Notes from National – January 2023

Grange Month 2023

Gleaned from an email written by Phil Vonada, National Grange Communications Director

“I am working on Grange Month materials, though many of last year’s materials are still good, too, as we are in year 2 of the “Raised Right Here” theme. Make plans now to join us for “Grange Spirit Week” which will be held April 16-22nd, with a Zoom program in the works for EVERY night that week, but more on that soon! (April 16th also happens to be the founding date of Fredonia Grange #1, NY, which will celebrate its 155th birthday that day!).”

Social Media Calendar Available

Are you looking to add some spice to your Grange’s Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter pages? Check out our 2023 downloadable Social Media Calendar, which lists various “holidays” about which you can make posts or celebrations. Also included on the calendar are recurring National Grange meetings, holidays, events, and more. Feel free to pass this on to your Grange’s Lecturer, Secretary, social director, or anyone who helps plan events or activities for your Grange.

National Roster Available

The National Grange Roster lists, among other things, information about National Leadership and each state Grange with contact information. Download the National Grange Roster

Facebook Page Zoom-torial Recorded

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.)

National Grange Heirloom Program

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.

Amazon Smile Becomes Amazon Frown

By Walter Boomsma, MSG Communications Director

Amazon recently announced that they are “winding down” the Amazon Smiles Program. In short, that means they are discontinuing it, effective February 20, 2023.

According to their announcement, over 1 million organizations were participating. “Amazon can have a more significant and lasting impact if we invest in specific areas and focus our philanthropic efforts in the communities where our employees live and work.”

That’s actually logical. The program’s benefit to Maine State Grange was minimal, so it’s not a huge loss. Any money received was paid to the Maine Grange Foundation and, I believe, earmarked for scholarships.

If you have been using the program, any purchases made before February 20, 2023, will still accrue a benefit. I’m sharing this so those making significant purchases from Amazon will consider doing so before that deadline!

Amazon has also announced it will provide a “one-time payment” based on three months of purchases during 2022.

One way Granges can generate support is by creating an “Amazon Wish List,” allowing others to make purchases for the Grange. I know Jonesboro Grange has done this quite successfully. I believe the process is not difficult for those familiar with Amazon. Perhaps I’ll try to put a few basic instructions and suggestions together in the near future. Let me know if you’re interested or would like to help!

Now let’s turn that frown upside down!

Fraternal Concern – Gerald Libby

Submitted by Master Sherry Harriman

Once again, our fraternal circle has been broken. Brother Gerald (Glen) Libby, past Deputy of the Maine State Grange, and past Educational Aid President, passed away on January 16, 2023. A Memorial Service will be held on January 28, 2023, at Farmington Grange #12, 124 Bridge Street, West Farmington, at 2:00 pm.

Condolences may be sent to:
Patricia Libby
381 Mosher Hill Rd
Farmington, ME 04938

View the complete obituary here.

Sagadahoc Pomona Fifth Degree Day

Enterprise Grange – April 26, 2023

Sagadahoc Pomona will host the Fifth Degree at Enterprise Grange #48, 15 Alexander Reed Road, Richmond, on April 26, 2023. Pot Luck Supper at 6:00 with host Grange furnishing beverages and dessert and other Granges providing a hot dish or salad. Hall is in town, the street across from the library & firehouse. (15 Alexander Reed Road). We do need help with anyone who knows the parts, please. Meeting at 7:00. If candidates are attending from another Pomona, please remember to have the application signed by the M/P or Sec of your home Grange.

For additional information, contact Marilyn Stinson or Ben Edgerly.

Communication Shorts 1-16-2023

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!

January Bulletin

The January Bulletin is now available! Remember, you can always find recent issues of the Bulletin on the Program Books and Information Page.

Didja Notice?

We’ve added a “subscribe” menu item–if you aren’t receiving email from us, check it out!

Got a Minute? Got a Pie? Got a Meal?

It seems ironic that after encouraging you to enjoy a minute listening to the podcast “Dropping by the with a Pie” posted by Plain Values Magazine, MSG CWA Directory Margaret Henderson reported dropping by a neighbor’s with a meal.

Grange Month Is Coming!

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? Don’t forget to submit your plans and events to the website!

Website Report

In case you missed it in my Communications Column, your MSG website was viewed over 1500 times during December 2022–and over 20,000 times during the entire calendar year 2022.

A Few Thank You’s

Special thanks this month to Marilyn Stinson for sharing some of our posts on her Facebook Feed! To Michelene Decrow, Barry Tracy, and Dave Gowen for their recent support and feedback on the website. Golly, this could get long… to all of you who support and contribute to the site!

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

Maybe it’s time to shift some of our thinking from what our community needs to what it wants. They might be the same, but thinking about wants creates a different slant. How about every Granger asking at least one person, “What would make our community a happier place?” and reporting the answers at the next Grange Meeting?

Thought for You…

“While we are living in the present, we must celebrate life every day, knowing that we are becoming history with every work, every action, every deed.”

Mattie Stepanek

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

Exploring Traditions – January 2023

Meandering Around the Grange Way of Life

by Walter Boomsma, Guest Columnist

Hornblowing and Wordsmithing

By Walter Boomsma, Guest Columnist

I’m willing to risk being accused of blatant self-promotion. Years ago someone suggested, “If you don’t toot your own horn, no one else will.” I am going to let you in on a little secret—and maybe solicit your help! And wait until you hear my rationalization for what might be some horn blowing.

I’m in the process of formatting another book about the Grange Way of Life. Now, before you get too excited, let me hasten to say that formatting and editing are slow, time-consuming work. But at least it’s written. I haven’t set a hard deadline for it becoming available—is spring vague enough? (Grange Month is April, right?)

My working title is “Reflections on the Grange Way of Life.” Or maybe “Reflecting on the Grange Way of Life.” See why it’s called a working title? Many might be surprised to learn that determining a book’s title is often one of the last steps in publication. Part of the reason for that is books often change during the various stages of writing.

The title is not the only thing that’s in the works, although the book is mostly written at least at the draft stage. It currently looks like there will be some fifty to sixty “chapters” – most based on columns written over the years. In that sense, it will resemble my previous book, Exploring Traditions—Celebrating the Grange Way of Life, published five years ago. While this sequel will explore Grange traditions, Rituals, and heritage, it’s also intended to dive a bit into the present and future, giving meaning to the past.

I’m not married to including “reflections” or “reflecting” in the title, but it feels like an appropriate description of the content. Yes, I’ve used a thesaurus. “Thoughts on the Grange Way of Life,” feels different. “Exploring Traditions, Book 2” doesn’t work and feels lazy. Welcome to the mind of a writer.

Assuming these are, in fact, reflections, I’m tempted to abandon the custom of having numbered chapters. Instead, there will be numbered reflections. For example, you might discover Reflection Seven—Work is Prayer. Bear in mind these reflections do not need to be read in order, but books do require some degree of structure.

So, what do you think? I’ll take your input on the title and how to label the chapters/reflections.

Are you ready for the rationalization? This might be an example of making a slight change to a tradition (how we identify the parts of a book) in the interest of better serving our purpose. Notice that our potential change keeps purpose foremost. We’re going to explore Grange traditions, Rituals and heritage in terms of today and tomorrow, making sure we don’t lose the meaning of the past. Should we do that with chapters or reflections? True wordsmiths are going to look up the definition of chapter and then use a thesaurus. We could get analysis paralysis and stop the progress of the book.

Change is hard. Humans like predictability—that’s an important value of tradition and ritual. “The same” gives us a sense of comfort and security. But change can also have value.

Would you rather read a chapter or a reflection? “It doesn’t matter” is not an acceptable answer. In survey terms, this is called “forced distribution.” For this question, I must make a decision. If you’d like to help, send me an email with your thoughts.

When we transition to the Grange and encounter a question, the process should be the same. We stay focused on the desired outcome. Then, we’re going to think about it. We’re going to think about it because we care about it. Maybe we’ll change, maybe we won’t. But we can’t go wrong using the process.

Any degree or ritual quotations are from the forty-sixth edition of the 2013 Subordinate Grange Manual or the most recent edition of the Pomona Grange Manual. The views and opinions expressed in “Exploring Traditions” are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official doctrine and policy of the Grange. Information about the book “Exploring Traditions—Celebrating the Grange Way of Life” can be found at http://abbotvillagepress.com, on Mr. Boomsma’s Amazon Author Page, or by contacting the author.

Membership Moments – January 2023

By Rick Grotton,
Membership Committee Director
207 582-5915

HMMM…No, I’m not thinking or pondering in awe over anything in particular; I am reintroducing you to a new acronym. Help Make Membership Matter. Yes, another acronym. Just like GOTO (remember that?) it is an important message for all of us. It is up to each of us to bring in new members; to expand our family for future generations. In order to keep our organization strong, we always need to add new members; to teach them our traditions, to introduce them to the world of agriculture; make them aware of our lessons and how to apply them. To keep the blood of the Grange circulating and its heart beating strong, it takes new ideas, fresh faces, and new projects. It is easier than one may think. The Good of the Order (GOTO) is in everyone’s hands. Yours, mine, and every member of this organization.

Do you remember why you joined the Grange? I certainly remember why I joined and it changed me for the better and set me on a great path. Would you be able to apply your own reasons for joining to others? Pay it forward. Certainly, you will have some rejections, however, there are people out there just waiting to be asked. Push aside the “nos” and keep going. May the rejections only make you stronger in your efforts. Invite others to sit in a meeting and observe. Give them the opportunity to decide for themselves. If you invite them, make it like you are selling a home or a car. First impressions are important. Invite others to a picnic or an open meeting first so that they can meet the membership in a casual, non-threatening atmosphere. When they attend an actual meeting, they will not feel isolated because they have already met the membership. Pay attention to them, explaining why we do what we do and the symbolism. Once a non-member is comfortable with the surroundings, they will be ready to join. Sound easy? It may, but it does take work and effort.

I wish all a happy, safe, and productive new year. HMMM…

View from the Farm – January 2023

By Heather Retberg, Quills End Farm

We live in a world where you can eat summer all year long.  It is not right.  

We are northerners.  As such, our diet depends on summer, but does not resemble summer.  The last of the tomatoes, kale, greens, and peppers have been frozen, canned, or consumed.  So, although we live in a world that offers you summer from around the world, I propose a winter cleanse, a winter diet that reflects where we live: bread, milk, meat, and potatoes.

There are but a few things more that Maine produces that last the whole year through, but these four… they just keep, or… keep coming. 

Listen!  No one in Florida shovels snow from their driveway in shorts, and no one in Texas revels at frozen nose hairs. No one in Arizona puts -20 windshield wiper fluid in their car. 

Let THEM eat kale!   

We need food that will keep us alive and well through the winter months, and that means a balanced diet of protein, vitamins, starches, and carbs; that means milk, bread, meat, and potatoes. Join us in the local food winter cleanse, where we embrace our latitude, our northern heritage, and our necessity to survive six months of nothing growing.  

We can patronize our local farms all year round by buying the produce of summer.  The yield we have left is hay, tubers, and small grains.  Fresh milk, a wonder, keeps flowing all winter long. Let’s eat!!!

Tinder Hearth bakes all year round, and their bread, pastries, and pizza are beyond world-class.

Horsepower Farm’s potatoes, carrots, garlic, and onions will have you welcoming cold days and nights in culinary ecstasy.  Quill’s End Farm makes it all delightful eating, because…Tinder Hearth bread with our cheese,  Horsepower mashed potatoes with our milk, beet borscht with Greek yogurt, carrot cake with plain Farmstead cheese frosting, 44 North coffee with our cream…mm-mm-mmm.

Rainbow Farm captured the summer sun in beautiful birds that await addition to your French Batard-garlic & chive-Farmstead-cheese pleasure. 

Now, some of you, who are undoubtedly thinking of different sorts of diets and cleanses, may see this option as bland, but it is actually full of variety. Alternate between cow milk and our newly available goat milk. Once you’ve had your fill of chicken, take respite with Quill’s End Farm’s whey-fed pork (coming at the end of the month!).   

The cows will give you the D vitamins to get you off the couch AND the B vitamins to get out the door; the meat will give you stamina to keep going through the day; the alliums will ward off ailments of all kinds, keeping you fit as a fiddle; and the bread will give you the chutzpah to brave the cold. 

We’re not encouraging gluttony, mind you, merely attempting to share our new year’s recipe for surviving winter, commodification, and globalism.

We aim to make it easy for you.  We work to make it possible for you to garner your diet from nearby, appropriate to where you live, and available year-round.  

So, belly up, we’ll provide.

Webmaster’s note: This month’s column is provided by Phil and Ben.

Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Heather is Vice President of Halcyon Grange #345 and writes a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in her area and has generously given us permission to share some of her columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

Communications Column – January 2023

Staying Out of Copyright Jail

By Walter Boomsma
207 343-1842
Communications Director

This may not be the most exciting and entertaining column I’ve written in a while, but it could be one of the more important. A few years ago a number of Granges in California got into some serious trouble due to copyrights and licensing. Not understanding and honoring copyright basics can get very expensive. There’s a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding. I’ll try to keep this short.

Copyright is about intellectual property. It literally establishes the ownership of a creative work (intellectual property). When I, for example, write a book copyright law establishes that I own the content and reserve the right to make copies of it. That’s why you’ll often see “All rights reserved,” as part of a copyright notice. As the owner, I can give (or sell) others the right to reproduce what I’ve written, but others can’t do so without my permission.

This affects the MSG website and Bulletin in a variety of ways. Let’s consider a few, but first let me say that social media in general and Facebook, in particular, are not good examples of copyright compliance. The comparison I would make is a friend who constantly speeds and somehow manages not to get caught. The reality is that they are still breaking the law and, if they do get caught, it may get quite expensive.

Example One: You have an event at your Grange. A local reporter shows up and writes a great article, takes some photos, and the article and photos are published in the newspaper. Generally, this is considered “work for hire,” and the newspaper owns the rights to that article. No one is supposed to “copy” it without permission—that’s the law. If you send me a copy, I can’t (won’t) post it.

Example Two: You write a press release about that same event. Pay attention to the word “release.” As the author, you have ownership of that article, and you are releasing it for publication—effectively giving the media permission to “copy” (print) it. We (in the media) like press releases. No fuss, no muss, no worries about posting or printing them.

Example Three: You write an article or column for the website. In it, you include a poem or quote from someone else’s book. This could be a problem—do you have the right to use it? If not, both you and I could be guilty of copyright infringement. This is not always an easy question to answer. There are some narrow exceptions to needing permission that include “fair use” (very difficult to determine) and public domain.

As Communications Director I tend to be ultra-conservative because a mistake or poor decision can create serious legal and financial liability for the Grange. It’s the same with photographs, especially of children. This can get complicated, but the short version is that we will not post photos that include children on the website unless we have written permission. (This is more about privacy than copyright.)

If you have questions or concerns about this, I’ll try to answer them, but please understand this can become a legal nightmare. Also, bear in mind that, while I’m happy to help, I cannot assume the responsibility for getting reprint permission for those submitting to the site. I am confident that, with a little common sense, we can all stay out of copyright jail!

► FACT: Your MSG website was viewed nearly 1500 times during December 2022–and over 20,000 times during the entire calendar year 2022.

Tell us why you love the Grange!