| June 5, 2019 -- Business Cards --
As you may know, the CT State Grange Central Office is moving its location, and as such, will have a new address and phone number. Due to this change, we will soon be printing newly designed business cards for all CT State Grange Officers and Committees. If you are an Officer or Committee member, and would like any changes to your information that we have on file, please email us those changes ASAP. If your Grange would like business cards utilizing our new design, now is the time to get on board! Please email us the information you would like on the card (contact person’s name and title, phone, e-mail, address, meeting information, etc.). This is a special offer for Connecticut Granges at NO COST to the Grange for the printing. After this offer passes, if Granges would like business cards, there is a charge involved that will be passed on to the Grange, based on quantity. The deadline to take advantage of this special offer and to get us your information is July 1st. Send your information to information@ctstategrange.org or publicrelations@ctstategrange.org .
Custom Printing --
The Public Relations Committee offers custom graphic design and printing services to all Connecticut Granges in black/white and color at no or low costs and quick turnaround times. Custom Brochures, Flyers, Posters, Banners and Signs and much more are available! Any of our existing pieces can be customized for your Grange. We can also create one-of-a-kind custom pieces as well. If you just need graphic design services and will use your own printer, that’s okay too! Send an email to information@ctstategrange.org or publicrelations@ctstategrange.org with your needs.
Grange-specific E-mail Addresses --
All CT State Grange Officers, Committees, and Community Granges have been assigned a FREE e-mail address and mailbox (ie: yourgrange@ctstategrange.org). Instructions on how to access these accounts were given to all Granges in their Public Relations Packs, or were given to each person when an office turned over. Currently, nearly 100% of Officers and Committees are regularly accessing their Grange e-mail, but only approximately 1/2 of the Granges in the state are using their e-mail address. Using a Grange-specific e-mail address supports branding of the Grange in Connecticut while providing a professional “face” to the public, the media, and also to the State Officials and Representatives. When a Grange member sends out a “Grange” e-mail, it will be taken more seriously coming from yourgrange@CTStateGrange.org than it does from hotlips@yahoo.com (I know the yahoo e-mail is an extreme example, but we actually know of some folks who have similar style e-mail addresses and use it for official Grange business.) If you are not already using your Grange e-mail, please contact information@ctstategrange.org or publicrelations@ctstategrange.org and we will send you access instructions. You can access the email using the easy-to-use web interface, or you can set-up the email on your computer via Outlook or Mac Mail, and even on your smart phone and tablet! The more Granges that use their e-mail addresses, the more efficient we can communicate as a group. Plus, every e-mail sent and received saves printing and mailing a letter - thus saving in postage alone.
We offer these specific tools and resources available at low or no cost, to enable Granges to centralize communications, and thus better promote themselves as a unified group, and get their name out onto the tips of everyone’s tongues.
From The State Secretary: Blue Books and Directories
Corr: Todd Gelineau, State Secretary
By this time, all Granges should have received their Blue Book/ Directory packets for the next two years. Rather than spend a tremendous amount of money printing the information in a bound book, we have decided to provide packets of information from the various committees. Please keep in mind that this material covers TWO YEARS. Please make copies of the packet material as needed. We do not have a lot of extra copies in the office, so please keep this in mind. We are trying to print less and reduce the waste involved in over-producing materials.
The move of the Central Office from Glastonbury to Winchester Center is moving along-- maybe not as fast as I would like but we are making progress. The biggest problems we are facing now involve what to do with the surplus of furniture in the hall. The State Master as put one more plea in his report this month for Granges and members to let us know if you would like anything from Good Will Grange Hall. This offer is also made to individuals as well. We are not asking for money, we just want to clean the hall out. If you would like to make a donation to the State Grange Foundation, we would certainly accept those gratefully. Please give me a call (860-307-1522) if you are interested. If you would like to come to the hall to see what might be available, we will try to accommodate those requests as well. It is extremely important we get the hall cleaned out as soon as possible.
The other major problem is whittling down the 135 years of items collected by the State Grange. We can’t possibly keep everything we have. There are dozens and dozens of staves, boxes of gavels, song books, totes and totes full of sashes, and much, much more. Difficult decisions will have to be made to get our “collection down to a reasonable and manageable level.
The new office in Winchester Center is shaping up nicely. The cable company arrived last week to install internet and telephone (our new telephone number is listed below). Once the cabinetry in Glastonbury is cleaned out, we will hire a moving company to move the office furniture across the state.
While the new office is well off the “beaten track” for a good number of our members, it will make my life tremendously easier, reducing my commute to the office by nearly two hours each trip.
The Executive Committee will continue to meet centrally each month. We have an arrangement with Hillstown Grange to meet at their hall on the last Wednesday of each month. This will make travel equal for most of our Board members. If there are items needed from the office that can’t be sent by mail, I can always arrange to meet with members on those evenings, if necessary.
The Scholarship applications are ready to go out to students in need of them. If you know of a Grange member who would benefit from a Grange Scholarship or Student Loan, please have them get in touch with me. We have a generous Student Loan and Scholarship that should be better utilized by the membership.
In the last couple of issues I have explained the difficulty with the IRS in filing our 990N ePostcards. Fortunately the website is now up and running again and I am in the process of filing for all Granges. Receipts from those filings will be sent in a separate mailing to each Grange once filings are complete. When they arrive, please put them in a safe place. I have had calls and emails from Granges throughout the year asking for copies of this paperwork. While I don’t mind providing the information, I am concerned about what is happening to sensitive tax documents that are disappearing. Please treat them as you would your own tax return documents.
In closing, I would like to apologize if things are not being done as quickly as they ordinarily would. It’s extremely crazy right now with parts of the Central Office in Glastonbury, Winchester Center and at my house in Sharon. Hopefully, once the move is complete, things will settle down into a new routine.
Until next time, get out and enjoy the beautiful weather.
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