Scheduling - The Chicken or the Egg - Part 1

One of the major bug a boos of an Eastern Star year is the calendar. As I have mentioned, I have already started putting together a general idea of how mine will look, but currently, I am painting with a broad brush, just getting the overall feel of what I want to do and how. There are a number of different views on how the calendar should be put together and some of them are mutually exclusive. Each seems to have its good points and its bad points, but at the end of the day, you do the best you can and pray for good weather. One of the topics that has been floating around for me is the question of OVs and Receptions. In some years, all of the Official Visits start in January and end around June or July. Then all the Receptions fall in, starting with the Grand Conductress in July, before the legislative booklet comes out and announces her nominee for her, and then all of the appointive officers and the Grand Treasurer, presuming that she or he will only serve one year, which is what has been happening lately, and ending in September with a joint reception for the WGM and WGP. There used to be separate receptions for those two, with his first and hers after, but time, cost, convenience and travel have encouraged the joint reception for our leaders, assuming that by the end of the year, you and your guy are still on good speaking term. :-) I had considered splitting those two back apart, simply because it is nice to have your reception close to family and friends so that those who have done all the work of supporting you can attend with minimal trouble, but the 2013 calendar has conspired against me on that and forced a decision to have a joint reception because there's only on Saturday in September to have it. So Mr. Wizard and I will not have to discuss the pros and cons on that topic, since the calendar has decided it. For people who do all the receptions at the end of the year, the philosophy is that receptions should fall closer to the end of a person's term of service. After all, we are honoring the service they've given rather than the service they are going to do, some say. And it is nice to get the OVs done earlier so that all the Deputies can breathe a little easier. The other advantage here is that the Chapter giving the reception has more time to plan it and put it together. However, another way of doing the OVs and Receptions is to spread both out over more of the calendar. Receptions can start as early as March or April and are spread throughout the year. In this model, the OVs can go later, even into July and August also. But it also means that some people have very early receptions and their Chapters have less time to plan and prepare. The advantage of spreading the receptions out is that the Grand Family doesn't attend two and three receptions each weekend and it is less hardship for all of the Grand Family to attend each one without missing because they don't have to race off to get ready for their own. It also allows more receptions to be placed on Saturday nights, which seems to be the time that gets the most attendees and if you are going to put on a reception, it would seem to be nice to get as many people to attend as possible. And it also allows for a slightly easier travel schedule if your Grand Officers are very spread out because if you have three receptions in a weekend, you have to travel to each one. So I am wrassling with these two different views and trying to decide between them as I look at the basics of charting out a calendar. However, this is the macro view. The problems of the micro view are a topic for next week. This weekend I will be home for New Year's.

One Year or Four

This past weekend we did two Transitionals in the San Joaquin Valley. Transitionals are instruction opportunities put on by the Grand Conductress and Associate Grand Conductress for their officers, and anyone else who is interested, sometimes ladies who are considering becoming line officers/leaders in their Chapter at a later date or someone who wants to learn to do the specific ritual work of those two offices better, and anyone who gets dragged along, usually a husband who will probably be serving with his wife later anyway and knows that driving and schlepping is his calling in life. We start by going through all the different ceremonial bits that are special for Conductresses to do, which look awesome when done correctly and sort of like a demolition derby when done incorrectly. When done correctly, you are amazed at how smoothly, easily and beautifully it all looks. When done really, really wrong, the best you hope for is that no one gets hurt by running into anyone else and nothing that is not supposed to be dropped hits the floor. Since there are so many of these extra bits, and since no one else really needs to practice those bits, they are not usually covered in full and excruciating detail at the more general officer practices and training sessions, so it is important that the two Grand Line Officers in those positions try to get that extra training and information out to the sisters serving with them. But because we still have to be at everything else, there is a lot of maneuvering to get time slots set up that dovetail with the rest of the Grand Family's calendar. The bottom line is that the first three months of the first two years of Grand Line Officer-ness are very busy! This year we are doing eleven Transitionals from December to February. I wanted to get them all done as early as possible so that the girls would have lessons in how to do the work before they had to do it too many times this year. Luckily, there are several empty weekends on the Grand Chapter calendar in December and February, so I was able to load in our events. After we do the joint practice, there is some break out time where we each take our own group of girls to do some things specific to that particular year. Associate Conductresses, for example, are in charge of the ballot box, and that piece of work can take a lot of practice to do well. Conductresses open and close the Bible, so we practice doing that gracefully and reverently. And hopefully there is a little time to talk about what is going on for the rest of the year, special events and such. All in and all done, we go for about three and a half hours, about two hours of joint session, a fifteen minute break, and then about an hour of separate activities. Doing two of these in one day, was quite the challenge. Luckily, I was fortified with coffee, juice and muffins at the first one and a fabulous baked potato and salad bar before the second one, all put together by my girls. They did a great job! My understanding was that these came to be called Transitionals because the girls were transitioning from being an appointed floor officer into an elected leadership position in their Chapter and the AGC and I, as their Grand Line officers, are given this opportunity to help them make that transition, form local groups to support them in their endeavors and as a time to spend with their big/little sisters as they move up the line. But one thing that has changed over the past two decades or so is the number of people who tell me that they are not going on through the line, but instead are just helping their Chapter out. Some of these people come to the Transitionals anyway because they want to do a good job for their Chapter in this one office, and I am glad that they do. But I am told that some people don't come because since they are not going on, they have no need to meet me or for me to get to know them. That makes me sad sometimes because whether you are in for one year or four, the work that we are teaching is this year's stuff and if you are going to help, it would be nice to try your best. Now some people tell me that they don't have to come because they've done it several times before and so they already know the work, but just to let every one in on a big secret - The Work Has Changed Over The Years! Shocking, isn't it? Yes, the work has actually changed over the years and there are some things where, if you learned them years ago and did them that way, they are no longer the correct way. So it would be nice if everyone serving their Chapter in one of these roles would come, but as they say, we can fill the trough, but we can't make you come take a drink. The ones I feel for the most however, are the ones who want to come and can't. Whether it is because of their work or family schedule or other commitments, it is sad when someone really wants to participate and cannot attend. It is too bad that we cannot videotape one of our Transitionals and make the tape available for people who couldn't come to check out. Oh well, some times you win, sometimes you lose. We are off the next two weekends for Christmas and for New Year's.

Silver Lining

This past weekend I had a lovely opportunity to turn lemons into lemonade, to find the silver lining inside the rain cloud and to make the best of a bad situation. On Saturday, I had a call from a lady who told me that the Conductress of her Chapter had not gotten the sheet of Transitional dates in her packet that went out last Monday and she was wondering if we had cancelled the Transitional. After taking several deep breaths and trying not to freak out at how a missing piece of paper had turned into a cancelled event, I explained that no, we had not cancelled, that all the Transitionals were still on and that they were still all in the same places and at the same times. Having handled the immediate problem, I then started to consider the bigger picture. Of the 181 Chapters in California, I had had to mail packets by regular mail to Conductresses for 74 of them. I knew that all the ones on e-mail had gotten the Transitional schedule, so the total possible pool of missing people was 74. I knew that some of them had picked up the schedule at the State Dinner at Grand Chapter, some of them had gotten it sent to them by their Association President and some of them had already told me that they were just helping out for the one year and not going on. Eliminating all of those left me with about 60 to 65 who might or might not have gotten the schedule. So, not knowing which ones did and which ones did not get the list, there were two options. I could type or write out 65 envelopes and send out another mailing right now, which might or might not get to them on time, depending on where they were, or I could pick up the phone and call all these Sisters and make sure they had their local information. Mailing would have taken me about two hours, calling about four, but with calling, I might have more certainty. I suppose I could have done nothing, but the thought of 65 people who might miss because of a mailing was unacceptable. Still, calling 65 people is a pretty daunting task. The next choice facing me was how to do it. My cell phone signal in my house is very poor, but the cell phone has unlimited calling and free long distance. My land line signal is great, but I would get charged ten cents a minute for the calls. I did briefly toy with the idea that I could sit in the jacuzzi and make the calls because the signal outside is very good, but I didn't have a laminated Conductress roster and it is hard to dial when the screen fogs up. So I decided that I would sit in the breakfast nook, which has maximum windows, and make the calls, all 65 of them. And yes, it did take four hours. And yes, I've never had so sore an ear in all my life! My old phone was a flip phone, so it was at least contoured a little bit. These BlackBerries and other BB type phones may be great for e-mail and texting, but holding a flat surface to your face for four hours is misery squared. The worst part was that the signal was only usable on the left side, so I couldn't even switch off from ear to ear. I had to take a break every twenty calls or so to massage life back into my ear. Nevertheless, I got all the calls made and hopefully one more nightmare out of my life, fingers crossed. And I did get some good lemonade and silver lining out of the situation. For lemonade, I got to speak directly with about half of the sisters that I called, leaving messages for the others, and got to find out about them and their Chapters and chat a little, which was nice. For silver lining, I got to move eighteen more people off my snail mail list so that in the spring, when I send stuff out, I am down to only 56 mailings, less than two pages of labels. Hurrah! (I realize that normal people don't get excited about this sort of thing, but if you've been there, you understand completely!) So this morning, I got to add a bunch of people to my e-mail list and take them off the snail mail list, I got to make more notes and comments on my Spread Sheet of All Knowledge About My Girls and I've already started getting some responses back to the questionnaires in my last packet, which makes me very happy. I also learned a couple of interesting things. I learned that some people can set their cell phone not to receive incoming calls. I suppose that is to save minutes. But it is very inconvenient when those people have disconnected their land line and don't provide an e-mail either and my tech friend tells me that phones set that way also do not show the call in their call log, so I guess some people don't want to talk to anybody. I also found out that some people set their voice mail on their cell phone not to allow messages to be left, so I guess that they are relying on their call log to get back to people and I hope they call me back, but we will have to see. Next time, I am checking all the packets twice! Next weekend, I am in Fresno and Manteca.

Afternoon Tea

This past weekend was the Christmas Party at our Senior Living Community in Yorba Linda, commonly referred to as the SLC. In years past, the party had several parts, including an entertainment segment of holiday songs and jokes, a segment with Santa handing out presents for all the residents and a fancy dinner at which the Grand Officers of the current year and the last year were invited to sit with and have dinner with the residents of the SLC. The general membership was also invited to come to the party and join in the fun. All of the pieces of this party were good, but the timing and arrangement were not the best and it could get very crowded. The residents' largest meal of the day is usually lunch and not dinner, and many of them no longer like to stay up late and don't want a big, late meal, so this format was not working to maximize the enjoyment of the residents, which is the whole purpose of the party. Last year, the party pieces were rearranged to start earlier and end earlier, and that did work better. This year, we did a couple of new things, which worked well, but have a couple of spots that can be improved going forward. It was great both last year and this year to try something different and we are definitely heading in the right direction. And luckily, I get to see how next year goes before I have to make a decision on what to do. This year, in addition to doing the Santa presents, the Grand Officers have each been given some residents, three in my case, to whom we delivered presents by making an individual visit to their units. I think they enjoyed that a lot and I enjoyed having the chance to chat with my residents about their families and hobbies. That part was great! I hope we get to do that again, but I wonder if they will change us all around or let us keep with the same residents. The appointive officers in the Grand Family will change, of course, but those of us who are in the Grand Line will be the same people next year. It would be nice to have new people and over time get to know all the residents, but it could also be nice to keep the same people because it would be very hard to tell your last year's people that you need to spend your visiting time with others and not with them and that could be awkward too, so there is definitely something to think about as we move forward. After the visits, we had afternoon tea together. I had a lovely time chatting with a couple of other residents at the tea, but I would have liked to have been seated with my new special friends so that we could continue our chat and so that when the private visits were over, I could have said that I would see them again in a bit at the tea. On the other hand, sitting with different people did give me a chance to meet two more residents and find out about them and their hobbies, so again, this needs some thinking over. The tea was a little tough for me because it was all desserts and some of us who had meetings all morning had not had any lunch. And I had so hoped that there would be cucumber sandwiches. What's a tea without cucumber sandwiches? :-) After the tea, we had the sing along and then the Santa visit and then the residents had presents for the Grand Officers. In honor of the tea, I got a lovely ornament of a tea pot with a little cup with SLC 2010 painted on it. It is in my curio cabinet now and will be a lovely memento of the day. The one part that always gets a little awkward, (maybe more for the people sitting around me than for me, :-) is that I am Jewish and don't sing Christmas carols. I don't mind being in a room where other people are singing them, but I don't sing them. Sometimes people ask me if there are any Hanukkah songs that we could include, but I tell them that this party is for the residents, all of whom so far as I know are Christian, and that they should have the songs they know and love to make their holiday bright. They wouldn't know the Hanukkah songs and those songs would have no meaning for them anyway, so I don't need them and have no plans to include them in my year. What I may do, that was done a few years ago, is a little education piece on the story of Hanukkah and what it is about, because I think that could be fun and interesting. I find learning about other people's holidays fun, even if I don't celebrate those holidays. So I may do that, but we don't have to sing dreidel songs. The only problem I have run into is that other people think that I have to sing the Christmas songs whether I want to or not as part of my duty to entertain the residents. When forced to it, I try to compromise some and sing the winter/snow type songs, like Frosty the Snowman or Let It Snow, but people do not seem to understand that even these are very uncomfortable for me because no matter the lyrics, these are still Christmas songs and to me, singing them implies that I am celebrating that holiday. No one has ever asked me to eat a pork chop for the comfort of others, but I guess people don't see celebrating Christmas in the same light, perhaps because for many people Christmas has become so secular that they have lost track that this is really a religious holiday. In the same vein, I don't mind at all if other people sing these songs while I am there because those who believe in those songs should get their chance to sing them. I respect their religious views and they should have the chance to celebrate in their way. And if they want to eat pork chops, I hope that they enjoy them immensely. :-) We also had our first Transitional this weekend, but I will write about that next Monday. Next weekend we are off duty. :-)