Counting Backwards

I have been trying to get this post up for three days, but technology has not been kind this week.  Sigh!

Last weekend, I attended an Official Visit in the Central Valley, but spent the remainder of the weekend on, you guessed it, more paperwork!  The problem is that everything has to count backwards and when you realize how far back it counts, it gets a little hairy.

For example, our Associate Matron/Patron Workshop is coming up at the end of July.  This is the chance for me and my partner to teach skills that our subordinate officers will need next year as they fulfill the duties of their offices and also for us to tell them about what we will be doing next year.  Well some of the things we are doing happen on certain dates, some even as early as this coming December (OMG!) and some events won't be until next spring, about a year from now.  So we want to put flyers for these events into the packet of materials that we will hand out at the end of the July, but while the dates are set, most of the places are not.  Without being able to tell people where a traveling event will take place, they can't figure out which date is theirs, so giving them the dates without the places isn't very useful.  But by the same token, people don't always realize that you need the place for an event a year ahead of time and think that they have plenty of time to find the location.  But nothing could be farther from the truth.

Even if we weren't putting all this stuff onto flyers, the Itinerary that is printed in August to be distributed at Grand Chapter in October should have all the places in it if at all possible.  I know that in lots of years the place information is empty in the Itinerary and that the stuff gets filled in when the Roster comes out.

Aside - Point of reference - the Itinerary is the little book that comes out at Grand Chapter and has contact info for all the Distiguished and Honored Members - the Roster is the big book that comes out in January that has all the stuff from the Itinerary in it, plus catch up stuff, plus the elected officers from each Chapter and the Chapter's meeting nights and locations.  The Roster can't come out until January because the Chapters send in their information on who their officers are in November (at least they are supposed to) and then that information has to be filled in and the whole thing sent to the printer to be run.  Itinerary - little book; Roster - big book.

But lots of people only get, or only buy, the Itinerary and since our web site is nice but not the most user friendly in the world, if the place and time and such doesn't get into the Itinerary, then there are often people who never get the information and don't come.  That is not to say that everyone who does get the information shows up, (if I thought that, you'd ask me what sort of medication I was on and whether it was time to speak to my doctor about changing the dosage), but it does help.

So back to the challenge of not only having dates for everything but places too - If we want to put this stuff on a flyer that is handed out at the Workshop, then we need it in time to get it copied and onto the CD that we hand out.  Those have to go to burn by the end of this month so that there is time to burn them and get them so that we have them in time to stuff the packets to be handed out to the participants and the workshop.  And thus locations for events that are six months to a year from now need to be figured out NOW!  AAAAAHHHH!

Lots of other things count back like that too.  Another example is Grand Installation invitations.  I am told that if the Associate Grand Matron and Patron want invitations that they can send out to family and friends (I know, another big assumption that anyone in the Grand Line still has any family or friends who are not in Eastern Star and/or who haven't had the date of the Grand Installation drummed into their heads over and over), those have to be printed up in the next two or three months, so that they can be mailed by August or September for the event in October.

This is why I wrote a time line a year ago for what had to be done each month since last October through the next two years.  When I started counting back the lead time on some items, it just started getting scary.  I've got things on the list that are finishing up now that I started a year ago, things that I started six months ago and things that I am just doing now and almost all of it has to be done by the end of July and the workshop.  What isn't due then is due in August or September or October.  I think by the time we get to Grand Chapter, all I will want is sleep!  I wonder if actually doing the job will be harder or more exhausting that planning to do the job?

Next weekend, the Grand Family has gone off to the Kentucky Derby while I am stuck at home doing, yes indeedy, more paperwork!