A Message from the Chair

I hope you all are having a great summer, having the children home and spending time with family and friends. I think you will agree that time flies, when you’re having fun. I always ask myself if I’m having that much fun, because my time flies faster than I can keep up with it. Well, guess what? It’s that time again, to start thinking about the HWNT state conference. The dates are October 19-21, 2012 and the location is none other, than Dallas, TX. The venue is the Sheraton, Dallas, located at 400 N. Olive St, in downtown Dallas, which has just been remodeled to the point that I thought I was walking into the wrong hotel.

This year’s theme is E3: Encourage, Elevate, Enrich and our training modules – Mentorship, Leadership and Education, once again, align with our mission, to promote the advancement of women. Any time you mentor someone, you are encouraging or inspiring them to fulfill their dreams; when you enhance their leadership skills, you are perhaps elevating them to the next level in their careers or just simply working with others in society and when you educate them in any area of life, you are enriching their lives and that of their families. So come and bring your friends and family to get re-encouraged, re-elevated and re-enriched. We can never get too much.

The planning committee has been working on the conference for the past months and is working at securing speakers/presenters. If you are a presenter and have a workshop or presentation on any of the above-mentioned topics, please contact me and I will pass it along to our program committee. We do, however, need this as soon as possible. The selection will be on a first come, first served basis and dependant on which topics are under- represented.

So far, we have some great plans in place and can share one with you that I am excited about. We will have a Rocket Scientist-turned Latina Comedian, Shayla Rivera, with us on Saturday evening that I know you all will enjoy. A lot more is in the works and we will update the website with announcements as they are confirmed.

This year, we are privileged to have Dallas Mayor Pro-Tem Pauline Medrano and Dallas Councilwomen Delia Jasso and Monica Alonzo, as our Honorary Chairs. Our Latina Trailblazer Award will be awarded to Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman. The Honorable Eva Guzman was very pleased to be recognized with such an award and looks forward to joining us at the reception, held Friday evening in her honor. She is a three-time gubernatorial appointee and has many ‘firsts’ among her professional accomplishments. Please read her bio, listed on this website.

We will also continue to recognize our chapters’ Estrella de Tejas. This award is given to a woman in each chapter that has been a role model by demonstrating leadership qualities and making a significant impact in her chapter and in the community.

We have all the registration forms available for you now, allowing you to register, sponsor or sign up for a vendor’s booth, online. The contact person in charge of each area is also listed on the forms, in case you have any questions.

We have many of our sponsors who continue to support us and we welcome them and thank them again for helping us make this conference possible and allowing us to keep the low fees. They will also be listed on our website soon.

I look forward to seeing you at our 26th annual state conference.

Sincere regards,

Mary Ann Kellam
HWNT State Chair