{"id":99419,"date":"2026-05-16T08:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T12:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?p=99419"},"modified":"2026-05-16T08:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T12:44:09","slug":"__trashed-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2__trashed-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?p=99419","title":{"rendered":"Communications Column – May 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

By Walter Boomsma<\/a><\/em><\/strong>
207 343-1842
Communications Directo<\/em><\/strong>r<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
AI-generated image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Website Update<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The only way to escape hardship is to keep moving forward.” Some will recognize this as a “family-friendly” paraphrasing of a quote attributed to Winston Churchill. Over the last month or so, I’ve found it necessary to keep reminding myself, “This too shall pass.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’re not quite out of the woods, but the clearing is in sight! (I seem to be full of metaphors and pithy sayings this morning.) There are probably some important lessons to be learned from the entire experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After nearly two decades of using the same host server, it became clear that things weren’t working. Well, it became clear to me. The host server folks didn’t see it that way!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could probably make your eyes glaze over if I told the whole story and shared the many frustrations and roadblocks. The site is now fully migrated to a new server. Yay!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can breathe easier, but we need to keep moving. It appears the major remaining difficulty is that a number of images disappeared during the move. Fortunately, I’m a bit of a packrat, so all is not lost. I will continue to replace them as I find them. If you experience any difficulties with the site, please let me know!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forward momentum also demands that we continue to develop the site with news and resources. Thanks to the Granges who share news of events and accomplishments<\/strong>. Our future largely depends on what we do, not on what we say. If you can stand another pithy saying, society would tell us, “What you’re doing shouts so loudly we can’t hear what you’re saying<\/strong>.” Tell us what you’re doing! If local Granges don’t share their news, it’s the same as announcing that you’re not doing anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing I really like about the new server is that it is focused on WordPress, the platform we use to develop and maintain the site. This promises some great future developments and efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a bit of an aside, I confess that A.I. (artificial intelligence) caused some frustration during the migration. But it was also profoundly helpful at times. So much of life is about stewardship and making good use of the tools we have available and the opportunities they create. Is there really such a thing as a “bad” tool?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The website itself is a tool. One way to use the site efficiently is to subscribe so you receive a weekly summary of posts. While site visits declined during the critical period of outages, the number of subscribers did not. In fact, our subscriber count continues to increase. Slow and steady wins the race. (Are you counting the pithy sayings?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To so many, thanks for your support and patience! If you have ideas or needs, communicate them. Together we can do great things!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

FACT: It didn’t take long to receive an email from the new server that we’d passed 500 site visits!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Walter Boomsma207 343-1842 Communications Director Website Update “The only way to escape hardship is to keep moving forward.” Some will recognize this as a “family-friendly” paraphrasing of a quote attributed to Winston Churchill. Over the last month or so, I’ve found it necessary to keep reminding myself, “This too shall pass.” We’re not quite … Continue reading “Communications Column – May 2026”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[165,218],"tags":[713,206,272,202,233,29],"post_folder":[704],"class_list":["post-99419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication-2","category-resources-for-granges-and-grangers","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-grange-advocacy","tag-grange-communication","tag-grange-events","tag-grange-policy","tag-grange-procedure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Walter Boomsma","author_link":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?author=2122"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Walter Boomsma207 343-1842 Communications Director Website Update “The only way to escape hardship is to keep moving forward.” Some will recognize this as a “family-friendly” paraphrasing of a quote attributed to Winston Churchill. Over the last month or so, I’ve found it necessary to keep reminding myself, “This too shall pass.” We’re not quite…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1arC1-pRx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99419"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99420,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99419\/revisions\/99420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99419"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_folder&post=99419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}