In Need of a Crystal Ball

I am done with Installations for another year. Each one had elements that made it unique and special, but changing into a formal in the bathroom at my office was getting a little old, so I am okay with being done for this year. Now I am in need of a better crystal ball because, unfortunately, I am only getting static on the one I have. I need to reach into the future and see how next year's Grand Chapter session is going to go, but so far, the future is too undecided for my powers of precognition to bring it into focus. There are a lot of changes proposed for this next year's session and I want to adopt the ones that work. But if some of them do not work out, I want to be able to either try the same idea with some fixes and changes, or be able to try a different idea to address the same problem. Usually, I would have another year before worrying about it and I would be able to see how this year's session went before it became an issue. But the Fates are conspiring against me. When we do our contracts with the convention center for the annual session, we have to tell them which rooms and areas we are using and on which days. This coming program uses less spaces and times than in years past because of the different combination of planned events. But since I am not sure how all of that is going to go, I don't want to lose out on the ability to have the same spaces we've used in the past, in case I need them. I was hoping for some time to figure that out, but along comes the convention center and wants us to make some decisions. I am not sure how permanent those decisions may be because again, usually, we have up to a year before the event to let spaces go, but I have not confirmed that in the current situation and I have been told that we have to decide now about three years from now. Hence my need to get that darn crystal ball tuned in a little better. The key element bothering me this week is something called the Masonic Family Honor Session. This is a session where we invite and honor members of other Masonic groups besides our own. It is an open session, meaning that non-members are allowed to attend, and it is usually attended by representatives of the youth groups as well as the other adult Orders that are associated with the Masons, along with the Grand Lodge officers from the Grand Lodge of California. Traditionally, this Honor Session, which is on Saturday afternoon, after the business of the annual session is concluded, but before Grand Installation Saturday night is held in a different building than our big meeting area because the decoration team for the Grand Installation needs the time to set up the regular meeting area with the decorations for the new officers. I am told that even when everyone clears out by noon, the decorations team is hard pressed to get everything done in time for the doors to re-open at 5:30 or 6:00 pm for the Installation to start around 7:00 pm. Now, there are a couple of solutions to this problem. In 2011, there is not going to be a Saturday afternoon session, so the room will be empty anyway. Another way to solve the problem is to cut down on the Installation decorations, and just change the stuff in the East and maybe put up an archway in the West and call it a day. That you could do in a couple of hours and you again wouldn't need another place to hold the honor session to get out of the way of the decorators. But since it is other people, and not the ones being installed, who decide on the decorations, it is hard to get all of those people for several years in a row to agree to cut down on the decorating. Nobody wants to be the only team that didn't put out a full effort so without agreement among several teams to do that for several years in a row, it is not happening. So since cutting down on the decorations doesn't seem all that likely, we are back to the other side of the equation, which is to have, or not to have, this Saturday afternoon session. I hope sincerely that this year's ideas are a smashing success, but since the ether has gone from analog to digital and I don't have a converter box for the crystal ball yet (there's a market in there somewhere I am sure :-) I am uncomfortable "renting the farm, with an option to buy" on that happening. So I think that I need to hang on to a space to hold that afternoon session, at least until we see how this year works out, or until a higher power decides to grace me with advance knowledge in this area. Next weekend, I will be in Yorba Linda and in Riverside.

Ignorance is Bliss?

I've gotten four more Installations down and only three to go as the end of November comes into view. But of course, there's more to do in November than just Installations. I am getting ready for the start of our Transitionals the first weekend in December and I am getting a budget together for the last two years of this journey, the two that I will share with my player to be named later, also known for now as Mr. Wizard. Did you ever have an idea that sounded great when you started out, but once you got into it, you weren't really sure it was such a cool thing? Well I had this silly idea that, in the interests of full disclosure, I would write this two year budget for all the expenses that I and my man would have in our two years together, to give myself an idea of how expensive it was going to get, since the costs seem to go up every year, and so that he, and his wife or escort, could know what to expect. I sort of figured that it is better to get all the big shocks done up front because after that, most people can take anything in stride. But now that I sort of have the whole thing done, the numbers on it look kind of big and I wonder if anyone is going to say yes after seeing this thing. Even after taking off the stipend amounts that are available the last two years and even after splitting the joint costs more onto my side than his side, the numbers are sort of owwie. Maybe it wouldn't be so disturbing if a person went in not knowing and just sort of spent as they went. Then it would only be a shock when it was over and they looked back on how much was spent. The biggest items appear to be travel expenses and, believe it or not, gifts. If I've done my math correctly, then my travel expenses for those last two years are going to come out around $1,400 a month, on average, for twenty-four months. Assuming he drives instead of flying, his total comes in a fair bit lower, but it's still over $1,100 a month and that's just for gas and hotels. No food, no nothing else. Wow! I couldn't believe the total on the gifts either. For the two of us together, counting everything I could think of that we have to pay for, the gift budget for the two years (really almost all of it is in the last year) came to $16,700. AAAHHH!!! After those numbers, my $6,000 budget for clothes for the two years looked almost miniscule. And $1200 for postage, unless I can get more of my girls onto e-mail, practically nothing. After all, when you are drowning in an ocean, who cares if someone pours a tea cup of water on your head. All in and all done, after all the reimbursements and fund raisers I could think of and assuming contributions from our respective Chapters for a joint reception and assuming that I took on the lion's share of the gifts and other shared expenses, the lowest I could get his number per month for twenty-four months was about $1,200. Of course if I ask him by February or March and he starts saving early, he can think of the amount as around $950 per month. Hey, that's a three digit number. No problem, right? So now I wonder. Is ignorance bliss or is full disclosure better? I need someone to say yes after all and the idea of the job alone is enough to scare anyone. On the other hand, if he's the type to get scared off, then he's probably not right for me, since I am definitely more of a roller coaster girl than a merry-go-round type. I'll take the big drops and lows if I get the big highs too. Next weekend I will finish off the last of the Installations in my local area.

Calling for Volunteers

This past weekend I attended two more Installations and in both of them, a common thread got me thinking about one of the hardest parts of leadership in a volunteer organization, which is asking for volunteers to do stuff for you. The problem is a serious multilegged beastie. Here are some of the legs I've noticed. Asking Strangers - For those of us who are shy, talking to strangers or calling them on the phone is bad enough. Asking them for favors is torture squared! But there's no getting around it. Whether you are a local officer, calling people you don't know out of your Chapter's own roster of members or you are at a state level and calling people you don't know who've been recommended to you, you just have to pick up the phone and dial. AAAHH!! At least with members of Eastern Star, you are fairly well assured that even if they don't want to do what you ask them to do, they'll at least say no nicely and not make it any worse on you. But how tough to make lots of calls and get lots of rejection. I have been spared that so far, but then, I've only had to ask a few people so far too. Motivating People - People have different things that motivate them to volunteer to help and that make them feel rewarded for their service. Some people like little gifts, some want public thanks, some want private thanks. Some people don't want or need anything so long as they can have the satisfaction of having a good job to do and doing it well. Figuring out what each person would most appreciate can be tough and if you don't get it right, you can not only end up with someone who feels unappreciated, but someone that you may have "un-motivated" to help next time. So you really need to try to figure this out. Why They Say Yes - Sometimes people agree to do things because it is good for the Order as a whole, sometimes they say yes because they are willing to do a favor for the person who is doing the asking, sometimes they say yes because the job proposed for them will be fun and sometimes people say yes because they see this job as a stepping stone to other things. Do we care why they say yes? Well, sometimes we do. For some jobs, why a person said yes will have a bearing on how well the job will get done and for some jobs, we want more altruistic motives than for others. At the end of the day, if someone is agreeing to mop the floor and take out the trash, I may not care too much why. :-) But if they are agreeing to do a job that confers perceived status or recognition, then I may care why a lot. But when you don't know the person very well, figuring this out can be a real challenge. Anybody want to go fishing in a grain silo for a shirt button? Matching the Person to the Job - Some jobs call for organizational skills and others for creativity. Some jobs need good people skills and some jobs require self-motivators who work well alone. Again, when you don't know the people on a personal level, matching the person to the job can be a tough problem because if you put the right person in the wrong job, nothing good will come of it. These are just a few of the issues that arise when trying to fill out a volunteer roster, whether it is for Chapter dining room chairman for one meeting or a five year appointment to a statewide committee. It sure would be nice if we had a better way of gathering information on who the people are and how they think before we take the leap into asking them to help us out with things. The other wish I would have is for wisdom in how to deal with the people who say, "if you need help, let me know" as you are walking around during a social hour. I am totally grateful for every person who volunteers to help me, but if anyone thinks that I am going to remember that they offered by the time the social hour is over and I have a chance to make a note of the person, they are overestimating my memory. And that is assuming that I can remember their name with which to make the note by the time I get back to my note book. I suppose I could write their name and offer on my hand, but I wouldn't want to get ink on anyone else. And people look at you weird when you write on other parts of your body. :-) Next weekend, I have more Installations to attend in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Tis the Season To Install

Here we are back in November and a month of Installation Ceremonies stretches out before me. With 183 Installations in twenty-nine days (no one installs on Thanksgiving so far as I know), there is obviously no way to attend even a fraction of them, especially not when your teleporter is on the fritz and no one seems to carry parts for it. Even if you don't work and could travel every day and go to two installations every weekend day, that would only be thirty-eight you could get to as a possible maximum, and even if you went to different ones each of your four years as a Grand Line officer, another impossible task, but if we're going to dream, let's dream BIG, you still couldn't get to them all. And of course the problem was even more impossible back when there were over 200 Chapters or more. So this year, an interesting philosophical question has been posed - If you can't get to all of them, should you go to any but your own Chapter? And if you do go to more, how do you decide which ones? One side says that the is the only way to be fair is to go to none but your own, because that way, everyone is treated equally. Other people say that you should accept invitations in the order in which you receive them, because that is what you do with all other social activities in life. Still other people say that you should go to all the ones in your Association or general area, because those are the people who support you in your service as a Grand Officer, but not travel outside of your area because of the fairness issue. And then others say that you should go to all the Chapters in your district and also the ones where someone you know or served with is going in as either the head of the Chapter or as one of your own subordinate officers.

Before this question arose, I started doing what I have done every year, which is to accept invitations in the order received if I could reasonably get to the Installation. So far, I've accepted about eleven, but more invitiations are coming in all the time. I've also found out that I am not acting quite normal because I send an RSVP to every invitation, either yes or no, but other people evidently only send a yes and ignore the invite if it is a no because I've had several people surprised to hear from me with a no. Go figure? And my pet peeve for the season are the invitations that don't give any RSVP information at all, nothing, nada, zip, zilch, zero! I know that people are really bad sometimes about the RSVPs, but please don't make us work at it. :-)

I am going to have to think about the idea of how many installations to do as I go into the next two years. But for now, next weekend, I am heading south on Saturday for installing down there and then coming back Sunday morning for my own Chapter. WHEW!

Schoolhouse Rock

Another year comes around and another Deputy Grand Matron school for the Grand Officers to help teach the new Deputy Grand Matrons how to perform the ceremonies of our Order so that they in turn can instruct the individual Chapters in their Districts. Each year, the main school is traditionally held near the home Chapter of the Worthy Grand Matron, so this year, we were in Hayward. The school this year was a little different because a fair number of the Deputies are repeaters, meaning that they have served as deputy before. That makes it different because on the one hand, the repeaters can ask questions at a greater level of detail, having learned all the basics before, but it can also be a challenge because some things have changed and it is tough to learn a new way when you have an old way stuck in your head. I had that problem last year because when I was first Associate Conductress in my Chapter, I learned a lecture that has since been completely re-written and it is tough to get the old one out of your head in favor of the new one. I had that same toughness in a couple of spots this year although luckily I had all of last year watching my Big Sister to try to fix those. For example, when I was first a Conductress in my Chapter in the early nineties, I could have sworn that we turned at a different point on the floor to go in to open the Bible, one of the duties that the Conductress performs most often, but now we turn at an earlier point and it is hard to get that stuck in your head unless you just do it over and over. Some other little bits have changed also and for each one, you have to toss out the old and in with the new, assuming you remember which is which of course. I really enjoyed the school not only because I love to teach, but it also gave me a bit more practice before I have to go out on the road and teach all this stuff to my girls, so that I can have it all correct in my head because if you teach it wrong, it gets done wrong FOREVER! One thing that made this particularly interesting is that in Hayward, the first floor of the lodge building is rented out to a church on Sunday. As we discovered at Grand Officer School, and as we were reminded this weekend, this particular church is not quiet. In fact, we could have danced to the music on the second floor, where we were practicing, without any trouble whatsoever. I've never wanted to go to church before, being Jewish, but I must admit that I was curious to see what on earth was going on down there that had to be so LOUD. Unfortunately, the church got out around an hour or so before we were done, so they had cleared out by the time we went downstairs. So I guess I will have to check it out another time. I thought I had mostly recovered from Grand Chapter, but spending Friday on my feet again in flats taught me that I was overly optimistic. So Saturday was tennis shoe day since I knew that there would also be walking to do on Sunday. On Sunday, because it was Halloween, the Grand Officers came in to start the day and then we went out on "break" while some other stuff was discussed with the Deputies, and then we came back into the room in costumes. I am sure that there will be opportunities for people to see our costumes because as soon as we walked in, the cameras started going off. There were lots of individual pictures taken and then some people insisted on group pictures too. I wore my Dorothy costume, complete with silver shoes, (I am a book Dorothy, not a movie Dorothy, I'll have you know), and pigtails tied with gingham ribbons. Someone told me that I looked young enough to card with my hair parted in the middle and put into pigtails and I know that it is true because when I was in my thirties, I wore my hair that way and got carded. That may be why I now part my hair on one side. I know I look young enough to be Dorothy in the costume, but I also knew that the Eastern Star paparazzi were likely to get us, so Dorothy was a better choice than the only other costume I own, which is a short, black satin saloon girl costume with red, ruffled petticoats and a hairband with a feather sticking up out of it. Sometimes people ask me why I don't wear my medieval clothing for a Halloween costume and I tell them that I don't think of those clothes as a costume. They're my clothes for SCA events and medieval parties, just like my formals are for Eastern Star events and formal occasions, although I admit that I own a few that could be turned into costumes. :-) Now that it is November, we are into Installation season. I will be doing installations all over the state each weekend this month. I only go to ones where I am invited and I try to always RSVP any invitation I get, but it helps when there is a proposed RSVP contact on the invite. I will pick up on more group travel with the Grand Family the first weekend in December.