Women Changing The Face of Agriculture Update
by Penny Lauritzen
Twenty WCFA Planning Committee Members gathered at Richland Community College on Friday, April 6th to review the WCFA 2018 surveys and committee reports. Many suggestions were made for improvements and many congratulatory remarks for another successful year. The Committee toured Richland Community College facilities and began plans for WCFA 2019 to be held at RCC on March 1, 2019. Saturday morning, April 7th, 10 ladies returned to finalize some of the plans for the facility and keynote speaker. They also began discussion for an IAW Professional Development event that would be open to the public and support the Decatur SWAG (Starts With AG) initiative that is underway.
The WCFA 2019 planning committee will be holding monthly conference calls the 2nd Thursday of each month, beginning in June, at 9:00 AM. If anyone is interested in participating in the calls or in serving on one of the subcommittees, please let Penny Lauritzen know or 815-535-4141.
A Full Circle Initiative was recommended for the 10th Anniversary career discovery event. Those professional women from the participating companies who attended WCFA as students will be invited to participate in a public relations piece that WAND TV will prepare for PSAs next winter.
Site Selection for WCFA 2021 and 2022 to follow Richland Community College 2 year location is underway. The committee members are Denise Smith, Jennifer Waters, Brianna Gregg, and Tammy Miller. Any potential host school will be invited to attend WCFA 2019 at no cost to the school lead and the students to be sure they are confident that their facilities will handle the estimated 1000 attendees.
Karen Scheiler presented the beautiful picture from the WCFA Farm Credit 100 Fresh Perspectives award to Brianna Gregg. This traveling “trophy” will be shared annually with a WCFA committee member that has shared time, effort and resources above and beyond the norm to create another successful WCFA.
