Homemakers Council meets at convention center
“Volunteering: It’s What We Do” will be the theme for the
2017 state meeting of the Arkansas Extension Homemakers Council scheduled for Tuesday through Thursday at the Hot Springs Convention Center.
The council is a volunteer organization associated with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service that provides its members opportunities for education, leadership development and community service.
Between July 1, 2015, and June 30, 2016, the most recent period for which statistics are available, Arkansas Extension Homemakers gave 644,735 hours of volunteer service. The Division of Community Service and Nonprofit Support, formerly the Division of Volunteerism, an agency of the Arkansas Department of Human Services, uses
$21.36 as the value of each volunteer hour. The value of their service is $13,771,539.60.
Twelve members of the Garland County Extension Homemakers Council will be among the more than 500 Extension homemakers, their guests, vendors and exhibitors and division personnel who will gather for the event, which showcases the accomplishments of the more than 4,000 members.
The opening day has been declared “Red T-Shirt Day.” All participants are encouraged to wear red to show pride in and support of the Extension Homemakers program in Arkansas.
A crafts show, which is open to the public, will open at 8:30 a.m. and continue until 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday in the lobby of the Convention
Center.
New this year will be a creative skills class the Tuesday morning.
The class, limited to the first
50 who prereg- istered, will use scrapbooking materials and techniques to make easy crafts without the fuss of doing a scrapbook.
The opening session will be a noon luncheon at which Beth
Anne Rankin will be the keynote speaker. Rankin, a former Miss Arkansas, has experience in government and politics, radio and television and as a small business owner. At present, she is the associate director of Development and Major Gifts at Southern Arkansas University at Magnolia, where she continues to combine her love of education and for the state of Arkansas.
Rankin’s topic will be “Fingerprints of Leadership” and will focus on the attributes and characteristics that have comprised the heart and spirit of the Arkansas Extension Homemakers Council’s members’ leadership and volunteerism through the years.
During the luncheon, milestone members — 50-, 60- and 70-and-above-year members — will be recognized. This opening event will feature a parade of county flags, at which time each county council will be recognized. The flags will be carried by the county council president or representative.
Immediately after lunch, attendees will have the opportunity to attend the first in a series of how-to, education, subject matter and creative skills classes that will continue the next day.
The day’s activities will conclude with an evening of bingo.
On Wednesday, the board of directors meeting is scheduled. Among the agenda items is the election of directors for each of the three districts in the state. The luncheon program that day
will include the presentation of awards for 111 project books, completed by clubs and county councils, and the presentation of scholarships and other awards.
An “Anything Goes” talent competition will be held that evening.
The final session will be held Thursday morning. Two speakers are scheduled.
Deb Crow, competitive events administrator for the Arkansas State Fair at Little Rock and museum and archive director and grounds beautification director for the Arkansas Livestock Show Association, will discuss her job duties for the state fair and the Arkansas Livestock Show Association, relating to archives and preserving history and volunteers being involved with county fairs.
Hannah Mills, the owner of Hot Springy Dingy, a gift shop and the costumer for the First Ever Annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade, will present “From Loincloth to the Gap.” From the time man and woman began to figure out how to use a needle and sinew, the original thread, the “fashion” industry was born. Mills will lead the audience on a stroll through history to watch the evolution of fashion through the ages.
A memorial service, installation of district directors and drawing for door prizes will conclude the session and the meeting.
A display of cultural arts will be shown throughout the meeting. Each county Extension Homemakers council was asked to submit one table runner, which will be displayed. The councils were asked to donate the runners to be used in a fundingraising project for the meeting of the National Volunteer Outreach Network, which the state council will host in Springdale in 2019.
Copies of Encore, formerly Curtain Calls, a booklet of instructions for creative skills published especially for this meeting, will be for sale.
To learn more about Extension Homemakers, call the local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit https://www.uaex.edu/health-living/ extension-homemakers.