First of All I would like to say Thank You to all those who participated in the 141st California State Grange Convention. It was so great seeing the fresh energy, excitement, and friendliness amongst our Brothers and Sisters! What a positive step forward and hope for our State Grange!
I want to thank all of the hard workers from the Orangevale Grange for sharing their hall, their organization, energy and tirelessness that went into putting on another professional convention! You guys are amazing!
A big Thank you also goes out to Katie Squire for all of her hard work and expertise in running the Grange EXPO and Auction. Now that we have momentum, I’m hoping that more participation from all Granges will occur next year and make this program bigger and better than ever before!
I also want to say Welcome Back to all those members who have decided to continue being a Grange Member! I want to encourage further healing, participation and friendship in our historical fraternal organization.
I was so taken back and impressed by the positive, caring attitudes of our members and how we were able to work through legislative issues on the floor in a respectful, non combative manner, showing the professionalism that this Order of Husbandry has the ability and capacity to do! We can as a team accomplish so many great things.
It’s an exciting time in our California State Grange. We have used the Motto “Renovating the Grange”. To many of us this has been long overdue. We are updating our programs and way of doing business to make it all more efficient and relevant to today’s’ world. Our office system as discussed at convention is designed to be more accessible, with less expenditure, have more open communication lines, offer transparency to our members and actually get things accomplished in a timely manner. There is always room for improvement and I challenge you and your ideas in helping this organization to become the best it can be!
With hard work we can make California alive again, On all levels; Local, State and National. By working together and being active participants WE CAN make a difference in rebuilding our organization. We can modernize it in a way that will draw in new members that have additional skills, ideas and knowledge to contribute, teach and mentor our upcoming youth. The youth in this organization is the future and blood line of the Grange. We need to make this a priority.
In August we have our 2016 Western Regional Conference to be held in Portland Oregon, August 5-7. All is welcome! For more info contact Ed Komski or master@orgrange.org. for a registration form. Deadline in July 14, 2016. We would love to see you there!
We also have a lot to look forward to in the upcoming 2016 National Convention. The National Grange will be celebrating 150 years and will be held in the Washington DC area. It should be a week of spectacular fun filled with field trips and Grange History! We would love to see participation from California for all those who come. If you can’t attend please access on-line to visually see what happens at the National level.
The following year, the National Convention 2017 will be closer to home in Spokane, Washington. We are still in the planning stages, for those who wish to participate. Spokane is a beautiful place to visit and we are planning much fun, so please think about putting it on your calendars.
Ed and I will hopefully be able to visit many of you and your Grange Halls in the next 2 years as life permits us to. I wish all of you a terrific summer and we hope to see you soon!
Sincerely,
Cynthia Komski, First Lady
California State Grange
