Under a Week

Wow! Band Build is coming up quick. Matt, the Chair for the event, has been working his tail off with the last minute details, like volunteers and who should bring what the day of the event (a hint Matt…always bring duct tape…always).

Speaking of last minute details, we had a late sponsor addition: DMSI Software has added their contribution to Prudential Ambassador Real Estate, Floor Fashions, Big Iron Works, Hy-Vee, Oriental Trading, Creighton Athletics, Marriott and many others. It is a testament to the community we live in that so many are willing to help end poverty housing in Omaha. 

This is going to be a great show and I believe we can pack the Waiting Room. I cannot wait to see you there! 

Kevin Fustos, Habitat YP President

2nd Annual Band Build

It is almost time for our 2^nd annual Band Build!  Band Build is a benefit concert showcasing local bands with all ticket sales to benefit Habitat for Humanity of Omaha.  The event is Saturday, January 28^th 7:30 PM – 1:00 AM at the Waiting Room Lounge.  Tickets are $10 in advance (at www.onepercentproductions.com) and $12 at the door.

I have to tell you that I’m very excited about our lineup this year which once again includes some of the best bands in Omaha!  We have Rock Paper Dynamite (southern rock/grunge), Gus & Call (psychedelic/folk/country), Great American Desert (folk), Pancho & the Contraband (rock n roll), and O’Connell’s Bridge (Irish folk).  With a diverse lineup like this there should be something for everyone to enjoy, no matter your taste in music.

Band Build is also more than just a concert, the event will also include:

• A Habitat Omaha and YP group information table for those who want to learn more about our organization.
• Speakers between bands including a habitat partner family and habitat staff.
• Homemade pulled pork sandwiches for sale (made by one of our members, Mike, who is a GREAT cook).
• A raffle of items donated by local businesses (prizes include 2 season tickets to Creighton men’s bball, a 1 night stay in a Omaha Marriott Suite with breakfast at the Chop House, see the sponsor list below for more.)
• Habitat t-shirts and koozies for sale.

All Proceeds from all these sales will go directly to Habitat Omaha.

I would like to take a moment and thank ALL of our sponsors for their generous contributions, which have helped make this event possible:

Copper label corporate sponsor:  Prudential Ambassador Real Estate

Corporate Sponsors:  DMSi Software, Floor Fashions and Standard Iron Works

Food sponsor: Hy-Vee on 180^th & Pacific.

Official GLOW sponsor: Oriental Trading Company, Inc.

Raffle donors:  Aksarben Cinema, Ashley Lynn’s Tanning, the Cheesecake Factory, Creighton University Athletics, Crescent Moon Alehouse, Max I Walker, Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo, Omaha Marriott Hotel, Pitch Pizzeria, Spaghetti Works, Texas Roadhouse, UNO Athletics, Upstream Brewing Company.

The premier venue, great music, and most importantly, worthy cause, will make this a very memorable event.  We hope to see you there!

Matt Guzallis

Vice President and Band Build Chair

 Band Build 2012

A Concert to Benefit Habitat for Humanity of Omaha
Saturday Jan 28^nd, 2012
7:30 PM to 1:30 AM
The Waiting Room Lounge
6212 Maple Street

Tickets $10 in advance, $12 day of show
Advanced Tickets:  www.onepercentproductions.com
Facebook Event Page:  http://www.facebook.com/events/234719213244250/

Happy New Year!

Tomorrow will be the first Habitat YP meeting of a new year and it will be a busy one. Our first fundraiser of the year will be at the Waiting Room on January 28^th which means a lot of discussion on those details. (You can buy your tickets at www.onepercentproductions.com.) We will also have a special guest talking about fundraising and nonprofits. This is part of an effort this year to add interest and value to these meetings each month. Our goal is to have a different speaker at each meeting this year.

…and just like that we are into it and rolling.

I hope that you had a great Christmas. I hope that you had a great New Year’s celebration. I hope that you took some time over the holidays; time to spend with your family, time to reflect on the challenges and successes in 2011 and time to plan for that next accomplishment because 2012 is here and we have a lot to do!

Please check out our upcoming events and meetings. If you want information, have ideas (we love random ideas) or want to get more involved, email yp@habitatomaha.org. Don’t forget to like, share, and interact with our social media!

Kevin Fustos, Habitat YP President

Engage young professionals to influence positive change by promoting homeownership throughout our community in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Omaha.

with the ultimate goal to

Eliminate poverty housing through volunteerism, advocacy, and fundraising.

Have a Clear Roadmap!

It is my responsibility as President to make sure that we are all headed the same direction. That means having clear goals around all of these objectives and talking about them to make sure we are on track. We have to know if we are engaging our members, communicating better, advocating more and raising more money. I have asked the Committee Chairs to come up with these goals and we will be talking about them each month. Come to a meeting and see how we are doing. We meet the first Wednesday of each month at the First United Methodist Church, Room 111 (find a map of which door to go in on our Facebook page under pictures). If you have questions, ideas, or just want to talk, email yp@habitatomaha.org or kmfustos@oppd.com.

Please check out our upcoming events and meetings. If you want information, have ideas (we love random ideas) or want to get more involved, email yp@habitatomaha.org. Don’t forget to like, share, and interact with our social media!

Kevin Fustos, Habitat YP President

Engage young professionals to influence positive change by promoting homeownership throughout our community in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Omaha.

with the ultimate goal to

Eliminate poverty housing through volunteerism, advocacy, and fundraising.

Raise More Money!

The more money we raise, the less poverty housing there is. It is that simple. The Habitat YP wants to contribute in a big way. Our goal is to raise enough money to build our own house each year! That is a $100,000 commitment. I don’t know about you, but I think that is a lot of zeros. Help us. Support our events. Brew-Ha-Ha (September) and Band Build (January 28^th, 2012) are our two major fundraisers. We are always looking for new fundraising opportunities and more people to help. Email our Fundraising Chair, Karyn Droessler, karyndroessler@gmail.com, with your amazing ideas that will get us to our goal.

Please check out our upcoming events and meetings. If you want information, have ideas (we love random ideas) or want to get more involved, email yp@habitatomaha.org. Don’t forget to like, share, and interact with our social media!

Kevin Fustos, Habitat YP President

Engage young professionals to influence positive change by promoting homeownership throughout our community in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Omaha.

with the ultimate goal to

Eliminate poverty housing through volunteerism, advocacy, and fundraising.

Advocate More!

Omaha has an amazing YP community. We need to make sure that they know about us and our mission. Our advocacy committee is working on ways for the Habitat YP to interact with other YP groups. If you are involved with any of these groups or have other ideas, let Megan Campbell, our Advocacy Committee Chair know at megan.campbell@bellevue.edu. We would be happy to come out and talk to your groups and we are especially looking for groups that would be willing to share information about upcoming events with members (and we would do the same for them).

Please check out our upcoming events and meetings. If you want information, have ideas (we love random ideas) or want to get more involved, email yp@habitatomaha.org. Don’t forget to like, share, and interact with our social media!

Kevin Fustos, Habitat YP President

Engage young professionals to influence positive change by promoting homeownership throughout our community in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Omaha.

with the ultimate goal to

Eliminate poverty housing through volunteerism, advocacy, and fundraising.

Communicate Better!

I don’t know of any organization that couldn’t improve their communication. I feel like we improved a lot in this area over the last year, but we are going to keep working on it. First of all, we are going to try to keep emails to once a week or less, but it is very important that you read it! There are so many opportunities to help that people are missing by not reading this email. We are also trying to post more on Facebook, Linked In and our blog site. Help us by interacting with our posts, whether it is just liking it, sharing or responding (even if it is no). If you have ideas on improving communication, contact our PR Committee Chair, Liz Blasberg at lblasberg@gmail.com.

Please check out our upcoming events and meetings. If you want information, have ideas (we love random ideas) or want to get more involved, email yp@habitatomaha.org. Don’t forget to like, share, and interact with our social media!

Kevin Fustos, Habitat YP President

Engage young professionals to influence positive change by promoting homeownership throughout our community in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Omaha.

with the ultimate goal to

Eliminate poverty housing through volunteerism, advocacy, and fundraising.

Engage our members!

We did a great job this year of getting people to meetings, but a terrible job of engaging them. We owe it to the people who want to join our group to make them feel welcome, explain our mission and vision and help them understand how they can contribute to our success. To that end, we are creating an onboarding process which will include a potential member packet, a new member packet and regular check-ins. If engagement is something you’d like to help with, please contact our NEW Membership Committee Chair, Matt Scott at mjscott04@gmail.com.

Please check out our upcoming events and meetings. If you want information, have ideas (we love random ideas) or want to get more involved, email yp@habitatomaha.org. Don’t forget to like, share, and interact with our social media!

Kevin Fustos, Habitat YP President

Strategy Session Outcomes

On October 11^th, a dedicated group of individuals came together to set a strategic direction for the Habitat Young Professionals Group in Omaha. HUGE thanks to Mindy Stetson, Jared Rohrer, Karyn Droessler, Megan Campbell, Matt Guzallis, Kathy Katt, Kathy Wells, Cameron Lind and Ryan Villwok for giving an entire evening to the Habitat YP.

It was quite an evening. I don’t know if you have ever been involved in any strategy planning, but it takes a ton of energy to stay focused, generate new ideas and do self-checks to make sure you are still on track. Our facilitator, Cameron Lind, did an amazing job keeping us on task. In just three hours we were able to hammer through our mission (above), add a vision (also above), examine our strengths and weaknesses, and begin to form plans for the next year and beyond. That is an incredible amount of work for three hours.

The plans are coming together. I will be posting more about each of the goals below in the next couple of weeks, but, in short, we want to engage our members, communicate better, advocate more, raise more money and have a clear roadmap of how we will do these things.

Please check out our upcoming events and meetings. If you want information, have ideas (we love random ideas) or want to get more involved, email yp@habitatomaha.org. Don’t forget to like, share, and interact with our social media!

Kevin Fustos, Habitat YP President

Engage young professionals to influence positive change by promoting homeownership throughout our community in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Omaha.

with the ultimate goal to

Eliminate poverty housing through volunteerism, advocacy, and fundraising.

Habitat for Humanity Omaha Young Professionals Member Spotlight

Each week we would like to spotlight a member of HHYP of Omaha.

Katie Thornton is our FIRST SPOTLIGHT

Getting to know Katie:

What is your favorite thing about Omaha?

My favorite thing about Omaha is all the different types of resturaunts.  I love how you can pick a different place to eat every day if you want!

 
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

When I was a kid I wanted to be either a flight attendent or a secretary when I grew up.

What’s the #1 most played song on your ipod?

Well, I don’t have an ipod.  I’m more of a radio person.

 
What chore do you absolutely hate doing?

The chore I absolutely hate doing is scrubbing the bathtub.  I can never scrub hard enough!

 
What is your favorite food?

I love mexican food.  I just discovered Baja Grill, delicious!

What word describes you best?

Affable

 
Where do you work?

Nebraska Methodist Hospital

 
What city were you born in?

Grand Island, NE

Were you named after anyone?

 Nope

What’s your favorite Habitat YP event?

I haven’t had the pleasure of attending any events yet, but I’m excited for Brew Ha Ha!

 
What are you doing this weekend?

Volunteering at the Put A Spike In It volleyball tournement and I have a family picnic to attend.

What is your favorite summer time activity?

My favorite summer time activity is getting together with friends and family for a BBQ.

Fun fact that not many people know about you…

I don’t have a computer or cable!

If you could go back and do it all over again, what would you do differently?

If I could go back and do it all over again I wouldn’t have been so quiet through high school.