Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Home Economics - Challenge of Home Economics [PAGE 51]

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but she must go on from there. It is one thing to feel the impulse to get up and do something, and another to see what you can get up and do and yet another to plan ahead to improve your doing. And so I must check myself to be sure I am using fully my varied resources — my skills, my intelligence, my imagination; do I make the most of time — planning time, writing time, other working time — so that I will do my work well with the least effort and most enjoyment' am I enjoying life, keeping healthy and being a responsible member of my staff and my community? That's a large order, but if s crucial to the work of a Home Economist in Business. The next question I ask myself is: Do I work creatively with others? We all get things done through people — whether it is a teacher selling an idea to a pupil, an extension worker inspiring leaders to action, or an HEIB motivating people to use her product. It is obvious that to get anybody to do anything an HEIB must transfer her ideas about her product to others. (I feel you'll forgive this aside: It is a personal satisfaction to me to feel that my urging others to use citrus fruits has sound social value. Most studies of people's food practices show that a high percentage do not get enough of several nutrients that are found richly in citrus. In fact, the USDA says that the practical way to be sure of filling the day's allowance of ascorbic acid under our way of eating is to eat an orange a day. For many reasons my job carries the sense of service given which is the essence of a professional contribution.) Another challenge to HE IBs (in addition to selling their product to the public) is to sell their own particular function to their associates in their company. I recall hearing a gentleman speaking to HEIBs several years ago say that justifying a service requires a higher type of salesmanship than is required to sell a commodity. In selling home economics as a service to business, he said, many of the greatest values can be presented only through the imagination of the person to whom we are selling. Often we become so wrapped up in the performance of that service that we make the mistake of taking for granted that all others in the organization fully appreciate the fine work we are doing, while quite likely the opposite is true. Chances are that practically no one in the organization outside of the immediate sphere of the job knows of more than a small percentage of the benefits being developed. When a service function is first started in an organization, someone in authority has authorized it; and that someone had imagination, resourcefulness and a progressive spirit That may 51