Living the Biennial Theme

President Barbara Bozeman’s 2024-26 theme: “Connecting Locally. Uniting Nationally. Igniting Globally.” is an inspiration for my magazine article this month.

Connecting Locally

In early August, I found myself traveling the 325 miles from Southwest Colorado to Northeast Colorado for a weekend festival with my husband to celebrate our anniversary. Many of our Colorado members live in the Front Range area and although my time was limited and my plans were concrete, I missed my BPW sisters after our wonderful conference in Pennsylvania. As it happened, we had an extra backstage ticket for the entire weekend and I immediately thought of one member who adores live music AND was within 15 miles of the venue. Kathy Kelly and I found ourselves enjoying some great musicians together as we connected over the long weekend in Lyons, Colorado.

We had so much fun connecting in person (outside of NFBPWC planned activities) and we likely drove my husband a little crazy talking about the ERA and women’s rights all weekend. We also enjoyed listening to powerful female vocalists like Brittany Howard (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brittany_Howard) and Anais Mitchell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana%C3%AFs_Mitchellboth Grammy Award winners. The Rocky Mountain Folks Festival (https://bluegrass.com/folks) often highlights strong women and we were definitely in our element.

As I embrace the role of Immediate Past President, I want to connect locally with more of our members during this term. My gratitude for the local, national, and international network of friends and colleagues that I have found over the past 18 years as a member of this incredible organization. I look forward to seeing the friendships and successes that will come from this term with our newly elected executive committee, all phenomenal women.

Please continue to reach out to me personally or professionally as we continue our work to make NFBPWC a better organization, because together we are stronger. immpastpresident@nfbpwc.org

Best Personal Wishes,

Megan Shellman-Rickard
Immediate Past National President