Picnics and Picnic Food

This past weekend was Jam and Jelly Day at the Masonic Home again and I am very pleased to be able to say that they managed to put us inside the room this time so we could hear the introductory remarks and welcome speeches.  We were packed like sardines, hip to hip, but at least we were in the room.  Yay!  The only tricky part was when you had to turn, back towards the door, for example, when the flag came in, or towards the stage to acknowledge the people being introduced up there.  Since we were seated in chairs at the base of the stage facing out and packed tight enough that you could decide if you liked the texture of your neighbor's garments while you sat there, turning required that everyone do it at the same time and at the same rate.  This is tricky when the people on either side of you are not in sync.  I hope no one thought I was being too forward when I turned.

As always, my favorite part is the picnic style lunch with the members of the local area.  Unfortunately, before we got to that stage, we had to get through the death of a thousand introductions.  This time, being in the room, I was able to get some pretty good data on the amount of time spent on each part of the process.  The self introductions were still pretty useless in terms of hearing and seeing, but they didn't take too long this time.  However, the part where we introduce the Residents who were serving as our escorts for the day took almost forty-five minutes.  That meant that from the time we were called to order until the time the first speaker started her remarks was an hour and a half.  The remarks and closing were actually very nicely done, fun and short, so the program was over in a touch under two hours and then we could go find out people and set up to eat.  That is not a terrible amount of time except that we are then expect to sit for another hour to hour and a half for the meal and added all up together, that's three to three and a half hours of sitting and that is way too much for a number of the Residents who were participating, let alone for those of us who just can't sit that long.

So I asked some of the people putting on the program what they thought about cutting out the Resident escort introductions and instead, having the Worthy Grand Matron introduce those Residents during her Special Introductions and then making sure that each Resident got to sit with her or his Grand Officer during the meal time so that they could have a nice chat and visit.  I was told that the Residents just love the program and we couldn't possibly cut that part.  But to me, it sounded like a bit of an automatic answer, the sort of answer that someone told this person who told that person, who is now telling it to me with no actual data.

So, to check on this, I asked some of the Residents who were at the lunch and they told me that the part they love was getting to sit with the Grand Officers and having lunch with them and that while they liked being introduced, they didn't like the length of the program at all.  In fact, a couple of the residents had to go back to their rooms very shortly after we sat for lunch because they were so tired and just couldn't sit any longer.  My own escort, who was a lovely lady of 94, felt bad because she wanted to go back to her room when we had just started eating because she was tired from all the sitting, but she didn't want me to feel slighted.  I of course told her that she should go rest and that I was happiest if she did what made her feel the best and she went back to her room after a nice hug and goodbye.  But there is no doubt in my mind that she would have rather skipped the introductions and then gotten to spend that forty-five minutes sitting with us and chatting at lunch with her visitors.

So I am wondering if we should try cutting the long intros, add the short intros, get the program down to an hour and then have more time for lunch and socializing.  The funniest thing I noted about the conversations on this topic is that, on the next day, when we were at another event in the same area, I brought up the question of dropping the Resident introductions again with some of the other local members.  I was again told that, because the Residents loved that part so much, we couldn't possibly drop that part.  Then, these same members told me that they either don't attend the event at all, or in one case they only attend when they are in a leadership position in their Chapter out of a sense of duty, because it is so long and boring, so since it is no fun, they don't come.  Sounds like a situation that needs a little reviewing to me.

The next day was an area event that was a picnic in the park.  I had another day of fabulous food, which didn't help my scale any come Monday morning, but at least I gained the half pound in a good cause.  There were some interesting picnic games and lots of wonderful fellowship.

Next weekend, I will be in Knight's Ferry, Oakdale and Sacramento.