Amy Thomason, President

Amy has lived in Hot Springs Village since 1995, and retired in 2020 from the Arkansas Hospice Foundation. While working she volunteered for several organizations, including the Imagination Library of the Ouachitas as founding board member, and serving the HSV Area Chamber of Commerce as Chairman. She continues serving in retirement not only with Ouachita Speaker Series, but also Arkansas Learning Through The Arts, the Veterans Clergy Partnership of the Ouachitas, Member of PEO Chapter CU, and as a Bible teacher and Bible student at Village Bible Church.

Carolyn Bowers

Carolyn and her husband, Rob, moved to the Village in 2000. For the past 23 years, she has been active in this community serving on the boards of the HS/HSV Symphony Guild and the HSV Community Foundation. She also serves on the Finance Committee of Sacred Heart Catholic Church and Co-Chair of the Annual Village Walk for Cancer Research.  She also enjoys singing at her church and with her gospel group, Rejoice. She has served on this board of for several years and in 2017 Carolyn was recognized for her volunteerism as Hot Springs Village’s "Citizen of the Year".  

Jim Dixon

Jim and his wife, Pookie, purchased their house in the Village in 2014 and then moved the next year when he retired.  Jim is currently a board member of the HS/HSV Symphony Guild and is vice president of membership recruitment.  Jim also serves as a board member and assistant treasurer of Arkansas Learning Through The Arts (ALTTA).  He is a member of Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church where, until recently, he was Council Director of the Knights of Columbus council. Jim retired as a purchasing executive from the hospitality industry where he  worked and lived in Memphis, TN and the Dallas/Ft Worth, TX metroplex.

Suzanne Kuch

Suzanne and her husband Kent purchased their home in Hot Springs Village in 2007 and moved to the Village in 2010. Suzanne became active in several organizations. She currently serves on the boards of the HS/HSV Symphony Guild and Arkansas Learning Through The Arts.

Bob Shoemaker

Bob and his late wife, Norma, moved to HSV in 1997.  After her death in 2012, Bob remarried the next year to his present wife, Connie.  Bob is a graduate of Princeton University.  After a short stint with graduate studies at Southern Methodist University, Bob became an Executive with the Boy Scouts of America where he had a forty year career, serving in nine different locations.  Since coming to HSV Bob has been deeply committed to Village Service where he has served on several Boards and Committees, Including the Village POA Board of Directors, where he served as President, the Village Government Affairs Committee, the HSV Chamber of Commerce Board, the HSV Community Foundation Board and numerous committees at the Village United Methodist Church.

Jim Gifford

Jim retired from an aerospace career in 2000, when he and his late wife Becky moved from Los Angeles to HSV.  Jim has been involved in a range of activity since, including the community, the arts, and hiking / trails.  He currently serves on the boards of the HSV Community Foundation, the HS/HSV Symphony Guild (past President), the HotSprings Music Festival, and the Arkansas Repertory Theater in Little Rock.  An avid hiker, he is still active in Ouachita Mountain Hikers, Friends of the Ouachita Trail (Founder, Past President), and the Arkansas Trails Council.  He served on the POA Trails Committee (2003-2009), including two years as Chairman.

Susan McCarty

Susan moved to the Village in 2011. She's a graphic designer and photographer and has worked with the Miss Mississippi Corporation for about 30 years, producing books and taking thousands of photos during the Competition weeks. She is a Rotarian and is also a member of the Human Trafficking Task Force of Garland County. She has enjoyed being involved with the Ouachita Speaker Series since 2014, and has been enriched by every program and is excited about future speakers.

She was the Village Voice’s Citizen of the Year in 2018.

Jeff Meek

Jeff was a founding Ouachita Speakers Series board member and has returned this year.  Jeff spent 30 years in education in Illinois before moving to Hot Springs Village in June 2005.  Jeff and his wife Jeanne were Village property owners for 37 years before moving to Texas in October 2019 to live near family.  Jeff is the former managing editor of the Hot Springs Village Voice and is currently on their staff as assignment editor/correspondent.

Martha Smither

Martha and her husband Wilbur moved to HSV in 2000 and enjoyed many years of participating in the community.  Wilbur was the founding President of Ouachita Speaker Series in 2012. He based the mission on the SMU Tate Lecture Series in Dallas which presented many thought-provoking speakers in 40 years.  And Wilbur was a behind-the scenes advocate for many POA initiatives.  They both earned the POA Board President’s Award in 2012 for their extensive volunteerism supporting the community.  Martha’s current volunteerism includes Arkansas Learning Through The Arts, which she founded and is Board President, HSV Community Foundation as former chair, Hot Springs/Hot Springs Village Symphony Guild Board and chair of the ASO Children’s Concert in Hot Springs, Altrusa Board member, DAR member, PEO Chapter DE. She received the HSV Voice Citizen of the Year Award in 2013.  Her interests are playing the piano, random golf, organizing things, and reading.

Arnie Holtberg

Arnie and his wife, Jan, have had a home in the Village since 1996, moving here permanently  in 2018.  He is a career educator, having  taught, counseled, coached, and administered in schools from Massachusetts to Hong Kong to Kentucky and Texas.  Currently, Arnie is the principal of Holtberg Educational Consulting and serves on the Governmental Affairs Committee for the Village Board of Directors.  A regular contributing guest columnist for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette and Dallas Morning News, he is the author of a young readers novel, “Game On! One Boy’s Odyssey.”

Keith Keck

Keith and wife Julie moved to the Village in 2009 from Fairview Heights Illinois/Scott Air Force Base upon his retirement.  Keith was a US Air Force officer where he was a navigator and served various positions in base command and with the Air Force headquarters during his career.  After coming to the Village, he served on the HSV POA Board of Directors with two years as president.  Currently Keith serves as the Quorum Court Justice of the Peace representing western Saline County.