By Rick Grotton,
Membership Committee Director
207 582-5915
All the Mainers who attended the National Grange in November had a great time in Niagara Falls and were greeted with great weather. It was great to be reacquainted with friends from across the country who I haven’t seen in a few years. It was wonderful to find out that a number of State Granges had overall increases in net membership this past year! Maine can do the same if we focus and let people know we exist!! Thanks to those Maine Granges who did have net gains; keep up the great work!
Let’s make a group resolution for the upcoming year to increase our memberships. At State Grange in October, during the Memorial Service, the Grange was described as a four-story home with the Subordinate/Community Grange as the main floor with Pomona, State, and National as the upper floors, consecutively. Everyone enters the ground floor and climbs up to the upper floors, where more lessons await. Thus, without the ground floor, there would be no house. That is why it is important for us to bring in new members; if not, the house collapses. Our Grange “house” has existed for all of these years so repairs are needed and upgrades necessary. We have gone through periods of change, and more are needed today. Please be an integral part of our growth and continue to contribute as you have over the course of your membership. We all need to support one another to help keep our “house” sturdy and functioning. A little TLC (tender loving care) helps tremendously.
Over this holiday season, please reflect on how grateful we are in so many areas. How can we improve ourselves? How can we help others? How can we increase our Grange membership? What needs to be changed? All of these questions are vital and extremely important and require an answer. Let us get a head start and start to make resolutions for the new year so these questions can be answered.
The State Membership Committee wishes all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Stay safe, stay positive, and stay grateful.