Welcomed, Connected, Thriving: A Year in Review for New Member Initiatives
- Young Women's Leadership Connection
- 45 minutes ago
- 3 min read
There's a particular kind of nervous energy that comes with walking into a room where you don't yet know anyone. The Member Journey subcommittee spends its year making sure that feeling doesn't last long. As the first touchpoint of the YWLC experience, the team is here to welcome, orient, and connect new members , so that from their very first event, they feel like they belong.
Over the past year, the team welcomed new members and brought 113 of them together across four events, evenings and mornings that turned unfamiliar faces into friends. Two of these were held in collaboration with the Member Engagement and Strategy & Data Insights Subcommittees. Here's a look back at how new members found their footing, and their friendships, within YWLC.
Let's Explore: Getting to Know YWLC
The Let's Explore series is built around a simple question: why do members join YWLC in the first place? Each edition is a fun, relaxed event that brings one of those reasons to life, from finding community to giving back and growing as a leader, and helps new members connect with the parts of YWLC that resonate most with them.
The first edition, Let's Explore: Community (13 September 2025), filled the room with 38 new members. Co-hosted with the Member Engagement Subcommittee, the morning invited members to journey through different corners of the community over pastries and drinks: meeting new friends, swapping stories, and discovering YWLC's seven Member Circles: Sustainability, Entrepreneurship, Fitness, Mummies, Reads, Wellness, and STEM. Through lighthearted activities and conversations, members found the circles that matched their passions and the people they clicked with most.
On 29 November 2025, Let's Explore: Belonging & Inclusion gathered 18 members for a relaxed, café-style morning co-created with the Strategy & Data Insights Subcommittee, with special participation from Social Impact. Moving between colour-coded reflection zones, members explored what belonging means across different parts of life: at work, at home, in transition, in service, and within themselves, sharing their stories on post-its rather than sitting through panels. The intimate setting made for candid, honest conversation, bringing YWLC's focus on diversity and inclusion to life and leaving members with a deeper sense of what it means to truly belong.
TGIT Welcome Socials: Good Food, New Friends
If Let's Explore is about discovering YWLC, the Thank-Goodness-It's-Thursday (TGIT) Welcome Socials are about discovering each other: evenings of good food, easy conversation, and light-hearted games.
The October edition (30 October 2025) welcomed 30 members with conversation-starter icebreakers and a YWLC Trivia Quiz that had everyone laughing while learning the ropes.
The May edition (7 May 2026) brought 27 members together and turned up the fun with human bingo and a crossword, its answers cleverly hidden inside the new member welcome packs, turning onboarding material into part of the game.
Both nights ended the same way: with participants leaving not just knowing more about YWLC, but with new friends by their side.
Behind the Scenes: A Warmer Welcome
Not all of the year's work happened at events. The team launched a subcommittee matching quiz, a playful way for members to discover which YWLC subcommittee best fits their strengths and passions, making it easier than ever for new members to find their place within YWLC.
One Warm Welcome at a Time
Every icebreaker, welcome kit, and quiet conversation shares the same goal: to make sure no one navigates their first months at YWLC alone. Belonging doesn't happen by accident. It's built, one warm welcome at a time.
Thinking of joining? From your very first event, you'll be welcomed into all of this: new friends, familiar faces, and a community that's genuinely glad you're here. Learn more about becoming a member at ywlc.org.sg/become-a-member.
Organising Team: Abigail Laureen Sy (YWLC 9th Exco Member Journey Director), Tharshini Ganesan, Preeteashwari Jeyaseelan, Cecilia Tan, Rohini Nambiar, Au Yong Yu Lin, Yufei Chen, and Pei Jun Seah
Author: Abigail Laureen Sy
