| DECEMBER 3, 2011 -- It was with honor Jodi Ann and I represented the members of the Connecticut State Grange at our National Grange Convention in Tulsa, OK November 5th through the 13th. The session started with a 5.6 magnitude earthquake that shook the 11 floor hotel. Fortunately there was no damage to the hotel.
Jodi Ann served on the Taxation and Transportation and I served as Chair for the Grange Law Committee. Serving as a Session Chair was truly a learning experience, I now understand the importance of properly writing resolutions, therefore I have encouraged our Legislative Committee to hold at least two workshops, one in the east and one in the west, to address this important issue and help develop better leaders through the resolution process.
The Delegate body of this State Grange voted to send 6 resolutions to National for consideration. Resolution # 2, 3, 13, 17, 25 and 31. Resolution #2 and 3 where written into the Grange Growth and Development’s Policy Statement, # 13 and 31 were adopted by the Delegate Body and # 17 was withdrawn by me. Please refer to either your session’s booklet or last month’s Granger for the details on these resolutions.
Ed Luttrell was again elected National Master and our own F. Phillip Prelli was re-elected to the National Grange Board of Director and remains its Secretary. Priest Archon Dan Bascom Installed the Officers of the National Grange using the revised Installation Ceremony and did a very nice job.
I stated in my President’s Address to this State Grange, I oppose and do not support the use of this revised ceremony in Connecticut. After seeing this revised version, I FIRMLY stand by my statement. One resolution presented to the Grange Law Committee was to do away with the Passwords in their entirety as it is being used less and less Nationwide, this was defeated. We protect our password that is optional but we allow the beautiful lessons of our Installation to be altered and not for the better in my opinion. What’s next, the 6th Degree? How about the 7th?
This revised version took 40 minutes. A full Installation takes just around one hour. Other than the minimal time savings, I did not see how changing the words improved the beautiful lessons, again my opinion. I am puzzled as to why the Delegates to the National Grange felt this was necessary.
Don’t misunderstand my intentions here, we do need to continually review our policies and procedures, I am all for progress, I am all for growth. We as leaders, at all levels, need to stop taking the easy road by cutting programs and departments. We need to think progressively, think ahead to the impact and footprint we are leaving for those yet to come. Let’s stop thinking backwards, when we are faced with these challenges, let’s brainstorm on how we save these programs, with changes, rather than cut. As we continue to cut programming at any level, we are making hard to secure new members.
I will be working with our State grange Executive Committee and Directors to find ways to GROW our present programming and participation. We have an amazing story to tell everyone, it is each of our responsibility to continue to write that story by challenging ourselves, our leaders and membership to think “out of the box” and ask you how we can grow. I ask each of you, how can we help? |
