As the Fourth of July approaches and our Granges are opening their doors and meeting in-person, let’s celebrate with family and friends. We must keep in mind that those who are not vaccinated must still wear a mask inside when we do hold meetings, events and agricultural fairs and fundraisers.

In June we held our third Zoom Pink Sash meeting and invited the Subordinate Presidents to attend. We had close to 40 members in attendance. We went over the surveys the Granges filled out and ended up with 29 out of 35 surveys sent out. For the Granges that own halls the average cost is about $8,000 to $9,000 per year. Most of our Grange Halls do not pay property tax because they put on a Grange Fair and are exempt from town taxes. Three of the Granges reported they pay property tax in which the highest amount was $26,980 of which $21,300 went for property taxes. The largest expense for these Granges is their liability insurance and heating oil. The majority of Granges have an average dues amount of $30-$35 per year with a couple of Granges that charge $50. Thank you to all the Granges that took the time to fill out the survey and get them back to me.

I would like to thank Phil Prelli for leading the discussion on the National Grange Diversity Task Force. It turned out to be a controversial subject. A copy of the report is included in this issue of the Granger on page 14.

It  has  been  announced  the Eastern States Exposition (The Big E) in Springfield, MA will return at full capacity. The fair runs from September 17 to October 3. The New England Grange Building store will also be open.  We will be looking for volunteers to staff the store for the 17 days of the fair. If you are interested in working, you can contact Noel Miller or myself.

After several years of discussion, it was finally decided by the Northeast Connection to hold a joint Leadership Conference. This will include the Leaders’ Conference, Lecturer’s Conference and the Youth Conference in one gathering.

Maine will host the first combined conference in March 2022. There will be more information on this as it gets closer.

In closing, I hope everyone has a good Fourth of July and hope to see you all soon.