| August 3, 2020 -- As we enter the dog days of summer, COVID-19 is still the main topic of discussion which will impact our State Session in October. As of mid-July, we are planning to hold a one-day session on Saturday, October 17 beginning at 10:00 A.M. The officers and staff, such as deputies and spouses, will meet in-person at Ekonk Community Grange and delegates will join in virtually via Zoom. Unfortunately this year’s session will only be open to officers and delegates. The Session will open in the Fourth Degree to conduct our business. Reports will be given by the Master, Oveerseer, Treasurer, Secretary, Lecturer, Executive Committee and Membership Director. In the afternoon, we will have a memorial service, adopt a budget, work on resolutions, hear the results of the officers election and finally the installation of officers.
The Election of Officers will be done before the session but will not be counted until the day we meet in October. The Secretary will mail out suggestion forms to the delegates for them to nominate who they would like to see in all positions. After they are returned to the Secretary, a ballot will be generated and sent out again to all the delegates to vote for one person in each office. It will be in an envelope that will be opened by the counters the day of the session.
This is a new way to vote on the officers for the coming two years. Let’s hope this works. There will be no Sixth Degree this year. This is all a new format for us so let’s work together and see if we can get that one day session completed and get back to normal next year in 2021.
These are our plans as of August 1. We will wait and see what happens with this virus in the coming months. If the governor decides to close the state down again, we will do the whole session with officers and delegates as a virtual meeting.
On July 12 we held a State Officers, Deputy and Committee Directors informational meeting. I was very pleased with the turnout. I am planning to have two additional meetings on Sunday, August 16 and Sunday, September 13 allowing the officers and delegates to get used to the Zoom format and to prepare for the upcoming session in October. Both meetings will begin at 7:00 P.M. Delegates, State Offi Directors will automatically receive the credentials for joining the meeting. If you are interested in attending (open to all), please contact Faith Quinlan at 518-698-2785 or email: membership@ctstategrange.org .
Some dates to remember- get your community service books to Noel Miller by September 1 and all resolutions should be sent to the secretary by September 15. Any Grange resolutions received after that will be returned to the Grange for submission at a future session. The CWA Sewing and Craft contests have also been canceled for this year. We will have the Honor Grange awards so I need a count of the virtual meetings by September 1st. Honor Pomona will not be awarded this year.
As I end this month’s column, this is not the way we would like to run our State Session but with the pandemic still active in our state, we feel this is the safest way that we can do it and still get the job done! So bear with us and hopefully 2021 will be a better year. |
