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.