Page 19 - Combined folders HRHQEII - BPW UK Members Oct. 19th visit - E-news September 2022

What do Young BPW members want?

We all recognise that the future of this wonderful organisation that we belong to lies with the
young women of today so gaining new members should always be one of our primary aims.
In an effort to gain some insight into what young women really want I attended a BPW International
webinar that asked exactly that of 3 young BPW’ers. These webinars are available to watch again on the
YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/LeadershipforBusinessProfessionalWomen
Selin Ozunaldim, BPW Turkey; Otoha Hayashi, BPW Japan and Luciana Yamamoto BPW St Martin were
our panellists and Neelima Basnet BPW Nepal was our moderator. These young women had all come to BPW
from different sources; inspired by a BPW speaker at a UN event, invited to join by an existing member and
finding details about us as part of setting up ‘GirlLove’ in Turkey which is a series of webinars so girls can find
their inner power.
They were all asked what were the best bits of BPW membership and everyone agreed the following:

• The fact that BPW is intergenerational
• Chance to gain knowledge, experience and information
• Sharing of ideas and opportunities
• Getting a business perspective to their viewpoint rather than an emotional reaction
• Identifying common goals on female issues
• Worldwide encouragement and support resulting in raising their self esteem
They were asked what part an awareness of the organisation’s constitution played. Interestingly in Ja-
pan a ‘non-profit organisation’ is very strictly governed legally so BPW Japan meet regularly to discuss compli-
ance and each member is given a copy of the constitution. Otoha says she often refers a matter to BPW UK Syl-
via Perry for guidance. What an honour! Selin in BPW Turkey uses the constitution as guidance to lobby against
Turkey withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention. They are very vocal in their opposition to this.

The final question was how could BPW attract more members like themselves.
The following suggestions were made:

 Use all of social media! Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and even TikTok. Show what BPW has achieved over
the years and be proud of it.

 Promote any activities undertaken, more communication will help young people to believe they also can
make a difference!
 Ensure existing members are welcoming! Put together an active programme of activities that
young members can join in.

 BPW Austria has put together a Mentoring Programme on LinkedIn, could this be replicated across the
globe!

All the panel were keen to have a Young BPW Programme of activities both online and face to face.
Some research into what young people would want from the programme is key to making it a success so getting
them on board with it will encourage that connection.

So we were all left with a positive feeling about the future. There are young people that recognise
BPW’s worth in their lives, it’s our responsibility to tell them about it!

Sue Holtom
BPW UK Treasurer Note from the Editor

YBPW-UK, It would be most interesting and desirable to hear
from you in our October edition: Your present activities, your
commitments, your ambitions, your plans, your vision perhaps for
a closer cooperation with BPW-UK as Sue’s brilliant article men-
tions it: (Intergenerational) !!!