Indy’s Ambassador
Molly Chavers champions the city and all it has to offer through her role at IndyHub.
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In many ways, Molly Chavers is an ambassador, rolling out the welcome mat for new faces brought to Indianapolis by careers and academic interests.
In other ways, she is a bit of a pied piper, gathering together young professionals to network, socialize and celebrate all aspects of what the city offers.
Regardless of the many ways she reaches out to others and juggles fundraising and event planning, her role as executive director of IndyHub is, in Chavers’ opinion, the best job in the city.
Since the 2005 beginning of IndyHub, Chavers has been in the very social seat as executive director.
Six years ago, the idea for this nonprofit organization took shape during a downtown conference.
At the time, Anne Shane, former vice president for strategic growth initiatives at The Mind Trust and vice president at BioCrossroads, spoke about the future of the city. She touched on the topic of workforce development and the next generation of employees, noting the importance of young leaders making commitments to remain in the city where they started their careers.
Since statistics show that community-involved professionals tend to lay roots and stay in the cities where they feel significant and needed, Shane mentioned the importance of somehow bringing together young professionals. Was there a way for the movers and shakers of the city to be matched with their like-minded peers? What about the dynamics available to the future of the city if these up-and-coming leaders got involved in community projects, especially nonprofit agencies?
As Shane talked about the importance of guiding young professionals and helping them cultivate new relationships, both professionally and personally, a few minds in the audience began to perk with ideas.
One of the young professionals listening that day was Trevor Belden, a partner at Baker & Daniels and a transplant from Michigan to Indianapolis.
From that initial seed planted by Shane, “a handful of us got together,” says Belden, who serves as IndyHub’s chairman of the board.
During lengthy conversations, ideas were tossed around. Concepts began to evolve about the how-to of bringing busy young professionals together to network, socialize and commit to getting involved with at least a few of the many possibilities available in Indianapolis.
Not long after those discussions and several more, a business plan was created for a movement supported entirely by donations and grants.
And IndyHub became a reality.
A hub of activity
“The mission of IndyHub really is to attract and retain young professionals to the city and also enhance their quality of life,” Belden says of the organization, which requires no membership fees.
To measure the continuing success of the IndyHub mission, supporters count the ever-growing frequency of Twitter and Facebook responses, email volume, website hits and the number of people attending IndyHub events.
People visiting the website might participate in all the various events scheduled, or only a few. There is no pressure to participate in anything. And that might be one of the winning ways IndyHub has attracted such a loyal following. Nothing is asked of IndyHub fans, but lots and lots of great opportunities are offered.
As a strong supporter of IndyHub, Alane Summers works as corporate gift officer for Riley Children’s Foundation. Four years ago when she was new to the city herself, she was immediately interested in the opportunities available through IndyHub. She identified herself as a young professional, Summers says. And she hoped to make new friends by showing up at various IndyHub functions around Indianapolis.
Now serving as vice president of the Presidents’ Roundtable Leadership Team for IndyHub, Summers has a front row seat for how the organization not only reaches out to the community but also the many ways the community responds so positively.
An example of the amazing give-and-take relationship between IndyHub enthusiasts and the community occurred a couple of months ago, Summers says.
During an annual Get IndyVolved event, which was primarily spearheaded by volunteers from the IndyHub Presidents’ Roundtable, 75 representatives from nonprofit agencies and programs happily made contacts with 500 young professionals during an event at City Market.
Hundreds of “Hubbers” as they are sometimes called, learned of the IndyVolved event through the IndyHub website and e-letters.
Their attendance sent a powerful message, showing nonprofit organizations in Indianapolis that yes, young professionals will take time from their busy lives to explore ways to spend their free time in a meaningful manner. And yes, young professionals see and respect the need and the value of involving themselves in community activism.
Along with participating in the social aspects that IndyHub offers, such as Happy Hour events around the city, Summers also has attended various career-focused events sponsored by IndyHub. New friendships and professional networking opportunities have been added bonuses along the way.
“IndyHub does a lot of great things for a lot of great people,” Summers says. “And the amazing part is that there are only two staff members. A lot of the events are volunteer driven.”
In Summers’ opinion, there’s no doubt about who has the power to pull people along and get them excited about their city, their interests and their careers.
“It just amazes me what Molly can do with only herself and one other staff member,” Summers says with a laugh, referring to IndyHub’s Events and Media Manager, Karissa Hulse.
First-hand knowledge
Targeting ages 21 to 40, Chavers guesses that most of the 46,000 professionals frequenting the website or stopping by IndyHub events in the city are between the ages of 27 and 33.
As a young professional herself, Chavers, who graduated from DePauw University with degrees in communications and political science, has an immediate understanding of the generation she reaches out to. Many of them live in the fast lane. They are devoting long hours to build their careers. Many of them are juggling the launch of a career while also attending graduate school. And most of them hope to connect in just the right professional places.
This generation of leaders prefers a text to a phone call. And their social calendars are important to them, just like their free time.
An amazing amount of services are provided through the IndyHub website — everything from open invitations to monthly social events, hosted at various hot spots around the city, to free seminars that address the changing job market.
“From this vantage point, I can see so much of what goes on in the city,” Chavers says. “The challenge is sharing it all.”
Prior to accepting this very unique position, she served as finance and special events director of the Indiana Democratic Party. So she already had lots of practice with all kinds of people and all kinds of interests.
Those skills perfectly match her present responsibilities. Chavers definitely is perfect in her role, Belden says.
“IndyHub is an entrepreneurial organization so Molly is responsible for basically everything,” he says. “Molly’s strongest skill is consensus building and networking. She is always one or two degrees away from everybody in the city.”
Fundraising can be a challenge at any time. But to conduct fundraising events in the present economic climate and be successful speaks volumes about Chavers as a highly talented professional. Her dedication to IndyHub finishes off her package as a uniquely qualified representative, not only for the organization but also for Indianapolis.
Chavers is a member of Dance Kaleido-scope’s Advisory Council, Indiana Sports Corporation’s President’s Council and the Lacy Leadership Association. In 2008, Gov. Joe Kernan presented her with the Sagamore of the Wabash Award.
Me time
To slow her pace as a young professional, Chavers, a Terre Haute native, grabs at any opportunity to attend a yoga or Pilates class during those rare lunch breaks that don’t have a meeting squeezed into the time slot.
She also teaches Pilates every Wednesday. This is something she commits to in ink in her day planner.
“I’ve been teaching for four years,” she says. “It makes my brain focus on something else. Explaining things thoroughly in the class also helps me with my public speaking.”
Living a busy day-to-day life with husband Adam Chavers, executive director of Corporate Real Estate for Indiana University Health, changed drastically and took on an entirely different definition of busy six months ago. The addition of a chubby little girl named Louise has added more happiness to family photographs and more love to the household.
“I am in love,” Chavers says of the daughter who does occasionally exhaust her. “It’s the hardest job I’ve ever had, but by far the most fulfilling. It’s just a cool thing, knowing her and what she needs. It’s a privilege to be a parent.”
Her job affords her some wonderful, appreciated flexibility. And even though most days begin with meetings, not one day is ever the same as the last.
Constantly, Chavers is meeting new people — either by shaking the hands of new residents of the city, sitting down with board members and volunteers to discuss events or listening to the needs of representatives from nonprofit agencies.
When the family’s human alarm clock, Louise, happens to sleep in a bit later in the morning, Chavers admits that one of her worst vices is the tendency to “hit the snooze way too many times. But sometimes I can do better about getting up and getting the day going.”
Of course her life is filled with faces and meetings, phone calls, a husband, a baby, Pilates and yoga. But there’s never enough going on to take Chavers completely away from her addiction to sweets.
“I love sweets,” she confesses with a laugh. “From Swedish fish to Nutella — I love it all. And that’s definitely a vice of mine.”
More frequently these days, she and Adam visit their families since both sets of grandparents are in love with Louise. Adam’s family lives in Lafayette, and Molly’s parents are in Terre Haute.
When the weekend jaunts end and another busy Monday is looming, Chavers always is ready to go.
September’s calendar includes a First Friday event with the Indianapolis Downtown Artists & Dealers Association, beginning with an art tour and ending with a party. There also are some dance classes with the Circle City Steppers at the Madame Walker Theatre Center, an open house at the Indianapolis Art Center and Happy Hour at the JW Marriott’s High Velocity.
The calendar always is filled with new events, meetings, fundraisers and lunches. It’s all in a day’s work for this pied piper and her never-ending task of gathering Hubbers to do great things.
“I get to see, touch and experience so many amazing things and help bring that to the broader young professional population of Indy,” Chavers says.
