So when we last left our intrepid adventurers, they had survived all the way through Wednesday of Grand Chapter week. But wait, there's more!
So Thursday morning, it's time to start the formal ceremonies of the session and to do the entry and the march in and everything. Thursday morning was probably the easiest because the Opening is written down and you start by following it, but Thursday morning was probably the hardest because everyone has lines and no one wants to look anything but perfect in front of EVERYONE! Of course perfection is unachievable, but the beauty of this particular ceremony is that since very few people have actually read the book on it, the number who know if you messed up is very small. You just have to keep going and remember to die falling foward!!!
So we got through the formal opening and then into the reports and were just whizzing along. There was a firm hand on the gavel, which I confess is something I enjoy very much and, conversely, cringe when it is lacking, so that was double plus good for me and there was a new set up for the microphones to be used for discussion where, instead of having four or so spread around the room, there was a "For" and an "Against" mike, so that you had an idea of which side people were on and the speeches could be more taking turns between the two sides, so that was a great idea. Of course, never one to leave well enough alone, there are two little things I am thinking might make it even better. One is that the mikes needed signs on the sides so that people coming down to speak would get to the right one (there was a little confusion on that at the beginning). The other is to have a separate mike for questions because people with questions were going to one of the two we had and that made it confusing. I could have stood up and cheered though, when the Chair reminded the delegates that questions start with Who, What, Where, When, How or Why, and that questions were not an opportunity to make a speech. Yay! Yay! Yay! But a separate mike for the questions might have been useful. I hope we get a chance to try that and see how it works.
Thursday afternoon we got into legislation and business items and I have to admit that even though the discussion moved along, it is very hard for me to sit there for six and seven hours in a day, so that was tough! At work, I try to stand up and walk around at least every hour or two, but that wasn't really going to work during the session, although I did stand and walk a bit during one of the pieces of legislation and that helped some.
Thursday night was State Dinners and my Central San Joaquin Association put on a splendid Starry, Starry Night themed dinner that was formal black and white. The decorations were great and the meal was tasty and it looked like people took the opportunity to chat and mingle, which is great. It was also nice this year not to have to change back into my session dress to go back for an evening session like we did last year. I will have to find a group willing to do the State Dinner next year although I am not yet sure if it will be on Thursday or Friday night. The State Dinners have been on Friday usually, but this year, the Grand Banquet was Friday so the State Dinners moved to Thursday. I don't know yet if they are going to try the Grand Banquet again in 2012 and am still thinking about what to do for 2013. I know that if we decide to do it, I will need to find a chair for it.
At this point I am mixed on it. It had great attendance and they filled the room I am told, but whatever you hold on Friday night is going to be bigger and better attended than any other time because lots of people can only take one day off work and they come in Thursday night and are there for Friday, which is when we hold elections, and so they are there to come to dinner. I think that if you added up the attendance of all the State Dinners that are usually on Friday, the aggregate number of attendees would equal or exceed the number at the Grand Banquet, so attendance is not necessarily the measure of success here. The bigger question is whether it is better to have one big dinner on Friday or the four separate State Dinners that night. There are pros and cons on both sides.
The pros that I see are that you have this wonderful event with everyone participating together and with that many attendees, you can have entertainment and lots of fellowship. The cons that I see is that in a bigger room, people get fed less quickly, there isn't room for everyone because of the limit on the size of the room and the State Dinners, which many people really enjoy when they are in the line because they are having a special event with "their group" end up less well attended because of the timing and there are things that you don't get to do that are part of the fun. The Grand Conductress State Dinner, I discovered, is particularly handicapped because in years past, the State Dinner on Friday night was after the elections and that meant that you could introduce your man and have him tell everyone about his emblems and words and such, but since he had not yet been elected by Thursday, he could not show his stuff because it is all secret until after the elections. I was not at the Worthy Grand Matron/Patron State Dinner, but I imagine that they had a similar problem because usually the Grand Marshal gets to talk about her new things and their meaning too, at least I got to do that in 2009 at the State Dinner, and again, they couldn't do that because the elections weren't over yet. So that is another con on changing the nights.
Friday morning, as I mentioned, were elections and everything went smoothly and the new emblems were displayed and they are all very cool and hopefully posted soon for the membership. Friday afternoon was Necrology, the memorial for the members that we have lost in the past year and while I would not say that it was fun, it was very solemn and I hope beautiful for those watching. When you are involved in the ceremony, you are concentrating so hard on doing it right that you don't really have any brain power left for watching. But it was very nice, I hope, and it was nice to be able to help perform that service for our members.
Next weekend starts the Installation Season and I will finish the Grand Chapter saga next week. After all, all great stories are cut into three parts, right?
Monday, October 31, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Isn't It Grand? - Part One
So last week was Grand Chapter and now I am one shotgun shell closer to the firing pin, Associate Grand Matron - WOW! I'm afraid that I was bit too tired to enjoy it, so I'll have to try to get more sleep next year. Of course I tell myself that every year, but no such luck.
My week started out with the traditional Grand Family dinner on Tuesday evening. It is traditional for the Grand Conductress (that was me last Tuesday) and the Associate Grand Patron (he's Worthy now :-), to host the meal and my partner in crime and I had no trouble dividing the responsibilities and getting all the work done, but any time you put on an event you worry about the details and as I put together the scripting, I was certain that I would forget one of the MANY traditional things that you are supposed to do at the meal, but it all came out okay and the food was good and the bar was open, so what more can you ask for?
Wednesday is usually a practice day and since the Grand Conductress is in almost everything, that means a LOT of walking. I wore flats, but I wished very much that I had been in my sneakers because the floor of the Arena is concrete and walking on it day after day, even in flats, is just asking for feet that are pounded into mush. At the end of Wednesday (let alone the next three days) I had to coax my feet into being feet again and not just pounded lumps of flesh that just happened to be attached to the ends of my legs. At least next year, I do more talking and less walking.
But we had to practice all the different marches and entrances and escorts and fiddledy bits that we were going to do for the rest of the week and there is no good way to do that without actually walking through them. I am glad we did it though, because I like to make all of my mistakes at the practice. I pretty much never repeat my practice mistakes at the real event. I may make new and different mistakes, but I usually remember to fix the ones I messed up at practice so it was good that I got them all out of the way.
After the practice, we had our fun night event and it was very interesting and there are pictures. It was one of the first times I can recall that I was actually happier as a Grand Line Officer than I would have been as an appointive. Now for me that is saying a lot because I had a great time when I was Grand Warder and it was the only year I got to be a Grand Officer and there was no paperwork and no meetings. You know how when you are in college, you think you are busy, but you are not really busy and then you have a house and a family and a job and hobbies and you learn what busy REALLY looks like? Well, I thought I was busy when I was Grand Warder and I was clueless!!! Now that I have the whole traveling thing down to a machine like science, doing a year of just that would be a cake walk. But alas, it is not to be for me. :-)
However, on Fun Night, each of the appointive officers and their escorts were doing a Project Runway sort of thing where one of them would design a costume and the other one had to model it down the runway. The Line Officers got to be judges and actually judging was really hard, but some of the costumes were really embarrassing and I will take hard over red any day of the week and twice on Sunday. I must say that some of the men were very brave to dress in formals, but some of them have to learn that certain kinds of high heels are harder to walk in than others and it really is a learned skill and not something that you can just do. Even when you learn to ride a bicycle, you fall off a few times on the way and it is a long way down for tall people on high heels. Luckily, everyone survived and a winner was chosen to great happiness and applause.
Of course when it was all over, I had paperwork to do, and had to check in on my job in the real world, which sucked up hours, but it is what it is.
Next weekend is a weekend off, and I will continue the saga of Grand Chapter next week.
My week started out with the traditional Grand Family dinner on Tuesday evening. It is traditional for the Grand Conductress (that was me last Tuesday) and the Associate Grand Patron (he's Worthy now :-), to host the meal and my partner in crime and I had no trouble dividing the responsibilities and getting all the work done, but any time you put on an event you worry about the details and as I put together the scripting, I was certain that I would forget one of the MANY traditional things that you are supposed to do at the meal, but it all came out okay and the food was good and the bar was open, so what more can you ask for?
Wednesday is usually a practice day and since the Grand Conductress is in almost everything, that means a LOT of walking. I wore flats, but I wished very much that I had been in my sneakers because the floor of the Arena is concrete and walking on it day after day, even in flats, is just asking for feet that are pounded into mush. At the end of Wednesday (let alone the next three days) I had to coax my feet into being feet again and not just pounded lumps of flesh that just happened to be attached to the ends of my legs. At least next year, I do more talking and less walking.
But we had to practice all the different marches and entrances and escorts and fiddledy bits that we were going to do for the rest of the week and there is no good way to do that without actually walking through them. I am glad we did it though, because I like to make all of my mistakes at the practice. I pretty much never repeat my practice mistakes at the real event. I may make new and different mistakes, but I usually remember to fix the ones I messed up at practice so it was good that I got them all out of the way.
After the practice, we had our fun night event and it was very interesting and there are pictures. It was one of the first times I can recall that I was actually happier as a Grand Line Officer than I would have been as an appointive. Now for me that is saying a lot because I had a great time when I was Grand Warder and it was the only year I got to be a Grand Officer and there was no paperwork and no meetings. You know how when you are in college, you think you are busy, but you are not really busy and then you have a house and a family and a job and hobbies and you learn what busy REALLY looks like? Well, I thought I was busy when I was Grand Warder and I was clueless!!! Now that I have the whole traveling thing down to a machine like science, doing a year of just that would be a cake walk. But alas, it is not to be for me. :-)
However, on Fun Night, each of the appointive officers and their escorts were doing a Project Runway sort of thing where one of them would design a costume and the other one had to model it down the runway. The Line Officers got to be judges and actually judging was really hard, but some of the costumes were really embarrassing and I will take hard over red any day of the week and twice on Sunday. I must say that some of the men were very brave to dress in formals, but some of them have to learn that certain kinds of high heels are harder to walk in than others and it really is a learned skill and not something that you can just do. Even when you learn to ride a bicycle, you fall off a few times on the way and it is a long way down for tall people on high heels. Luckily, everyone survived and a winner was chosen to great happiness and applause.
Of course when it was all over, I had paperwork to do, and had to check in on my job in the real world, which sucked up hours, but it is what it is.
Next weekend is a weekend off, and I will continue the saga of Grand Chapter next week.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Technical Difficulties (Was Tote Bags R Us)
I just found out this morning that this did not post last Tuesday when it was supposed to, so here it is now.
I am finally finished packing for Grand Chapter and am afraid that I will become known as the bag lady. Three of us are going in one car down to the session, with our men folk following in other cars to take us home, so we have to get everything into the one car. At least it is an SUV. So to try to make my stuff as packable as possible, I am using tote bags and duffel bags and dress bags and suit bags and just about anything that is not an actual suitcase. But the number of bags has gotten rather frightening.
I have packed three formal dress bags. One bag has the formals I will wear on Thursday and Friday (yes, that's two different dresses), one bag has my cloak, (which is a heavy monster with my emblem appliqued on the back, so it will drape over my chair and make it look really cool and will keep me warm if the arena gets cold, which it usually does) and one has my 2013 Worthy Matron dress in it. The WM dress doesn't fit me quite right yet, so it has to be altered, but I have to show it to my girls again before I give it to Kimi to fix. There just wasn't time for a fitting before I had to show it last time and I haven't gotten it back to her, but she will be at Grand Chapter, so I will find a time on Friday or Saturday to leave it with her. But don't worry that the bag will go home empty because I am picking up a fourth formal, my new 2012 Installation and Winter Formal, at the session and that will come home in the third bag. I also have a suit bag with the travel suit and other nice pieces that I will wear at the session. That is a pretty big bag, so I should only have to take the one suit bag.
So then I am on to duffel bags. I have packed two of those, one with socks and underwear and stuff like that, and one with shoes and petticoats and make up and jewelry to go with all the other clothes.
Then we go to tote bags. These have specific stuff in each one and I try to use the smallest one that holds all the stuff, but some of the bags are not at all small. I have a massive Costco tote/shopping bag full of presents, stuff to sell and my 2011 carrying piece, which has to be brought back to be used as a decoration for the session. I have my Grand Officer tote, which travels with me and has all the essentials, like Kleenex and cough drops and a Roster and maps and fans and so on. I have my legislative tote, with a copy of our Constitution and Laws, Instruction Book, Ritual, Red Book, Robert's Rules and current legislation items. I have Grand Line tote, filled with stuff that my soon to be Patron and I have to go over and fifty letters that have to be signed, folded, stuffed and stamped to be mailed next Monday. I have my To Do bag, which has books (yea, like I will get a chance to read - Hah! But hope springs eternal), my iPod in case I get to work out (equal yea right!), my GPS in case I get to go somewhere and assorted stuff like that. And of course, I have a purse too.
And finally, we have some wheels. I have my computer bag, which has my laptop and also all my office stuff that I need to take care of business while away from the office. Yes, I have one of those sorts of jobs where work days gone are not really gone - sigh! On the other hand, I get to choose my own days out, so that part is kind of cool. But there is lots going on right now, so I fear that I will be working nights and mornings and lunch times. Sigh again!
And I always take a portable dolly with me. Getting into the hotel is not hard, but getting out is six kinds of nightmare. Since everyone arrives at a different time, there are often plenty of bellmen and carts to get your stuff up, although of course with my amount of stuff, I am looking at a ten dollar tip, but hey, it's better than making three trips. But on Sunday, lots and lots of people are leaving and even if you get on the list for a bellman and a cart, it can be past noon before you get one. So I always take a dolly with me. With it and a handy escort (also known as a gronker/schlepper or a Hewer of Wood and Fetcher of Water), I can usually get everything down to the car in three trips, well, maybe four, because you always take back half again as much stuff as you arrived with. But without the dolly, you are doomed!!!! Lots of people have portable carts that actually fold up into a clothes rack, but I am not sure that one of those will fit in my car because the bottom is bigger. Maybe I can get the guy who makes them to make one to the dimensions of my car trunk, well okay, my escort's car trunk, because driving is an escort job. :-)
So ready or not, here I go, off to Grand Chapter in Fresno through next Sunday.
I am finally finished packing for Grand Chapter and am afraid that I will become known as the bag lady. Three of us are going in one car down to the session, with our men folk following in other cars to take us home, so we have to get everything into the one car. At least it is an SUV. So to try to make my stuff as packable as possible, I am using tote bags and duffel bags and dress bags and suit bags and just about anything that is not an actual suitcase. But the number of bags has gotten rather frightening.
I have packed three formal dress bags. One bag has the formals I will wear on Thursday and Friday (yes, that's two different dresses), one bag has my cloak, (which is a heavy monster with my emblem appliqued on the back, so it will drape over my chair and make it look really cool and will keep me warm if the arena gets cold, which it usually does) and one has my 2013 Worthy Matron dress in it. The WM dress doesn't fit me quite right yet, so it has to be altered, but I have to show it to my girls again before I give it to Kimi to fix. There just wasn't time for a fitting before I had to show it last time and I haven't gotten it back to her, but she will be at Grand Chapter, so I will find a time on Friday or Saturday to leave it with her. But don't worry that the bag will go home empty because I am picking up a fourth formal, my new 2012 Installation and Winter Formal, at the session and that will come home in the third bag. I also have a suit bag with the travel suit and other nice pieces that I will wear at the session. That is a pretty big bag, so I should only have to take the one suit bag.
So then I am on to duffel bags. I have packed two of those, one with socks and underwear and stuff like that, and one with shoes and petticoats and make up and jewelry to go with all the other clothes.
Then we go to tote bags. These have specific stuff in each one and I try to use the smallest one that holds all the stuff, but some of the bags are not at all small. I have a massive Costco tote/shopping bag full of presents, stuff to sell and my 2011 carrying piece, which has to be brought back to be used as a decoration for the session. I have my Grand Officer tote, which travels with me and has all the essentials, like Kleenex and cough drops and a Roster and maps and fans and so on. I have my legislative tote, with a copy of our Constitution and Laws, Instruction Book, Ritual, Red Book, Robert's Rules and current legislation items. I have Grand Line tote, filled with stuff that my soon to be Patron and I have to go over and fifty letters that have to be signed, folded, stuffed and stamped to be mailed next Monday. I have my To Do bag, which has books (yea, like I will get a chance to read - Hah! But hope springs eternal), my iPod in case I get to work out (equal yea right!), my GPS in case I get to go somewhere and assorted stuff like that. And of course, I have a purse too.
And finally, we have some wheels. I have my computer bag, which has my laptop and also all my office stuff that I need to take care of business while away from the office. Yes, I have one of those sorts of jobs where work days gone are not really gone - sigh! On the other hand, I get to choose my own days out, so that part is kind of cool. But there is lots going on right now, so I fear that I will be working nights and mornings and lunch times. Sigh again!
And I always take a portable dolly with me. Getting into the hotel is not hard, but getting out is six kinds of nightmare. Since everyone arrives at a different time, there are often plenty of bellmen and carts to get your stuff up, although of course with my amount of stuff, I am looking at a ten dollar tip, but hey, it's better than making three trips. But on Sunday, lots and lots of people are leaving and even if you get on the list for a bellman and a cart, it can be past noon before you get one. So I always take a dolly with me. With it and a handy escort (also known as a gronker/schlepper or a Hewer of Wood and Fetcher of Water), I can usually get everything down to the car in three trips, well, maybe four, because you always take back half again as much stuff as you arrived with. But without the dolly, you are doomed!!!! Lots of people have portable carts that actually fold up into a clothes rack, but I am not sure that one of those will fit in my car because the bottom is bigger. Maybe I can get the guy who makes them to make one to the dimensions of my car trunk, well okay, my escort's car trunk, because driving is an escort job. :-)
So ready or not, here I go, off to Grand Chapter in Fresno through next Sunday.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Rounding the Corner
This past weekend was the Jewish High Holidays, so there were no events and next weekend is the prep time for Grand Chapter next week, so that will be event free if you pretend that it doesn't take an entire weekend to pack for Grand Chapter, which it does. But before I get to packing, for me there is list making to do. There are just so many things that need to go with me to Grand Chapter that without a list, the packing would be impossible. And there are dozens of decisions to be made too, on what will and won't go based on what I think will or won't happen.
One of the things that makes this time of year tough is keeping track of who you are and who you will be. For example, there is a special book with the ceremonies that we do at Grand Chapter which has both an opening and a closing ceremony in it. You are not supposed to write in these books because in theory, you turn them back in for the next Grand Family to use. We may be going away from that, but I haven't heard so yet. Anyway, in the Opening Ceremony, you are your current 2011 office, but the Closing Ceremony is done after Grand Installation, so for that you have to learn the lines for your 2012 office. All of the line officers just spent two weekends in the past month (Grand Officer School and Deputy Grand Matron School) in their 2012 offices, but of course for Grand Chapter, we are still in our 2011 offices.
I have discovered that this year's transition is much easier than the past two years were. When you are Grand Marshal, you go to the schools as Associate Grand Conductress, but strictly speaking, you haven't been elected yet, so it feels a little funny because you are Grand Line Officer without being a Grand Line Officer. When you are AGC, you are at the schools as GC and then you go back but when you swap back and forth like that, you are doing very similar floor work and words, but on the other side of the floor, so it is really easy to get messed up on which side of the room you are on and which way you turn. But going from the South to the West and back seems a lot easier so far. The work is all different and the room looks totally different.
Of course for me, the room actually looks a bit familiar because I was Grand Warder way back when and the Grand Warder also sits in the West, so at the schools I was sitting about four feet to the left and two or three steps up from where I already spent a fabulous year, and the view is familiar and fun. Of course there will be a new Grand Warder in 2012 and we reassured him that he should not feel nervous at all just because there were five Former Grand Warders in the room watching him do his work, oh no, no cause for nerves at all. We were just trying to reassure him; that's why we kept reminding him, five of us with our eyes just on him! :-)
I tried to get him to come up and try out the chair next to me, just to see how it feels. I am pretty sure that sitting in the AGM's chair when I was Grand Warder helped give people ideas that led to me being up there now and I just wanted to return the favor, but the GW to be was having none of that and could not be coaxed into taking the chair for a spin. Sigh - they're making them too smart these days.
So now that I have the schools behind me, I am learning my lines for the session and looking at the floor work that we will have to do. It is going to be just a shade trickier this year for me than last year. To begin with, last year I just had to follow the Grand Conductress and I knew that she would know where we are going, so that was less stress right there. And since the bulk of the escort duties were done in an informal opening session, that escort was easy if exhausting because you just went west and brought people east and went west and brought people east and went west and . . . But this year, doing the escort during the session, you have to remember who goes in this way and who goes out that way and stuff like that there. It is also the Official Visit of the Most Worthy Grand Matron to California, so we are expecting an extra big load of dignitaries and visitors to escort. Lucky me! I just hope that they left us a lot of practice time on Wednesday so we can go over all these bits and make our Grand Family proud.
Next weekend is packing weekend and then I am off to Grand Chapter Tuesday afternoon.
One of the things that makes this time of year tough is keeping track of who you are and who you will be. For example, there is a special book with the ceremonies that we do at Grand Chapter which has both an opening and a closing ceremony in it. You are not supposed to write in these books because in theory, you turn them back in for the next Grand Family to use. We may be going away from that, but I haven't heard so yet. Anyway, in the Opening Ceremony, you are your current 2011 office, but the Closing Ceremony is done after Grand Installation, so for that you have to learn the lines for your 2012 office. All of the line officers just spent two weekends in the past month (Grand Officer School and Deputy Grand Matron School) in their 2012 offices, but of course for Grand Chapter, we are still in our 2011 offices.
I have discovered that this year's transition is much easier than the past two years were. When you are Grand Marshal, you go to the schools as Associate Grand Conductress, but strictly speaking, you haven't been elected yet, so it feels a little funny because you are Grand Line Officer without being a Grand Line Officer. When you are AGC, you are at the schools as GC and then you go back but when you swap back and forth like that, you are doing very similar floor work and words, but on the other side of the floor, so it is really easy to get messed up on which side of the room you are on and which way you turn. But going from the South to the West and back seems a lot easier so far. The work is all different and the room looks totally different.
Of course for me, the room actually looks a bit familiar because I was Grand Warder way back when and the Grand Warder also sits in the West, so at the schools I was sitting about four feet to the left and two or three steps up from where I already spent a fabulous year, and the view is familiar and fun. Of course there will be a new Grand Warder in 2012 and we reassured him that he should not feel nervous at all just because there were five Former Grand Warders in the room watching him do his work, oh no, no cause for nerves at all. We were just trying to reassure him; that's why we kept reminding him, five of us with our eyes just on him! :-)
I tried to get him to come up and try out the chair next to me, just to see how it feels. I am pretty sure that sitting in the AGM's chair when I was Grand Warder helped give people ideas that led to me being up there now and I just wanted to return the favor, but the GW to be was having none of that and could not be coaxed into taking the chair for a spin. Sigh - they're making them too smart these days.
So now that I have the schools behind me, I am learning my lines for the session and looking at the floor work that we will have to do. It is going to be just a shade trickier this year for me than last year. To begin with, last year I just had to follow the Grand Conductress and I knew that she would know where we are going, so that was less stress right there. And since the bulk of the escort duties were done in an informal opening session, that escort was easy if exhausting because you just went west and brought people east and went west and brought people east and went west and . . . But this year, doing the escort during the session, you have to remember who goes in this way and who goes out that way and stuff like that there. It is also the Official Visit of the Most Worthy Grand Matron to California, so we are expecting an extra big load of dignitaries and visitors to escort. Lucky me! I just hope that they left us a lot of practice time on Wednesday so we can go over all these bits and make our Grand Family proud.
Next weekend is packing weekend and then I am off to Grand Chapter Tuesday afternoon.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
One Thousand Details
This past weekend was our Deputy Grand Matron School of Instruction. This event this year is a great example of how the devil is in the details, also known as the death of a thousand cuts.
The purpose of the school is to teach our new soon to be Deputies how all the ceremonial work is done so that they can go teach it to all the people in their own Districts and in theory then everyone can learn to do the work perfectly. Unfortunately, sometimes the rubber meets the road, and sometimes it's the window glass.
Part of the problem is that it is SO MUCH material to try to squeeze into just two and a half days. To really master EVERYTHING seems more like a two and a half week project. But you have what you have and there ain't no more! (Okay, there is a brush up school, but it is only a day and really needs to be just for brushing up and snagging a few things that are done later in the year.) It helps a lot when the Deputies come fairly well prepared and we can concentrate on those devilish details, but sometimes it is hard to know what you don't know. After all, every member sees many of these ceremonies every meeting, but it is sort of like when you are a passenger instead of a driver. I find that I can be a passenger going somewhere over and over again, but then when I am the driver, I don't know where that place is. When I am the driver, I have to pay attention to the route, but when I am a passenger, not so much. And since there is no GPS for our ceremonial work, this is flying without a parachute.
So I know that I have watched the ceremony over and over, but did I really ever pay a lot of attention to the men's parts? After all, I was never going to hold that office, so why would I? There are several Star Point officers whose positions I doubt I will ever hold, so while I have heard their words and seen their actions over and over, do they really sink in? Not so much, I fear. So no matter how much you know, until you get out on the floor and try to do the work, you may not realize how much you don't know. In some respects the Grand Officers have it easy, although most lady Grand Officers have been Deputies, so they have done their time in the trenches. A Grand Officer learns their part perfectly, but they only have to learn their one part (or in the case of the Grand Line, one part per year :-). Deputies need to know them all because they need to be able to teach them all. And that is a LOT of work.
But this school was particularly helpful for me because I was able to see what was being done and make LOTS and LOTS of notes for next year when (GASP!) I am supposed to lead one of these things (AAAAAHHH!) There were some new things done this year that I liked and want to remember to include and there were some things that were good, but maybe we can improve a bit on them. But since I have a memory like a sieve, I just have to make notes. Even an hour later, I may not remember what I was thinking an hour earlier. I think I came home with about ten pages of notes. The bothersome part is that now I have to read my own writing and type the notes up before I forget what they say!
Next weekend there are no statewide events because of the Jewish holidays so I will be home.
The purpose of the school is to teach our new soon to be Deputies how all the ceremonial work is done so that they can go teach it to all the people in their own Districts and in theory then everyone can learn to do the work perfectly. Unfortunately, sometimes the rubber meets the road, and sometimes it's the window glass.
Part of the problem is that it is SO MUCH material to try to squeeze into just two and a half days. To really master EVERYTHING seems more like a two and a half week project. But you have what you have and there ain't no more! (Okay, there is a brush up school, but it is only a day and really needs to be just for brushing up and snagging a few things that are done later in the year.) It helps a lot when the Deputies come fairly well prepared and we can concentrate on those devilish details, but sometimes it is hard to know what you don't know. After all, every member sees many of these ceremonies every meeting, but it is sort of like when you are a passenger instead of a driver. I find that I can be a passenger going somewhere over and over again, but then when I am the driver, I don't know where that place is. When I am the driver, I have to pay attention to the route, but when I am a passenger, not so much. And since there is no GPS for our ceremonial work, this is flying without a parachute.
So I know that I have watched the ceremony over and over, but did I really ever pay a lot of attention to the men's parts? After all, I was never going to hold that office, so why would I? There are several Star Point officers whose positions I doubt I will ever hold, so while I have heard their words and seen their actions over and over, do they really sink in? Not so much, I fear. So no matter how much you know, until you get out on the floor and try to do the work, you may not realize how much you don't know. In some respects the Grand Officers have it easy, although most lady Grand Officers have been Deputies, so they have done their time in the trenches. A Grand Officer learns their part perfectly, but they only have to learn their one part (or in the case of the Grand Line, one part per year :-). Deputies need to know them all because they need to be able to teach them all. And that is a LOT of work.
But this school was particularly helpful for me because I was able to see what was being done and make LOTS and LOTS of notes for next year when (GASP!) I am supposed to lead one of these things (AAAAAHHH!) There were some new things done this year that I liked and want to remember to include and there were some things that were good, but maybe we can improve a bit on them. But since I have a memory like a sieve, I just have to make notes. Even an hour later, I may not remember what I was thinking an hour earlier. I think I came home with about ten pages of notes. The bothersome part is that now I have to read my own writing and type the notes up before I forget what they say!
Next weekend there are no statewide events because of the Jewish holidays so I will be home.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
