.

Opportunities to Grow

Provide opportunities for your colleagues to grow professionally and personally through some of the following activities:

Volunteering

Habitat for Humanity

List of 2009 Volunteering and Fundraising Activities:
Mathcounts Foundation
Boy Scout’s Explorers’ Post
Engineer’s Week (E-Week)
Regional Science Fair
Bridge Jobs
ASCE Carolina’s Conference
Ada Jenkins 5K Race and BBQ Competition 2009
United Way Day of Action
Second Harvest Food Bank
24 Hours of Booty
Salvation Army’s Center of Hope
American Heart Association’s Heart Walk 2009
Susan G. Komen’s Race for the Cure 2009
University of North Carolina at Charlotte Engineering Picnic
Florence Crittenton
Habitat for Humanity
Mock Interviews at UNC-Charlotte
Society of Women Engineers Etiquette Dinner
St. Jude Give Thanks Walk
Engineering Freshman Learning Committee at UNC-Charlotte
Mud Volleyball with Habitat for Humanity

Networking

Nuclear industry networking events include YGN annual conferences, professional group conferences and workshops like the American Nuclear Society (www.ans.org), and International Youth in Nuclear Congress (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Youth_Nuclear_Congress).

You can also coordinate networking activities with other NA-YGN Chapters in your area through social activites.

Social Activities

Another good way to develop the social and networking skills of your nuclear professionals include participating in or coordinating social activites.  Activities like these can truly benefit an industry known for having a wealth of engineers and scientists.

Some social activities that we participate in in Charlotte include events at the National Whitewater Center (http://www.usnwc.org/), bowling at Strike City Charlotte (http://strikecitycharlotte.com/), and go-karting at Victory Lane (http://www.377fast.com/).

Activities like these give your chapter a chance to kick back and get to know one another.  They also serve as an effective recruitment and retention tool for employees.

Pro-Nuclear Energy Advocacy Activities

Participating in pro-nuclear advocacy campaigns is another way to sharpen the public speaking and communications skill sets of your members.  In Charlotte, we have come up with a few different activities that do just that.

Speaker’s Bureau

Our “Speaker’s Bureau” is a group of individuals who are preparing a basic presentation that will hopefully educate the general public on the benefits of the cheapest, cleanest, safest, and most reliable form of energy–nuclear energy.  The current plan is to target local schools and community organizations.

Letter Writing Campaign

Our self-explanatory “Letter Writing Campaign” is an attempt to show pro-nuclear energy support to policy makers at the local, state, and national levels, as well as local and national media publications.

Plant Tour Initiative

Our “Plant Tour Initiative” is planning to invite policy-makers from all over the state to visit nuclear energy facilities in their districts.  This will allow the politicians to become familiar with what the industry is doing in their state.  In North Carolina, the nuclear industry is an important part of the economy.  We hope to educate our politicians on our continued safe operations that generate millions of dollars in revenue for the state on a yearly basis.

Opportunities to Learn

Our NA-YGN Chapter offers opportunities for our individual members to learn through what we call “Brown Bag Presentations.”  These presentations are held over lunch, and are given by experts from our own office or even from other companies around Charlotte.  Some of these brown bags include presentations on:

• Digital Control Upgrades
• St. Lucie Steam Generator Replacement Outage Presentation
• Introduction to Nuclear Power and Nuclear Physics
• Design Basis vs. Licensing Basis, Licensing Documents, 10 CFR
• Codes and Standards
• Fundamentals of Seismic Design
• Piping Analysis and Support Restraint Design
• Technical Writing
• Materials Selection
• Human Factors Engineering
• Defending Nuclear - A Presentation on Advocacy
• Fire Protection Design
• Electrical Grid Overview
• Anchorage Design
• Welding and Welding Design
• Valves and Pumps
• Financial Planning Workshop Presented by Fidelity Investments

Professional Exposure

Civic Involvement

Encourage your members to get involved in promoting the nuclear industry in a number of arenas.  The picture below is from a trip that NA-YGN took to Capitol Hill during our National Conference in Washington DC.  We got to stand in during some Senate Energy Committee votes on some nuclear energy provisions in the 2009 cap-and-trade energy bill.

Visiting the Senate Energy Committee during the 2009 NA-YGN National Conference in Washington DC

Conferences

Encourage and provide your members the opportunities to attend professional conferences like the annual NA-YGN Conference, American Nuclear Society conferences and Women in Nuclear Conferences.  The picture below is from the NA-YGN Annual Conference in San Francisco.  The theme was “Go Green.”

2010 NA-YGN National Conference in San Francisco

Speakers

It’s also good to give your members opportunities to get involved by hearing some of the leading pro-nuclear industry voices in the industry speak about current events.  Below is Patrick Moore, co-founder of GreenPeace, who is now one of the most prominent voices in the nuclear industry.  Mr. Moore is Co-Chair of the CASE Energy Coalition, a pro-nuclear organization (http://casenergy.org/).  When Mr. Moore is in town, be sure to notify your NA-YGN members of the opportunity to hear him speak.  Give them the chance to let him know what the young generation in the industry is doing to help foster the nuclear renaissance.

CASE Energy's Patrick Moore

What’s Next for Professional Exposure?

The latest participation by my NA-YGN Chapter in professional exposure has been in the form of pro-nuclear advocacy on this website, Clean Energy Insight.  Mike Bloom and myself created this website in the Summer of 2009 to be a tool to help other young nuclear industry members to get involved with advocating their industry and reach out to the public on nuclear energy issues.

Currently, we are using Clean Energy Insight as a tool for NA-YGN members to:

1. Educate and raise awareness of nuclear power for the general public by dispelling myths, and putting nuclear facts into new and eye-opening perspectives.
2. Serve as an online tool for NA-YGN, i.e. sharing information like advocacy program experiences with other chapters.
3. Showcase NA-YGN activities that include volunteering, advocacy, and networking activities.
4. Personalize and re-vamp the public’s perception of the nuclear industry.

With the recent addition of almost 6,000 NA-YGN members to the potential field of contributors and supporters, Clean Energy Insight hopes to become a staple mouthpiece for the young generation’s ideas, actions, and accomplishments.

Here is an example of how we are presenting nuclear energy facts in new ways.  This image is from our “What Does Renewable Energy Look Like?” blog that compared land usage of nuclear to solar photovoltaic and wind energies.  As you can see, nuclear has the advantage.

Funding is Essential

Funding is essential for any functional NA-YGN Chapter.  Everything will cost you some amount of money, from sending people to International Youth in Nuclear conferences to buying soccer balls, cones, and water for a weekly after-work soccer game.  The way that NA-YGN secures funding is through company support.

At AREVA, we are fortunate to have extremely supportive executives that ensure that NA-YGN has the tools to develop our individual members’ skill sets and to promote the entire nuclear industry through activities like community volunteerism and pro-nuclear advocacy.

Without the help of our executive sponsors, our NA-YGN Chapter would not have the tools and encouragement that we need to have an effective and successful NA-YGN Chapter.

How to Guarantee Funding?

The best way to guarantee funding is to prove to your executive sponsors that you can effectively improve the skill sets of your colleagues involved in NA-YGN, improve your company’s visibility in the community, and consequently add value to your company and the nuclear industry as a whole.  By doing this, you will gain valuable executive sponsorship and support.

Our NA-YGN Chapter sets up a yearly meeting with our executive sponsors where we present our goals and expectations for the coming year.  This is done with a detailed plan on how we will execute these goals and what it will take to execute them.  After agreeing on an annual budget and a comprehensive Annual NA-YGN Chapter Plan, we do our best to keep our promises and raise the bar on our performance each year.

At the end of the year, we present our year-end results in a detailed End-of-Year Report to our executive sponsors.  Remember:

Success guarantees support.

Sample Chapter Goals

Here are a few examples of our Chapter Goals that have been presented in past NA-YGN annual plans:

• Reducing our yearly budget
• Increasing active membership (percentage of NA-YGN members actively involved in NA-YGN activities)
• Ensure more professional conference attendance
• Perform over 1,000 hours of community volunteer service
• Plan at least three (3) events with local NA-YGN Chapters
• Plan at least two (2) events with other AREVA NA-YGN Chapters

Setting precise goals that set the bar high, but are also reasonably achievable offer you the best way for your NA-YGN Chapter to be effective and successful.

Conclusion

A successful young nuclear professionals organization is one that is defined by involvement!

Charlotte Dragonboat Festival 2009