Tag: Grange Procedure

Considering Communications Hygiene

By Walter Boomsma
207 343-1842
Communications Director

“Bad noise crowds out good signal.”

Seth Godin

The concept of “communications hygiene” deserves some attention. Seth Godin is certainly not the first person to introduce it, but as usual, he gets our attention in his opening statement, “Attention is scarce.”(You can read the complete blog post here.)

Just how scarce is attention? I could offer the number of unanswered emails in my sent box. I know a few people who appear to no longer be checking their email. When technology made it easy (and basically free) to send an email, it didn’t take long for a lot of people to take advantage. One result of that is the amount of “bad noise” we get. I intentionally do not count, but I would estimate that I receive 200-300 email messages daily. Most of them are “noise” of little value.

I also don’t count how many times the telephones ring daily. Voice mail handles most of it–or at least the lack of messages filters out the “noise.”

Shall we talk about text messages? They are on the rise–several organizations I’m familiar with are now texting instead of emailing. For most people, texting creates a sense of urgency. Urgency is, however, different than importance.

Hygiene is about maintaining health and often involves cleanliness. Let’s take a look at the health of our communication systems and attempts. We may need to “clean things up.” As communicators (we all are), it’s important to remember that “attention is scarce” and may be getting scarcer.

First, what can we do to get attention? It’s become necessary to think twice about how we communicate. I can tell you with assurance that leaving a message for me on social media (Facebook) is the worst way to get my attention. But I know people who apparently live on social media, and it’s the best or at least fastest way to get their attention! So, it might make sense to consider what platform or media best suits the message you are sending. When initiating communication, it is important to think about the receiver’s preferences.

Second, can we at least not contribute to the “noise?” I have a friend who loves to forward emails. Admittedly, they’re usually relevant to my interests, but I’ve also often already received them from the original sender or someone else. I find myself instinctively clicking “delete” when I see his name in the “from” field. Remember, given the volume of emails I’m receiving, you only have a second or two to get my attention.

Third, we can use technology to our benefit–this could be an entire topic by itself. Most email programs have filters we can use, and we’re starting to see the same with phone calls and text messages. It’s important to realize that we each are dealing with huge volumes of communication and make sure we are prioritizing our attention in return. I have another friend who usually takes a few days to reply to my email. He keeps them as “unread” until he has time to think about his reply. If I have a question that needs a more immediate response, I make that clear in my email–or text him accordingly. This goes back to thinking about the receiver’s preferences.

It wasn’t so long ago that we didn’t have the options and choices that we do today. Instead of debating “good or bad,” that energy should go to choosing how we communicate thoughtfully and wisely.

► FACT: During the first week of February 2024, nearly 90% of website visitors were first-time visitors!

Looking forward… communicating forward

By Walter Boomsma
207 343-1842
Communications Director

So here we are, several weeks into a new year. I’m always a bit overwhelmed by the changes required when that happens. But it’s also an opportunity to look forward and think about what the new year might bring. In terms of the Maine State Grange Website, this will be an informal “State of the Site” Report.

Have you noticed? All posts and pages now have an “estimated reading time” at the top. It’s a bit of an experiment with the goal of making the site more useful. The idea is to give users some idea of how long it might take to review the post or page. It’s based on “average” reading speeds, and your mileage may vary, but we’d love to know what you think of this feature.

What you aren’t seeing is some continuing “under the hood” changes. The emphasis of these changes is to increase security and improve the speed of the site. Hopefully, you’ll notice! For one thing, we are having very little “downtime” of the site–it remains available, active, and dependable.

We recently completed an audit of Pomona and Subordinate Grange Links. For those Granges who maintain their own websites or Facebook Pages, this is designed to drive traffic to you! However, we do not want to send people to a closed business–or one that has the appearance of being closed. If nothing has been posted or updated in the past year, the link is removed. As a result of the audit, we are losing at least two Facebook Pages. I do try to contact someone from the Grange involved before removing the links. If you have any questions or concerns about this, please let me know.

By the way, we recently added links to Trenton Grange’s Website and Facebook Page. Both are excellent examples of local promotion of an active, relevant Grange! Check them out!

In a similar vein, we’ve been updating the online directory of Granges with the latest Roster Information. This is an important aspect of the site–it’s how people with an interest in the Grange find someone to contact. Currently, one contact is listed with a phone number and email address (if we have them). Under consideration for this year is the possibility of adding a second contact for each Grange. It’s more to maintain, but it doubles the chance that people can reach a Grange when they are interested!

There’s lots more going on and under consideration. Thanks to those who consistently support the site by submitting events and news. As we continue to search for ways to make the site more attractive and useful, your ideas and feedback are critical! We have limited resources but literally thousands of potential reporters and contributors. Please submit information about what’s going on in your Grange! Consider writing a short article or post about something of interest to Grangers. (We’ll be saying more about this in the future.) Tell us why you love the Grange.

What have you got for us?

► FACT: It won’t be a surprise that in 2023, October was the site’s busiest month. It might be a surprise that August was second with over 2,000 views!

How are we going to talk about this?

By Walter Boomsma
207 343-1842
Communications Director

“I left my leash in the car,” explained a recent guest at a gathering. I sensed a kindred spirit. The leash he was referring to was, of course, his smartphone. (I think someone had asked for the latest weather report, and he explained that he couldn’t provide that information.)

His announcement did, however, serve as a spark igniting an interesting conversation regarding addiction. Since we’d met for the first time, we’d found a common ground—we are both working in addiction counseling at the university level. We ended up having an energetic and engaging chat about the spiritual aspects of addiction.

Later the same evening, I had a slightly different conversation with a fourteen-year-old working on a school paper regarding the Electoral College. I delved into her thinking, genuinely and gently curious. The first time, she said, “I don’t have my facts with me…” I teased, “Why worry about the facts?” She laughed and expressed some of her thoughts. If she had her smartphone with her, I didn’t notice. At least she didn’t immediately reach for it to access her facts.

This article is not the beginning of an anti-smartphone crusade. It’s a column on communication.

The commonality between those two conversations was they both were an exploration of thinking, not a discussion of facts. In the first, neither of us cared much about the current weather forecast, but we were interested in what we allow to control us as we journey through life. In the second, we were willing to explore a political topic from both the head and the heart, and the conversation drifted from whether or not the Electoral College was a good thing to the importance of considering both sides of a question. I suspected I knew why she thought the Electoral College should be eliminated, but I still wanted to hear her reasons and understand her thinking. Unlike a text or social media post, actual conversation creates opportunities for engagement. Engagement is fundamentally different from arguing. (Social media gurus know that a post creating controversy tends to get the most clicks because we are reacting instead of probing. The context (how) of dialog becomes very different.)

Join me in a time travel machine. Imagine sitting in a Grange Hall 100 years ago, enjoying a potluck supper. What’s the conversation like? I doubt we’ll hear anyone say, “Oh, darn, I left my phone in the buggy.” We may not hear anyone complaining about all the political advertising. But someone might mention that there are more and more cars on the roads these days. (In 1925, there were 115,229 cars and 23,794 trucks on the roads in Maine.[1] One interesting bit of trivia is that painting lines on roads first caught on in 1926, inspired by someone watching a leaky milk truck make its way down a road. I digress, only to note that might have been a conversation at a Grange supper. Later, under “new business” during the meeting, someone may have suggested a resolution petitioning the government to consider developing a protocol to standardize line painting…

Communication is about content (what we talk about) and context (how we talk about it). I’m only kidding a little when I speculate that we might consider giving the Gatekeeper an added responsibility to monitor the content and context of communication at Grange events. I have attended Grange suppers and meetings where the content has been almost exclusively complaining—sometimes loudly and specifically. Sadly, sometimes there are guests (non-members) present.

“Traffic is horrible—there are too many cars and trucks on the road, and it’s getting out of control.”

“Yeah, my horse got spooked when a big truck passed us on a hill going too fast.”

“I’d never own one of those car things. They’re too expensive and too noisy.”

“I passed one stuck in a mudhole. Thought about pulling him out but decided he deserved it.”

 Did the invitation to the meeting say, “Here’s your chance to complain about cars and traffic! The person who has the biggest and best complaint wins a framed certificate of accomplishment!”

Or maybe one person shifts the context from complaining to positive action. “I was following a milk truck leaking the other day and noticed it left a white line on the road. That got me to thinking maybe we could…”

[1]  For an interesting history of Maine Roads, read A History of Maine Roads 1600-1970. https://digitalmaine.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=mdot_docs

► FACT: By the time the calendar year 2023 ends, the Maine State Grange Website will have had over 8,000 visits.

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