This past couple of weeks, I have been working with others in the Grand Line on the books that we put out for our officers in preparation for their time as leaders of our local Chapters. The Leadership Committee and Grand Line are exploring the possibility of standardizing these books for the Worthy Matrons and Worthy Patrons with separate Special Instruction Packets for each year. That way, a person who is repeating would not have to buy another copy of the whole book. They would just have to get the year's packet. It would also help create more consistency from year to year, which we hope will help the members in our Chapters.
So we are working on edits and polish, but one of the very interesting side effects is a growing awareness of how radically different traditions are around the state when it comes to all sorts of things. The challenge is writing a handbook that is not so vague as to be useless, while allowing enough flexibility to allow individual Chapter traditions to be used without causing anxiety. Here are some of the questions whose answers vary as you travel around the state and sometimes even from Chapter to Chapter within the same area:
Who is the Chairman of the Deputy's Official Visit?
(The right answer is NOT whichever poor dumb hick didn't get out of the way fast enough! Well, that might be the answer, but it shouldn't be the answer :-)
A. The last lady in the Chapter to serve as Deputy
B. The lady who was Worthy Matron in the same year as the Deputy
C. The current Conductress
D. The current Associate Matron
E. None of the above.
Who is the Chairman of the Worthy Matron and Worthy Patron's Farewell meeting?
(The right answer is NOT the Worthy Matron because no one else volunteered. :-)
A. The Installation Chairman
B. The Junior Past Matron
C. The Associate Matron
D. Whoever the Worthy Matron asks
E. None of the above.
Who is in charge of lining up dining room chairmen for every meeting?
(The right answer is NOT "dining room chairmen, what do they do?")
A. The Worthy Matron
B. The Associate Matron
C. The Conductress
D. A Chairmen of Chairmen appointed by the Worthy Matron
E. None of the Above
So there are a fair number of places where we can talk about a thing and then need to advise people to consult their Chapter's traditions on what to do.
But that brings us to the next problem, which is that many Chapters don't seem to have their Traditions written down. So to find out what they are, you have to ask around. But the problem with that is that if your Chapter has had consolidations, you can get five different answers from five different people because the Chapters that have consolidated all had different traditions in the first place. We try to advise Chapters when they consolidate that they should form a Traditions committee to write up the traditions and work out a new list for the new Chapter, but many people are understandably reluctant to do that because they don't want to start fights over whose traditions are going to be kept and which tossed. But the pain and grief that line officers go through trying to find out what a Chapter's traditions might be could be helped a lot by just having the list. So maybe we need to adopt the old rule of voting - If you don't vote, you can't beef about who gets elected. This version would be - If your Chapter traditions are not written down, you can't beef if the Worthy Matron is doing something else. I bet that would encourage people to sit down, make the list and hash it out.
Of course, traditions can cause grief too. Sometimes people like to do something different and then they get the fact of a "Chapter Tradition" tossed at them as a reason why they "CANNOT" possibly do the new thing. The important thing to remember, but deathly painful about which to remind others, is that a tradition is a custom, but it is not a rule or a law. So sometimes you need to be flexible and let someone try something new without punishing them for daring to have a new idea. I mean, where would we be today if the tradition of having an outhouse hadn't been broken by people who were tired of going outside to take a leak. Without indoor plumbing, that's where we'd be. So it's nice to have these things written down, so that we know when we are doing something different and can brace against the tornado it causes, instead of getting blindsided when someone tells us that we've VIOLATED THE SACRED TRADITION and we just look at them and go Huh?
Next weekend, I will be at the Summer Festival at the SLC and the Masonic Picnic in Covina.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Writing A Three Part Novel - Well, Maybe Four
This past week or so, I have been working on book edits and suggestions. It is very important, but it is like slogging through mud and just as fast.
Each year, the Associate Grand Matron and Associate Grand Patron have written whole books, really, really, one for the butcher, one for the baker, one for the candlestick maker - no sorry, mind going away, okay found it - one for their Grand Officers, one for their Deputies, and one for their subordinate officers, to use during their year. The theory is that they work together on the first two books and then each write the one for their group, either Matrons or Patrons. I am not sure how much theory and reality have fused here, but it is just vaguely possible that she writes more than he does, but it is just a scurrilous rumor.
The usual course of this was for the Grand Line officers to give these books to their Grand Officers and Deputies and to sell these books to their subordinates. That used to mean making gobs of paper copies and then hauling huge boxes of books to workshops to distribute and sell and then using the extras for firewood on long, cold nights. After all the Line officers paid for these out of their pocket and if they don't sell them all, the least the extras can do is be worth their weight in wood, yes?
It was always a big hassle and a really tough job. Recently, we went to a CD format, because it only costs a buck and a half to bulk copy CDs and they are lighter weight. You don't get your money back out of the extras though, since you should not throw CDs into a fireplace. We are still offering paper copies to those who pre-order them, but few people want them and when they do, since they are pre-ordered, there are no extras so that saves A LOT.
Anyway, a lot of the stuff in these books, especially the Worthy Matron and Worthy Patron books, repeats itself from year to year, so it seemed a bit silly that we all had to redo the books, primarily to change the illustrations and to tack in the few items that change, like songs, projects, flag tributes and so on. It became apparent that if you created a packet with all the changed pages, you could create a common book that could be used year after year. That way, if you went through again, you wouldn't have to buy another one, just that year's packet, and the Grand Line officers would not be reinventing the wheel all the time.
But to make sure that it will work for several years, we are trying to go through them together as an upcoming Grand Line and work out books that make sense, are readable and understandable and are comfortable for people coming from different areas. That's where it gets a bit tricky.
You see, traditions are so different in so many places that you have to try to explain how we do this if we do this, but this is how we do this if we do that, but this is how we do that if we do this, and so on and so on. And of course, everything has to correspond with our Ritual and our Constitution and our Instruction Book because if there are any inconsistencies, someone is going to find them and then all H E double hockey sticks will break loose. So the reading is pretty slow going and the books are pretty large. But when this is all done, it will be amazing!!! Someday, when my Grand Marshal is in my current spot, she will love me forever!
Next weekend has no events so I am going to see about finishing my training flights for my instrument rating check ride and hope to get my instrument rating in the next couple of weeks.
Each year, the Associate Grand Matron and Associate Grand Patron have written whole books, really, really, one for the butcher, one for the baker, one for the candlestick maker - no sorry, mind going away, okay found it - one for their Grand Officers, one for their Deputies, and one for their subordinate officers, to use during their year. The theory is that they work together on the first two books and then each write the one for their group, either Matrons or Patrons. I am not sure how much theory and reality have fused here, but it is just vaguely possible that she writes more than he does, but it is just a scurrilous rumor.
The usual course of this was for the Grand Line officers to give these books to their Grand Officers and Deputies and to sell these books to their subordinates. That used to mean making gobs of paper copies and then hauling huge boxes of books to workshops to distribute and sell and then using the extras for firewood on long, cold nights. After all the Line officers paid for these out of their pocket and if they don't sell them all, the least the extras can do is be worth their weight in wood, yes?
It was always a big hassle and a really tough job. Recently, we went to a CD format, because it only costs a buck and a half to bulk copy CDs and they are lighter weight. You don't get your money back out of the extras though, since you should not throw CDs into a fireplace. We are still offering paper copies to those who pre-order them, but few people want them and when they do, since they are pre-ordered, there are no extras so that saves A LOT.
Anyway, a lot of the stuff in these books, especially the Worthy Matron and Worthy Patron books, repeats itself from year to year, so it seemed a bit silly that we all had to redo the books, primarily to change the illustrations and to tack in the few items that change, like songs, projects, flag tributes and so on. It became apparent that if you created a packet with all the changed pages, you could create a common book that could be used year after year. That way, if you went through again, you wouldn't have to buy another one, just that year's packet, and the Grand Line officers would not be reinventing the wheel all the time.
But to make sure that it will work for several years, we are trying to go through them together as an upcoming Grand Line and work out books that make sense, are readable and understandable and are comfortable for people coming from different areas. That's where it gets a bit tricky.
You see, traditions are so different in so many places that you have to try to explain how we do this if we do this, but this is how we do this if we do that, but this is how we do that if we do this, and so on and so on. And of course, everything has to correspond with our Ritual and our Constitution and our Instruction Book because if there are any inconsistencies, someone is going to find them and then all H E double hockey sticks will break loose. So the reading is pretty slow going and the books are pretty large. But when this is all done, it will be amazing!!! Someday, when my Grand Marshal is in my current spot, she will love me forever!
Next weekend has no events so I am going to see about finishing my training flights for my instrument rating check ride and hope to get my instrument rating in the next couple of weeks.
Monday, May 16, 2011
A Room With A View
This past weekend was the Orangebelt O-Vent, the other combined Official Visit and Association Event, like the one put on by the San Diego area last February. This one was held at a winery, with wine tasting and tours in the morning and a lovely gourmet lunch and program after.
Because this was the other O-vent of the year, I heard some similar feedback to that in San Diego, about how members should not have to pay to attend the Official Visit to their area. Ironically, this event could have partially solved that problem, but it didn't quite happen that way. The reason is because the wine tasting morning made for a wonderful social time. Even people who don't like to taste wine could socialize and chat with friends. What probably could have happened, because the wine tasting area was a big outdoor area with plenty of seating and tables, is that it probably could have been arranged so that people who were not going to attend the lunch and program later could come during the social time, just to chat with the Grand Officers and meet people. Everyone paid for their own wine tasting, or not, if they didn't want to, so that was a totally voluntary cost. And there was plenty of room. But it just didn't work out that way. Maybe another time.
The other thing that struck me about the O-Vent format is that technically, you would not have to charge people to come if the Chapters wanted to pay for the event instead of charging the attendees. The first Official Visit of the year was like that, where we had a splendid dinner and entertainment evening and no one paid to attend. The Chapters followed the formula in our rules where each Chapter paid its share of the cost of the event, based on their proportionate share of the membership in the District. So a Chapter with 100 members would pay half of what a Chapter with 200 members would pay and so on. That is the traditional way that OVs are paid for and you could have a dinner/entertainment OV and do that, as we saw at the beginning of the year. But you'd have to plan it a bit ahead of time and get your estimated cost for the Chapter into the Chapter budget the year before the OV so that people wouldn't be surprised about the increase in cost. Still, that way, no one would be charged a ticket price and Chapters with more attendees would get more value for their dollar, so more attendees would be better since the amount each Chapter pays is dependent on their total membership and not based on who shows up.
As my planning process continues, I will need to find out what areas would like to try this O-Vent sort of thing, who wants an Association event unrelated to the Official Visit and what other things people want to put into the calendar. As usual, everything seems to need to happen earlier than you might think because each O-Vent changes the number of Official Visits that I have to fit into the calendar. So the decision on whether to do that or not may have to happen sooner rather than later. But I think that it will probably be necessary to either have a free portion of the event so that members can come and meet the Grand Family without paying or the entire event will have to be free of charge with the Chapters each paying their per capita share as set out in our Constitution. It is definitely something to think about, now that we have seen two of these and have gotten some feedback from our membership.
Next weekend I have work commitments close to home and I have books to review, so I will not be traveling.
Because this was the other O-vent of the year, I heard some similar feedback to that in San Diego, about how members should not have to pay to attend the Official Visit to their area. Ironically, this event could have partially solved that problem, but it didn't quite happen that way. The reason is because the wine tasting morning made for a wonderful social time. Even people who don't like to taste wine could socialize and chat with friends. What probably could have happened, because the wine tasting area was a big outdoor area with plenty of seating and tables, is that it probably could have been arranged so that people who were not going to attend the lunch and program later could come during the social time, just to chat with the Grand Officers and meet people. Everyone paid for their own wine tasting, or not, if they didn't want to, so that was a totally voluntary cost. And there was plenty of room. But it just didn't work out that way. Maybe another time.
The other thing that struck me about the O-Vent format is that technically, you would not have to charge people to come if the Chapters wanted to pay for the event instead of charging the attendees. The first Official Visit of the year was like that, where we had a splendid dinner and entertainment evening and no one paid to attend. The Chapters followed the formula in our rules where each Chapter paid its share of the cost of the event, based on their proportionate share of the membership in the District. So a Chapter with 100 members would pay half of what a Chapter with 200 members would pay and so on. That is the traditional way that OVs are paid for and you could have a dinner/entertainment OV and do that, as we saw at the beginning of the year. But you'd have to plan it a bit ahead of time and get your estimated cost for the Chapter into the Chapter budget the year before the OV so that people wouldn't be surprised about the increase in cost. Still, that way, no one would be charged a ticket price and Chapters with more attendees would get more value for their dollar, so more attendees would be better since the amount each Chapter pays is dependent on their total membership and not based on who shows up.
As my planning process continues, I will need to find out what areas would like to try this O-Vent sort of thing, who wants an Association event unrelated to the Official Visit and what other things people want to put into the calendar. As usual, everything seems to need to happen earlier than you might think because each O-Vent changes the number of Official Visits that I have to fit into the calendar. So the decision on whether to do that or not may have to happen sooner rather than later. But I think that it will probably be necessary to either have a free portion of the event so that members can come and meet the Grand Family without paying or the entire event will have to be free of charge with the Chapters each paying their per capita share as set out in our Constitution. It is definitely something to think about, now that we have seen two of these and have gotten some feedback from our membership.
Next weekend I have work commitments close to home and I have books to review, so I will not be traveling.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Clothing Makes The Man
This past weekend, I attended an official visit which, while Traditional Style, was nevertheless in Hawaiian dress. Since it can get pretty hot in parts of California, Hawaiian dress can be very comfortable compared to layers and layers of nylon. But an interesting comment by one of the members caught my ear.
This member, who was speaking to someone else in the dining room during refreshments, made a comment about how hard it was to figure out in the crowd who the Grand Officers were when they were not dressed all alike, which is often how we appear at events. I do not know if she was trying to find her particular Grand Officer or looking for Grand Officers in general, but it did raise an interesting point. What is the proper balance between wanting the Grand Officers to be readily identifiable and having them pay too much for clothes and outfits for all occasions? Do Grand Officer name badges need to be large and obvious so that we can be found, or can smaller, less ostentatious badges do the same job?
As I am thinking about all the clothing selections and forms that I have to prepare in the next year or two, one of the items that I have to consider is how many outfits I will make my Grand Officers purchase for use during my year. While I hope that each outfit I select can be used again in the years to come, I cannot count on that happening, particularly for the Grand Line Officers, who will be dressing to match others as they move forward. I know that I am probably looking at a bare minimum of a formal, a travel outfit, a medieval, and a polo shirt, I could add a lot of other things too, like one or two more formals, another skirt for the ladies and slacks for the men, a Western outfit, a Hawaiian outfit, etc., etc. Each year has a flavor, which is why my officers will probably need a medieval outfit but probably won't need a matching Western or Hawaiian, but do I go with just one formal or just two, or the traditional three or more? There's cost, but there is also style and appearance. As the old saying goes about clothing making a man, it seems to me that there is an expectation that clothes are one of the things that make a Grand Officer.
So when a year does not have an ocean or seaside flavor and you ask for Hawaiian, I don't think it is realistic to expect matching outfits. On the other hand, if the themes of the year are very Western, I might think that the members do expect some sort of uniform look, even if it is just a matching top.
We are also experimenting with smaller name badges this year. The older ones were very, very obvious and quite showy, but the darn things used to catch on EVERYTHING. I mean, we all like being close to one another, but when every hug ends with an "Ooops" or a "Hang on a sec, I'm snagged on your dress", it is not so fun. So it does seem like some change was in order, but I am wondering if the current iteration is a bit too small and doesn't quite say enough. At least the ice has been broken on the idea that we don't have to use the same stuff every single year, so hopefully some experimenting in the years to come will let us reach a happy place where hugs end when they end.
Next weekend, I am going to Temecula all day.
This member, who was speaking to someone else in the dining room during refreshments, made a comment about how hard it was to figure out in the crowd who the Grand Officers were when they were not dressed all alike, which is often how we appear at events. I do not know if she was trying to find her particular Grand Officer or looking for Grand Officers in general, but it did raise an interesting point. What is the proper balance between wanting the Grand Officers to be readily identifiable and having them pay too much for clothes and outfits for all occasions? Do Grand Officer name badges need to be large and obvious so that we can be found, or can smaller, less ostentatious badges do the same job?
As I am thinking about all the clothing selections and forms that I have to prepare in the next year or two, one of the items that I have to consider is how many outfits I will make my Grand Officers purchase for use during my year. While I hope that each outfit I select can be used again in the years to come, I cannot count on that happening, particularly for the Grand Line Officers, who will be dressing to match others as they move forward. I know that I am probably looking at a bare minimum of a formal, a travel outfit, a medieval, and a polo shirt, I could add a lot of other things too, like one or two more formals, another skirt for the ladies and slacks for the men, a Western outfit, a Hawaiian outfit, etc., etc. Each year has a flavor, which is why my officers will probably need a medieval outfit but probably won't need a matching Western or Hawaiian, but do I go with just one formal or just two, or the traditional three or more? There's cost, but there is also style and appearance. As the old saying goes about clothing making a man, it seems to me that there is an expectation that clothes are one of the things that make a Grand Officer.
So when a year does not have an ocean or seaside flavor and you ask for Hawaiian, I don't think it is realistic to expect matching outfits. On the other hand, if the themes of the year are very Western, I might think that the members do expect some sort of uniform look, even if it is just a matching top.
We are also experimenting with smaller name badges this year. The older ones were very, very obvious and quite showy, but the darn things used to catch on EVERYTHING. I mean, we all like being close to one another, but when every hug ends with an "Ooops" or a "Hang on a sec, I'm snagged on your dress", it is not so fun. So it does seem like some change was in order, but I am wondering if the current iteration is a bit too small and doesn't quite say enough. At least the ice has been broken on the idea that we don't have to use the same stuff every single year, so hopefully some experimenting in the years to come will let us reach a happy place where hugs end when they end.
Next weekend, I am going to Temecula all day.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Similarities and Differences
This past weekend, I attended the Junior Warden's Retreat in Newport Beach. This is a training retreat put on by the Grand Lodge of California for all the men who will be serving as Master of their Lodge in 2013, the counterparts to my girls, put on by my Grand Lodge counterpart, whose title is actually Senior Grand Warden because the Grand Lodge Line has an extra officer, which does introduce a certain level of confusion because next year, he will be the Deputy Grand Master and all his guys will be Senior Wardens, but then in 2013, they will catch up with each other when he is Grand Master and they are all Masters of their respective Lodges. Whew!
I understand that the Grand Lodge has been doing retreats for the Junior and Senior Wardens for about twenty years now. They have a leadership team that includes paid staff and volunteers and enough people to put on two days of seminars, with separate sessions on Saturday for the ladies apart from the men, and eight rooms for group exercises. A lot of great material was presented with power point slides and various hand outs.
I went because I am trying to improve leadership training for California Eastern Star and I hate reinventing the wheel. But translating over the materials presents some interesting challenges.
The top stumbling block that I see is, as it often is, money. As I understand it, the Grand Lodge, through its Foundation, subsidizes these retreats and the participants, while paying a high price, are not paying what it actually costs for the whole thing. I didn't see the price for this one, but I think that it was in the range of $350-$400, including the hotel room for two nights, the meals, the binder of materials and all activities. I could be wrong on that, but I think that I am in the ball park. Knowing hotels as I do, and these retreats are held at very nice hotels, the actual cost, all in, was probably closer to $550, so that is a fairly substantial subsidy. You could probably get the cost down to closer to what the attendees actually paid if you moved it to a much less expensive hotel, but then you are not going to get the same level of amenities either, with two ballrooms and eight break out rooms available for two and a half days at one property. I also understand that a lot of Lodges reimburse some or all of these expenses for their line officers. Of course, with average lodge dues around $100 a member, this sort of thing is probably a little easier to budget.
So we are starting smaller, with less expensive hotels, and sometimes using Masonic Centers and volunteer help to prepare meals. Where we are concentrating our efforts is in the program content and I think that we are doing a fine job of providing a very high level of quality in our training programs, with excellent facilitators and presenters. On the quality of experience side, we are already in good standing. We may not be able to afford the fancy stuff, but at least we are giving wonderful value for what we do charge, with presenters and materials that would cost three times what we charge if a person was trying to get the same level of training in the private sector.
However, our other challenge is establishing a "tradition of training". I am sure that Grand Lodge had the same situation twenty years ago when they started, but we have it now, in that we are still trying to get the idea that line officers attend training sessions to be "what we do" so that people who serve as line officers naturally expect to have and attend leadership and management training sessions. We need to start thinking about standardizing when we hold these sessions and maybe some of the materials we present and which year we present them. I have often told my girls that I cannot teach them the answer to every question or problem they will face, but I can try to teach them how to find the answers and how to work the problems. Now we have to think about doing that for everyone so that our Chapters have good and strong leaders every year moving forward.
Next weekend, I will be in Fairfield.
I understand that the Grand Lodge has been doing retreats for the Junior and Senior Wardens for about twenty years now. They have a leadership team that includes paid staff and volunteers and enough people to put on two days of seminars, with separate sessions on Saturday for the ladies apart from the men, and eight rooms for group exercises. A lot of great material was presented with power point slides and various hand outs.
I went because I am trying to improve leadership training for California Eastern Star and I hate reinventing the wheel. But translating over the materials presents some interesting challenges.
The top stumbling block that I see is, as it often is, money. As I understand it, the Grand Lodge, through its Foundation, subsidizes these retreats and the participants, while paying a high price, are not paying what it actually costs for the whole thing. I didn't see the price for this one, but I think that it was in the range of $350-$400, including the hotel room for two nights, the meals, the binder of materials and all activities. I could be wrong on that, but I think that I am in the ball park. Knowing hotels as I do, and these retreats are held at very nice hotels, the actual cost, all in, was probably closer to $550, so that is a fairly substantial subsidy. You could probably get the cost down to closer to what the attendees actually paid if you moved it to a much less expensive hotel, but then you are not going to get the same level of amenities either, with two ballrooms and eight break out rooms available for two and a half days at one property. I also understand that a lot of Lodges reimburse some or all of these expenses for their line officers. Of course, with average lodge dues around $100 a member, this sort of thing is probably a little easier to budget.
So we are starting smaller, with less expensive hotels, and sometimes using Masonic Centers and volunteer help to prepare meals. Where we are concentrating our efforts is in the program content and I think that we are doing a fine job of providing a very high level of quality in our training programs, with excellent facilitators and presenters. On the quality of experience side, we are already in good standing. We may not be able to afford the fancy stuff, but at least we are giving wonderful value for what we do charge, with presenters and materials that would cost three times what we charge if a person was trying to get the same level of training in the private sector.
However, our other challenge is establishing a "tradition of training". I am sure that Grand Lodge had the same situation twenty years ago when they started, but we have it now, in that we are still trying to get the idea that line officers attend training sessions to be "what we do" so that people who serve as line officers naturally expect to have and attend leadership and management training sessions. We need to start thinking about standardizing when we hold these sessions and maybe some of the materials we present and which year we present them. I have often told my girls that I cannot teach them the answer to every question or problem they will face, but I can try to teach them how to find the answers and how to work the problems. Now we have to think about doing that for everyone so that our Chapters have good and strong leaders every year moving forward.
Next weekend, I will be in Fairfield.
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