At the February Leader’s Conference, a seminar was given on S.M.A.R.T. Goals, a methodology of working in an organized manner to achieve the desired outcome. The letters stand for Specific. Measurable, Attainable/Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. These make sense in that the goal or outcome of a project must be a known quantity; able to be measured so as to evaluate success or failure; achievable, or why bother with it; relevant as in worth doing; and time constrained, or it could go on forever without the desired results. You might want to try this in your Granges with some of the longer term projects and goals you may have. I have worksheets available for the asking to help track the process.

The Grange Strong/Speak like a Champ theme of the month is “Trust the Process” which refers to having faith in that step by step approach, being used as you work towards your goal. No matter what the project, there is a series of steps to accomplish to get the final result.

The three Pomona inspections are complete and Eastern Connecticut Pomona #14 has five new members, Nutmeg Pomona #16 has eleven new members, while Mountain Laurel Pomona #15 had none unfortunately, although they had a very nice lunch prepared by Grangers in between Degree Rehearsal and the meeting. As a Pomona officer, if you can’t attend an inspection meeting due to other obligations, please try to line up your Pro tem replacement ahead of time. Most of the time this is done, but occasionally it isn’t.

By the time you are reading this, the Secretary’s School of Instruction will have been completed, and I hope will have answered the questions of Secretaries and other officers. Such matters as record keeping in minutes, tax filings, incorporation, non-profit status, and prompt dues payments are really important to the operation of Granges. Much of this determines whether your Grange is operating legally per your by-laws as well under various other statutes at different levels of government. When certain things like incorporation and non-profit status are lost due to neglect or oversight, they are difficult to re- establish. Always better to keep on top of things.

There will be Honor Community and Pomona Grange Awards given this year. Community Granges: keep track of your requirements and submit them to me by September 15 (need to be postmarked by this date).

Honor Pomona will be chosen by inspection score, and the President of that Pomona Grange will have the honor of closing the Annual State Session. I am still planning to award the best traveled State Officer with a surprise.

I would still like to hold a Degree Day but think that it needs more advance planning. To align a time and place, and avoid conflicts with summer vacations and fall fairs, I feel it would be better held in the Spring of 2025. As of now, I am thinking to make it statewide, but would welcome input as to whether you think it might work more efficiently to hold two, one at either end of the state. If statewide, the four degree teams would come from the three Pomona officer teams and the State Grange officer team. My concern is the logistics of getting four teams together in one place on one date and hopefully having some candidates to make it all worthwhile.

With summer coming, remember to work on crafts for the Big E New England Grange Building.  Also, keep in mind the Grange Lecturer’s Conference in Norwich June 21-23, and the Grange Service and Family Fun Day in Vermont July 27. Algo get out and visit the Grange Fairs in our state with Simsbury Grange Fair in June and Hamburg Fair in August (among other Granges).

I leave you with this thought: In the Second Degree the Vice President says “Grangers are likened to shepherds. Our flock is our Grange and our neighbors. We are taught to keep “those within the fold, and to reclaim the wandering... Be patient with the wayward, carefully instruct the erring, diligently seek and bring back the straying and those that are cast out.”