Rockdale Young Professional Leaders, a Chamber of Commerce social and networking group for ages 21 to 40, is proud of the strides it’s made in its inaugural year.

With many events held throughout the year, the group feels like it accomplished what it needed to accomplish in 2014, and that was to get out in the public eye and make their organization known to the community, says RYPL Executive Director Marcie Howington.

“We focused a lot on figuring out which events worked best,” she said. 

Howington says the group had some good events, including a pub crawl, a prom for senior citizens, an investing 101 class and a patriotic bowling event, that usually saw about 10 to 25 people attend. 

“People have joined us for all the events,” she said. “I’m really proud of how people have gotten involved. 

The group already has a full list of scheduled events for 2015, but will be focusing a lot more on recruiting new young members to the organization, which doesn’t collect membership dues.

It’s important to reach out to the younger generation of people because they are the ones who will shape the future of Rockdale County, said Howington, who hopes Rockdale will become a networking hub for youngsters.

“We need more community engagement with people our age,” said the 29-year-old Howington. “We’re trying to have ripple effect in the community.”

The next scheduled event for RYPL (pronounced similar to “ripple”), will be Ice Skating in Olde Town on January 15, 2015. For more information, call 770-483-7049 or email RYPL@conyers-rockdale.com.