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Executive Board Elections Information for our Members
Muncie Young Professionals has four candidates for open positions on our Executive Board. You can find their platforms below. Voting will begin at our Annual Meeting on June 26 and will continue online for members who cannot attend the meeting. Members who cannot attend the June 26 meeting will receive voting information by email.
If you would like to join Muncie Young Professionals and attend our June 26 Annual Meeting or receive information about voting online, you can do so here.
President Candidate – Haley LeFiles
Background
Born and raised in Florida, I was considered a Florida native (5+ generations of Floridians in the family). After graduating from Florida State University with a bachelor’s degree in Recreation, Tourism and Event Planning I decided to take a leap of faith and moved to Muncie 2.5 years ago. Since then I have accepted the Development and Marketing Specialist position with Hillcroft Services.
Why is serving on MYP on the Steering Committee important to you?
No one ever tells you how hard it is to make friends your own age after graduating college. So in my first attempt at finding friends, I joined Muncie Young Professionals. Over the past 2.5 years this Muncie Transplant has learned that by joining organizations you love help to make your community feel more like home. Therefore, I feel it is necessary to step-up into this position to ensure that MYP continues to welcome young professionals, whether they’ve grown up here, or have just happened to find their way to Muncie.
What skills do you have that will help you in your desired position on the Steering Committee?
The most valuable experience I will be bringing to the table, is my recent completion of the Shafer Leadership Academy’s Emergence program. During this program, I have learned how to not only be a leader, but how to be a servant leader. If given the opportunity to serve as President of Muncie Young Professionals, I plan on applying the skills and knowledge learned from there to better our board and the organization as a whole.
Vice President Candidate – Mason Hammock
Background
I am an original proud product of Muncie Indiana, completing stints at fine institutions like Muncie Central and Ball State. During my time at Miller College of Business, I had an opportunity to intern with the great folks at Ontario Systems. That experience provided a great taste for what Muncie had to offer a young, motivated person. After graduating with a Bachelor’s in Business Analytics in 2017, I continued my professional career at Ontario where I am now a Strategy Data Analyst. In my job, I focus on business intelligence, data quality, and reporting. I also participate heavily in discussions surrounding the financial and operational strategy of the business. My newest set of responsibilities is what has spurred my interest in serving on the MYP board. I am currently in the process of launching an Ontario Young Professional Group. Our goal is to promote engagement and the formation of positive relationships among our young associates and to provide a guiding example of community investment for all Muncie area employers.
I live downtown (right above what is soon to be the Lahody steakhouse), and spend a great deal of time participating in the events Muncie has to offer. Whether it is hanging out at First Thursday, shopping the farmer’s market, investing in relationships, having a beer at Elm Street, serving in and with my church (The Bridge), working with my former program at BSU, volunteering at Treefort, or staying as far away from McGalliard as possible, I am intentional about making choices that serve what I think is Muncie’s best future. I have a vast array of hobbies (which really just means that I’m lousy at a lot of things, so I move to something new) including golf, videography, reading, weight training, cars, woodwork, graphic design, cooking, baking, guns, and leatherwork. If I’m not doing one of those, I’m probably watching a movie at home or helping someone with a project. I love the place I’ve grown up, and I strive to be a part of its advancement any way that I can.
Why is serving on MYP on the Steering Committee important to you?
I believe MYP has a unique opportunity to reach the people that have the potential to be the communities next set of leaders. A great deal of young people leave Ball State in search of professional careers, and so few of them choose to stay here. “Why aren’t you staying”, is a question that MYP is committed to analyzing and solutioning.
I envision MYP being the driving force behind retention-based change within the community. We have a plethora professional organizations in the Muncie Area. The problem is, everyone is competing for attendance at our monthly events or for how many people we can get to show up for a Saturday volunteering option. There is no one solely focused on the big picture. A unifying body that all of these organizations can work with is exactly how to achieve the synergy needed to make a significant impact. MYP could be that body by educating, mentoring, and collaborating with the members and leaders of these disparate organizations through things like annual conferences, cross-org meetings, mass-volunteering days, and group meetings with local government leaders, all of which framed around keeping young adults in our community. This is by no means a simple goal, but I believe to be a noble one that fills an enormous gap in the Muncie community.
What skills do you have that will help you in your desired position on the Steering Committee?
My greatest successes, professionally or otherwise, have stemmed from my approach and gift for communication. I believe that is a necessary foundation for a career in nearly any field. My education and work experience have developed a knack for analytic problem solving, an ability to thrive in collaborative situations, and a mind for strategic planning. I believe those skills, coupled with an intentional pursuit of greater leadership competence, equip me to serve MYP in an impactful way.
Membership and Community Relations Chair Candidate – Shane Lanning
Background
I am a transplant to Muncie from Ohio, and I have lived here now for about six years. I came for grad school and stayed for work. While I didn’t intend to stay in Muncie, I am glad that I did. Many people tend to focus on the bad parts of Muncie, but I see hope, and I see the good parts.
Why is serving on MYP on the Steering Committee important to you?
As a member of the community, I’m looking for more ways to get involved locally. MYP has been a great organization to get to know other young professionals, but I think we could do better at encouraging our new members to get involved. Certain personality types aren’t as willing to put themselves out there and try some of the events that we have because they are not sure how to jump in and get involved. This is where the Membership Chair and Community Relations Chair comes in. Creating that welcome and extra encouragement at the beginning is going to be paramount to developing active members.
What skills do you have that will help you in your desired position on the Steering Committee?
In my current position, I have to communicate a lot of information between several different stakeholders. I communicate with deans, department chairs, faculty members, partner institutions in China, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, and the China Center for International Education Exchange. So, I will be able to communicate effectively with new members and with community partners.
My job also makes me a recruiter. I have to actively recruit students and partner institutions to our dual degree program. This involves email correspondences, in person interactions, providing informational materials, and maintaining social media accounts. So, I will be able to create and implement a plan to recruit new members. In fact, I’m currently in China meeting with our newly admitted dual degree students. For many of them this is the first time they are meeting someone from Ball State University. So, it is my job to get them excited and motivated, but also to make them feel comfortable with the idea of leaving home to study in the US. I have been told several times that I have a warm and inviting personality, and if given this opportunity I hope that personality shines through.
Finally, my current position requires that I coordinate and develop events for our dual degree students while they are here on campus. This has historically involved monthly meetings and dinners, a fall and spring field trip, volunteer opportunities, and professional development opportunities. So, I will be able to coordinate and host or appoint a host for new member events.
Secretary Candidate – Tiffany Flowers
Background
I am a Muncie native and a recent graduate of Ball State. I received my Bachelor of Science in Communication Studies in December of 2017. I currently work at Ball State as the Student Process Coordinator for the Division of Online and Strategic Learning. I am really passionate about helping students, giving back to my community and furthering Muncie’s growth. The city has changed dramatically since I was younger and I am always happy to help it continue to improve. In my spare time I like to play board games and catch up on my latest Netflix obsession. At the moment I am trying to catch up on Supernatural. I plan to study to take the GRE over the summer so that I can apply for my master’s within the next year.
Why is serving on MYP on the Steering Committee important to you?
As a new young professional in Muncie I have realized that there are not a lot of groups or organizations that work diligently to bring us together. As someone who has been here my whole life, I even find it hard to make friends and forge connections with other young professionals. Serving on this board is important to me because I would like to help connect other professionals with people that share their interests and are excited about getting to know them. Connecting our young professionals ultimately makes Muncie feel a little bit more like home for those that are not from here.
Muncie Young Professionals also serves as a voice for young professionals. The group plans programming, hosts events, and coordinates several meet and greets that introduce our community to what the organization is about. By hosting events and carrying out programming the organization is making connections with our local business owners, neighbors, and affiliates. These positive connections help people as they establish opinions about MYP and hopefully those opinions are good. Through those connections the organization gains a platform where our unified voice can be heard. That voice is able to indicate our interests and offer events that caters to those interests. That voice is able to bring people together. Being a part of this voice is important to me because it can benefit so many people.
What skills do you have that will help you in your desired position on the Steering Committee?
During my undergrad I served as the Vice President and President of the 21st Century Scholar Ambassadors organization. I helped the organization get established in 2014 as an official student organization and was an active member until 2016. During that time I developed strong skills in agenda creation, leadership, decision-making, and organization. I helped create and plan the Study-a-thon (a 12-hour study event for finals that features food and giveaways) which has become an annual event that is continued by the newly named Scholar Core student organization. As the Vice President I filled in for the Secretary as necessary and kept meticulous minutes and was responsible for keeping records of those on our Benny Link page.
I also served as the Historian for Lambda Pi Eta, the honor society for Communication Studies, during my senior year. I was in charge of maintaining our social media accounts and taking photographs for our events. After group input I also created our marketing materials such as flyers, web announcements, and poster boards for recruitments events. Being a member of Lambda Pi Eta improved my time-management skills and really helped me learn how to market an organization and catalog events and meetings.
Currently I am a part of an internal work group within my division called the Practice of Scholarship. The group was assembled before I started working at Ball State and I was added to it after I was hired. My group was in charge of planning and hosting the Resilience Symposium. By the time I was added to the group most of the planning for the Symposium had been finalized. However, I volunteered to help with researching resilience efforts at other institutions and that research was included in folders for attendees to review. Now that the Symposium is over we are preparing to present our work and I assisted by creating a Prezi to overview important statistics and recommendations for the future. This has been one of my first experiences with professional long-term group work and I know that my flexibility, communication, and problem-solving skills have benefited from working with other professionals in my division and across departments.
