One Minute of Planning

Nine weeks down, forty-three left to make a difference.

This past weekend got stretched by my office being closed on Monday and Tuesday, which made a great opportunity to get some planning done.  They say that for every minute you spend on planning, you save four minutes on execution and that is a very good thing because execution already sucks up more time than anyone can imagine.

So I started with the planning for our Deputy Grand Matron Brush Up Schools.  This is a chance for us to answer questions that have arisen since the regular School last October as well as covering stuff that we didn't do at that time.  Since the regular School was bursting at the seams already, it is a good thing that we have this chance for more stuff.

Of course, some other changes in plan have caused me to change the agenda for this school too.  For example, originally, I had expected that Escort would be a topic covered at the Transitionals because it is 95% for the Conductresses, but now that there are going to be Retreats and not Transitionals, we will have to cover that at the Brush Up Schools.  Luckily, I've been in the room when Escort was taught or taught it myself a couple dozen times, so that should not be too tough for me.  But it did mean re-arranging the schedule to fit it in, since teaching it takes around an hour plus a little bit if you want to do it right.

And I have no way to know what questions have come out of the first meeting practices, so who knows how long answering them will take.  So far, I haven't gotten a lot of advance questions, but you never know until you get there.  Anyway, most of my stuff for the planning has happened; now I am just a bit nervous about the logistics planning since my Grand Secretary is out on medical leave. But hopefully there will be hotel rooms and people will get fed.  Fingers crossed!

Then there was the start of planning for monthly messages and OV speeches.  I am planning to send out a message each month with the packet that goes out from the Grand Chapter office.  I know that in some years the Worthy Grand Matron does not send something each month, but I have trouble understanding that.  If it is relatively short and informative, I would think that the members would like to have it so that they have more news of what is going on and what is coming up. I can see where it would be a total bore if it was several pages long and/or poorly written, but I haven't seen really bad writing from anyone in the past in my position, so I have to assume that maybe people were just trying to lighten the correspondence burden.  And of course when there was a regular newspaper, I suppose a lot could have been put in that instead.  But right now, without a paper and until our WebMagic web site comes on line, the monthly letter seems to be the best way to get timely news out on a regular basis.  Last year of course, there was a monthly newsletter to the Deputies and Worthy Matrons and Patrons, which was very cool looking, but this year I would like the messages to go to all the members attending their Chapters and I will send separate e-mails to the Deputies as needed.  That is one of the big advantages of insisting that all Deputies have e-mail.

And then there are the OV speeches.  My goal is to give a different speech at each OV and to a certain extent, I can't write them until I get the Planning Sheets, which is why it is critical for those to be done on time, but whatever the theme of the OV might be, there are certain themes and messages that I hope to convey at the OVs and getting those thoughts on paper should be a big help.  I got some of that done already and have next weekend to finish up.

Oh, and I managed to clean off my dresser and one armoire.  There's still one armoire and the shelves in the front hall closet to go, but at least it is a little progress, just in time for all flat surfaces to be inundated with paper again.  I had to move all my piles from my dining room table to the living room coffee table and this weekend, when all holiday meals are over, I will move them back.  Sometime next year, perhaps about this time, I am told that I will get my dining room back.  I will even get to take the pin map off the wall and everything!

Next weekend I am home to finish planning and cleaning.

Teaching and Traveling

Eight weeks down, forty-four left to make a difference.

This past weekend we held the last two All Member Instructionals, one in Riverside and one in Chowchilla.  Lots of members attended - we had three rows of chairs full in Riverside and fifty some members came up from San Diego - now that is cool!

Some of the members told me that they weren't going to come, but then they heard about the great time that others had in San Pedro two weeks earlier and they made the effort - that is really cool too!  It almost makes me wish we were doing a couple more, to get more people to attend, but I did say almost, which means not quite, since they were very exhausting to do and odds are that most of the people that wanted to attend one have already done so.

I also think that it didn't hurt us to have fabulous door prizes.  A few people who had to leave early for one thing or another left their tickets with others who were staying, but I am not sure that any of the early departure people will ever see any door prizes because the people who got them wanted to keep them.  We'll see if I ever hear otherwise.

The Grand Family is starting to get used to travel in a caravan up and down the state, having made two long trips now.  They don't know how easy we are taking it, compared to some of the last few years, where we might do two or three of these with trips in between and not done teaching until 10:00 pm, then getting up early the next morning.  Of course there will always be those who think that the caravan goes too slowly and those who think it goes too fast, and those two groups never seem to talk to one another to figure out why we stick to a reasonably midrange travel speed.  Of course, very few of them have done as my WGP and I have done, traveling in the front, middle and rear of the caravan to get a feel for all three types of driving.  And we still have a few nervous nellies in the middle who speed up too much and then hit their brakes, causing those behind to get whiplash from the back and forth, but they'll get used to it.  We actually did manage one caravan without a hollow square, but of course someone will think that I am making that up because no one is sure that it is a real caravan if you don't hollow square or U-turn at least once.

So far we've also managed to find food, mostly sticking to chains where we know what we are getting.  Luckily most of the family likes Mexican food and Italian is good too.  Most like some form of Asian food, but this is one Family that is not going to have sushi!

Of course, between weekends, there is lots of paperwork and reports and such, for running the business of the Order.  But I wasn't doing anything else, like shopping or cooking or laundry or anything with my evenings anyway.  And of course, once you learn that sleep is optional, you can get lots done!

Next weekend, we are not on the road, so I will be catching up on yet more paperwork, putting the finishing touches on our Deputy Brush Up Schools and ramping up for our first OVs in January. 

Why We Go Nuts

Seven weeks down, forty-five left to make a difference.

This past weekend we had two of our five All Member Instructionals.  These have been called different things at different times, All Officers Instructionals, Grand Chapter Instructionals, etc., but basically, these are practice/demonstration sessions for how to perform our Ritual ceremonies correctly.

This year, we are focusing on our Opening ceremony, Balloting and a part of our Initiation ceremony called the Golden Chain.  All of these are bits that involve most if not all the officers and all of them involve different officers working together to time their movements so they end up where they are supposed to and preferably at the same time.  Since they can be a little complicated, having people practice is good.

Over the years, I have seen these events done as two, three or four hour sessions and each year that I have been on the road, we have done between zero and about twelve of them.  While zero is pretty easy, twelve usually involve a fair bit of traveling all over the state and working them in around other events and holidays usually means that they are not done until some time in February, which is a little bit unfortunate because earlier is better when it comes to this sort of thing.  The officers are installed in November and start doing their work in December, so the closest you can get the instruction to the beginning of our Chapter year the better.

But each time I have attended these, I have felt that something was missing.  While we would demonstrate the work for the members, they were not getting a chance to practice with us there to help and guide them.  The problem was, there wasn't any time.  Doing all the work in about three hours is a very tight schedule and just doesn't allow for the extra time it takes to get people up and down and in and out.

So for this year, we decided to try a full day event and include interactive Q&A and practice by the members.  Doing that required us going to a 9:30 am to 4:30 pm schedule, a pretty full day, with some allowance/arrangement made for lunch.  But we put it together, had our Team Leaders set up halls and meals for those who wanted to buy a meal, although everyone was given the option of bringing their lunch if they'd rather because we don't charge for Ritual instruction, and hoped that "if we built it, they would come."

There were those people who said that the format would not work because people would not be willing to spend an entire weekend day on Ritual work and I feared at times that attendance would suffer for it.  But I also knew that some people feel the opposite way.  Some people feel that if you are going to drive two or three hours each way for anything, they want the event to have substance so that they are at the event longer than the time they spend driving.  So we put it together and then we prayed. :-)

I confess that while I had every confidence in our format, I didn't imagine the amazing response we have had.  We've had to add chairs and then more chairs in every hall so far.  We added two rows of chairs in Chico!  There wasn't an empty seat!  I printed off 500 agendas, thinking that I would need about a hundred at each of the five AMIs and we've run through those.  I've printed off another 300 for next weekend and while I think that is enough, I am ready to find a Kinko's if I have to!  Wow!

The other part that made it great was that people seemed to have a good time.  We had a few each time that had to leave at lunch or during our midday break, but actually just a few, and people were leaving happy about what they had heard and learned.  They were excited and jazzed and it was an important Ritual practice.  I sure hope we can make them this happy when we are doing something that is purely for fun.

But I have discovered one of the key elements as to why so many Grand Officers go a little nuts this time of year.  You see, when we ballot, we usually encourage the Organist to pick a song for the Star Point Officers to use and then we use that song when they ballot to help them with their timing and organization at Grand Officers' School and Deputy School.  It's bad enough, but bearable, having them do it those two days.  But now we are balloting eight or ten times  in a day, two days in a row, to the same darn song!  I can sit here at my computer and still hear it playing!  I suppose it is better than hearing voices (and far better than doing what the voices tell me to do :-),  but who knows how many weeks it will take to get the song out of my head.  I mean I avoid shopping malls at this time of year for the same reason.  Even my friends who like Christmas carols say they get completely tired and postal hearing them over and over again in the mall.  So there's no doubt that hearing the same song too many times can make you a bit bonkers.  Let's hope that I can recover over the Christmas break.

Next weekend, I am in Riverside and Chowchilla.

All About the Hat?

Six weeks down, forty-six left to make a difference.

This past weekend, we held our Christmas Party for the Residents of our Senior Living Community.  As with most things, we wanted to try it a bit different although we kept some improvements from the past that have worked very nicely.

For many years, this party was held as a fancy dinner, often with a social hour first, then dinner, then a singalong, then Santa came with the presents for our residents.  The Grand Officers would act as Santa's Elves and deliver the presents from Santa to wherever the residents were sitting.  Now the first year we did this, each Grand Officer was given three names and we delivered those three presents.  But that was tough because the appointive Grand Officers don't know the Residents on sight.  For some of them, this party is the first time that they have ever been to our Home, unless they came down for a Fiesta or Festival some earlier year.  So that was a little awkward.

A few years back, we went to what I call the shotgun style approach to present delivery.  That involves lining up the Grand Family and having the person in the front of the line take the next present to the next person.  Because we call out the name of the Resident and they wave, delivery is easier.  Of course, there are more of them than there are of us, so when you've delivered your present, you go to the back of the line and come around again.  It works much better, so we like that part a lot and did it that way.

Our big change was actually in the timing of the meal.  While the big fancy dinner was very tasty, the late night and big meal at the end of the day were harder on our Residents.  I was told that usually, the big meal of the day is usually lunch, with dinner being smaller and usually just quiet time or bed afterwards.  So a couple of year's back, they tried moving the holiday meal to an afternoon tea, around 3:00 pm or so.  I love tea, so that was great for me, but since it was really an extra mealtime, the food was primarily sweets, sort of a late dessert after lunch.  It was very nice, but still cut in on the schedule a bit.

So this year, we decided to go with the tea idea, but have it be a full high tea in place of lunch instead of an extra meal.  Little did I know that the event coordinator was going to call me and ask me what all my favorite tea foods were.  My diet was DOOMED!!!  But we had the most amazing variety of foods and it was delicious, even if my clothes don't like me any more.  We had hot and cold appetizers including the most scrumptious meatballs in pastry with a sweet and sour dipping sauce.  Then we had plates of tea sandwiches.  You wouldn't think you could get full on these teeny little quarter sized sandwiches, but when you eat five of them, that is more than a regular sandwich in size.  Then we had dessert plates with mini cheesecakes and other yummies!  It is really amazing how full you can get when every individual bit you eat is no more than one or two bites.

After we had our lunch, we went and had our traditional sing a long, featuring winter songs this year, then we handed out presents and then the Worthy Grand Patron and I were invited to stand on either side of Santa's chair for pictures with the Residents.  Apparently this is a traditional thing because some of the Residents want to sit in Santa's lap and get their picture taken with him and us.  So we did that before heading out to our next meeting.

Now there has been some weird ideas about me and Christmas and this stuff.  Somebody thought they ought to change the name of the event to Holiday party instead of Christmas party, but since all of the current residents happen to be Christian and the party is for them, it really is a Christmas party and I have no problem thinking of it that way or calling it that.  Of course, I do have the most delightful hat, a black and white elf hat with Bah Humbug sewn across the front of the white faux fur edge, to wear for this.  It was a gift last year that I have gotten great use from and will use again in the future.  But that's all in good fun too.

Then there was one member at the party who was trying very hard to convince me that Santa was really okay for Jewish people, which is a little silly.  And I don't know why she was bothering.  Santa is not for me personally, but the pictures weren't about me, they were for the Residents and if that is what the Worthy Grand Matron does at this party for the Residents, then that is what she does.  So I posed for some Santa pictures.  Why would I be bent out of shape about that?

It's not like they were asking me to pose in a creche scene or something.  Okay, I admit it, THAT I would not have been able to do, tradition or no tradition, and I would have gotten the Worthy Grand Patron's wife to stand in for me.  But one bullet dodged there and smooth sailing the rest of the day. :-)

I don't get offended if people wish me Merry Christmas either.  They mean well and very few of them actually ascribe any religious meaning to the phrase anyway.  And the things I know about so many Christmas traditions and where they come from might shock the socks off them. :-)  Go Oak King!  Down with Loki!  Dancing around decorated trees outside and naked in the snow - are you nuts?!?

So with so many things that do matter, getting all wound up about something that doesn't matter, like someone saying Merry Christmas, seems out of whack to me.  Of course, as long as I have my hat, I can always just say Bah Humbug with a smile. :-)

Next weekend, I am in Chico and Richmond.

We Can Do It

Five weeks done, forty-seven left to make a difference.

These past two weeks have been filled with Installations at the various Chapters.  While each year, the Worthy Grand Matron and Worthy Grand Patron decide for themselves how to approach this season, this year, we are trying to get to at least one Installation in most of the larger Associations.  We've been together for the Installations of our own Chapters and are attending as many as possible in our own Districts, but past that, we've tried to spread out so that we can see our Dragon Riders and Wizards, since most who are in a large Association try to attend each other's events.

I continue to wonder just a bit why I prepared a formal emblem because everyone seems to love the dragon and castle the most.  But at least the starry sky, that my man and I both have as background, has also provided some inspiration.  It always inspires me to cast my gaze into the heavens on a clear night in the darkness and see infinity stretch out before me.

But the best part for me has been the opportunity to hear and enjoy the messages which the Dragon Riders and their Wizards have delivered in their Installation remarks.  I asked each of them to have a message in their speech, not just thank yous although thank yous are important too, but words about what they want to accomplish, their goals for the year, their thoughts on our Order, or whatever else they feel passionate about for their Chapter and so far, the ones that I have attended have done a great job of it.

I must admit to being deeply touched by the way that this year's theme, that each one of us can make a difference has been embraced by so many of our Chapter leaders and members.  I truly believe that we each want to make a difference, but fear that we cannot, and so we fear to try.  Maybe some of us fear ridicule or derision for trying something new or that the carpet suckers will mock us for our efforts.  But courage has never been about being fearless - it is about feeling the fear and apprehension and going forward anyway.  It is amazing to me sometimes how so many complaints and negative comments melt away in the face of a confident presentation and a polite refusal to give up.

Of course, when dealing with the carpet suckers, it is important to remember that there are actually two separate species of them, the up carpet suckers and the down carpet suckers.  Down ones are more dangerous.  You see, the down ones want you to fail because what you are doing is not their idea or it is not what they did or it is a change and they hate change.  The down ones actually want to pull you down and will sabotage you to fail.  Luckily, we don't have that many down carpet suckers and hopefully our success will drive some of them off, like a flea fogger. :-)

The up carpet suckers are easier to deal with because up carpet suckers are just afraid.  They don't mind if you succeed and they want things to go well, but they are terrified of change and new things.  The nice part about the up carpet suckers is that if you overcome their reluctance and get them to participate and they can see that what you are suggesting actually works, then they will embrace your new plan and can often turn into your strongest supporters.  That doesn't mean that they won't be sucking up the carpet again on the next new idea, but they are doing it out of fear and if they see your idea succeed, they will help and embrace the new reality.

So, knowing that there are carpet suckers out there and not always knowing up front the species to which they belong, it has been pleasing and gratifying to hear the Dragon Riders announcing new and exciting plans for the year, getting their Chapters geared up for community service and Masonic Family events and encouraging participation in our Make a Difference Program.  Many of the Installations I've attended actually had our Make a Difference sheet in their programs, as we did at Grand Installation, so that their members could write out their personal goal and get started on their plans for how they will make a difference in 2013.  Wow!

Next weekend, I am in Yorba Linda and San Pedro.

The Texas Tour

Three weeks down, forty-nine to go.

This past week, I traveled to Texas to attend the General Grand Chapter Installation and the Most Worthy Grand Matron's School of Instruction.  People have asked me how my trip was and the best adjective I could come up with was "It was educational."

I flew from home to LAX and from there to DFW.  We rented a car and drove to our hotel across from the Fort Worth Convention Center.  There was a snafu with the hotels with the net result putting me in the Omni, which was the correct hotel and my Worthy Grand Patron and his wife in the Sheraton on the other side of the Center.  It wasn't too far as such things go, but we found out sort of by accident, which is what made it unfortunate.

Anyway, we get all checked in and we change clothes and we stroll on over to the Center.  The Center it turns out is this absolutely enormous convention hall with lots of exhibit halls and such and really NO signage.  We were walking around for several minutes before we found something to tell us that the session was in the Arena and a few more minutes to find out how to get to that part of the building.  But no blood, no foul, the prelude was scheduled from 6:00 pm to 6:30 pm, and we found our way in about 6:15.  However, we couldn't locate a seating chart anywhere.  I finally scored a program from a gentleman who had a bunch, but there were no directions in it.  We figured out where to sit primarily by looking for people in the same dress that I was wearing, and then managed to get settled down.

Now when I had seen the tentative program, I thought it was a typo.  It said that the Installation prelude was at 6:00 pm and that the Installation was scheduled from 6:30 pm to midnight.  I figured that they just put down the time until which we had rented the hall.  I discovered that they had not overestimated by much.  We were not finished until 11:15 pm.

Knowing that my personal view is that people can't pay attention for more than fifty-five minutes at a time and people can't sit comfortably for more that two hours, you can imagine that I cannot write the words that come to my mind at this piece of foolishness.  I realize that all the lovely parts of the lovely ceremony are lovely and important to someone and that having waited fifteen years for your big night, you want to make the most of it.  But let us be realistic here - after three hours, does anyone truly think that people's attention was focused on what was going on?  No.  We were all fidgeting from our legs going numb, trying not to have to disturb the other people in our row with getting up to go to the bathroom and wondering how much of our time in Purgatory would be remitted if we sat through to the bitter end.  By the time we were through all the folderol and got to some remarks, all everyone wanted was for the darned thing to be over!  There wasn't even a seventh inning stretch!  Or a bathroom break!  It is no wonder to me that when people got up to be introduced and escorted, many of them never went back to their seats.  They just collected their little certificate or were introduced and headed right out of the arena door.

What I really wonder is whether the honored members actually enjoyed it either.  Or is this one of those "mother of the bride takes over the wedding" type nightmares, where the bride wants things different, but gets caught up in someone else's vision of how this is supposed to be done and is stuck?  Is it possible that the honorees might actually enjoy something different, but can't bring themselves to buck tradition enough to chop it down and make it fun and exciting or at least a bearable length.  I am willing to bet that if you cut the whole thing in half, the arena ceiling would not have fallen in.  And I can see lots of stuff that you could cut without in any way reducing the solemnity of the occasion or the enjoyment of the evening.  I bet that cutting it in half would more than double the positive of the occasion.  Luckily, this will never be my problem.

Next weekend, I am heading south to the Installations in my Worthy Grand Patron's Chapters.

Long, Longer, Longest

Two weeks down, fifty to go.

We are finally on that calendar that has been on my wall for a year and a half already.  I don't know if I should wipe off things as they happen, or check them off or put a big red X through each one, but we are finally, actually on the calendar and getting through the items on it.  Wow!

This past weekend, I did my first Installation of the season.  It was great fun, but I was worried about getting my lines right because it was the first time I did this work in front of people since 2002, when I was Worthy Matron and installed my successor.  But I only had one blank moment, and you can bet I won't forget the word "preserve" again any time soon!

I had the most lovely surprise at the end of the Installation.  The Chapter presented me and my WGP and our escorts with Honorary Memberships.  Usually that is done, if it is done at all, at the Official Visit, so I was completely surprised and totally flattered.  I got all choked up, thanking everyone.  I know that many Chapters do not give Honorary Memberships at all and many give them only in the most limited of circumstances, so it was very kind of this Chapter to do that.

Unfortunately, that led me to search my house for over an hour for the Honorary Membership book that I was given two years ago and of course put away for safe keeping, only to discover that the book is too big for the certificates to fit easily and not big enough to fit two on one side of a page, and instead of being the pages I was expecting, made for sliding in the certificates, the book pages are like scrapbook pages, so I will need to go buy some transparent photo corners for affixing the certificates in the book, but what the heck!  I got one for now - YAY!

On Sunday, I attended the Reception for the Grand Drill Leader of California Rainbow.  Her mother is a member of my Chapter and she asked me to attend and I told her that I would be happy to do so, to support her and her daughter.  That was very interesting experience.

I confess a terrible truth - every time I attend a Rainbow function, I feel better about our Eastern Star escort, which still often takes too long, but nothing compared to Rainbow's number of categories and time for escort which seems to take forever and ever and ever.  This reception had a start time of 2:00 pm and my escort fell almost at the end, since of course all the Rainbow categories go first before they get to other adult groups.  So there was a bunch of escort, then there were a bunch of self-introduction categories.  Then I got escorted, then a few more self-introduction categories.  The thing is, by the time I was escorted, it was 3:00 pm.  There must have been forty-five minutes or so of escort and introductions.  Wow!  Then there were a few remarks and those were nice, but then the presentations started and each group apparently had to do some sort of multipart skit/quiz thing and these had the same problem that most skits have, namely that without a microphone, you can't hear anybody, so you sit there waiting for it to be over, unsure of what is going on, but trying your best to look like you are paying attention and not yawning, which is hard to do when you can't see or hear very much, especially as you pass the two hour mark and keep going.  I am certainly happy for the honored member and I hope most sincerely that every part of the reception was positive and meaningful for her.  And she got a totally awesome quilt!  It was fabulous!  And an amazing stand to go with it too!

In a couple of days, I leave for Texas for General Grand Chapter, for the Installation of the new Most Worthy Grand Matron and then her School of Instruction.  When I get back, my Chapter will have its installation.

Ready or Not, Here I Am

Wow!

It finally happened.  I followed the groom's instructions and the next thing I knew - POW!  I had a gavel in my hand and lots of people looking at me.  I am told I looked pretty good last Saturday night.  But some people need to learn the difference between:

I didn't recognize you!  You look beautiful!, which leaves you wondering why they never mentioned that you looked like chopped liver before and whether the appropriate response is "Thank you" or "Sorry I was so ugly before,"

and

I didn't recognize you!  I've never seen you with your hair up! or  I didn't recognize you!  I don't think I've ever seen you with make up before!, which could be true and yet don't imply that you were coyote ugly (one look at you in bed with them and the man gnaws his arm off to get away) or worse yet, Gorgon ugly (one look from a man and he turns into a marble statue out of fright), up until now.

Of course, many people provided me with just a sweet and wonderful, You look gorgeous, which was very flattering and far more fun than another not so hot comment:

Wow!  You look great!  Why don't you do your hair and make up all the time?  I was very, very bad and I am afraid I told the truth (one of my great failings, I'm afraid).  I told this person that the reason was three hours in a beauty chair, but that someday, when I win the lottery and hire a French maid, I will be happy to always have my hair and makeup done before going out into the word around, say, noon each day.

Of course the other reason is that it takes a lot of time to get the fifty plus hairpins out of my hair and two shampoo and rinse cycles to melt the hair back down off my head after one of these affairs, but for Grand Installation it was worth it and I am told that the pictures came out great, so for special occasions, Beauty Before Comfort.

It was also very gratifying to hear many members say that they appreciated my Installation remarks.  I spent a long time figuring out what I wanted to say and even longer editing and polishing my comments until I could get the whole message out in just six and a half minutes.  Then we closed and got done and everyone appreciated being finished at a decent hour too.

So one week is not over and I have fifty-one to go.  My Worthy Grand Patron and I have already made some progress and we hope to make more as the weeks come along.  The beginning is supposed to be the slow time and someone told me that there was supposed to be a honeymoon period, but I guess I blinked and missed that because my in box has already had a half a dozen problems and issues in it.  A couple are actually already dealt with,  others are just starting - how fun is that?  NOT REALLY ANY actually.  But with every job the bitter comes with the sweet, leadership can be a lonely business and I can't say that I didn't know what I was getting into, not after ten years on Jurisprudence.  But the happiness of the progress  we are already making far outweighs a few issues, so damn the torpedos and full speed ahead.

This coming weekend, I get to start installing my girls as Worthy Matrons in their Chapters and I am also planning on attending a Rainbow reception for a local girl who is a Rainbow Grand Officer.  I asked if they were sure they wanted me there because there are protocol-type things that happen, now that I am actually Worthy Grand Matron and not just a Grand Officer, but the adult advisors assured me that it was good for the girls to get to do these things.  I guess I will find out if the girls agree.

Onward and upward!

School Is Out

Last weekend was our Deputy Grand Matron School of Instruction, the last big, big, school we have to do - Whew!

The School is traditionally two and a half days and what an exhausting two and half days it is.  The problem is that there's really more like five days of material to cover and there just is not more time, so you have to make a lot of hard decisions on what to do and what to skip and then you just work, work, WORK until you drop.  Information overload is not just a phrase after you've been through one of these schools!

But it was a great school!  Even though the hours were long, the 2013 Deputies were real troopers.  Early in the morning, late at night and every time in between, the ladies were positive, cheerful, and eager to learn.  They really got loaded down with information and training, but I think that everyone was pleased with what they did and learned.  It really felt like all the work in putting it together and setting it up really paid off.  But I am totally ready to get a full night's sleep at some point.  Almost every night for the two weeks before the Revealing and then during the two weeks between that and the Deputy school, I would wake up at around 5:00 or 5:30 in the morning, remembering one more thing that needed doing or one more thing that didn't get done, or one more thing that didn't get staged to go or one more thing I needed to arrange or one more thing. . . . and then I couldn't get back to sleep!  I keep a pad by the bed to write stuff down, but I would get so worried that I would run out of time to get things finished that I would just get up and work on the stuff for an hour or so and then try to go back to sleep for a bit before getting up at 7:00 am to go to work.  That makes for tough days when you normally don't get to sleep until 11:00 pm or midnight.  Now I am afraid that I may have gotten into the habit of waking up at that time and will keep doing it.  Grrrrrr!


Anyway, now that my staging area that was filled with eight boxes and four tote bags full of stuff (plus miscellaneous stuff that didn't fit in a box or a tote bag) for the Deputy School is now emptied of that stuff, (pretty much all of it went home with other people - yay!),  it is time to fill that area up again with all the stuff that has to go to Grand Chapter.  Unfortunately, the piles keep getting bigger.  The pile for Deputy School was bigger than the pile for Grand Officer School and the Grand Chapter pile will be even greater still.  I have two cars, possibly three, taking my stuff down.  A couple of years ago, I had two cars coming home with me and I was warned that this year, it may be three or four cars worth of stuff coming home.  Yikes!

I also have to pack an awful lot of clothes.  There's formal outfits and travel outfits and casual outfits and costume pieces and the shoes for each and the hair bits for each and the underthings for each.  How is it possible that I could raft down the Grand Canyon for eight days with a twenty-five pound duffel bag holding everything I needed to wear and I can't get to Grand Chapter without a suitcase, two dress bags and two tote bags, one whole tote bag just for shoes!  Sigh!

I've written the speech that I give after Grand Installation, but now I know that I also give one on Wednesday, so I will be writing that this weekend, while I am trying to finish everything else.  I had this crazy idea that maybe I could get a manicure this weekend, but the jury is still out on whether I have the time for that.  Sigh some more!

Next weekend, I am staging for Grand Chapter and then there I will be.  It's going to be  a Wow week.

Coming Unstuck

My IT guy assures me that I will no longer have connectivity problems - that everything is fixed this time for sure!  Unfortunately, my blog problems were never on the top of the radar for fixing and apparently everything under the sun has had to be updated in the past month, but, fingers and toes crossed, I should not be missing any more weeks because I can't upload. It has been very frustrating, but this time, the light at the end of the tunnel should not be an oncoming train - YAY!

Of course, things coming unstuck has been the name of my world for the past month too.  It isn't that there is more to do, because of course there is, it is the things that were done that are now undone that would make me pull my hair out if I had more of it and the patches wouldn't show so badly.

Now lots of things have happened and have gone great!  We had the most awesome Revelation for our 2013 Grand Officers with lots of fun, laughter, suspense and excitement.  I had lots of people say that they liked it when we brought out the Grand Officers and Escorts all together and some people were trying to guess if we had color coded them, because many of the couples came out with one in white and one in black.  But the truth is that I asked all of the Grand Family that was going to come out from the back room to wear black, white or silver and they chose for themselves and it just worked out.  They really looked splendid though.  Even though the styles varied widely, the color scheme kept them looking like a group and really, what can be more elegant than a beautiful lady in a black evening gown?  I guess I just love the classics.

Then we had our Grand Officer school and that went well too.  We got everything on our agenda done and we will see how well we remember everything this weekend as we go into Deputy Grand Matron school.  For the first time so far as I know, we had an individual mentor for each Appointive officer and a helper or two for the Elected officers also.  It made the instruction go incredibly smoothly because different groups could be working on different things at the same time and I just had to flit from group to group answering questions instead of working with one group and everyone else waiting around until I was done and could move on.  Of course, the Grand Star Point Officers didn't get much in the way of breaks and had to be on site an hour early on Saturday morning, but that is typically their lot, because they have so much more Ritual to perfect than anyone else except the Conductresses and coordinating two people, when one leads and one follows, is way easier than coordinating five people who can't see each other half the time.  And when they tossed me out of the room because they wanted to work some more before "MOM" saw them, that was rather wry humor, except of course that they weren't kidding. :-)

The DGM school is a rather complicated business because I have changed the method for doing the teaching and now will have three rooms with a third of the deputies in each one, but I hope that it is complicated like clockwork, lots of moving parts, but everything runs smoothly.  More finger crossing!

But the frustration of the month has been people contacting me to change things that were done and have gone to print.  For example, I have already had one OV change location and have a second one that may also do so, which means that the location in the Itinerary will be wrong and even if we fix it for the Roster, lots of people don't get that, so now we have to deal with extra flyers and notices.  And it looks to me that these changes were probably caused by people not getting written confirmation of their hall reservations.  I will be the first to confess that from a theoretical, honor system point of view, it should not take a piece of paper to assure that a hall reservation is neither changed nor canceled just because a better paying group comes along and asks for our date.  But the practical side of me reminds myself that (a) the person you talk to verbally may not be making sure that the person who keeps the calendar has your information, (b) some halls are run by professional managers and what the lodge brothers say may not be the real word on the hall's use, and (c) sometimes the hall thinks that your date is optional or moveable if you don't have the piece of paper.  So I hope very much that everyone has gotten their contracts or at least written confirmations and that two will be all the OVs that are moving.  That's probably wishful thinking, but let's wish!

And then I have several people who were appointed to committees in past years, who said that they would continue in their terms, but now are not sure that they can do so.  I know that stuff happens and I completely understand that health issues arise at the most inconvenient times, but Sigh!  So now I have about four people to replace on this, that or the other committee, and those are probably likely to keep happening all year long, so I guess I am not ready to retire my Mighty Notebook of All Resumes just yet.

Still, here we are, almost to the end of the trip up the mountain, ready to cross the saddle and start our sledding back down to the bottom.  Deputy School this weekend and Grand Installation only nineteen days away.  Oy Vey!

Tick! Tick! Tick!

When I was getting ready to sit on the throne in my medieval group, it was hard to believe the amount of ramp up work that was involved in getting ready.  We had to ask people to serve in various jobs.  We had to arrange for clothes to be made for ourselves and for everyone who was going to walk in our procession and serve in our court.  We had to plan the events we would attend and write words to go in our newsletter the month after we stepped up.  So why am I having a little deja vu now? :-)

I am thinking about this because I remember very vividly that getting ready to reign was actually harder than the reigning.  Yes, while we were on the throne we have events to attend every weekend, meetings to hold with our officers, disputes to mediate and resolve,  issues of importance to the future to address and we were doing it all in the fishbowl, where everything you do, say and wear, is noted and matters to someone.  And yes, we had to deal constantly with people, but nevertheless, reigning was easier than getting ready, because if you spent your getting ready time wisely and planned well, reigning was more about showing up and doing.  Dealing with a crisis is an immediate thing and then it is over.  Planning wakes you up in the middle of the night wondering what you've forgotten and with nightmares of everything going terribly wrong.

Right now I am wondering if this experience will be like that one.

I can hear the clock ticking down to zero all right.  We spent all of Labor Day weekend, which had no Star events on it for us, beating down the never ending list of big and little things that needed to be gotten ready for the Revelation of the 2013 Grand Officers, which is next Thursday, yes, six days from now, the School of Instruction for the Grand Officers, which follows right after the Revelation (yes, seven days from now), and the School of Instruction for our Deputy Grand Matrons, which is three weeks after that, and a tiny bit for Grand Installation, but hey, that is a whole six weeks from now - that's like FOREVER!

I think I made my fourth run to Office Depot and my third run to Michael's this past weekend, with quick stops in Hancock's Fabrics and Party City.  Thank goodness that I have a great Chairman for the stuff next week, because I would just die on the spot if I was trying to take care of all those details too.  And thank goodness too that I finished writing the agendas for the Schools three months back.  If I was trying to work out those details too, ack!

So, the folders are stuffed, the discs are copied, the binders are made and filled, the food is arranged, the staff is coming to help, the hotel block is ready, the equipment list has been distributed, the gift bags are prepared, the last set of DGM homework and instructions has gone out and the Itinerary has gone to the printer.  What's next?

This weekend, I am headed to Fresno for the GO/DGM/Grand Page dinner and the WGM/WGP Reception, along with five meetings stuffed in and around these lovely activities.

Project Runway Comes In Handy

This past weekend was our Jam and Jelly Day celebration, after which my partner and I got to attend the Northern Grand Representatives meeting and present our projects and pins and most importantly, the dress and vest we've chosen for the Grand Representatives for 2013.

Wanting the GRs attention for the presentation items, I knew that the dress had to go last, because once you've shown the dress, the attention is gone.  Like any big announcement, once you make it, everyone is too busy talking about it to pay attention to anything else, so save it for the big bang and then call it a day.

So we started with our Make a Difference Program flyer and pin, which is what we are doing instead of a travel program for 2013.  Traditionally, when we have done travel programs, or anything like this one of ours, where people collect points or do tasks and then turn in a sheet to get a pin to show that they did the stuff, the Grand Representatives serve as our liaisons all over the state to manage the sheets and pins.  With travel programs, members who earn the required number of points turn their sheets in to the local GR who checks to make sure it is right and then sends it in to get the pin to present to the member.  We are doing the same thing, with the GRs collecting the sheets and then checking to make sure the required items are done and then sending the sheet in to us to get a pin to present to the member.  It helps when you do this, to show them the sheet and explain the program so that they can do it the way you want it done.  Also, a lot of former GRs come to the meeting and in areas that don't have current GRs, the former GRs can promote the program and help too.

That part went pretty well.  They loved the pin, which did come out completely cool looking!  Then we presented our project and that went over pretty good too.  Everyone was excited over some of the very useful and user friendly things we are doing, so that was nice too.

Then it was dress and vest time.  We did the vest first, because the dress must come last, and they seemed to like it.  Then it was finally time for the dress and they seemed to like that a lot!  In fact, I had several former GRs to who came to me and said that it was a shame that they couldn't be appointed again, because they really would love to get the dress - so YAY!  You know when I agreed to get in the line, no one told me that I had to have skills in fashion design on top of everything else.  But maybe all that naughty pleasure of watching Project Runway has come in handy after all. :-)

So they seemed to like everything, which felt good and was a nice positive experience.  Of course, in some ways, that was only the warm up crowd, because next Saturday, we have to do the whole presentation again to the Southern Grand Representatives Association meeting and they could be a tougher crowd.  But we will see how it goes and cross our fingers on everything going just as well as it did last Saturday.

Next weekend, I am in Anaheim and San Diego.

Too Hot to Handle

[Note:  This was from last week and didn't post, I guess.  My IT guy says he's talked with our provider and hopes that we won't have burps any more.]

This past weekend, I got to go to a couple of very nice receptions with a quick stop in Las Vegas for my mother's birthday and I learned a few interesting things.

The first thing I learned is that if your flights are more than four hours apart, Southwest will not let you check your bag through to your final destination.  Apparently, because I checked my bag in San Jose for my flight to Las Vegas that landed around noontime and my flight out was not until 7:00 pm or so, the San Jose person would not check it through to Burbank, my final destination and, because it was more than four hours before my next flight left, I could not just take the bag up to the ticket counter and check it back in.  Instead, I had to lug it to my sister's car and then check it in when we got back to the airport.  Luckily, I had plenty of time each way, but what a bother.

Then I learned that Las Vegas has gotten hotter than it used to be and I mean really quite hotter than it used to be.  I used to go to Las Vegas every year to see my sister at different times of the year.  Then, after her son was born, I would go every year timed to be there for my nephew's birthday party.  Unfortunately my sister, whom I love dearly, had the bad taste to have her son in August, so from 1996 until his Bar Mitzvah in 2008, I went to Las Vegas every single year in August.  After that, I did go once in September and found out that September is a lot cooler, but I have data for all those years in August and in all those years, while we did hit three digits every now and then, usually the high was no more than 105 degrees - plenty nasty, but bearable for the short time needed to go from the car to the air-conditioned whatever (mall, restaurant, house, supermarket, etc.).

But not this year!  This year it was 119 degrees!  And these people build outdoor shopping malls - what are they thinking!?!?  And they walk around in them too - without hats or water bottles!  It was 116 degrees on the second floor of the parking garage - 116 in the shade!  When we got in the car, I was afraid I was going to burn myself on the seat belt tongue.  And people live here - voluntarily and all year long!

Apparently, my sister likes the heat because she suggested we walk around the outdoor mall and to be a good sport I went for it.  I didn't have the heart to tell her that the last time I felt dry heat like this, it was in a day spa sauna, prepping me for my body scrub, and they measure how long you are in there and give you bottles of water to drink while you sit there.  We had to walk around and without supplies either!  Finally, she wanted to go in a store and I sent a silent prayer upward for air conditioning.  I could feel the heat oozing out of every pore and my core temperature getting back to almost bearable while my sister complained that she was cold.  I offered to buy her a jacket. :-)

So I get back to the airport and fly back to Southern California for my weekend of receptions.  But the hard part was that the heat, or at least most of it, seems to have followed me because for a second weekend in a row, Southern California was three digit hot.  Now I do not do heat well at all.  Anyone who knows me knows that I am totally sun and heat soluble and should not be out in either for any length of time.  But here I was, day after day of baking beyond my ability to cope.  I suppose that at the receptions these past two weeks, I probably wasn't the best of company because I had the worst heat and dehydration headaches.  The Chapter rooms were too warm and while other facilities had better air conditioning, you still had to get in and out of the car and walk some distance in the sun and the heat.  And doing it in a formal with a full petticoat was pretty unbearable.  The two receptions in lighter clothes were certainly easier to do, but the heat was just nasty.

The problem is that there is really no good escape.  Whether you are in Southern California or in the Central Valley, from Bakersfield all the way up past Sacramento, if it's August, it seems to be HOT.  Sigh!

Next weekend, I am in Burlingame and Union City.  I will not make it to Golden Gate Fields because of work.

Sliding For Home

As people are reminding me almost every day, it is exactly five more weeks now to the Revelation of the 2013 Grand Family and only ten weeks and two days to Grand Installation.  Wow! 

So the time has come for me to start turning in the products of the past year's work and to prepare for the beginning of the end.  The end of the planning anyway, since after this month, the stuff that you can plan for will pretty much be over.  Then what is left is to carry out the plans.

That is not to say that being Worthy Grand Matron is stress free - far from it.  But it seems to me that the type of stress is very different.  When I was Princess, the ramp-up to ascending the throne was very much like the Grand Line process of having to find people to serve for you and doing paperwork and planning lots and lots of details.  But once you are on the throne, (also known as living in the fish bowl), the stress changes to the stresses of the moment and the day.  A crisis arises and you have to deal with it.  Someone goes nutty and you have to talk them down.  You have to pack the right clothes, make sure you bring the right stuff, buy presents for people, work out details of your events with your chairs, and all that, but the long term, long range stuff is done.

As I round third base and head for home, I hope that I don't actually have to slide in because I run out of time.  And I remind myself that some things have a "done" version and a "done for now" version.  For example, the calendar has been submitted to be included in the Grand Chapter Itinerary, but there are no places in it for the Grand Officer Receptions and several concordant bodies have not gotten me their time and place details for their events yet.  So that is "done for now", but will need more stuff put into it before the full Roster is published at the end of November. On the other hand, Lord willin' and the Crik don't rise, (meaning barring an unforeseen disaster) the selection of Deputy Grand Matrons is "done" done.  I am still working on a few committee appointments, hoping to get them "done" done in the next week or so.  I have the clothes for the Grand Representatives for next year ready to show at their Northern and Southern meetings later this month and should have the pins and Make a Difference Program sheets ready for them too, so that is "done for now" but not "done" until they have seen them and I get out the order forms to them.

It is of course also time for me to ramp up for the Revelation and the Grand Officers' School and the Deputy Grand Matron School, all of which are coming up fast.  I think that the clerks at the Office Depot are starting to recognize me when I go in there, but they are really good about helping me out, even when I have really weird questions like where in the store to find two part door prize tickets or blue painter's tape.  But I do not need yarn - No Grand Line Officer should ever have to buy yarn again as long as they live!

Tonight I am meeting with my personal secretary to go over the Deputy Grand Matron binders and their contents, and the labeling for their CDs and a hundred other things, like envelopes for the Past Grands for during and after the Revelation.  It's these little persnickety things that aren't written down that really get to you.

This weekend, I have to make a stop on Friday in Las Vegas for my mother's 75th birthday dinner and then on to Riverside and Upland.

WebMagic 2013 Comes To Life

This past weekend was our Associate Matron/Associate Patron workshop for all those Sister and Brothers who will be serving as the heads of their respective Chapters when I am Worthy Grand Matron next year.

Well, maybe I have to stop myself there for a second.  See, I keep saying next year because I think of my year as 2013, and that is next year, but the brutal truth that unfortunately I have to stop sidestepping is that next year is not really next year.  Next year starts in, oh my ever loving bleeeeeeep, eleven weeks.  We are under the ninety day mark, have crested the hill and are now sliding on banana peels into the finish line.  Stuff is starting to go in to the Grand Secretary to be prepared for the Itinerary that goes to print in just a few weeks, the last appointments are being done this week and next (at least that is true if the Lord loves me as much right now as he has up until now) and the last couple of calendar items are coming through to go in for processing.  Wow - it is really getting close now!  Just Wow!

But back to the workshop - where I made several comments about how much I have learned about the members and our Order and our needs and wants and things that we love and things that bore the socks off us in my last five years of traveling - Wow again, five years have really almost gone by already - well, eleven weeks short of five years to be accurate - Wow some more - where did they go?  Hey, I want a couple of months back darn it!

But really this time, back to the workshop - One of the highlights of holding your AM/AP workshop is that you get to announce to all your girls and their guys what you have chosen for your Special Project for the year.  There is more controversy about a project announcement than you might think because we have some members who are very firmly of the view that the Project should be one of our own charities and others who feel just as strongly that the Project should be something that reaches out into the community and helps others in a way that allows our members to reach out.  We had an inside charity in 2010 and 2011 and outside charities in 2008, 2009 and 2012, so in my five years, I have seen both.

My partner and I really racked our brains on what we wanted to do, and the dilemma posed by the above debate, and then realized that what we wanted to do was not a charity project at all, but instead, we wanted our members to take a year to invest in ourselves.  We decided that what our Order needs to grow and present its best face to the world at large is a professionally designed and updated web site, with a bazillion times more useful content and one click access to the most widely desired things.  We have a web site that is very pretty, but using it is very hard and lots of basic functions were never built into it. We also want to go to an online newsletter so that our members can post local Chapter news without the cost of printing and so that new stuff can be posted every month instead of just quarterly.

But to do that, and deal with all the surrounding problems of hardware, bandwidth, access, coordination with our existing databases, training our office staff, etc., etc., is going to take a lot more money than we usually have to spare.  So the only way it is going to happen is as a Special Project of the WGM and WGP.  So we decided that this was what we wanted to do, the contribution we could make to the future of our Order that would provide benefits to us for years to come.  We know that it is not a sexy, exciting project, like curing cancer or helping vets, but it is very, very NECESSARY so we have to hope that our members want to help.

So my partner got a person he knows to put together a little demo CD with some basic click functions, just so we could show some of what we wanted to accomplish and we showed it and the crowd went wild.  Everyone seemed to love the idea and anyone who didn't love it at least didn't say anything about it and several people asked me if they could contribute now instead of waiting and of course I told them how to do that.

The only place where we fell down a bit is that neither my partner nor I had thought about a name for it past just "our special project" and apparently, that is not good enough.  The next thing I know, people start shouting out names and we went back and forth on a little instant straw polling and now it is official.  The 2013 WGM/WGP Project is now WebMagic 2013.

Next weekend, I will be in Yorba Linda, Orange and Norwalk.

Off to Workshop We Go

Last night was the work party for the upcoming Associate Matron/Associate Patron workshop.  We had an awesome turn out of ten helpers who got everything done in just a couple of hours.  We assembled almost two hundred attendee folders, put discs and packets together, and prepared table numbers and toppers.  That doesn't count all the work that my awesome secretary put in beforehand to prepare the name badges and the CD labels and sleeves nor all the printing and prep done ahead of time so that the stuff to go in the folders and packets was ready for processing.  We didn't need a truck to get the prep materials to the work party, but that is only because my secretary and I put the pick up books together at my house last week so that the binders wouldn't have to attend the work party.

As we head into the last couple of days before lift off, of course the thousand and one little things start popping up, little questions and arrangements that take one minute each, but one minute times one thousand is still seventeen hours of time and so far, I still have a day job too and traveling on the weekends for other people's stuff.  I am reminding myself that sleep is highly overrated and that if you give that up, there is plenty of time for everything else, really!  I was reminded by someone else however, that I really need to try to sleep at least one night in here somewhere because I can't afford to be tired and cranky for the workshop and putting it on is a seriously high energy event.

Even though I have a great team helping me out on presenting the training modules, there is still a lot of energy that goes into orchestrating the thing, introducing the speakers, taking questions and answers, schmoozing during the meal periods, running the discussion groups and report backs and so on and all of that I do myself, so I really should make an appointment for sleep in there somewhere.  I'll have to figure that out real soon, I guess.

The other painful part though is that the rest of the world is rude enough not to stop when I am busy with this.  Because of the time line of other activities, I can't just set everything else aside and concentrate on the workshop.  I have clothes that are in prep that need to be ready a couple of weeks from now, more events eight weeks and eleven weeks after this and of course the calendar and appointments and all of that to finish.  So the finish line is not really Sunday by any stretch of the imagination - it is just the finish of one of many things.  Still, getting something DONE has got to feel good, right?  I'll let you know next week. :-)

I guess that if I was an event planner or a wedding coordinator for a living, this is what my life would be like, with some events in the long range plan stages, others midway and others about to happen.  You know, I've been trying to come up with a retirement job - maybe I should consider event planning.  After all, once you've been through the Grand Line, you are an expert at it, whether you wanted to be or not.

Next weekend is the big workshop in Palo Alto - if I don't survive, I won't be able to tell you about it.

A Friend With A Truck

[Note - This was for last week, but evidently didn't post - Sorry!]

One of the things that has always struck me as interesting is that a petition for membership in the Order of the Eastern Star does not have this question on it - Do you have good knees?  My tongue is firmly in my cheek when I ask that, but I admit that once, many years ago, when I was at a Grand Conductress reception, just for fun, I counted how many times we stood up and sat down from beginning when the Hostess came in until the end when we sat down after the closing benediction to wait for our turn to go to the buffet tables.  I didn't count this past weekend at the reception, but years ago, the count was seventeen.  I don't know why that seemed like a lot, especially when you spread that over three hours, but the standing and sitting always seems to come in groups, so it isn't really evenly distributed over the time with rest periods in between.

I was thinking about this, not only because we attended a lovely Grand Conductress reception this past weekend, but because I was thinking of other questions that no one ever thinks to pose before we are asked to do things and the one that struck me this week was that before you get into the Grand Line, someone ought to ask - do you have a friend with a truck?

This past week, we went to pick up the hard copies of the Worthy Matron and Worthy Patron books that will be given out at the workshop at the end of the month.  When we set up the workshop, I didn't want to charge everyone who was coming for the cost of a hard copy of the book in a binder because not everyone wants a hard copy book in a binder and making every pay an extra $25 when not everyone wanted one didn't seem fair.  So we let people order paper if they wanted it and then I had that number of paper copies run off at my printer so we didn't make a bunch of expensive extras.

Early on in the process, my partner had commented that maybe the people in Southern California could help put the books together.  I did manage not to drop the phone with laughter but confess to chuckling a little bit when I asked him how we would get the books north for the workshop if we put them together down there.  But I did start laughing when he said - you don't think that we need more than a couple dozen do you?  Of course, that was very uncharitable of me and I apologized, especially since he has never had the experience of helping out other people in the Grand Line and seeing what happens.  But I knew that we'd have more than a hundred orders so twenty or so did seem pretty funny at the time.  Maybe you had to be there.

Anyway, this is where my friend with the truck comes in because that is what was needed to pick up the hard copy binders and bring them to my house last Tuesday and the same truck is going to take them to the workshop on the Thursday beforehand.  We had so many orders that with the books standing up, the boxes filled out an entire layer in the bed of the truck and not a mini truck either!  A full sized pick up!  With more papers tucked in the cab behind the seats too!

So if you don't have a friend with a truck, what do you do?  Make fifteen trips with three boxes each time?  For that matter, what do you do if you don't have a print shop?  The average book size is about two hundred pages, although in an odd break from what is commonly known, the 2013 Worthy Patron books are actually more pages than the 2013 Worthy Matron books - go figure!  And the total came to about 36,000 black and white copies all of which had to be hole punched.  Now the print shop has a drill for that, but I am sure that in days past, some poor Grand Line officer, along with all of her Chapter, her friends and those she could beg, borrow or steal, sat somewhere doing all that punching by hand.

So it isn't just about time and money, it is also about local resources - you need a friend with a truck!

Next weekend, I am in Auburn and Rancho Cordova.

Repondez S'il Vous Plait

This past weekend was the last Official Visit for 2012 and another Grand Officer reception.  While I was reminded that the next Official Visit in this State will be mine, causing a momentary heart beat skip, I was able to calm myself by remember that the next Official Visit is still six months from now, so a bit less immediate than it sounded.  Whew!

But the reception, combined with a comment about the Worthy Matron dresses, combined with getting the workshop done, combined with getting the invitations for the Revealing of the 2013 Grand Officers printed brought to mind an interesting topic that does have some elements of frustration in it.  Now you may think that a reception, a dress, a workshop and a Revealing have nothing in common, but they do.  What they have in common are that they are all things that have a response request and deadline.

I have discovered, to my dismay, but not my shock I confess, that some people are really bad about letting you know they are coming to a free event.  In fact, there are some occasions where I don't even bother worrying about RSVPs anymore because I just know that I won't get them.  As for orders being on time, many people are wonderful about that, but enough are not that it really creates bother.

On receptions and other events like the Revealing, where the event is open to whomever wants to come, the Past Grands as a rule are very, very good about letting people know that they are coming which is important because you want to have chairs in the East for sure and maybe courtesies also for them, so that part works very well.  But I have pretty much given up on getting a general membership count for such things.  I've now had three receptions, Grand Warder, Grand Marshal and Grand Conductress, and in each instance I have had to tell my chairman a number to expect based on a guesstimate from previous experience.  For the Warder and Grand Conductress receptions, we pretty much hit our target number spot on.  I may have had twenty empty chairs in the East at my reception last year, but less than a dozen empty in the audience, so that is about as perfect as you can get.  But my Grand Marshal reception popped all expectations and we had to bring in two extra tables and my Chapter members had to eat in the kitchen because they gave their tables to guests.  Yay for my awesome Chapter members, but sigh on not knowing who is coming.

I have the same expectation for the Revealing.  My chairman wanted to know about RSVP information and I told her to go ahead and put an e-mail address or a phone number on the invite, but not to expect that we could actually plan food based on getting those RSVPs because that just doesn't happen.  We have a gigantic room, so I am not worried about running out of seats.  I just hope we get the right amount of food, not too much, not too little because food is expensive and I hate to see it wasted, but I also hate the thought of guests going unsatisfied.  My mother would never live it down if I threw a party and anyone left wanting more food.  Sigh some more!

Of course, it gets more tricky with dress and workshop orders.  On the dress form, which was handed out and then mailed out last year with a due date of March 15, I am told that usually only about thirty people get those things in on time and the other two-thirds of the people tend to trickle them in all summer.  Of course, the fabric can't be ordered until all the orders are in or the ordering is closed, so the ordering has to be held open until about now or lots of people wouldn't get the dress they want.

On the workshop, the deadline was July 6 because I needed to take everything to the printer on July 11 and I needed counts.  Lots of people did sign up on time and that was Awesome!  And there were some people who e-mailed me to tell me that they were coming and wanted to order stuff and had just put the stuff in the mail and they are great too because I don't mind getting the paperwork later if it means that I have the right count for the printer and especially the right count for the caterer.  Food really is expensive!!!

But what do you do with people who mail their stuff late and don't tell you that it is on the way?  You don't want to turn them down because you want them to come and participate and get the materials, but oh what a total bother!  I ordered a few extra things, expecting some lateness because of my experience from the past two years, but I have a feeling that I will still end up making a last minute Kinko's run to get just two or three more somethings ready to go because I really want every single person who can attend or who wants the materials to get them.  Sigh a third time!

Next weekend I will be in El Segundo and Los Angeles.

Deja Vu All Over Again

So how many times can you reach the point where you are almost done with something?  Have you ever noticed that when you are in the last ten percent of a task and you think you are just about done, something comes unstuck and then you are not quite about done, so you fix that and something else gets fuzzy and you fix that and so on and so forth.  I could swear that a number of comics I have read and cartoons I have seen build on this premise that there is always one more leak in the dyke than you can plug with your hands, feet and nose. :-)

Sometimes, when you can't get something done, you have to get it to a certain point and then decide that you are done, at least for now.  The draft calendar for example, simply has to go to print for the workshop and unfortunately, it seems that some of the people in organizations other than mine are not quite as fully fleshed out on the details of their events as we are.  So it looks like we have dates reserved and sometimes places but no times and sometimes no places.  But since these things are for other people to decide, we are just going to go with the calendar we've got without them and hope that in another month, when it is time for the Itinerary to go to print, these things will be filled out.  Sigh!

Appointments are proceeding well and hopefully we will be all finished with all of those in time for the Itinerary.  I still have a few people that I have not asked yet and a few that I have asked that haven't gotten back to me, but I have heard a rumor that sometimes people go on vacation and don't answer their phones or their e-mail during that time.  Can you imagine that?  Disconnected people - Wow!  I wasn't sure that was allowed in this world any more.

The agendas for all the Schools are done and we have started lining up the staff members to teach at the various events.  And the books and the workshop packet materials, all but the infernal calendar, are ready to go to the printer.  I am still feeling a little crunched though, because there is plenty still to do and we are picking up our travel schedule again, starting tonight, so I will be back to squeezing things in at the airport, late evenings at the office, and riding in the back seat of the car.  Of course, the nice thing about the back seat is that you can put a pillow behind you and stretch out your legs and put the laptop in your lap and type away.  At least, I can, thank goodness.  Some people I hear can't look down in the car.  That would be tough.

I have to believe that planning for the year is actually harder than doing the year, to keep alive the hope that the light at the end of the tunnel is not in fact an oncoming train, but of course I could just be drinking the Kool Aid when I think that.

This weekend, I am going to Yorba Linda, Riverside and the Grand Treasurer's reception, which is someplace that I can't remember, but I just get in the car and the car goes to the right place and then I get out and I am there and then I get back in the car and it takes me someplace else and that is the right place too.  It must be a magic car. :-)

In the Home Stretch?

I realize that for many people, they may think that the home stretch for an Associate Grand Matron does not come along until October, when we are within striking distance of Grand Chapter, but from my perspective, the real home stretch is right now, as my partner and I work on finishing up the thousand things that have to go to print in the Itinerary and the hundred things that need to be finished for our workshop and the dozens of things that need to be done for deadlines in August and September.  Unfortunately, sometimes things that you thought were done rear up their ugly heads and come back to life with ever more complications.  Next time,  I am driving the wooden stake right through the binder of worksheets and then shooting it with a silver bullet.

The calendar is just about almost done, one OV place, some receptions and some events for other people and groups that go on our calender is what's left.  That's the home stretch, I think.

The pieces and parts for all the books are pretty much drafted, except for a flyer that is going to go into the Workshop materials, and the above mentioned calendar.  That's the home stretch, I think.

We've figured out that the print copy Worthy Matron books that some people want are going to need about a two inch binder and the Worthy Patron books will need two to two and a half inches and as soon as the order deadline passes, we will be contracting with the printer to produce those.  That's the home stretch, I think.

I believe that all but one of the 2013 Grand Family have gotten their measurements in to the seamstress for their Installation dresses, the ladies all have their travel jackets and the skirts are bought but not all distributed yet.  The medieval outfits are ordered and the men are supposed to be getting their information for purchasing this next week.  That's the home stretch, I think.

All but about thirty of the appointments are done.  We are still sending out letters on the ones that have not finished.  There are a few where we don't yet know who we will ask to serve and are still deciding that, so we still have some letters and e-mails to send but we hope to make some decisions on those final slots soon.  That's the home stretch, I think.

With lots of things almost done, but very little DONE done, I spend most of my time feeling that I am constantly behind, but others who have gone this way before assure me that I am actually right on target.  I sure hope they are right and that all these final persnickety little things will just fall into place and then I will look up and I will be done with all this planning and not late!

It has been sad missing a bunch of events this month, but the time was completely needed and useful.  Last Saturday, I was at my office working on this stuff for six hours straight and then two more hours at home.  There is just no way to get everything done without at least some weekend time when you work a regular work week.  But since we are in the home stretch, I am hoping that the calendar will free up from here on out and we can pick up traveling again.

This weekend, I will attend the event in Salinas and the one in Santa Rosa, but will miss the Saturday event.

Some Done/Some Not

This past weekend, I continued to beat down the Mighty List of All Tasks.  The frustrating part is that while there is lots of progress, there are few things that finally get DONE.  With too many things, there is just a little bit more to do, that 80/20 rule still hanging on to me.  It is a little bit blah, because it feels good to finish something and cross it off your list, but when you make lots of progress, but don't quite finish, it sort of hangs on you.

I did get some things done.  The first draft of homework for the Deputies is finished and just needs some other eyes to review it and make sure that the questions and answers make sense and are correct.  The legislative deadline has come and gone, so anything that anyone was doing on that front is now over.

But then some things are cross-overs.  The books and attachments that will be burned onto CDs are done and getting burnt, but there are a couple of items that might have otherwise gone on that which are not done, like the calendar (still waiting on a few places) so they not only have to be finished, but now they will have to be copied separately too.  Does that count as a new task or not finishing an old one?

And some things, like appointments to this and that are just plain not done and still need to be worked.  In some instances, I have names for the spots and just need to get letters out, but in some cases, I have no names.  It is very geographic too, I have found.  I've got a whole four inch binder of member records and member resumes but sometimes out of the hundreds of people in my book, not one of them lives in a particular area that I need.

I must say that the member resumes that people send in have been enormously helpful and I am very excited about getting some members involved that weren't before.  But not everyone fills in the most useful information, so that is less useful.  On the member records, filling in the occupation is priceless because we have lots of jobs that need a particular skill, maybe accounting or health services or law or even IT experience.  Location is important too, but even more important are skills and interests.  A person's occupation does not always tell all that they can do.  Someone might be a nutritionist by day, but have great craft skills that can be used on a number of committees.  If those aren't written in, there is no way to know about them.
 
Even when you have names though, timing can become an issue.  That people could do this before e-mail is astonishing to me and I am so grateful that I do have e-mail to help me.  But that made me wonder a little bit too.  I mean, before e-mail, if you wanted to ask someone to do something and they lived far away, you usually would send them a letter, but then you had to wait for their response to come back by mail too.  If you had to ask three or four people to take a spot, waiting each time until the one you first asked says yes or no before moving on to the next one, then how many months would it take to get done?  I am told that just as many people say yes and no nowadays as they used to and that hasn't changed.  What I am told has changed is the size of the pool of people on whom to draw, especially in some areas of our state.  But if people used to get three and four and five rejections before filling a spot before, how ever did they get done in time using nothing but mail and the occasional VERY EXPENSIVE phone call?

Of course, I am also sure that people who did this right when people were just starting to have telephones probably said the same thing about people who didn't have that convenience. :-)  And every time I hear someone say that we can't do something by e-mail or over the Internet because not everyone has an e-mail address or Internet access, I always hear an echo of some long ago forgotten era Sister saying "But we can't use telephones for that - not everyone has a telephone number or access to a telephone.  No!  We need to stick to mail because everyone has that!

This weekend, I am staying home and beating down the list some more (Back, Back, Dread Beast!) and will miss the Official Visits.  It is disappointing because the Grand Family is going to some really nice and fun areas this weekend, but "We have to do the boring things before we do the fun things" and I have a lot of filing and drafting and mailing (oh my!) to do.

The Eighty/Twenty Rule

I don't know if you've ever encountered the Eighty/Twenty Rule in your life, but it is intruding on my existence with a vengeance.

For those unfamiliar with this diabolical proportion, the Eighty/Twenty Rule says that when you set out on a task or work with people or do anything else with discrete parts that you can identify, eighty percent of the items will take twenty percent of the time and finishing the other twenty percent will take eighty percent of the time.  Sometimes I have seen people push it to Ninety/Ten, but that is the exception.

So here I am, in the middle of The Big Push To Finish EVERYTHING and the 80/20 has hit me on the head hard.  I am trying to finish committee appointments, calendar items, workshop arrangements and everything is running into the 80/20 wall.

For example, I had asked people to get me locations for their OVs and events back in February.  I sent a reminder at the beginning of May and now it is the middle of June.  As of last week, I had eight of thirty-nine districts who had not gotten me their information.  That's darn close to twenty percent.  So eighty percent got their stuff to me with two e-mails and the others needed to have individual district e-mails sent out.  Of those, several have gotten back to me and all but one has at least told me that they are working on it and provided me some status.  I have one that is just out in the weeds, I suppose, so I guess I will be picking up the phone tomorrow and seeing if I can reach anyone that way.

Same thing with committee people - I sent out many letters in May and have been doing additional batches each week since, as I work my way through the various committees, with an eye to being done with my mailing out by the end of the month if lucky, by July 13 if not lucky.  On my spread sheet, I note the date that I sent out the letter and the requested response date.  My eighty percent people get back to me.  The twenty percent run silent and deep.  I don't mind (much) that people sometimes can't serve because I can understand that.  It's chasing down the ones who don't respond that takes all the time.  Sometimes they've moved and that is perfectly understandable because they never got the letter, but evidently some people don't open their mail for weeks at a time.  How do people manage that?  I would go nuttier than I already am to have a big stack of mail unopened.  Of course it is also possible that they are on vacation.  Since I have not been able to be on vacation longer than one week at a time, maybe I just lack the experience to know how you can get weeks of mail and not open it.  Sigh!

At least, having gotten started, I am told that I have a fair chance of finishing on time.  And I do have it a lot easier than some who preceded me.  While I am sending letters for lots of things, there are also some things, like Grand Chapter Week committees, for which I can send e-mail instead and save a stamp.  And for following up, almost everyone has an e-mail address, so that is nice too.

I am told that once upon a time, we had so many members so eager to serve that Associate Grand Matrons could start sending out their letters in June and July and still fill all their positions by July 31 to make the print deadline.  Those must have been the days!  Of course, it is a good thing that it worked for them though, because they couldn't send out e-mail follow ups - for follow ups they had to call each person one at a time.  And there were no unlimited long distance plans either.  What their phone bills must have been!  No wonder everyone always did the asking by letter.  Postage was cheaper than the phone charges!  Wow!

Next weekend, I am staying home to keep getting out committee letters and work on the calendar and the workshop details.

Feeling Loopy

Wow!  How can it seem like forever and just a couple of weeks have gone by?  I knew time flies when you are having fun, but evidently it flies by when you are busy, fun or not.

After my last blog, I set out on a nine day loop of the State, starting in Bakersfield on May 19, all the way to our last event in Loleta on May 26 and driving home on May 27.  My escort drove me out to Bakersfield and stayed with me for Tulare on Sunday, then he had to head home and my partner and his wife took me the rest of the way, ending at my house Sunday evening.  Since Monday was Memorial Day, he and I got lots more done on Monday, especially processing all the mail.  It took us four hours to process all the letters and workshop registrations that had gotten to my mailbox in those nine days.  Of course since there was no mail on Sunday or Monday, another huge pile hit my box on Tuesday.  And I was swamped with work stuff all the rest of last week to make up for being out of the office.  Not that I was on vacation, I had to remind lots of people, just working out of the office all week.  I have finally gotten caught up, sort of, yesterday.

The loop was great even though I spent most of it tired and eating badly.  I do not want to be asked how many pounds I gained that nine days nor how many months it will take me to lose the weight.  That would just be mean.  The problem is that on most days, we would have breakfast and then we wouldn't eat again until 2:30 pm and then we wouldn't eat again until evening refreshments after the night OV.  Or we would eat breakfast and then have a snack on the road and then have dinner at 4:00 pm and then have massive dessert after the night OV.  Or we would eat breakfast and lunch and lunch again at 3:30 pm as the OV refreshments and dinner at 5:30 and dessert after the night OV. Or we would . . . Does this draw a picture as to how one could gain weight doing this?  So anyone who is not certain why I am asking the Associate Matrons to let me know if their District is serving a meal so we can have it at mealtime can read this and hopefully understand what this does to a person's blood sugar.  Sigh!

The very best part, bar none, was getting to see all the members in the various Districts.  For some members who live far away and do not make it to Grand Chapter, the only time I get to see them is at their Official Visits, so it is nice to see familiar faces from my visits to those Districts in the past and find out how their local members and Chapters are doing.  It was also nice to see familiar faces from the Grand Families with whom I have served in past years.  Even though I have moved on to a new wonderful Family, I still love all the members that I have served with all these years and it is so nice to have friends everywhere!

I am missing most of the events this month trying to get paperwork done.  I missed all last weekend, will make all of this coming weekend, but will then miss the two weekends after that.  I have to get lots and lots of appointments made, which means lots and lots of letters, finish all the handouts and materials for the AM/AP workshop, finish the workshop plans, get more clothes chosen and purchased and most urgently, get the calendar finished so it can be handed out at the workshop.  The unforgiving clock keeps going tick, tick, tick forward and never stops and never moves backward.  One member thought that the workshop was in June instead of July and I must admit that evil thoughts crossed my mind at anyone taking away a day of the time I have, let alone a month!  And while the workshop is at the end of July, I wonder if people realize that the calendar and all the handouts have to be done in the next two weeks so that they can be copied and burned onto CDs.  Sigh!

I also admit that I hate chasing people down and nagging them, but that a bit of that seems required to get information, especially for the calendar.  I understand that sometimes people figure that someone else is taking care of that and until they get the reminder, they don't know that no one did, so reminders are good in that sense, but I always feel like I am scolding and I don't want to be doing that, so hopefully all of that will get done and back to me without me having ask my partner to give anyone The Glare!  Believe you me, you do not want The Glare! :-)

So, Lord willing and the Crik don't rise (that's Crik, not creek, different things :-), June will be the push to the paperwork month and so much will get done that I can go to everything in July with a clean conscience.  We'll see how that works out.

Next weekend I will be in West Covina, Yorba Linda, Bellflower and El Segundo.  I will not be at anything June 15-17 or June 22-24.

Stuck in Committee

This past weekend was a great time to catch up on my filing, go through the twelve piles of stuff on my dining room table (each pile is for a different thing/some piles have more than one subpile) to make sure my to do list is up to date and assess just how far behind I am or am not.  Of course, the devil is in the details.

I also got the mighty Database of Standing Committees up and running, for the next great task in the process.  Now that most other things are in process, or stalled because I am waiting for others to get back to me, (which I confess can be just a tad frustrating when the next domino is dependent on the last domino and the last domino needs to be pushed over by someone else) the next great TASK is to get the committee members all lined up.

This has turned out to be something of a three part task because we have three different kinds of committees, Standing, Special and GCW (Grand Chapter Week).  Going backwards on them, the GCW committees are in some sense the easiest because most of those people know what they are doing or can learn what to do by the person doing it this year.  The work on some of those committees is all year long, but for many of them, it is only busy for a couple of months before the session and/or at the session.  Those people get e-mails asking them to serve because those jobs are pretty well defined and do not really change much from year to year.  And in many cases, the people doing the jobs don't change much from year to year.  We have some committees that I think the same person has been doing the job for decades.  If anything, the problem there is getting some new blood involved and getting new people trained up in how to do these things so that there are options.  I have a list now and just need to sit down and get the e-mails out.  I may be able to do that next week, while we are on the road (fingers crossed).

Then there are the special committees.  These are committees that are specific to the Worthy Grand Matron and work on particular stuff that she would like done.  There is no "list" as such for these, although sometimes it seems like you look at the ones for last year and then fill the same slots.  But each year, you usually have a project chairman and that changes each year, and some other special things change too.  I also noticed that we have some slots where I cannot for the life of me figure out what this person does and until someone tells me what the job is, I can't imagine asking anyone to do it:

Me:  I have this great job, I'd like you to do, Liaison to Neverland.

Member:  What does the Liaison to Neverland do?

Me:  Darned if I know.  Maybe you just go out into space forever and when you get to the second star on the right, they will tell you.
Member:  I don't know, that could take a lot of time.  I am not sure I can take on that job.
Me:  Well, maybe it won't take any time at all because there won't be anything to do, but you will be able to stand up when we introduce all the committee members and that's cool, isn't it?
Member:  Well, okay, I will do it because getting to stand up and be recognized is pretty cool, but I'm not actually going to do anything.  Is that okay?
Me:  Got it.  Thanks for the clarification.

So that list needs some work to pare it down to jobs with actual jobs attached.

Then there are the Standing Committees.  In some ways those are easiest and in other ways, they are hardest.  They are easy in the sense that our Constitution says exactly how many people are on it and the length of their terms of service and some of their duties.  But they are hard in that sometimes the number of people doesn't make any sense and you have to fill all the slots anyway and sometimes the duties in the Constitution are really vague and so you have to figure out what you really want these people to do and write it up so that they know what is expected of them when you ask them to serve.

Another wrinkle for me is that I will be sending letters to the members who were appointed in earlier years to make sure that they still want to serve, knowing the expectations for next year.  I figure that I would rather tell them what is expected and give them a chance to bow out than to have them get stunned when the committee first meets and say, "But I didn't sign on to do THAT" and have them resign after their name has been published.  But it does mean yet more letters, renewals rather than new letters.  At least I have the names and addresses for those.

This coming weekend starts a week long (really eight days) run of OVs and events.  I will not be attending Friday's event because I cannot miss part of my work day Friday when I will be out the entire following week, but I will be at everything else for Star, Bakersfield, Porterville, Beckwourth, Marysville, Mt. Shasta, Red Bluff and Eureka.  I will not be at the York Rite dinner.