Category: Communication

Communication Shorts 6-1-2023

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!

June Bulletin Deadline

Columns and articles for the June Bulletin must be received before June 15th. Earlier is good! Remember, you can always find recent issues of the Bulletin on the Program Books and Information Page.

Monroe Classic Grange Store

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.

Cumberland Grange Information

We’ve had a request for information regarding “Cumberland Grange” from Judy Gagnon of the Cumberland Historical Society. Apparently, there were actually two: Cumberland #69 and Cumberland #500. If you can help Judy and the Society, please add a comment or let us know and we’ll put you in touch with her! Thanks!

Open Mic at East Madison Grange

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.

Do You Love the Grange?

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!

Ideas for Granges

How about a collaboration with your local Commission on Aging or another Senior Group to create a Grange Cares Day, a day when people are able to give back and help the senior citizens in their community?

Thought for You…

“When everyone’s thinking alike, someone’s not thinking.”

General George Pattaon

Online Directories Available 24-7

  • The ODD Directory features all state officers, directors, and deputies with contact information.
  • The Directory of Granges features all Granges in the state with a contact person. Please make sure your listing is correct!

Do You Have FOMO?

“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!

Subscribe to the Maine State Grange Website

Tick Talk

Reprinted from June 2023 Newsletter from the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands

Tick Bite Prevention

  • Wear protective clothing. This includes light-colored clothing so that ticks are easy to spot, long sleeves and pants, closed-toe shoes, and tucking pants into socks.
  • Treat clothes with permethrin. Do not use on skin.
  • Protect pets. Talk to your veterinarian about tick prevention products for your pets.
  • Wear EPA-approved repellent.
  • Stay on trails and be aware of tick habitat.
  • Check yourself for ticks. Check often during your outdoor activity and when you return to your campsite or home.

Learn about tick ecology, diseases, and prevention measures by watching the Forestry Friday Tick Talk presented by Chuck Lubelczyk, field scientist with Maine Health Institute for Research Vector-Borne Disease Laboratory.

Include this in your next Family Health and Hearing Report!

Stay Smart, Stay Safe!

The attempts to scam innocent people are running rampant. Fortunately, the scammers aren’t always the brightest bulbs on the string!

National Grange recently posted a warning in Patrons Chain regarding emails appearing to be from National Officers and Staff. Facebook is overrun with stolen profiles and hacked accounts.

By nature, we often go on “autopilot” when processing information, and it becomes very easy to click “reply” to emails or accept friend requests on Facebook. Slow down. Stay smart, stay safe.

Communication Shorts 5-16-2023

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!

May Bulletin

The May 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.

Website Links

Thanks to technology, we do get a report of links that are no longer working. Most often, these are links in older posts. Currently, we have been getting a lot of “broken link notices” that involve government/COVID information. In general, we do not investigate and/or repair these broken links. In addition to being very time-consuming, it’s often “old news.” If you happen on a link that doesn’t work and think it is important and should work, let us know, and we’ll look into it!

Nostalgia and History

If you are familiar with eBay, here’s a fun idea. Search for Grange-related stuff. You’ll find some nostalgia and history–things like manuals, cookbooks, jewelry (some very affordable), and even implement cases!

Ideas for Granges

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!

Do You Love the Grange?

If your hall has outdoor space, how about a Family Day Picnic? You could include a variety of activities like face painting, music, games, and food. If it rains, move inside! It might be possible to tie into another community event…

Thought for You…

“Even the mundane task of washing dishes by hand is an example of the small tasks and personal activities that once filled people’s daily lives with a sense of achievement.”

B. F. Skinner

Online Directories Available 24-7

  • The ODD Directory features all state officers, directors, and deputies with contact information.
  • The Directory of Granges features all Granges in the state with a contact person. Please make sure your listing is correct!

Do You Have FOMO?

“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!

Subscribe to the Maine State Grange Website

Communications Column – May 2023

Are you giving out or getting through?

By Walter Boomsma
207 343-1842
Communications Director

Someone should do a study to answer this question: How much genuine communication takes place on social media? Stay with me—it’s an important question that actually isn’t limited to social media.

There’s a quotation from Sidney Harris on the masthead of the Bulletin. The two words’ information’ and ‘communication’ are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through.” If you have read the Bulletin and didn’t notice it, we’re not getting through. That shouldn’t be a surprise. One-way communication has its drawbacks. And, as a society, we are increasingly relying on one-way communication, whether we realize it or not.

I had an exasperating exchange on Facebook recently. I won’t bore you with the details as interesting as they might be. I was answering a writer’s question. Another person almost immediately jumped on me, “correcting” me. I responded to his comment by pointing out that I did not say (write) what he was criticizing me for, hoping he would see we weren’t communicating. He then proceeded to take a slightly different approach to telling me I was wrong anyway. I did not respond further and attempted to see some humor in it. Part of the humor was that the person who originally asked the question didn’t take part in the exchange.

My attacker had no desire to communicate. He was more interested in demonstrating how smart he was. He went off-topic, particularly when I challenged his understanding of what I’d written.

How often does that happen in our conversations? Are we giving out or getting through? We all want to be heard, and that’s not a bad thing. But we should be equally interested in being understood and at least mildly interested in our listeners. That’s much simpler to achieve in “live” in-person conversation. But it’s only easier if both parties are committed to communicating to create understanding.

A down-to-earth technique is called “clarifying and confirming.” It’s based on the assumption we should understand both what the other person is saying and why they are saying it.

“I love ice cream,” seems like a clear statement, at least as far as what is being said. If we want to understand, let’s be a little curious and ask (clarify) why the person loves ice cream. “Because it tastes good.” How’s our understanding? We won’t know for sure until we confirm it. “So what you’re saying is that you like ice cream because it tastes good.” That just might trigger more information. “Yeah, and I feel like I’m getting a treat…”

This becomes particularly important when our initial reaction to someone’s statement is to reject, ignore or disagree. How we react determines what happens next. A knee-jerk reaction may mean the conversation ends or develops into an argument. The few minutes required to demonstrate a desire to communicate by clarifying and confirming are well worth the effort. If you confirm that you are in total disagreement, understanding the “what and why” equips you to remain friends and perhaps even find a middle ground or compromise.

► FACT: Last week, the MSG website was viewed 328 times. The two most visited items were the Directory of Granges and the Mill Stream Grange post.

Tell us why you love the Grange!

Jessica loves the Grange!

I love all of the activities and events that the Grange does throughout the year.

Jessic Thurston-Creations Custom and Homemade, LLC, Hollis Grange #132

What about you?

Do you love the Grange? Can you explain what’s great about being a member? It only takes a minute to click the button and tell the world!

I love the Grange!

Excelsior Grange Open House

Excelsior Grange at 446 Harris Hill Road in Poland will have an open house on May 20, Noon to 2 pm. Lunch will be served at noon and is free to all. Rick Grotton, membership director of the Maine State Grange, will be the guest speaker.

Excelsior Grange is entering its 150th year of continuous operation in Poland, and we would like to introduce friends and neighbors to the opportunities available to them through Grange membership. The Grange today is not only for farmers, even though agriculture is still very important to the Grange. Membership is open to all who are over the age of 13, with social and service activities of interest to all. If you like working with others for the common good, the Grange is for you.
Seeds for the Grange-sponsored 2023 Pumpkin Growing Contest, for youth ages 5-12, will be available that day.

For more information and/or rsvp for lunch, please call 998-2301.

Franklin Grange Reorganization Meeting

Saturday, May 6, 2023 — 1:00 PM

A group of folks interested in reorganizing the Grange in Franklin Grange is meeting at the Franklin Library! Anyone in the area who is curious or interested is invited! For more information or to express your interest, email FranklinMEGrange@gmail.com!