Patrons of Husbandry – a website dedicated to the Granges located in Maine
Highland Lake Grange is proud to support the Westbrook Police Department K-9 unit. Joann Levesque, our Community Service chair, presented Officer Colby Clarke and Tony with items purchased by the Grange for the K-9 unit. Many more items are on the way! The success of our turkey supper fundraisers helped finance this project. Colby and Tony attended our meeting and educated our members about K-9!
Check out the front page article in the Machias Valley News Observer!
Visit their Candy Land on February 11, 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!
The January Bulletin is in the works! Officers and Directors, remember that columns and reports are due January 14th. Remember, you can always find recent issues of the Bulletin on the Program Books and Information Page.
The Zoom Membership Matters Meeting scheduled for January 10th has been canceled.
You’ll enjoy spending a minute listening to this podcast “Dropping by the with a Pie” posted by Plain Values Magazine.
Even without counting on your fingers, you know Grange Month starts in just over two months! What’s the plan? How will your Grange celebrate?
We continue to work on the site… while current postings and columns are a priority, we’re also bringing the Program Books and Information Page up to date and in compliance. The Secretary’s section of that page is now complete!
We do list Pomona Meetings on the website calendar–please send the dates and times of your Pomona Meetings!
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!
Could you adopt a theme or slogan for the new year? Did you see the recent “Quick Tip” regarding starting a life skills series?
“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.”
Edith Sitwell
“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!
Note that when you subscribe to the Maine State Grange Website, we do not share your email address with others and only use it to send you–at the most–one email per day when new information is posted.
Fairview Grange #342 was pleased to be able to put together needed items for the Veterans at Togus VA again this season. We had gathered needed items for several years before the China Virus but couldn’t for two years as they were not accepting donations over concerns of spreading the virus.
This year they had a continued need, and Grange members and some from the community stepped up!
We donated some winter coats, warm socks, and underwear, personal care items like toothpaste, toothbrushes, nail clippers, and body wash as well as a little sugar-free candy as a treat. Thank you to all who helped.
I know it’s late notice, but just yesterday afternoon, I received “Ten Tips for Tackling the Holiday Blues” from our partners at Rural Minds. You may have already seen it up on Facebook this morning, but we would love to have the information shared with members of your State Granges. The holidays are not an easy time for many people, and this one-page resource on mental health during the holidays may be helpful to see.
Webmaster’s Note: It’s been posted separately on the website–feel free to share on social media or via email.
As a reminder, Phil Vonado, National Grange Communications Director, led a Zoom-torial on “How to Create a Facebook Page,” which also included some information on the free design website Canva, as well as how to create a Facebook Event. This video is now available on the National Grange YouTube channel and can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/-F3iqXyN5Lo. (We’ll be adding this link/video to the Grange Resources Page.)
Grange Heirlooms are snippets from the lessons of the Grange as taught in the Ritual and Declaration of Purposes. Please share “success stories” about the use of the program with us, or if you come up with other innovative ways to incorporate the Program in your Granges. Information and materials are now available on the National Grange Website.
“Notes from National” is based on a monthly email received from the National Grange Communications Department.
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 December Bulletin is finished and ready for downloading and printing! Remember, you can always find recent issues of the Bulletin on the Program Books and Information Page.
In an ongoing effort to make our online directory of Granges accurate, a printed copy of the current directory is being mailed with the December Bulletin. Please check it or the online Grange Directory and ensure the contact person and information listed is correct. Email any changes!
We continue to work on the site… while current postings and columns are a priority, we’re also bringing the Program Books and Information Page up to date and in compliance. If you need something and can’t find it, let us know! This has truly been a huge project, but, as the saying goes, “We’re gaining!”
We do list Pomona Meetings on the website calendar–please send the dates and times of your Pomona Meetings!
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!
Could you adopt a theme or slogan for the new year?
What the new year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the new year.
Vern McClellan
“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!
Note that when you subscribe to the Maine State Grange Website, we do not share your email address with others and only use it to send you–at the most–one email per day when new information is posted.
Due to the weather forecast, the Junior Grange Meeting scheduled for this Saturday, December 17, 2023, has been canceled. Contact Junior Director Betty Young with any questions!
By Sherry Harriman,
Maine State Grange President/Master
207 490-1029
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
National Grange Session was a big success held in Sparks Nevada in November. Jim Owens and I were the delegates for a very busy schedule of Grange business and Activities. There were eight Maine folks there for the week. Maine Grangers and Granges received a good number of awards.
Highland Lake #87 and Jonesboro #357 received Granges in Action certificates.
Twenty-four Maine Granges were recognized for a net gain in membership. The National Grange had a net gain in Membership overall, the first time in years and years.
Rebekah Hodgson of Jonesboro won 1st and 3rd places in the photo contest and Laurie McBurnie of Willow also received 3rd place for one of her entries. Each received ribbons and a pack of note cards made from the winning entries. Our Junior members also received a couple of winning awards in photo and art contests. Mrs. Swan, Maine’s nominee for Teacher of the Year from Jonesboro Grange received The National Teacher of the Year Award. Walter Boomsma was awarded National Grange Cultivator of the Year for cultivating communications. CONGRATULATIONS to all the recipients. Great job everyone, it was fantastic to see those ribbons and hear Maine called to receive the plaques and certificates. Items will be mailed to the recipients as I won’t be traveling much this winter.
We had about twenty Grangers come for the instruction meeting on Saturday the 3rd. I was hoping for more but was happy with those who did come out in the rain. We covered some of the floor work for opening and closing, provided and reviewed an assortment of “how to” paperwork on a whole variety of subjects, and answered questions. Sharon Morton, State Secretary explained about Secretaries duties by providing written information also. Thank you to everyone who attended, Richard for setting up, Sharon for the workshop, and Henry for making the coffee & and picking up the doughnuts.
I am planning to do the same instruction meeting at several places around the state. The State Secretary has agreed to come also, but probably in the spring when the weather isn’t so iffy. Please invite us to your area and get a date set up. I have a couple already. The secretaries will receive a list of available materials I provided on Saturday that can be requested anytime.
National Grange publishes a special daily issue of the Patrons Chain during the Annual Convention. Each issue contains a wide array of articles ranging from convention reports to entertainment. If you’ve been curious about what happens, here’s a way to find out! We won’t be adding a new post every day but will add to this list as the week progresses.