TYPROs Celebrates 10 Years Of Tulsa Service

Ten years ago, a group of five young people began to brainstorm. A decade later, the group is called Tulsa Young Professionals, or TYPROs, and it has more than 8,000 members.

The city was a lot different when the group formed, but their early ideas helped shape Tulsa into what it is today.

There was no BOK Center or Brady Arts District in 2004, but, there were young people who wanted to get involved, and their passion morphed into one of the largest your professional organizations in the country.

Josh Roby was one of the founding members of TYPROs and said they had a vision.

“The founding group had no desire for a social club,” he said. “We don’t have committees that just sit around and talk about something. We have work crews that accomplish things and do work.”

In ten years, more than 8,000 young professionals in Tulsa have joined, and many people may not realize what the group does.

Every year they rehab a different neighborhood. TYPROs is also behind getting UBER to Tulsa, and they formed a little pop-up Trader Joe's shop two years ago which became a catalyst for a brick and mortar location now being built in Brookside.

2/16/2013 Related Story: TYPROs Continue Push For Trader Joe's In Downtown Tulsa

And, we can't leave out the great Raft Race, that would never have come back without a dedicated group of TYPROs volunteers with the same vision and passion as their founders ten years ago.

But, Andrea Myers said, back then, “young professionals” was just a buzzword, but that’s not the case anymore.

“It’s part of the vocabulary. TYPROs is a word that people use. And people who don’t know my involvement say 'of course people know what that is,' and that’s pretty remarkable. That’s very exciting,” said Myers.

Members even regularly travel to the Capitol to push for changes in legislation.

Myers said, “You've got people who have an opinion and know how to use that. Today, TYPROs has influence.”

Looking back at some of those first meetings ten years ago, Myers and Roby said they feel blessed to have been part of it.

“To start something that has continued to have an impact and to build something and hand it off to what I believe are Tulsa's best young leaders today,” Roby said.

The Boomtown awards and 10-year celebration will be on Saturday, November 14, 2015. Some of those honored are local developers and former Mayor Kathy Taylor.