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| A couple of the attendees from last night's meeting. I know we missed a few people. |
1. Last night, we elected officers. We knew this might be viewed as a little soon, but we wanted to hit the ground running and get our officers elected and prepared before we really get this club into full swing and before officer training in August. Your officer list is as follows:
President--Devan Gaddie
Vice--Sarah Woods
Secretary--Heather Haycraft
Treasurer--Mitzi Chadbourne
Global Committee Chair--Erin Roberts
Environmental Committee--Madelyn Owen
Family Life Committee--Chasity Meredith
I'll be honest, I thought it was going to be difficult to find volunteers or nominations for these positions. But people immediately stepped up, volunteered and I'm excited about this team and what we might be able to bring to the Homemakers in Progress.
2. For those of you that weren't at the meeting last night, I need to explain something (so those of you that were there, hang in there..this is going to be repeat information for you). Each month, we'll be doing a lesson on a specific topic. Sarah went over the survey results, which we hope that you all had a chance to take, and what people are interested in learning about. Budgeting, couponing and meal planning all ranked high on the list, along with cleaning, parenting, cooking , among other things. The Lincoln Trail Homemakers provide a class topic every single month. An instructor will present the class in either Hardin or Larue County and a representative from our club (or multiple people) can attend. When the class is finished, the attendees can bring that information back to our club and teach it to us. For example, on August 21st, there will be a class at 10:30 am at the Hardin County Extension Office. The topic is "Flower Arranging Basics." Anyone is welcome to attend this class from our club and learn about flower arranging. If we choose, we can pick this as our topic for a meeting and teach what we learned in the class to the entire club. (I really hope this is all making sense!). If you're interested in the entire list, please let either myself (Devan Gaddie) or Sarah Woods know and we'll be sure and get that information to you. We did narrow down the list of topics, ruling out "Dealing with Alzheimer's," "KY Honey: What's the Buzz?," and "Social Media 101" from our list of topics that we're going to cover in our lessons at the club level. However, if you think one of these topics is interesting to you, again, let us know and we can tell you the time and place that the class is being taught and you are more than welcome to attend. For example, we had a couple of people last night that were interested in the honey class. Even though we won't be covering it as an entire club, those individuals expressed interest in going to the class that's being taught by the Lincoln Trail District. If you all have any questions about any of this, send them our way. It's hard to explain things through a blog!
3. Martha Thomas, or more importantly--my Meemaw--was in attendance last night. Meemaw has been a Homemaker since the 1970s and is a very active member of the Rineyville Homemakers Club. They have volunteered as a club to be kind of our "big sister/mentor" club in case we have any questions or need direction on what we're supposed to be doing. She would be more than happy to answer any of your all's questions about membership, Hardin County Homemakers, how to hem a pair of pants, anything. She knows it all. Of course, I could just be saying that because she's my Meemaw. She's on Facebook, look her up. :) And call her Meemaw. She'll love it.
4. Last night, we had the privilege of having not one, but TWO agents with us to assist us in our club's initiation and business. Amy Aldenderfer is the Hardin County Horticulture Agent. Right now, Hardin County doesn't have a Family and Consumer Sciences Agent (quick crash course: the FCS agent in each county is over the Homemaker program. They're kind of the go-to person in the extension office for any Homemaker related questions we may have and to help us plan meetings, etc). Amy is filling in for the FCS position for the time being here in Hardin County. We also had Dayna Parrett with us last night. Dayna is my sister and is the FCS Agent in Nelson County. She's been very gracious in taking the time out of her regular job with the Nelson County Homemakers to answer all of my questions about getting this club started. If you all have any questions at all, feel free to contact either Amy (amy.aldenderfer@uky.edu) or Dayna (dayna.parrett@uky.edu).
5. We have set our meeting dates for the remaining year. Since we got started late in the year, it's a little difficult for us to get a set meeting day for every month (i.e. the 1st Monday). We did try to shoot for the 3rd Tuesday of each month, so your meeting dates are as follows for 2014 (and don't worry, we'll be creating Facebook events and sending emails to remind everyone about the dates):
Tuesday, July 15th
(we'll be taking August off for school starting back)
Tuesday, September 16th
Tuesday, October 21st
Tuesday, November 18 (tentative*)
Tuesday, December 16th (tentative**)
All meetings will be at 6:30pm at the Hardin County Extension Office, unless otherwise noted
*There may be a conflict with another club on Nov 18, so that may be changing.
**We may be moving this date up. December will be a social gathering, no lesson, and Whitney Carpenter has very graciously volunteered to do a "Wine and Canvas/Uptown Art" type night for us in December. She's thinking about doing a holiday themed painting, so we're going to probably move this date up to earlier in the month so we can have the painting for our holiday decorations. We'll be letting you know about both of these meeting dates ASAP.
A few other notes about the meetings: last night's meeting was a slow cooker potluck type meeting. Each member brought a dish. Our meetings will not all be like that. In fact, we've already had four people step up to volunteer to bring food for our next meeting. If you're interested in bringing food for a certain month's meeting, let us know! We don't want to stick the same people every month with that responsibility.
6. At our September meeting, we will be paying dues and submitting our applications to become an "official" Homemakers club in Hardin County. We voted last night to make dues $15. County dues are $10 and we'll keep the $5 per person for our club to cover any costs we may have (i.e. If we provide materials for a floral arrangement class so you can take the arrangement with you). We will also be doing fundraisers throughout the year for different events.
7. July's class will be about couponing!! Sarah Woods has already set up the instructors for this class. We do ask that, if you have them, bring two things to the meeting: 1. If you have coupons that you've clipped, but aren't going to use, bring them to the meeting. Someone else in attendance might be able to get use out of it. And, 2. Bring any coupons that have expired within the last 30 days (30 days from the meeting date). We will be sending these to the military families that are stationed overseas, where they are allowed to use coupons that are up to 6 months past the expiration date.
So, to recap.
--We will be doing a different topic each month. Let us know if you want the entire list of classes being taught by Lincoln Trail and we will get that to you.
--Let us know if you want to bring food for a meeting. Tell us the date you'd like to pick and we'll put you down (don't worry, you won't be the only one stuck being food. We'll shoot for like 3-5 people to bring food for a single meeting).
--We will be paying dues and submitting our membership applications in September. Dues are $15.
--Our next meeting is Tuesday, July 15th at 6:30pm at the Hardin County Extension Office on Peterson Drive. The class is about couponing. Please bring any unused or expired coupons you may have to this meeting.
--If you have any questions, contact me, Sarah Wood, Amy, Dayna or email us at homemakersinprogressetown@gmail.com
--If you have any questions, contact me, Sarah Wood, Amy, Dayna or email us at homemakersinprogressetown@gmail.com
--I am pumped. Are you?
Can't wait to see you all at the next meeting!!
{Devan}
