Patrons of Husbandry – a website dedicated to the Granges located in Maine
Website information and helps
Website visitors may have noticed the MSG Website was “down” for a few hours late Monday night (8/21) through early Tuesday morning (8/22). This was an unanticipated “glitch” due to some miss-timed software updates. We are sorry for any inconvenience! All is restored and well!
By Walter Boomsma,
MSG Communications Director
207 343-1842
Communication Shorts are brief (short) but important items posted for your information and use. Send us your ideas and thoughts!
The August Bulletin is now available for download and printing. Remember, you can always find recent issues of the Bulletin on the Program Books and Information Page.
It’s not just for lecturers! Here’s a link to the third quarter issue of “A Quarter’s Worth.” Take a look! Thanks to MSG Lecturer Margaret Morse for sharing!
For the second full week in August, the most visited post was “High Season Market at Ocean View Grange! One thing that makes this especially interesting is that the post covers an event that already happened! Should Granges be doing more markets?
The Maine Monitor recently published an article entitled “Saving the Halls and Granges that House So Much of Our Heritage.” We’re particularly proud of the fact the author depended upon and quoted from the Maine State Grange Website!
See this month’s Communications Column! Why not publish an annual report of your Grange’s accomplishments? You could even offer them for inclusion in your town’s annual report!
This is a great time to start planning your programs and events for the next Grange Year. Please submit the information for posting on the MSG Website Calendar.
Let’s be honest; it’s rather easy to be busy. We all can think up a list of tasks that will overwhelm our schedules. Some might even think that their self-worth depends on the length of their to-do list. They flood the open spaces in their time with lists of meetings and minutia – even during times of stress and fatigue.
Dieter F. Uchdorf
The world wants to hear about it! Fill out the simple I Love the Grange Form… it only takes a couple of minutes! Thanks to all who have shared so far!
“FOMO” is, of course, a Fear Of Missing Out. One strongly recommended treatment is to subscribe to the Maine State Grange Website. We’ll send you a daily summary whenever news and columns are posted, and we won’t share your email address with anyone!
By Walter Boomsma
207 343-1842
Communications Director
As we approach the end of another Grange year, making this month’s column a bit of potpourri that includes a few updates and thoughts about our ongoing communication efforts seems appropriate.
As a director, it’s that time of year when, as a director, I have the opportunity to write an annual report. I get to think about the past year’s accomplishments and look ahead to the following year. While it’s work, it’s good work well worth doing. I challenge each Grange to consider a similar effort. Written reports force discipline and accountability. Can you at least list the programs and projects your Grange has completed? (The Grange Year is fiscal and runs from October 1, 2022, until September 30, 2023.) If you create a year-end summary or report, send it to me so I can post it on the website!
Additionally, each committee, director, and certain elected officers publish a Program Book for the upcoming year. These books serve as a resource for members and their local Granges. I’ll be making some significant changes to the MSG Website Handbook to reflect the major changes that have been made to the site.
Of course, both activities are completed in anticipation of this year’s State Convention held on October 20-21, 2023. This will be the 150th time delegates from Granges around Maine have met to look back and ahead. This year I’ve created a graphic celebrating that anniversary using the theme “A Road to the Future.” You’ll also find the traditional page on the site offering many details regarding the convention, such as the preliminary schedule, local hotel information, FAQs, and a material packet.
Keeping the website valuable and relevant requires your help! We typically receive over 20,000 views yearly, which doesn’t count posts sent to subscribers. (Subscribers receive posts by email once daily.) I’ll share more about this in my annual report. Please consider using the site to promote your Grange’s programs and activities. Both Grangers and non-Grangers visit the site. Many of those who aren’t members are seeking information. One of the most visited pages is the director of Granges. Please make sure it includes your most current contact information!
In addition to information about Granges, the site also carries information of interest to members. For example, I recently posted information about the Maine Referendum Questions on the ballot this fall. At least one Grange will be sponsoring an informational meeting for their community. I also received a “tip” that a local news outlet published an article, “Saving the Halls and Granges that House so Much of our Heritage.” A link to the article has been posted on the site. And, by the way, the article notes that it relied on the Maine State Grange Website for historical and background information! If you see an article that interests other Grangers, please send me at least a link.
Speaking of links, I receive daily reports of links on the site that have stopped working. This happens for many reasons, and nearly all of it is beyond my control. Thankfully, most are links in older posts to items that have either been moved or deleted. Please understand that it would be extremely time-consuming to investigate all of these. Let me know if something is missing that is important, and I’ll try to research it. (You can also do so. If you find it, please let me know!)
In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a theme here. Communication is about more than just getting information! It’s about giving information too! I received an email recently asking why a particular Grange’s Facebook Page wasn’t listed on the website. The answer was easy: I didn’t know they had one! I occasionally get questions about events at local Granges and know nothing about them! Using the online directory, I refer the inquirer to someone from that Grange, but wouldn’t it be great if the information was readily available on the site? We can’t share what we don’t have or tell what we don’t know!
► FACT: During the first week in August, there were 513 emails delivered to website subscribers. (The most subscribers get is one email per day.) A big advantage for subscribers is that they don’t have to remember to check the website and can choose which posts they are going to read entirely.
By Walter Boomsma,
MSG Communications Director
207 343-1842
Communication Shorts are brief (short) but important items posted for your information and use. Send us your ideas and thoughts!
The Journal of Proceedings is, in short, the minutes of (in this case) the 2022 149th Maine State Grange Convention. It is of particular importance to those who will be delegates to this year’s convention, as you’ll likely want to compare what happened last year in anticipation of this year’s convention. You can download the 2022 Journal of Proceedings for viewing–it’s a lot of pages to print! The Journal will also be available from the Program Books and Information Page.
The August Bulletin deadline is August 14, 2023. Remember, you can always find recent issues of the Bulletin on the Program Books and Information Page. The August Bulletin is in the works!
You saw it first in Master Sherry’s August Column, but please remember that your Grange’s current information is needed for the 2024 printed roster. A printed form requesting the information was sent to all secretaries, but you can also send it by email to MSG Secretary Sharon.* The information required includes:
*Please copy the webmaster so we can keep the online directory as accurate as possible.
If your Subordinate or Pomona Grange prepared a resolution this year, remember that it must be submitted to headquarters by August 15, 2023.
This is the first part of a “coming soon” webpage we’re working on that will contain everything you wanted to know (and more!) about this year’s convention. Save the date!
By Walter Boomsma,
MSG Communications Director
207 343-1842
Communication Shorts are brief (short) but important items posted for your information and use. Send us your ideas and thoughts!
The August Bulletin deadline is August 14, 2023. Remember, you can always find recent issues of the Bulletin on the Program Books and Information Page.
Pleasant River Grange in Vinalhaven now has an Internet presence! Check out their website and Facebook Page. (Links have been added to the list of Subordinate Grange Links.) Remember, if your Grange has a site or Facebook page, let us know! We’ll help promote your Grange an your events, but you have to tell us about them!
In the past thirty days, the most visited post/page was the article about Mill Stream Grange’s Tool Lending Library–nearly 300 visits! It is the top-ranked post for the month, beating out everything else–even the program books and information page! There might be a message in this for us–when we are meeting community needs in a practical way, people are interested! Way to go, Mill Stream Grangers!
Did you know that August 6 – 12, 2023 is National Farmers Market Week? Now in its 24th year, National Farmers Market Week (August 6-12, 2023) is an annual celebration that highlights the vital role farmers’ markets play in our nation’s food system. For additional information and resources, look here!
Most aren’t anxious to start thinking about fall, but maybe we can let the fun continue! Could your Grange sponsor a Harvest Festival–a celebration of the season and the harvest?
This is a great time to start planning your programs and events for the next Grange Year. Please submit the information for posting on the MSG Website Calendar.
“Each of us has about 40 chances to accomplish our goals in life. I learned this first through agriculture, because all farmers can expect to have about 40 growing seasons, giving them just 40 chances to improve on every harvest.”
Howard Graham Buffett
The world wants to hear about it! Fill out the simple I Love the Grange Form… it only takes a couple of minutes! Thanks to all who have shared so far!
“FOMO” is, of course, a Fear Of Missing Out. One strongly recommended treatment is to subscribe to the Maine State Grange Website. We’ll send you a daily summary whenever news and columns are posted, and we won’t share your email address with anyone!
By Walter Boomsma
207 343-1842
Communications Director
Here’s a strange irony! I wrote my July Column over a week ago, stuck it into the draft of the Bulletin, but never posted it on the website! My excuse is that I’m also posting a slightly different version on my blog. Oops! A few days late, but here it is!
We recently returned from vacation—most of it spent in “Amish Country” in Pennsylvania. I do have some stories to tell, but they’ll be posted on my website. I will share that, as I do every year, I picked up a copy of the Budget Newspaper. The Budget is a weekly newspaper published in Ohio for and by members of various plain Anabaptist Christian communities, including the Amish, Amish Mennonite, Beachy Amish, and plain Mennonite and Brethren communities.
There is no online version, and they do not maintain a website. That will not be surprising if you know much about the “plain people.” What may surprise you is that it has been around since 1890 and, in spite of the failure rate of most print newspapers, shows no signs of weakening or losing “market share.”
Since this is not going to qualify as a heavily researched article, suffice it to say that the Amish are organized into an estimated 600 districts around the country and Canada. I’m mentioning that because the newspaper is structured based on those districts. A simple description is that “scribes” (reporters) from each district submit news about their district each week for publication. It appears that most articles are submitted by snail mail or fax machine. (Most Amish are not big fans of technology.)
For one interested in communication and newsletter publishing, it’s a fascinating publication on a number of points. To oversimplify it’s fascinating that it works and how it works. I’ve speculated that it works in a large part because of the absence of technology. But more importantly, the publishers understand and meet the needs of their market. A typical report from a district will include important details like which family hosted church most recently, who is getting married, who is recovering from illness or an accident,
who is visiting relatives, and who is being visited by relatives. There’s often a mention of the weather and how the crops are doing.
Amish belief and culture place a great deal of importance on the community. The editors of the Budget know the information critical to maintaining a strong community, and they provide it. I recall one article reporting a recent farm accident and listing the schedule for the neighbors who are helping.
Those who remember The Maine Granger (a monthly printed newsletter) may sense a resemblance. When it was published, each Grange was expected to have a reporter to record and submit news about their individual Grange and its members. Since technology was still not widely adapted many submissions were typed and snail mailed.
There might be a question of comparison of the two publications. But the bigger question is what communication do we need to keep our community Granges thriving? Some of the Amish Districts I am familiar with are spread out geographically. Travel is often by horse and buggy. If there are telephones, their use is highly restricted. Yet somehow, those scribes know or find out and share information important to their community. It’s not instantaneous, and it’s not available online. But it seems to work.
We, Grangers, are much more comfortable with technology. (Yes, there are exceptions.) Similar to the Amish, we value communities—our local Grange is a community located in a larger and more diverse community. How are we doing with communicating the information that’s important to our communities?
I am not suggesting we should bring back The Maine Granger. But I am suggesting with the resources we have available, we might do well to ask ourselves how well we’re doing with communicating information that
keeps our Grange Communities informed and healthy. Are there any suggestions “for the good of the order?”
► FACT: So far this year, the MSG website was viewed over 8,000 times by over 3,400 people. The two most visited items were the Directory of Granges and the Program Books and Information Page.
By Walter Boomsma,
MSG Communications Director
207 343-1842
Communication Shorts are brief (short) but important items posted for your information and use. Send us your ideas and thoughts!
The July Bulletin is now available for download and printing. Remember, you can always find recent issues of the Bulletin on the Program Books and Information Page.
We occasionally get questions about Grange events… if your event isn’t listed on the MSG website, we can’t answer them. Remember that it’s easy to list your event–use the submit tab on the site or just send an email! If do get a question we can’t answer, we’ll send ’em your way, but we recently had a question about an event at a Grange that doesn’t appear to exist!
This is a great time to start planning your programs and events for the next Grange Year. Please submit the information for posting on the MSG Website Calendar.
The world wants to hear about it! Fill out the simple I Love the Grange Form… it only takes a couple of minutes! Thanks to all who have shared so far!
Check out the post about Mill Stream Grange’s Tool Lending Library!
“I really miss complaining about the cold.”
Many people in Maine
“FOMO” is, of course, a Fear Of Missing Out. One strongly recommended treatment is to subscribe to the Maine State Grange Website. We’ll send you a daily summary whenever news and columns are posted, and we won’t share your email address with anyone!
By Walter Boomsma,
MSG Communications Director
207 343-1842
Communication Shorts are brief (short) but important items posted for your information and use. Send us your ideas and thoughts!
The deadline for the July Bulletin is July 14th! Remember, you can always find recent issues of the Bulletin on the Program Books and Information Page.
We occasionally get questions about Grange events… if your event isn’t listed on the MSG website, we can’t answer them. Remember that it’s easy to list your event–use the submit tab on the site or just send an email! If do get a question we can’t answer, we’ll send ’em your way, but we recently had a question about an event at a Grange that doesn’t appear to exist!
Remember, it’s easy to spread the word when there are posts on the MSG website. Just scroll to the bottom of the post and find the icons for some of the most popular social media platforms. Click the icon for the platform you want to share to, and technology takes care of the rest!
The world wants to hear about it! Fill out the simple I Love the Grange Form… it only takes a couple of minutes! Thanks to all who have shared so far!
Host an art show! Invite local artists to set up easels and paint live during the event. Serve refreshments… have some activities available for kids?
“I really miss complaining about the cold.”
Many people in Maine
“FOMO” is, of course, a Fear Of Missing Out. One strongly recommended treatment is to subscribe to the Maine State Grange Website. We’ll send you a daily summary whenever news and columns are posted, and we won’t share your email address with anyone!
By Walter Boomsma,
MSG Communications Director
207 343-1842
Communication Shorts are brief (short) but important items posted for your information and use. Send us your ideas and thoughts!
The June Bulletin is now available for downloading and printing! Remember, you can always find recent issues of the Bulletin on the Program Books and Information Page.
As a reminder, the Monroe Classic Grange Store is still open as an officially licensed Grange Store. They carry a wide assortment of Grange-related and branded items such as jewelry, flags, signs, awards, fundraising and promotional items, apparel, signs, and name tags.
Also, as a reminder, the National Grange Store is the place to find the supplies you use, such as treasurer’s receipts, membership cards, etc.
Bring your talent and friends to the East Madison Grange for an Open Mic night on the first Friday of every month at 7 PM. Refreshments are available, free to the public, but donations are appreciated. Contact hideandgopeep@gmail.com or 207 716-6441.
The world wants to hear about it! Fill out the simple I Love the Grange Form… it only takes a couple of minutes! Thanks to all who have shared so far!
How about an engaging gathering for individuals with memory loss and their care partners? Potential participants are invited to enjoy an afternoon of conversation with some new and old friends and take in some music, play a game, or enjoy a different form of entertainment… lunch could be offered.
“When everyone’s thinking alike, someone’s not thinking.”
General George Pattaon
“FOMO” is, of course, a Fear Of Missing Out. One strongly recommended treatment is to subscribe to the Maine State Grange Website. We’ll send you a daily summary whenever news and columns are posted, and we won’t share your email address with anyone!
I’ve just been advised that there’s some weirdness with the subscription feature! Since I changed nothing, I’ll need to do some checking into this… it may take a day or two as my schedule is fairly full! In the meantime, since you’ll be notified of new posts, I’d suggest you just go straight to the site by entering the link https://mainestategrange.org/ in your browser. The most recent post is at the top and you can just scroll down. I believe there were three posts today, plus this one.