At our Annual Planning Meeting in November at the Tyler Arboretum one of our main tasks was to create a theme to unify our activities in the coming year. Going into this meeting many of us expected the theme to relate to the next generation of horticulturists. But, after break out discussions, we all seemed to come to a similar conclusion, we needed to focus on our needs at this time.
All of us at the meeting are enthusiastic about helping the next generation of horticulturists, and hope that we can include that work in our outreach projects this year, and perhaps as a focus in 2020. Observant attendees of the planning meeting shared their thoughts on why Career Building was the answer for 2019;
"Career Building parallels the growth of WinH in a nice way and would demonstrate our goal of encouraging women identified people in horticulture." -Hanna von Schlegell
"I believe that it is important for us to focus on ourselves first because a strong foundation in our professional leadership will make it simpler to continue to recruit others to our cause." -Maddie Paule
" During the meeting, I agreed that helping kids and the community is excellent, and then I took a step back. My choice for "career building" keeps more focus on us, the members. I think that women give so much of themselves to care for others. We often overload ourselves with responsibility, and go the extra mile to ensure no detail is overlooked. As a result, our needs become secondary at work and home, so let's celebrate us!" -Julie Morse
So, what do we actually mean when we say "Career Building"? We take that to mean providing in-person and online resources that respond to your training needs. We have a plethora of horticulture resources in this region. We don't want to duplicate those efforts, but we do want to fill in the gaps by providing training for both technical and soft skills. Some activities on the 2019 schedule include; body mechanics for horticulturists, 60 second introduction practice, vocal empowerment, mentor matching, and a professional head shot session.
Photo bottom far right: provided by and featuring Lori Hayes.
We hope that you will join us for these events, and also that you will let us know what your training needs are. With your feedback, we hope to either connect you with a professional that has the skills you would like to improve, or to create a full event around that skill set. Please send your ideas to WomeninHort@gmail.com
From all of the volunteers at Women in Horticulture, thank you for making this group a supportive and thriving community! We can't wait to see what the year of Career Building brings!
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