Happy Anniversary

Let me start by saying that I love our Grand Secretary. She is a fabulous lady with a huge responsibility. She is in charge of all the thousand and one pieces of paper that keep track of all our members, our Chapters and the Grand Chapter office. Her job is full time plus! That said, however, she made a tiny tactical error last week when she happened to mention to me that the Grand Chapter office is traditionally a bit slower during the week between Christmas and New Year's. It seemed the perfect opportunity to find out a few things and I sent her a bunch of e-mail inquiries about various topics. She was kind enough to look up all the answers for me, but I don't think she will be quite so quick to let me know she has a free moment the next time and I wouldn't blame her if, the next ten times I ask how she is doing, she says "absolutely swamped." One of the things that I asked her about was the Chapter anniversaries that will fall during what, G-d willing and the crik don't rise, will be my year, so I could get a feel for how many of them will need to be scheduled. It turns out that the answer is four, three 125th anniversaries and one 100th anniversary. So what is a Chapter Anniversary? Well, I confess to having not a single clue as to how the the tradition got started, but somewhere along the way, it became customary for a Chapter to have a celebration of some kind each twenty-five years of its existence. The first three celebrations, at twenty-five, fifty and seventy-five years, seem to be noted at more of a local level. They are sometimes published in the state wide roster, but Grand Chapter events are often scheduled against them and many of them seem to be attended primarily by local folk. Starting at 100, though, the importance of the event increases dramatically and 100 and 125 anniversaries are traditionally put on the Worthy Grand Matron's travel calendar and attended by as many Grand Officers as can make it. We aren't old enough quite yet for a chapter to hit 150. That is why the dates usually have to be coordinated with the Grand Line Officer in whose year the event falls, to make sure of the ability of the Worthy Grand Matron to attend. I have been to a fair number of these things over the past fifteen years or so and they vary widely from Chapter to Chapter. The essential parts seem to be the same, but how a Chapter presents them can be all over the map. The key elements seem to be a theme relating to the passage of time, some relating of Chapter history, some display of Chapter antiquities and mementos, and of course, refreshments. Some Chapters add music or other entertainment. Some have the members of the Chapter wear matching outfits or clothes based on a theme. And some Chapters discuss not only their own history, but the history of the community or of the times. I know people who dislike going to Chapter anniversaries, but for the most part I have enjoyed the ones that I have attended. They are very different from going to any other regular Grand Chapter event, such as an Official Visit, for example, because a Chapter anniversary is a very special party hosted by just the celebrating Chapter. Chapters often spend years planning these things because Chapters usually want to show off a little for their guests and only get to do this every twenty-five years, so they put a lot of effort into being great hostesses and planning a great day. By comparison, Official Visits happen every year and usually only have a few months to be planned and executed. I have enjoyed a great many courtesies at Chapter anniversaries and the members go all out to make the event memorable. So you might wonder, as I did, why some people do not enjoy them. So far as I have been able to figure out, the biggest problem with some anniversaries for some people has been the Chapter history part of the program. It has been traditional to divide the Chapter's history into twenty-five year chunks and present a bit on each chunk. I must confess that these can either be rivetingly interesting or deadly dull, depending on what is presented. They don't often seem to fall in the middle either, I'm afraid. I have seen some amazing presentations, especially ones that talk about major events going on in the world at the same time and how the Chapter participated in history. For example, I was at one anniversary where they talked about how the Chapter managed to have refreshments during war rationing and another where they read part of the minutes about how the ladies of the Chapter knitted scarves for soldiers and stuff like that. The part about how the Chapter managed to check on all its members after an earthquake and how some members opened their homes to others who had lost theirs really touched me as I thought about the love and concern that our members show for one another in times of trouble and how good it is to belong to a group of truly caring people. On the other hand, I must admit that it can be hard to stay awake when the Chapter's idea of history is to recite the names of all of the Worthy Matrons and Worthy Patrons of the Chapter or when it seems like they couldn't edit down the program, so they just decided to read 100 years of Chapter meeting minutes without any selection process to weed them down. Listening to a long list of nothing but names from seventy-five years ago can be less exciting than watching paint dry. At least your eyes can unfocus a little and you can zone out when you watch the paint dry because the paint doesn't expect you to pay attention. Luckily, I have very seldom had the problem of attending a boring program and the food has always been excellent which is of course a totally redeeming feature. Another awesomely redeeming feature at many of the anniversaries is the display of history items. I don't know how these Chapters store this stuff or if most of it comes from members who volunteer their own private collections for the event, but the programs, the pictures, the regalia and ceremonial items are amazing and beautiful. I love the way that these things show the evolution of the Order particularly. These things give you a huge sense of how much styles and traditions have changed over the decades. For example, there was a time when Distinguished and Honored Members got these enormous corsages at official events. In the pictures you see at the anniversaries, some of the corsages were so big, you don't know why the dress didn't rip right off the lady wearing it. We don't do the monster corsages any more and a lot of Worthy Grand Matrons ask that the money that the Chapter might have otherwise spent on corsages be donated to her special project or a Grand Chapter charity instead, but you can see from the history books that there was a time when no Official Visit would have been complete without pinning a whole flowering shrub onto the WGM's shoulder. The other reason I like attending the Chapter anniversaries is that people are so glad that you made the time to come. Anniversaries are not required events, so some people don't go, but I always make it when I can because there's nothing more sad than throwing a big party and not having people come and these Chapters put such heart and effort into these things that you really miss out if you don't attend. Next weekend we go to the first Official Visits for the 2010 year and I will be in Whittier and San Pedro.