| July 11, 2020 -- Winchester Grange was finally able to meet in June… virtually. It was nice to see 20 members join us for the meeting with Master Peter Keefe running the meeting from the Grange Hall. We even had guests with State Master George Russell, State Lecturer Marge Bernhardt and Public Relations Co-Director Robert Charbonneau in attendance.
The most important piece of business this evening was making a decision on the request to merge Eureka Grange with Winchester Grange. Unfortunately, a merger would have required Winchester Grange to take on the sale of Eureka Grange Hall and bear the cost of maintaining the hall until its sale. With the cost of maintaining our own hall in mind, it was decided that it would be in the best interest of Winchester Grange not to merge with Eureka. Instead, the Connecticut State Grange will officially revoke the charter of Eureka and handle the sale of their hall. The current members of that Grange will receive demits that will allow them to take their membership to a Grange of their preference. The members of Winchester did vote to warmly welcome any and all members of Eureka who wish to become members of Winchester Grange. All in all, it was a successful meeting and I’m sure those unfamiliar with Zoom came away from the meeting feeling a less fearful of the technology.
A decision will be made in the coming weeks regarding when Winchester will resume in-person meetings. The Governor is now permitting indoor meetings of 25 or fewer people, which the State Grange is now allowing as well. Our attendance does exceed this amount quite often. We would also have to observe all social distancing and sanitation requirements associated with opening our hall for meetings. All touch surfaces would have to be sanitized along with the rest rooms after each use.
Sandy Phillips and Todd Gelineau were selected as delegates for Winchester Grange for the upcoming State Grange Session which will either be a one-day in- person event or a one day Zoom meeting. We’ll have to wait and see!
|
