September Evening Meeting

Community Connections

After a summer hiatus, our IBO Monthly Members' meeting returns with a community update. Organizations you know and love will each give us a short brief on their activities:

• Irish Rep
• Glucksman Ireland House 
• Women With Ambition 
• Ireland’s Great Hunger Bórd 
• United Irish Counties 

We will also be awarding our 2023 Sean McNeill award to a very deserving Tami Ellen McLaughlin!

About Tami Ellen McLaughlin

Tami Ellen McLaughlin

tami@soberstpatricksday.org I linkedin.com/temclaughlin I 646-942-0234

Tami Ellen McLaughlin is the first-ever Executive Director of Sober St. Patrick's Day® Foundation, Inc. and a Founding Committee Member of the Women’s Networking Committee for the Irish Business Organization of New York (IBO-NY).

She is a third-generation Irish-American marketing communications professional with a passion for the not-for-profit sector.

During her leadership in the second year of the Covid 19 pandemic, Sober St. Patrick’s Day pivoted to take its world-class celebration of Irish culture online for a global audience to enjoy safe and healthy at home via YouTube Premiere. The community noticed Sober St. Patrick’s Day’s dedication to “the show must go on” mantra:

• Sober St. Patrick’s Day was among the Irish Echo Arts & Culture Award recipients — a nod to those organizations who kept the faith with Irish America during the pandemic.
• Tami Ellen and Sober St. Patrick’s Day were included in Build Your Dream Network author Kelly Hoey’s 5th birthday 70-page book bonus  along with other individuals who “successfully navigated their networking into meaningful, new connections during the pandemic.”

In 2022 Sober St. Patrick’s Day marched in its first NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade and returned to its signature in-person, post-parade, alcohol-free celebration, another sell-out for the organization. Tami Ellen’s critical administrative skills include Board of Directors support, overseeing budgets and consultant contracts, securing funding from government agencies, and nurturing relationships with sponsors.

Prior to joining Sober St. Patrick’s Day, and as a dedicated networker and cross-pollinator, Tami Ellen saw an opportunity for a purpose-driven networking program for women who are entrepreneurial-minded and seeking to connect and collaborate. She was drawn to IBO-NY with its active networking meeting schedule, became a member in 2017, and pitched a Women’s Networking program in 2018.

Along with IBO Executive Board members, she launched the IBO Women’s Networking Committee, charged with curating programming and events to foster collaboration and meaningful connection for members.

Many of Tami Ellen’s network connections supported this critical initiative as guest speakers and attendees at in-person and online events, including global partners Women’s Inspire Network and AwakenHub. To date, the committee has curated 20+ quarterly in-person events and virtual Covid-related Zooms.

Tami Ellen went on to serve on the IBO-NY Executive Board, focused on membership engagement during the pandemic. She remains active with the IBO-NY Women’s Network, which celebrated its 5th anniversary in 2023 and paid tribute to the many generous and talented guest speakers who have made the program a success. New and renewed IBO memberships have been tied to the program.

Tami Ellen honed her leadership skills and broadened her social impact network via the Institute for Nonprofit Practice Core Certificate Program, Muck Rack Academy, and NYU School of Professional Studies. She has a master's degree from Iona College and an undergraduate degree from the University at Albany.

At her new hometown in the Rockaways, Queens, New York City, Tami Ellen volunteers with NYC Plover Project , which works to protect endangered piping plovers and other shorebirds that nest on NYC beaches.