YP Talent Going Untapped

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OK, here’s my big soap box: everyone around here talks about recruiting and maintaining “young talent.” There’s a problem with Brain Drain. We need the young, creative class to revitalize our region.
 
But do they ever ask the “young talent” anything about it? We have formed a collaboration of almost 40 young professional organizations in the St. Louis region representing more than 10,000 young professionals. Check out our Web site. While we get an occasional inquiry from the regional chamber about a young professionals related issue, why aren’t more people seeking out our input and opinions?
 
There was a welfare reform organization here whose motto was something to the effect of “not for us without us.” Seems like a good philosophy to me. Yet decisions still get made around this town the old fashioned way … by executives (mostly men), behind mostly closed doors. That’s really no way to appeal to the younger crowd, now is it?
 
Yes, we do need to go to them, those powers that be. We need to knock on their door. And, when they don’t answer it, we need to knock it down. And we do that at times. But really, is it that hard of a concept that if you want to recruit and retain a young talented workforce, you need the existing young talented workforce to recruit with you?