Ready or Not, Here I Go

Greetings! This blog is about the adventure of a lifetime on which I am about to embark. This first post explains what I think I am doing and about my fraternal order. I belong to the Order of the Eastern Star, a fraternal group closely related to the Masons, and the largest fraternal order that allows both men and women to join. For a man to join, you have to be a Mason and all the ladies are related to a Mason. You used to have be a fairly close relation, but they have expanded the categories a lot, so if you want to join and we can shake your family tree hard enough that a Mason falls out, we can probably figure out a way for you to qualify. Our Order has local groups all over the country and many parts of the world. The local groups are called Chapters. The presiding officers of a local Chapter are the Worthy Matron and Worthy Patron. The leadership in a Chapter is what we call a progressive line. You start as a lower level line officer, an Associate Conductress, and then you go through a year in that office and two more years in two other offices, Conductress and Associate Matron, before you get to be Worthy Matron and lead your Chapter for a year. In your second year, as Conductress, you choose a man in your Chapter to lead your Chapter with you and he serves as Associate Patron and Worthy Patron along with you. In areas, like states, where there are a bunch of Chapters, those Chapters can form a statewide/countrywide group called a Grand Chapter. In California, where I live, Grand Chapter officers are chosen from those who have already served as the presiding officer of their local Chapter. Each year, the presiding officers of the Grand Chapter, the Worthy Grand Matron and the Worthy Grand Patron, choose ten members from our state to serve as state officers. I have been fortunate to serve as an appointed state officer the past two years. Serving as a Grand Officer means lots and lots of travel all over the State, and I do mean all over, from Crescent City to El Centro and everywhere in between, mostly on the weekends since many of us still have a day job. It is wonderful and exhausting all at the same time. I have loved it for the past two years. Here's the rub though. In addition to the ten appointed officers, the Grand Chapter has elected officers. Among these are the Grand Line Officers, who go through a progressive line, just like in the local Chapter. For ladies, we start with the Associate Grand Conductress and proceed all the way to Worthy Grand Matron, the head of the Order for the entire State of California. They say that you are not just committing four years of your life, but that it is really forever. And I was warned that if you are going to do this, you need to be prepared to spend $60,000 to $80,000 over that four years to do it right. That's a lot of money. So here I am, having put my name in to be considered for the office of Associate Grand Conductress of the Grand Chapter of California, Order of the Eastern Star. Whew! What a mouthful. Since I am running unopposed, I feel pretty good about my chances of being elected this next Friday and being installed into office Saturday night. And after that, my world will never be the same. I am told that the difference between serving as an appointed officer and a Grand Line Officer is night and day, so no matter what I think I know about it, I won't really know about it until I do it. I thought it might be nice to share these thoughts and experiences with others who might find them interesting. I also hope that it will help get some information about Eastern Star, the Best Fraternal Order Ever, out into the world. So my plan is to post at the beginning of each week, hopefully Monday or Tuesday, about what I did and learned the weekend before as I travel up the Grand Line in California. Right now I am getting ready for our Grand Chapter session in Visalia. I hope everything fits into my car and I hope you enjoy this ride with me.