To the Members of the Connecticut State Grange,

It is with pleasure I submit my first President's Address to you.

The theme set for 2011 was Community Grown and how we grew our community Granges. On October 23, 2010 I set a goal for the Connecticut State Grange to double our membership in four years, I challenged every member to secure one new member each, and for each Community Grange to secure twelve new members per year. As I visited I gave each member in attendance a slip of paper, I would like the Deputies to hand these out again tonight. Please take a quick moment and write down the name of a friend, coworker or relative that does not currently belong to the Grange, then next time you see this person, ask them to join YOUR Grange.

Have you assumed the responsibility for growing your Grange, or is it someone else's? I hope we each have taken the responsibility of growing our membership seriously; when you do, Brothers and Sisters that is the "Power of One." Each of us has the ability and influence to grow our Granges; the power you hold in that responsibility ensures a rich future for your Grange and your community.

Membership Growth is just the first part of our Grange Growth process. This past year we had a very successful (in house) Grange Growth Summit. This group of members, along with Steve and Claire Logan, Master and First Lady of the Rhode Island State Grange, went through a "crash" course on the Grange Growth process. Their talents will be in demand very soon. I was interviewed shortly after my installation and was asked about our "declining organization," my response to this report was, "I see communities that are familiar with the Grange; these communities are ripe for us to go into and reorganize new Granges in. We have seen a decline in the number of Granges, that is true, but not everything is negative. I firmly believe there is great opportunity for us in these communities. We have a very long road ahead of us, organizing, reorganizing and revitalizations are not an overnight process. We are currently working with 5 Granges; two of these are now reorganizations. How can you help in this process? We need each member to continually focus on securing your one new member, if you do that, State Grange revitalization teams are not needed. Our energy as a State Grange is best spent going into communities and organizing Granges. Like I said in the beginning of the address, you have the POWER; you are the POWER OF ONE!

COMMUNITY GRANGES

I want to commend all of our Community Granges. Many Granges in Connecticut have been faced with many challenges, the cost of maintaining your halls (especially heating oil), the weather this past winter and fall, or be it an aging membership. You have all done very well, and I thank you for your efforts.

This year we changed many of our processes Schools of Instructions were conducted in each Community Grange and we introduced a two inspection process. I know our Granges do their best for the Deputies inspection. I also know Granges put on all of the bells and whistles for the inspection. Bells and whistles are not who we are. It is the day to day operations of your Grange that the community sees, so, I want the Deputy force to see the same thing. You received the Deputy with open arms; for that I thank you. These folks have dedicated their time for you and are invested in improving your Grange and Grange work.

I received many reports and many forms of communications regarding various requirements to maintain your Charter. Patrons, I did not make these rules. I am obligated, as is your Deputy, to enforce these basic rules that are spelled out in the Digest of Laws. You MUST have a quorum; you MUST meet at least once a month. If you do not, you are in violation of the Digest and your Deputy is required to address this with you as well as bring it to the attention of the General Deputy and myself.

Let's talk about the "ritual." I do not have a preference of which format your Grange uses, be it the traditional manual or the alternative manual. But let me be very clear. I believe in our ritual, I support the use of our ritual; I also support your Granges right to decide which format you use. I will adamantly oppose major changes that diminish the value of our ritual at the National level, and insist each Grange perform their chosen format to the best of their ability. Our ritual is NOT an obstacle. It has been reviewed over the years to modernize the language without reducing its importance and relevance to our organization. Brothers and Sisters, I believe if you take away the meaning and values of our ritual we are nothing less than a generic social club. The Delegate body of National Grange in my opinion made one HUGE mistake when the approved an alternative Installation Ceremony. I do not and will not promote this format in Connecticut. Our Installation Ceremony is beautiful and meaningful. I wish every Grange in Connecticut saw to their Officers being installed. This is one of the most impressive ceremonies we have. What does it say to the importance of our Offices and the role they play in our Grange when we just set the Installation of Officers aside?

This year West Suffield, Westfield and Trumbull all surrendered their Charters; I suspended the Charter of Wolcott Grange and worked with Litchfield Grange on suspending theirs. Brothers and Sisters, we do not need to close Granges, we need to always be working on membership and leadership growth. There is NO reason for a Grange to close today. We have invested a lot of time and money on developing a Grange Growth System, use it.

POMONA GRANGES

The preamble for Pomona Granges in the Digest states, "Pomona Grange is intended and designed to "strengthen and aid" the Subordinate Granges." This point has been stressed all year long. At the Pomona Schools of Instruction each Pomona chose an initiative for them to work on to strengthen and aid the Subordinate Granges. Did your Pomona follow through? I hope so. We need to build up our Pomona's making them again relevant to our organization. We need to make our Pomona the first place Community Granges go to for assistance. This is why Pomona Grange will be the main focus for 2012. Tomorrow I will be unveiling the 2012 theme and its priorities.

JUNIOR GRANGES

Junior Granges are important to the future of our Granges developing GREAT leaders. Young ladies and gentlemen have the opportunity to learn, develop maturity, and above all else, have fun. We need to strengthen all Community Granges so they are in a position to sponsor a Junior Grange. I challenge your Grange to investigate the possibility of having a Junior Grange. I am aware of one Community Grange beginning the process of organizing a Junior Grange; I wish them much success in this venture.

Over the years there has been debate over when should one's years of service to the Grange begin. Our current system begins when one joins a Community Grange. It is my hope this Delegate Body will acknowledge the important role of the Junior level of the Grange. It is our duty to ensure that those members who have held continuous membership and remain in good standing from the time they joined Junior Grange are afforded the opportunity to have all of their years of Grange membership recorded. This does not financially impact our organization as we no longer grant a dues waiver to those whose membership spans over 50 years. Brothers and Sisters, it is my opinion that now is the right time to recognize these years of service.

Please join me in extending our appreciation to the Leaders, Assistant Leaders, parents and supporters of Ekonk Community, North Stonington Community and Hillstown Junior Granges.

I want to commend our Junior Team for the activities planned for the Juniors this weekend. This is the first time I am aware of a Junior Grange trip at State Session. Please pledge your support to the Junior Team or any of the Junior Granges, this is our program; it can only grow if each of us and each of our Granges support it.

YOUTH

Many of our Granges struggle with attracting members in the age group of 14 to 21. We claim there are too many other activities for them and they are just not joiners. I beg to partially disagree. Yes, there are a plethora of activities for all ages, I agree, but you can't tell me they are not joiners. Did you know there are 523,309 FFA members, aged 1421? As a matter of fact there are at least four of our Grange youth attending the National FFA Convention right now. One of them is Victor Salazar. Victor is representing Connecticut as a National FFA Officer candidate. Please join me in wishing Victor well in hoping his dream comes true.

We can no longer make excuses for ourselves, the 14 to 21 age group are joiners, and there are 523,000 of them that believe in our Grange values, our goals and our traditions. Many of our communities are served by a Regional Agricultural School. Connecticut Granges need to partner with these schools, and develop working relationships that serve both groups well. I can assure you these young people are exactly what our Granges need, they are hard workers and dedicated students, and best of all many of them are trained leaders.

Last May, Sister Nancy Weissmuller and Sister Jaimie Cameron manned a booth at the Connecticut State FFA Convention; they did a great job, they met many young adults, advisors and parents and introduced them to the Grange. We are continuing to build our relationship with the Connecticut FFA.

I challenge every Community and Pomona Grange to build programming that is geared toward the 14 to 21 age group. Be creative, be open minded and have fun.

In 2011 Connecticut again sponsored a Youth Drill Team; let us congratulate them on being the first place Youth Drill Team in the Northeast.

2012 will bring the regional Youth Conference to Connecticut. Your help and support is needed. Once a location is confirmed, a lot of work has to begin, immediately thereafter. Sister Lisa Lamoureux and her team really need all of us to do whatever we can to help and thus show the region why Connecticut is the place to be in July of 2012.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

I think we can all agree one of the fundamental responsibilities of a Community Grange is to better the community in which they serve. Our Granges do amazing work. Members give thousands of hours of their time and talents individually every year, and collectively this number climbs into the hundreds of thousands. I do not know what was reported to Brother and Sister Barnes this year, but I am certain that number will again amaze me. If your Grange is not focusing on its service to the Community I ask you to examine your goals and objectives as a Grange and as a member.

It is time our State Grange implement a state wide Community Service project. The Family Activities Committee built into their program support to local food banks. I hope all Granges participated in supporting both the committee's initiative and your local food banks. If we can all change the lives in our communities, just imagine the difference we can make by going from the Power of One to the Power of Many.

As you will see in the proposed budget, there is no surplus for us to draw from to institute new programs. I challenge you to look for ways to obtain our goals in bettering our communities on a state wide level. There is money out there; there are ways for us to accomplish greatness in each community. You will hear later in this session that we are in the process of formulating a 501 (c) ( 3) Foundation; this foundation will enable us as a State Grange to assist our Community and Pomona Granges in serving your communities to the fullest.

MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT AND RETENTION

Membership growth is the single means in which we can ensure a long and healthy future for our Granges. The beginning of this address touched upon the role each of us must play in building our membership. There are other areas we must be attentive to; one of them is membership retention. Yes, we must gain new members, but we must also keep all members engaged and involved. Your State Grange Membership Committee is focusing on this issue this coming year. It has been suggested, many times, that we have an "exit interview" for members who have chosen to no longer maintain their membership. The decision of these members needs to be assessed and considered as we cannot experience true growth without also understanding our losses. I ask this Delegate Body to look at this issue and offer guidance and input into this important issue.

I encourage every Community and Pomona Grange to take a look at and complete the Save My Grange form. A systematic process has been developed that allows Granges to take a clear look at your strengths and weaknesses and develop a plan to build the overall health of your Grange.

I encourage all Granges to contact the Grange Growth Team, headed by Brother Jeff Barnes, and explore your possibilities.

Please join me congratulating the members of Norfield Grange # 146, as they took the challenge of securing 12 new members a year seriously and did just that. Norfield Grange representatives will be my guests at the Celebration Banquet, Congratulations.

You each must take a bow as well, for the quarter ending June 30, 2011 we posted a net gain in membership. This is the first quarterly gain in a very long time. I congratulate each and every one of you who stepped up to the challenge all of your hard work is paying off.

We are beginning to address the issue of membership retention. We believe it is the responsibility of the State Grange to develop social activities that strengthen the programming of Community and Pomona Granges. In 2011 I established a new committee, the Social Connection. This team has out done themselves! They have held two very successful events, the Mystery Dinner was sold out and the Competitive Night drew a capacity crowd. On July 16, 2011, we held a joint picnic with our friends to the east, the Rhode Island State Grange, as part of the National Grange sponsored Grange Day Out. This event was well attended with around 200 from both states in attendance; it was a picture perfect weather day, good food, good entertainment, and best of all great friends. Events like these are essential to membership retention. Every Grange can and should offer program that brings its members together in a social setting, think out of the box, don't be afraid to try something new and have fun.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Public Relations are, in my opinion, the most important area we must continue to advance in. Our Public Relations Department is doing an outstanding, no INCREDIBLE job keeping the Connecticut State Grange in the front of the media. I lose track of the number of articles that are sent to the media each week and that is on top of the countless updates and Facebook posts keeping the world informed of the activities of the Granges that make up the Connecticut State Grange. They have taken our State Grange into the twenty first century through the social media. We were paid one of the biggest compliments. I was told when the National Grange hired a new Communication Director; the New Director was told one of her main objectives was to make sure the Connecticut State Grange was not the number on hit on the internet when searching the Grange. What a testimony to the advancement of our team here in Connecticut. Please join me in thanking the Public Relations Team for their tireless efforts.

The Connecticut Granger is one the premier Grange newspapers in the country. With virtually no staff and virtually no subscription fee, they continue to print a high quality and informative monthly periodical amidst rising expenses in paper and printing. 2011 brought us twelve full issues. This is due to the abundance of information supplied by our Grange correspondence, the many articles reprinted from other media and from the National Grange. Keep up the good reporting and support of our Granger.

LEGISLATIVE

The Legislative Committee has done an outstanding job updating our Legislative Policy Book, but there is still quite a bit of work to be done to keep our policy statements current. The Legislative Policy Book is a living document. It is each member's responsibility to review the annual policy book, as these are the policies you initiated and enacted. I encourage all session committees to review the Legislative Policy Book and make sure these policies are in line where you feel your State Grange needs to be focus. Remember, it is not a policy of the Connecticut State Grange unless you, the delegates, vote it as such.

The Grange has always been well respected at the State Capitol; we must continue to have an active and involved presence in Hartford. It is our responsibility as a State Grange to advocate on behalf of our Community Granges and members. We are the collective voice for our members, bringing your policies to the proper agency or committee.

After Tropical Storm Irene rolled through, she left most of the state without power and telecommunications. Some areas were affected for over eight days. We need to congratulate the leadership and emergency personnel from every town in Connecticut for how they handled the aftermath of this storm. The Town of Sterling was without any electricity, telephone, or cell service, for close to ten days. These outages included no access to 911, so if a resident had an emergency they needed to go to the town hall and report it. We cannot allow, in the twenty first century and with all of the modern technology, to have areas of our state left without any communication access, especially availability to 911. We, as a State Grange, must ensure all areas of our state have unobstructed access to emergency services regardless of circumstances.

AGRICULTURE

Agriculture is the foundation in which our organization was founded. With this in mind, we must continue developing coalitions with like agricultural organizations. We should be joining as supporting members in these other organizations.

We must inform the public of our policies and promoting our support in the various areas of agriculture, especially the right to farm and preservation of open space.

Obesity is becoming an epidemic problem in the United States, and we need to better promote good nutrition and healthy eating. Grangers love to cook and eat, so let's set the example of healthier eating through our public dinners, contests and programs. Would it not be a great thing to partner with the apple industries and have a contest open to everyone, Grange members and the public?

The Connecticut State Grange once again had a booth at Ag Day at the Capitol; this is an excellent opportunity for us to interact with our State Officials and Legislators. We need to continue this event, always raising the bar on our exhibit and the message we are promoting.

Your State Grange Agriculture Team out did themselves this year, as they took our traditional contests and stepped them up, thus helping the community. I can't wait to see the total pounds of summer squash which has been donated to local soup kitchens and food banks.

CAMP BERGER

Camp Maud Isbell Berger, our gem on the lake. I want to thank Dorian Lockett and Richard Lemieux for all of their efforts to improve the infrastructure, programming and financial health of our Camp Berger. We are in year three of our five year plan, and I for one am very pleased with the performance of the Camp's Leadership, Staff and Trustees to date. We entrusted young people to their care, and they perform their jobs with maturity, respect and dignity. There is a long road ahead of us as to the financial stability of the Camp, but I firmly believe we are on the right track and will exceed the expectations we set in the five year plan.

Brothers and Sisters, this is your Camp, we must get back to the point where our Pomona's are showing an interest in the wellbeing of the cabins that hold their name. I encourage each of you to visit your Camp, and enjoy all its beauty has to offer. Then, I am sure you too will have a renewed interest in its possibilities.

This year, after the passing of Sister Marion Beecher, the Trustees formed the Marion W. Beecher Campership Fund. I encourage every member and every Grange to contribute to this fund as its proceeds are used to send children who could not otherwise afford to go to camp to attend.

LEADERSHIP

The Officers, Directors, Deputies and Pomona Masters make up the leadership team of the CT State Grange. Early in the Grange year we had a Leadership meeting with all Officers and Directors, each Director presented their program, where we participated in a Leadership PowerPoint and Team Building exercises. While Rusty Hunt was visiting last February, he asked the question, "How many State Granges consider Pomona Master as part of the leadership team?" That really stuck with me. If we expect the Pomonas to be the "go between" for the Community Granges and the State Grange, why aren't they part of the Leadership Team of this State Grange? In the spring we held our second Leadership Team workshop, including the Pomona Masters and the attendance was not as strong as I had hoped. We had the President and Vice President of the State FFA presented the workshops, if you were not there, you missed out. They did a great job and we thank them for their efforts. We will again have Leadership Training for the State Grange Leadership Team. This training will remain a major focus of the administration to build the Leadership Team of this State Grange, and you as members must expect them to share with you at the Community Grange level the lessons learned. One of the greatest investments we can make is in leadership development. If we do not continue to build and develop great leadership skills we will quickly fall behind in meeting our communities needs and slip away into nonexistence.

I challenge every leader, past, current or future, to raise the bar on your current leadership and yourself. I absolutely love serving you as President, but if I do not continue to grow as a leader, I fail. I do not fail myself, I fail you! You should expect from this administration the best, at all times. You need to hold us accountable for our actions, and our visibility. If we do not perform our duties to your satisfaction, it is your reasonability to make the necessary adjustments at the next election. I met with the Officers elect prior to our Installation last year where I reiterated to them that we serve you, we are accountable to you, and if we are not able to perform the duties of our office we should not seek reelection. No member of this administration is above the rules, we must live by and act in accordance with the Constitution and Bylaws at all times, there are NO exceptions!

IN CONCLUSION

As we look ahead to 2012 I know we will accomplish greatness in many areas. I also know we will suffer defeat and loss. But it is how we overcome those times of defeat and loss that will dictate our future. I know I have made decisions this year that have not made some members happy; I agonized over some of these decisions, as I knew they affected people, my Brothers and Sisters. At all times I acted in accordance with the Digest, and sometimes I sought the advice and counsel from the National Grange President. It is not easy realizing one must suspend a Charter. But it is my obligation to uphold the Digest, and it is my obligation to act in the best interest of the Grange and its members. I believe I have done that in all instances.

I want to thank the Board of Directors for their support and guidance, especially Brothers Phil Prelli and Russell Gray for their counsel.

Sister Edith Schoell is one of the greatest assets of this State Grange. She was not prepared for me I am sure, and I drive her absolutely bonkers at times, but the friendship we have developed over this past year will last me a lifetime. Edith, I cannot thank you enough for all you do, there are not enough words to express the gratitude this State Grange has for you and your efforts.

I thank every member of every Grange who received me and my family with open arms, it is truly a great feeling going to a Grange and always felling like you are home. There were many occasions Sister Jodi Ann was unable to accompany me on visiting Granges and I thank Sister Joan Perry for "holding down her side of the car." You have always been a dear friend and I thank you.

I could not have been prouder to have my family install this State Grange last year, they have been my rock. I discovered right away you do not do this job alone; my family has taken the back seat many times due to my obligations to the Grange. Last fall Jaimie started high school and J. Allen started college, a time in both their lives they need both parents a lot, and there were many time I was not there for them. I thank them for their support and love and for understanding and encouraging me.

There is one person, without whom I could never do this job. She puts up with me, my moods, my temper, my humor even when it may not be funny. I never give her the credit she deserves; she is my rock, my sanity and insanity, she is my best friend and the love of my life. Please join me in thanking Jodi Ann for all she does for our family and her support of me and the Grange.

Brothers and Sisters It has been my greatest honor to serve you as President of the Connecticut State Grange. I know there are greater days before us and I can't wait to celebrate them with you.

Respectfully Submitted,
Jody A. Cameron
President
Connecticut State Grange