Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) December 20, 2023

We really appreciate your support!

The Grange has benefited greatly from the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall, which has enabled us to make major improvements in the Hall, since their founding in 2012.
We’ve gotten a really good start on this year’s “end of year” fundraising campaign for the Friends–but we still want to encourage you to give, if you can.  We’ve heard back from about 2/3 of the normal responses so far.  Like many other non-profit charities, we rely on contributions at this time of year.  We know many people are writing checks to help others now, in tune with the “season of giving”.   We sent out fundraising letters to a list of previous donors in early November, asking for help “refilling our bank account” after a couple of years that have really depleted our funds.   It’s been for the best of reasons–we’ve been able to get a lot of big projects done in that time!
Where has the money gone?   Just in the past 2 years, we’ve invested over $103,000 in major projects, which have the Grange Hall looking really good, more economical to operate and with a reduced carbon footprint.  We were also able to raise over $2,700, mostly from the contra dance community, to provide at least a little relief for the 39 families who lost their manufactured homes in 2 mobile home parks in Berlin, as part of our Fall fundraiser.   We’re proud to have made all of these investments in our Hall, and to have helped the people of our local community.
You can find the full list of the Grange Hall improvements that the Friends have helped to make, on the Donate page of the Grange website.  We’d be  happy to send you a copy of the fundraising appeal letter, if you didn’t get one–but on that page you’ll also see the “Donate Button”, conveniently located at the bottom of the page, which allows you to do just that, via Paypal!   Questions?  Send an email to me, Tim:  swartztim15@gmail.com, and I’ll do my best to answer them–and to put you on the list to get the appeal letter if you want, either in your mailbox, or via email.
In the fundraising letter, we also ask for your input on the next projects we will be taking on to improve our Grange Hall.  We’d love to hear from you!

Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) November 30, 2023

December Grange meeting:   brief and to the point

As usual on the first Saturday of even-numbered months, our monthly meeting will be brief:  4:30 to 5:00.   We’ll get a review of the finances and any other immediate news, and then we’ll be discussing how to prepare for the resumption of Grange meeting ritual as we are planning for the Jan. 7, 2024 meeting!    We know this will be a new experience for at least the several members who have joined the Grange since we stopped  having full ritual meetings at the beginning of the pandemic, and the rest of us are likely rusty in our skills, so we will be scheduling a “practice session” sometime before the January meeting.

December Community Program:  Computer Scams and How to Avoid Them

From 5:00 to 6:00, Grange Lecturer Carl Etnier has arranged to have a talk by Michel Kabay, about one of the ongoing problems that plague the internet in our modern world–the constant pressure of “bad actors” attempting to defraud us, steal our online identities or otherwise take advantage of us.   Dr. Kabay spent his career working on computers and security, including 20 years at Norwich University in Northfield, before retiring as an Emeritus professor in 2021.  He created the “Master’s Program in Information Assurance” there, among many other activities.  Since retirement he has done consultant work for many organizations, as well as giving talks about internet security in the local area.
Mich Kabay has also written extensively, written a college textbook on enterprise security, and served as technical editor for three editions of the Computer Security Handbook.   His Mich Kabay website contains many links, .pdfs and PowerPoint files available for non-commercial use.    In other words, he knows his chops.  (One note:  I have been able to open his website on my phone, but not on my desktop PC for some reason.   I hope others will not have this problem).
Dr. Kabay will talk about scams and (more importantly, how not get scammed), and we will also have time for questions and discussion.

Grange Community Potluck at 6:00

As usual, after our program we will head to the Grange’s Lower Level for a tasty and social potluck dinner.   Like all Grange-sponsored events, this is free and open to the public, and we hope you will join us!   Bring something you like to cook, whether it’s a soup, a salad, a side dish or a main course, or pick up something on your way (a loaf of bread?  some cheese?  chips ‘n’ salsa? a jug of cider?) to share.   The more choices the better!
Since we installed a lift in the Hall earlier this year, the Lower Level is accessible by all.

FCCGH Fall Appeal:  your support is appreciated!

We have been impressed and touched by the continued generosity of Grange Hall users and supporters, as donations come in to support the “Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall“.  The annual Fall Appeal letters went out early in November, and responses have been coming in ever since.
As most of the people reading this know, this (501)(c)(3) non-profit, charitable corporation raises money from the community of Grange members and Hall users.   In most cases, these funds are used as “matching funds”, which are required to receive 50% grant funding for the major projects the FCCGH takes on.   Since the beginning of 2022, the Friends and the Grange have invested a total of $103,900 in 3 major Hall improvements:   a wood-pellet furnace, the lift for wheelchair and other users, and a complete scraping and painting of the Hall exterior!   More details about the many projects the FCCGH has carried out are available on the Donate page of the Grange website.
Conveniently located at the bottom of that page is “Donate” button, which you can use to contribute to the Friends.   If you’ve given before, and we have your address, you may already have received a printed version of this Fall Appeal in the mail, or via email.  Questions?  Send an email to me, Tim:  swartztim15@gmail.com, and I’ll do my best to answer them–and to put you on the list to get the appeal letter if you want!

Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) November 10, 2023

It’s time for our double-event weekend for kids and their families!

We expect to have a lot of “family fun” this weekend.  We have been having Kids Trade & Play on Second Saturdays every month, and this Sunday marks the beginning of the Winter Season for Dance, Sing & Jump Around, on every Second Sunday through April.
1.  KT&P has been drawing a lot of “customers” already.   In October, we had the biggest attendance ever–134 adults, plus about 85 kids.  Organizer Erin Barry expects more of these sorts of numbers at upcoming events, now that the word is very clearly spreading about the great choices that are available, in clean, gently used, unstained and unripped clothing for kids.  During each event, from 9:30 to 11:30 AM on Saturdays, there is a constant stream of parents, grandparents and other caretakers with and without their kids showing up to check out what’s available, and most of them leave with good-sized bags of clothes.
Many of the folks who come bring bags and boxes of clothes that kids have outgrown, which they’re happy to pass on to new people.   All of these clothes have to be sorted and inspected by volunteers–and we can always use more help!  It’s an enjoyable, social event for everyone involved.  Erin says the event works best with 7-9 volunteers “on duty” during the event to help “shoppers” and sort clothes, and at the end to put away all the bins of clothes.  If you’d like to be part of this group, please contact Erin at:  birthsinnerlight@yahoo.com.
We currently ask for a $3 donation per family, but no one is ever turned away.  We appreciate folks who give a little extra to make this easy to do.   These small donations keep the wheels turning–this is a very non-profit event!

2.   As mentioned above, Dance, Sing and Jump Around runs during the colder months of the year, with this Sunday kicking off this season.   As usual, dances, play-party games and songs will be led and called by DS&JA founder Liz Benjamin with help from Stan Carlson.   There will be live music–this time by VT Fiddle Orchestra members.  And some relatively healthy snacks, too!  We’ll have paper and color crayons and pens for kids who want to sit out a dance.  The important thing is for everyone to have a good time!  We were getting around 50 people for these events in last winter’s season of DS&JA, and look forward to similar fun starting this Sunday at 3:00!
We let kids in for FREE, and ask for a donation of $5 per adult–and we expect you to join in the fun on the dance floor with your kids!   As with KT&P, we never turn away anyone who doesn’t have the money that day–we’re happy to have everyone take part.   For more information, check out the DS&JA website!

3.  Alert readers will also note the lawn sign in the ground to the right of our Grange sign.   I picked this up at the VT State Grange Annual Session at the end of October.  The National Grange has been supporting expansion of broadband service to under-served areas–which certainly include rural areas like Vermont.   They have partnered with the federal effort called the Affordable Connectivity Program, which can provide subsidies for internet access to low-income households, as well as free or discounted devices to connect to the internet, plus digital literacy training.   Local Granges like ours are being recruited to take part in this effort–and I think it would be great for someone besides me to take this on!   There’s much more to learn at:  https://www.acprc.org/.

Dance, Sing & Jump Around in action!

This is what it looked like last January, with a band of teenage musicians, and Liz Benjamin getting ready to call a new dance.  We had about 50 people of all ages that day!  Please join us on Sunday, Nov. 12 to see how much fun you can have!

Rental policy subcommittee

At our November 5 meeting, we did agree to set up a Rental Committee, including–so far–Merry Shernock (our Rental Agent), Patty Giavara and Erin Barry.  We would still be happy to have another person from the Grange community who may have facilities management or rental experience.   Below is the “Help Wanted” ad I put in the previous Grange Notes–please get in touch if you are interested!

Needed: New Grange rentals committee member(s). Our tenants – both our regular weekly/monthly renters, plus many one-time or short term users –  help us to pay Hall expenses and maintain and grow our vibrant Grange Hall community.  Rental of the Hall for cultural arts programming, community meetings and events, plus family gatherings is core to our Grange’s community service mission.  The rentals committee develops and recommends rental policies, and provides support and guidance to the Rental Agent when requested.  Experience with venue management or rentals would be helpful but not required. Open to members and non-members!  Please contact Tim or Merry to learn more.

Planning for State Session 2024

Also at our November 5 meeting, we started discussing what we will need to do to get ready for Capital City Grange to host the 2024 VT State Grange Annual Session at our Hall, on Oct. 25 & 26, 2024.
Among the possible ways we can facilitate this is by providing lunches and at least one dinner for the Grange delegates from around the state.   At our meeting, Richard DeCosta, Charles Mayhood and Alison Forrest volunteered to start discussing if we can do this, at a similar “price point” as the meals at the most recent State Session–$12 for lunches, $20 for dinner.   Stay tuned for more developments.
One thing for sure–we will need help from other Grange community members to do Hall set-up and clean-up, plus help with kitchen prep-work and clean-up, plus dishwashing after meals.   Please put Oct. 25 & 26, 2024 on your Calendars, and let me know what you’d like to do!   Ask any questions, of course!

FCCGH Fall Appeal is underway

At our Nov. 4 meeting, Patty Giavara, the Chair of the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall gave us a report on the activities of the FCCGH. Right now, the end-of-year fundraising appeal has just been sent out.   This is one of two fundraising campaigns that are regular ways for members of the Grange community to support the mission of the Friends.  As the name implies, the mission is to “ensure the long-term stability of the Hall” and to “support the maintenance improvement and public promotion of the Hall”.
To that end, this (501)(c)(3) non-profit, charitable corporation raises money from the community of Grange members and Hall users.   In most cases, these funds are used as “matching funds”, which are required to receive 50% grant funding for the major projects the FCCGH takes on.   Since the beginning of 2022, the Friends and the Grange have invested a total of $103,900 in 3 major Hall improvements:   a wood-pellet furnace, the lift for wheelchair and other users, and a complete scraping and painting of the Hall exterior!   More details about the many projects the FCCGH has carried out are available on the Donate page of the Grange website.
Conveniently located at the bottom of that page is “Donate” button, which you can use to contribute to the Friends.   If you’ve given before, and we have your address, you may already have received a printed version of this Fall Appeal in the mail, or via email.   We’ve already started receiving contributions–and we’d love to have you join the list of contributors!  Questions?  Send an email to me, Tim:  swartztim15@gmail.com, and I’ll do my best to answer them–and to put you on the list to get the appeal letter if you want!

Heating cost report

Also at our Nov. 4 meeting, I had the pleasure to report on our heating costs, for the first heating season using the pellet furnace that was installed in the spring of 2022.   I was able to report on the cost and amount of pellets we used during the winter of 22-23, compared to the cost of the fuel oil we would have used with the old oil furnace we used to have.  The bottom line is that we saved about $1,500 with the pellet furnace–based on the actual cost of pellets, and the average cost of fuel oil during that heating season.   We saved about 37% of what we would have spent on oil!   This is a significant improvement, and helps us to continue paying off the loan we got from the VT State Grange that helped us purchase the pellet furnace.  And we can enjoy the reduction in our “carbon footprint” we gain by no longer using fossil fuel for heating.

January 6, 2024:  a “real” Grange meeting

If you’re interested in the Grange (and you’re reading these notes, so we think you are interested), you should consider joining us for the first meeting of 2024.   We’ve decided to bring out the sashes for officers, along with the “stations” where they sit, and the “staves” that designate certain officers, and have a meeting that follows the standard Grange protocol for meetings of “Community Granges” like ours.
What does that mean?  The meeting will incorporate some of the 19th century language used by all Grange ritual, will include a few songs with accompaniment by our Grange Musician (yes, he’s an officer and wears a sash too!), and will follow a designated agenda to make sure that we get reports from all the “Departments”–Legislative, Agriculture, Community Service, etc.–and consider “new business” as well as items left over from the previous meeting–“old business”.  Taking part in this process will also connect us to the roots of the Grange, and the generations of Grange members and officers who have taken part in the same process to keep the organization running for all of these years.
Why haven’t we been doing this all along?  Since the advent of COVID, we have been having our meetings remotely, or at least “hybrid”–a combination of in-person and Zoom attendance.  We haven’t had a fully in-person meeting–and because of that, we have not been using our version of the Grange meeting program.  We have not found a way to set up the Grange, or to conduct our meeting so that it can be audible to both those present in person and those listening and viewing the meeting from their homes.  Now, we think it’s time to dust off the sashes and the meeting ritual, and connect with the Grange roots that led to our Grange surviving since being chartered in 1914!   Please plan to join us on Jan. 6–anyone can attend!  It will also be a good time to pay dues for Grange membership for 2024, if you are already a member, or if you want to join.   Questions?  Send an email to me:  swartztim15@gmail.com.

Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) November 2, 2023

Coming up on Saturday:  November meeting

As I’m writing this, watching the frost melt outside my window, it’s easy to believe that we are in November!   October’s warmth was remarkable, but it won’t surprise any of us that it is getting colder as the days shorten.
Looking ahead to winter is one of the subjects of our Grange meeting, this Saturday from 4:30 to 6:00 PM.   I’ve done some analysis of our heating bills for the 2022-23 heating season, which I’ll discuss.  It’s our first using our pellet furnace, installed in April 2022!  Sneak preview–it’s saving us money, as well as greatly reducing our carbon footprint.
We’ll also start taking a look at our rental policies:  we have been seeing our Calendar of events on the website fill up, which is helping our cash-flow quite a bit.  Some of the increase has been because Montpelier event venues got flooded, and have still not re-opened.   Groups that have used those in the past are finding our beautiful Hall a good alternative.  We are not celebrating the reason for these new rentals–but the impact is noticeable.   The availability of our lift for people who can’t use the stairs has also helped us attract some new groups.  Having lots of rentals has also made us look at some of our rental policies, especially around the free use of the Hall we’ve been providing to Berlin individuals and families and Berlin non-profit organizations, and use of the Hall by Grange members.  We’ll start some discussion, and also want to designate a subcommittee to write up some more formal guidelines–see the “help wanted” ad below this meeting preview!
We’ll also be talking about the Vermont State Grange “annual session” which was just held–in Middlebury–on Oct. 27 & 28.   Tim, Liz Benjamin and Carl Etnier attended, and will report on the discussions of Resolutions and other actions.
We’ll also start talking about next year’s VSG annual session, because it will be happening at our Hall, on Oct. 25 & 26, 2024!   Merry has already reserved these dates on the Calendar, but we will have to do more planning:  how to handle meals for delegates?  How to make sure that we use our great assortment of plates, dishes, glasses and silverware instead of disposables?  Recruiting some dishwashing help will likely be needed!   Please join us to discuss all of these issues, and help us anticipate others.  Attendance is likely to be around 80-100 people, so a good-sized crowd for 2 days.
Those with good memories may recall that a stripped-down, speedy annual session was held at our Hall in October 2020–with no reports of Covid following–as we fitted it in before the “Delta Surge” later that fall.   This will be a much bigger deal!
Of course, our meeting will be followed by a Community Potluck Dinner, see below!

Help wanted:
Rental policy subcommittee

Needed: New Grange rentals committee member(s). Our renters – both regular weekly/monthly, plus many one-time or short term users –  help us to pay Hall expenses and maintain and grow our vibrant Grange Hall community.  Rental of the Hall for cultural arts programming, community meetings and events, plus family gatherings is core to our Grange’s community service mission.  The rentals committee develops and recommends rental policies, and provides support and guidance to the Rental Agent when requested.  Experience with venue management or rentals would be helpful but not required. Open to members and non-members!  Please contact Tim or Merry to learn more.

After the meeting, it’s potluck time!

We’ll move out of the upstairs Hall at 6:00, to make room for setup for the  contra dance.   We’ll move downstairs, and enjoy our monthly Community Potluck dinner!   We hope you (and many others) will join us in sharing tasty main dishes, sides, salads, soups, desserts and more!   We know you’re going to eat dinner, so why not join our sociable group?   Bring whatever you want–and if you don’t have time to cook, contribute chips and salsa, or a loaf of bread and some cheese, or a jug of cider.

October program report:  Downstreet Housing

• Shared Equity Downpayment Assistance:  This program can provide help getting a sufficient downpayment together.   In return for this, the program requires that when you sell your dwelling unit later on, some of any increase in value will be returned to Downstreet, enabling them to continue to expanding the Shared Equity program to others in the future.  You would still get some of the increased value, just not all of it.
• Budget counseling and homebuyer education:  Downstreet will help you improve your credit, create household budgets to improve savings rates, and also teach you the steps involved in buying a house.   They know that it is a confusing process, especially for first-time homebuyers, and they are there to help you.
• Grants for homebuyers:  They know about many existing grants for would-be homebuyers that can help overcome the financial hurdles.   These include programs from the USDA, VT Housing Finance Agency, Veteran’s Department, and others.

New in the kitchen!

We’re pleased to let you know that we have replaced one of the gas ranges in our kitchen with a new electric range!  We have had intermittent, but ongoing problems with the oven in the old stove taking a looooooooooooong time to start heating up, and we decided to bite the bullet and start over.  This decision was made much easier by an anonymous donor who contributed $600, covering 3/4 of the cost!
The new stove is plugged into a 220V stove outlet, which we had installed when the kitchen wiring was updated in 2008.  At that time, we foresaw that it might be a good idea to provide choices for cooking.  Since then, we’ve also become more sensitive about the need to eliminate the use of fossil fuels, so switching to an electric range is a good choice on that front as well.
As you can see, the new range is a “smooth-top”, which will be much easier to keep clean.   Of course, no abrasive cleaners should be used!

In the attic…

We currently have this storage cabinet, a “Shaw-Walker” metal shelf unit, with a tambour door that rolls up from the bottom!  As someone who spent his working life in the furniture-making world, this is a unique design, in my experience.  I have made roll-down and horizontal tambour doors, but never this design.
This cabinet used to hold a huge mess of Grange paperwork, 90% of which were old bank statements, receipts for membership dues, etc.   Valiant Grange member Patty Giavara took on investigating the contents earlier this year.  The information she found included meeting records about the construction of the building, which helped the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall (of which Patty is the Chair) to prove that we are an “historic” Grange Hall, one that is still active for its original purpose.   This information enabled us to get a grant from the VT Preservation Trust that paid 50% of the cost of the scraping and re-painting of the Hall in May of this year!
We have sorted all of the documents and other items which had lived undisturbed in this cabinet for decades, saving ones which may be of interest to local historical societies, documents that are of interest to the VT State Grange (I took these to the VSG Annual Session last weekend), and documents that are of interest about our Grange’s history.  Others have been recycled.
So why am I telling you this?  This cabinet is now available, if you would like a unique cabinet to store your documents, or perhaps your collectibles?   We’d be happy to get a donation, but mostly we are eager to get some space cleared out in the attic storage area.   Please contact me (Tim) at:  swartztim15@gmail.com.  We’re offering this first to Grange members and friends, before putting it on other “free items” websites.

Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) October 3, 2023

This Saturday:  October meeting

I’m sure we will fill up the brief time we’ll have–as we need to pivot to the “Community Program”–see the article below:

What’s the state of housing in Central VT?
And what can be done to improve your access to home ownership here?

Kicking off our fall season of Grange Programs, we’re pleased to present a program featuring DownStreet Housing and Community Development.   This local, private non-profit’s website states their mission as:  ” Downstreet strengthens the communities of Central Vermont by creating permanently affordable homes, promoting equity and inclusion, and connecting people to the resources and services they need to thrive.”
Our program will focus especially on their “Homeownership Center”, which provides a range of services to help people before, during and after the home-buying process.  This includes down-payment options, help with financing repairs, home-buyer education and much more.   Our program presenters will be the Director of HomeOwnership, Cheryl Moyer, and HomeOwnership Specialist Bill Meckel, who is now a Grange member!
I expect that the current state of housing in Central VT will be a topic of discussion as well.  The impacts of the July and August flood events have reduced and/or damaged some of the housing stock, including properties owned by DownStreet.   We’ll have discussion and question time available to focus on the concerns of our audience.   We really hope you can join us to learn more about this very relevant topic!
We also encourage you to stay for….

After the program, time for a potluck dinner!

We’ll move out of the upstairs Hall at 6:00, to make room for setup for the special waltz session from 7 to 7:45, before the contra dance. We’ll move downstairs, and enjoy our monthly Community Potluck dinner! We hope you (and many others) will join us in sharing tasty main dishes, sides, salads, soups, desserts and more! We know you’re going to eat dinner, so why not join us? Bring whatever you want–and if you don’t have time to cook, contribute chips and salsa, or a loaf of bread and some cheese, or a jug of cider.

Who are these friendly people?

These are part of the technical assistance team for “COMSA“, which stands for “Cafe Organico Marcala S.A.”, a cooperative coffee processor in Marcala, Honduras.   This organization now has 1,573 coffee producers (25% women), each with less than 9 acres of land.    This represents quite a bit of growth since starting in 2001 with the equivalent of $300, and 60 producers!
So why are we telling you about this cooperative?   Because they are one of the coffee producers who supply Just Food Hub, the non-profit local organization which sells Equal Exchange food products in Central Vermont.   JFH donates its profits to local community organizations–including Capital City Grange!   The products they sell are all produced by small farmers and cooperative groups like this one, from around the globe.  All sustainably or organically grown, Just Food Hub’s products are available through the JFH website, and free delivery is available to a list of central VT towns (or they can be shipped to other locations).   Please choose “Capital City Grange” as the fundraiser beneficiary on the Checkout page, and we receive 25% of the sales price, to help us fund improvements!
For more info on COMSA, check out the info on the Equal Exchange website.  You can learn more about the “5 Ms” of soil health that are the basis of the organic approach they take at the cooperatives experimental farm, “La Fortaleza”.