President’s Message
Happy Spring! The weather is getting warmer and the daylight is longer. It is good to start seeing the flowers blooming and the leaves budding after a long winter in Wisconsin! Hope all is well in your world.
Thank you to Kim Kamin, Director of Professional Development and Programs, for an excellent program celebrating World Home Economics Day on March 25. We had an international program with our speakers, Helen Maguire from Ireland and Sheri Dragoo from Texas. The theme was Waste Literacy. Their presentations focused on clothing – how long we keep and maintain our clothing and what happens to clothing after we donate clothing.
Our next major event will be the IFHE-US Sharon McManus Cultural Event that will be held on Thursday evening, June 22 on the campus of Morgan State University. Mary Kaye Merwin, Director of the IFHE Development Fund, has been working with Jacqueline Holland at Morgan State University to organize an event on campus to learn more about the family and consumer sciences program, the history of Morgan State and its international program. More information is in this newsletter. Kathryn Carroll, Director of the Young Professionals Network, has scheduled a Young Professionals Mixer at the AAFCS Annual Meeting to let new professionals know more about IFHE and IFHE-US as well as developing a network to support their work. The event will be held on Monday, June 26 at 7:45 pm after the Salute to Excellence Awards Reception. More information will be available soon.
Ginny Hall has completed the IFHE-US History Book and it is now at the printers. The plan is to have copies available at the AAFCS Annual Meeting in Baltimore for purchase. Many thanks to Ginny and Juanita Mendenhall for all their efforts to make sure we have a record of the first 20 years of IFHE-US. The historical information that Juanita and Ginny have collected, along with a copy of the book, will be delivered to the IFHE-US archives at Cornell University this summer.
The IFHE-US Annual Business Meeting will be held during the AAFCS Annual Meeting in Baltimore. The date and time will be Saturday, June 24 at 2 pm. This will be an in-person meeting only. Hopefully many of you will be able to attend to learn about the accomplishments of the past year – including a final report of the 2022 IFHE World Congress – and upcoming plans for 2024.
As we transition to the next IFHE World Congress in Galway, Ireland in 2024, IFHE-US is planning a pre-Congress tour of Ireland. Joyce Cavanagh and myself have been working with a travel agent and CIE Tours to organize an eight-day tour to learn more about Ireland – its history, landscape and home economics related businesses and industries of the country. The tour information is almost complete. We plan to open registration for the tour later this spring. Stay tuned!
Thank you to all our members for your continued support of IFHE and IFHE-US. Our work in the US and around the world is important for the sustainability of individuals, families, and communities.
See you in Baltimore!
Sue Buck
President, IFHE-US
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