Twenty-two weeks down, thirty left to make a difference.
How is it, I continue to wonder, that each individual day can go so slowly and the weeks and months just fly by? I guess it depends on how busy you are and right now, that puts me at Warp 9!
We've had such a wonderful variety of events the past two weekends. We started with an Association event in a castle and moved on to an awesome Official Visit and a Chapter anniversary. Then we headed to two more Official Visits and wrapped up with a visit to Rainbow Grand Assembly. Wow!
I try very hard to remember each event as its own separate thing, but I am sure that the pictures that people are taking will help with that. Unfortunately, since my escort does not travel in the south very much (he's been working on Saturdays), I don't have a chance to get pictures of my own. But I am sure that the ones that others are taking will eventually find their way to me.
But even in a series of memorable events, there are moments that always stand out. One of those was in Lemoore, getting to sign the John L. Sullivan Bible. I got a bit teary, I admit. I think that signing the Bible is special because you can feel and appreciate the history of the thing. Here we have a Bible that for decades has collected the signatures of Masonic leaders and Presidents of the United States that were Masons. And now my Worthy Grand Patron and I get to be in it too.
I was surprised to learn that we haven't had a Masonic president since Gerald Ford though. I would have thought that someone later would have been a Brother. But apparently in the South, being a Mason is not a plus for a political life, so no more Brethren yet. I have no doubt though that when another one comes along, the Brothers from Central California will be contacting him to ask for his signature in the Sullivan Bible.
I got a lovely commemorative folder with the history of the Bible commemorating my signing and I will treasure that forever. It is one of those things that you see other people do and never really think that you are going to get a chance to do it until all of a sudden, there you are. I think my Worthy Grand Patron's wife was getting teary too and she was just watching. :-)
Another memorable moment was sitting at the Grand Assembly for Initiation. Each year, the Rainbow Grand Officers perform the Initiation ceremony at their Grand Assembly session, dedicated to the leaders of the adult orders that sponsor them. This year, we had eight new Sisters. You can tell looking at the girls which ones are excited about being initiated in this big auditorium in front of a thousand people and which ones are a little scared until they realize that it is really okay after all. We got to give the girls welcome gifts after the initiation was over.
I also had the pleasure of getting to say a few words at the Grand Assembly session and had a wonderful time getting to discuss the similarities and parallels between our two Orders, both part of the Family of Freemasonry. I hope that some of them will be inspired to become some of us when they turn eighteen.
This coming weekend is a weekend off to try to catch up on everything, then we swing into April with Official Visits in Lodi and San Francisco and our first Grand Family/Member Fun Event, a cruise of San Francisco Bay.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Friday, March 8, 2013
Zoos and Belly Dancers
Nineteen weeks down, thirty-three left to make a difference.
What a great weekend we had at the end of February! And March was off to a great start!
We attended one of the Leadership Training seminars, IMPACT 2013 Make a Difference Be Brave. Usually, these have been scheduled for the other side of the state from the travels of the Grand Family, but we try each year to make sure that there is one session where we can come together so that the Grand Family can attend. This year's theme was Managing Positive Change and we used the Who Moved My Cheese video as a base for the discussion. The team put together a program that was better than I could have envisioned, so a little serendipity for me. :-)
All the parts were well done, but I particularly liked their use of the local objectives in the strategic plan as a checklist so that members could see where their Chapters were doing well and where they had areas of improvement available. The checklist gave them a way to look at the overall picture and then pick one or two things to do now and maybe give them the base for forming a plan moving forward. It was uplifting to see the interest in the members in strategic planning and in working for the betterment of their Chapters.
Then we had our first ever Northern Festival for our Eastern Star Senior Living Community. We wanted to hold an event in the North because our annual Summer Festival in the south does not tend to attract attendees from the North any more. There was a time when it did, but it has not been so for over a decade. And sometimes our Northern members feel a little detached from the SLC, even though there are northern members living there and even though our Outreach program helps members throughout the state. So we thought that a fund raiser event would be a great thing to do. It was themed Persia in the Time of Queen Esther and the servers were dressed in tunics with headdresses, we had pilaf and kabobs and rosewater cupcakes to eat and the entertainment was belly dancers, good ones too. :-) We had a silent auction of baskets and took donations and made over $6,000 for our Residents and our Outreach program. We are going to add that to what we make at the Summer Festival and hopefully will have an impressive total to use for the benefit of our Home and Outreach.
The next day, we went to our Social Official Visit in Salinas. What a fun time! The theme was Zoo-Riffic OV and the trainer for Wild Things, who is building what will be the Monterey County Zoo came to tell us about his efforts and the animals he trains and supports. He and his trainers brought animals with them to show and tell us about. Because of the theme and the animal show, many members were encouraged to bring their families and the room was filled with kids who got to ooooh and aaaah over the beautiful animals. What was also exciting was that they had to set up extra tables and chairs because they expected only about 120 people, which is what they had been getting lately and then ended up with over 160. It was marvelous to have so many members attend and everyone had a really fun time.
Then we had a repeat of our overflow table problem (what a great problem to have) in Merced the following Saturday. They had to set up tables in an adjacent area. And that is in some ways even more impressive because there are only three Chapters in that district and the room was completely packed! We had to out one door and around and back in the other door to go through the buffet line and the drinks and desserts had to be put in the next room. Wow! The theme for that one was Medieval Spring Fair, with English Country Dancing. After a set piece, the dance master taught some of our more adventurous souls, including some of our Grand Family, a basic dance. I was not so brave, but it was fun to watch particularly because it was pretty, if they got it right, or funny, if they did not, so there was amusement all the way around.
Saturday night, we changed from our medieval clothes to our formals and had a lovely visit in Elk Grove. They had to put rows of chairs in both the South and North to accommodate all the attendees - more fun! The Ritual work was wonderfully done and as before, our new script had us in the dining room after an hour and a half, so everyone had more than an hour to socialize. We went to stand in the farewell line and nobody wanted to go, they were having such a good time.
We ended last weekend in Richmond, with another Social OV themed Believe in Magic. After lunch, the entertainment was a great magician who is a Past Master of one of the local lodges. When it got to my remarks, after his performance, I told him that his finest magic trick would be getting out of the room without being hit with a petition. He laughed, but I don't think he actually pulled it off. I think they got him. Of course, he was in the corner farthest from the door when I said it and he wasn't going to make it out. We again had record attendance. I am told that the poor cooks had to go back to the market for more food twice, having planned for about 150 and ending up at 200! They ran out of room for round tables and had to put a couple of rectangles on the side to get everyone seated. Luckily this OV was plated, so we didn't have to try to get through a buffet line. It is the most amazing problem ever and how exciting it was! Being packed in tight is a hundred times better than having disappointment because you threw a party and no one showed up - big time! I gave a bit of a humorous speech with a serious end message and it was very well received. Whew!
This coming weekend is administrative and I am going to Yorba Linda for meetings and a lunch with the Residents of our SLC . The weekend after that, we are going to enjoy the OrangeBelt event in Riverside, an Official Visit in San Diego and a 125th Chapter Anniversary.
What a great weekend we had at the end of February! And March was off to a great start!
We attended one of the Leadership Training seminars, IMPACT 2013 Make a Difference Be Brave. Usually, these have been scheduled for the other side of the state from the travels of the Grand Family, but we try each year to make sure that there is one session where we can come together so that the Grand Family can attend. This year's theme was Managing Positive Change and we used the Who Moved My Cheese video as a base for the discussion. The team put together a program that was better than I could have envisioned, so a little serendipity for me. :-)
All the parts were well done, but I particularly liked their use of the local objectives in the strategic plan as a checklist so that members could see where their Chapters were doing well and where they had areas of improvement available. The checklist gave them a way to look at the overall picture and then pick one or two things to do now and maybe give them the base for forming a plan moving forward. It was uplifting to see the interest in the members in strategic planning and in working for the betterment of their Chapters.
Then we had our first ever Northern Festival for our Eastern Star Senior Living Community. We wanted to hold an event in the North because our annual Summer Festival in the south does not tend to attract attendees from the North any more. There was a time when it did, but it has not been so for over a decade. And sometimes our Northern members feel a little detached from the SLC, even though there are northern members living there and even though our Outreach program helps members throughout the state. So we thought that a fund raiser event would be a great thing to do. It was themed Persia in the Time of Queen Esther and the servers were dressed in tunics with headdresses, we had pilaf and kabobs and rosewater cupcakes to eat and the entertainment was belly dancers, good ones too. :-) We had a silent auction of baskets and took donations and made over $6,000 for our Residents and our Outreach program. We are going to add that to what we make at the Summer Festival and hopefully will have an impressive total to use for the benefit of our Home and Outreach.
The next day, we went to our Social Official Visit in Salinas. What a fun time! The theme was Zoo-Riffic OV and the trainer for Wild Things, who is building what will be the Monterey County Zoo came to tell us about his efforts and the animals he trains and supports. He and his trainers brought animals with them to show and tell us about. Because of the theme and the animal show, many members were encouraged to bring their families and the room was filled with kids who got to ooooh and aaaah over the beautiful animals. What was also exciting was that they had to set up extra tables and chairs because they expected only about 120 people, which is what they had been getting lately and then ended up with over 160. It was marvelous to have so many members attend and everyone had a really fun time.
Then we had a repeat of our overflow table problem (what a great problem to have) in Merced the following Saturday. They had to set up tables in an adjacent area. And that is in some ways even more impressive because there are only three Chapters in that district and the room was completely packed! We had to out one door and around and back in the other door to go through the buffet line and the drinks and desserts had to be put in the next room. Wow! The theme for that one was Medieval Spring Fair, with English Country Dancing. After a set piece, the dance master taught some of our more adventurous souls, including some of our Grand Family, a basic dance. I was not so brave, but it was fun to watch particularly because it was pretty, if they got it right, or funny, if they did not, so there was amusement all the way around.
Saturday night, we changed from our medieval clothes to our formals and had a lovely visit in Elk Grove. They had to put rows of chairs in both the South and North to accommodate all the attendees - more fun! The Ritual work was wonderfully done and as before, our new script had us in the dining room after an hour and a half, so everyone had more than an hour to socialize. We went to stand in the farewell line and nobody wanted to go, they were having such a good time.
We ended last weekend in Richmond, with another Social OV themed Believe in Magic. After lunch, the entertainment was a great magician who is a Past Master of one of the local lodges. When it got to my remarks, after his performance, I told him that his finest magic trick would be getting out of the room without being hit with a petition. He laughed, but I don't think he actually pulled it off. I think they got him. Of course, he was in the corner farthest from the door when I said it and he wasn't going to make it out. We again had record attendance. I am told that the poor cooks had to go back to the market for more food twice, having planned for about 150 and ending up at 200! They ran out of room for round tables and had to put a couple of rectangles on the side to get everyone seated. Luckily this OV was plated, so we didn't have to try to get through a buffet line. It is the most amazing problem ever and how exciting it was! Being packed in tight is a hundred times better than having disappointment because you threw a party and no one showed up - big time! I gave a bit of a humorous speech with a serious end message and it was very well received. Whew!
This coming weekend is administrative and I am going to Yorba Linda for meetings and a lunch with the Residents of our SLC . The weekend after that, we are going to enjoy the OrangeBelt event in Riverside, an Official Visit in San Diego and a 125th Chapter Anniversary.
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