Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, June 3, 2016
June 4th meeting, welcoming even more new members, and dressing up the Grange with better paint
Looking for a way to make a difference?
We can help you with that! The Grange Hall improvements have made a big difference in our utility and comfort for our loyal users, so we are working on some improvements to our appearance, to make us even more attractive. We know there are people who would rather work on projects than come to Grange meetings–and we are not standing in your way! Get in touch if you can help with any of these projects:
Interior painting:
We already have some volunteers who are planning to repaint the main Hall walls inside. Watch for better, livelier color soon!
Exterior painting: as you can see above, scraping has commenced on the west side. Joe Blakely, trained in safe removal of lead paint, with the assistance of Miguel Perez, who will officially become a Grange member at our June meeting has begun to remove loose paint areas. Following “Essential Maintenance Practices”, we are going to incrementally deal with peeling and damaged paint, doing a thorough job of scraping, bleaching (to kill mildew), priming and painting locally to improve long-term paint adhesion. We are not planning to paint the whole exterior–better to concentrate on small areas.
We are also thinking about putting vinyl siding on the North end, which has the worst peeling problems–come to our June meeting to discuss–do you have experience putting up siding? Would you like to organize doing this part of the project?
Dead tree by the driveway: as you drive up, take a look at the dead tree-trunk leaning toward you…is there someone with chainsaw who could take this down?
New fire exit–larger roof needed: when we had a new fire exit built, we didn’t include a new roof. I often can stop by and shovel that concrete pad–but not always. A lower, and longer roof would keep the snow that slides from the roof out of the way of the fire door. We can buy materials, if you can do the job!
Acoustic equipment & research: we are working with John Harris, an engineer with experience in acoustics, to get some data on the “basic reverberation” of the Hall–as a first step in preparing to make changes. Our goal is to zero in on the cheapest and most cost-effective ways to improve the clarity of meetings, contra-dance calling, and more–while not “de-improving” the sound of the Hall for singers.
We are looking for help with equipment for measurements:
–an octave equalizer or band pass filter?
–an amp and a speaker
and for researching sound absorption for the painted Homasote wall panels that cover our walls and ceiling.
Can you help us? Give me a call, and I’ll put you in touch with John!
Before we take a break, we have important business to transact:
More new members: on top of the 3 new Grange members we welcomed in April, we have 3 more–Katherine Blakely, Miguel Angel Perez and Oliver Scotch. We would be happy to have other Spanish-speaking attendees to make Miguel welcome. We’ll be performing the Grange “Obligation” ceremony to bring Katherine, Miguel and Oliver into our “Order of the Patrons of Husbandry”.
Making plans for painting: New member Joe Blakely and even newer member Miguel Perez have volunteered to safely scrape loose paint from one wall of the Hall–Joe is trained in removal of lead paint. We’re looking for a few people to follow with spot-sanding, sealing, priming and painting to get our exterior looking better. And there is discussion of using vinyl siding on the North end to cover the badly peeling paint there. Let us know if you can pitch in–and come and talk about the planning, too.
Berlin “Rental” policy will be discussed–Merry has a proposed set of guidelines for the “free rentals” we have promised for Berlin residents and organizations; we’ll be voting on adopting these so she has clear policies on insurance requirements, deposits, alcohol policies, and more.
Making transitions: We have had the good fortune of the very experienced Les Skinner as Grange Treasurer, since he stepped down from his long-time post at Master in 2006. Les, now 88 years old, is finally ready to hand over the office to a new face. Merry has found a bookkeeper who is willing to help with the finances of the CCG, Justin Sargent. Plans are afoot to begin electronic bookkeeping–come to the meeting to learn more. Les has been struggling with some heart problems recently–please come to wish him well, too!
Our new Musician, Matt Nunnelly will be playing for the meeting for the first time, including the marches which accompany the Obligation ceremony. Come and sing along with us as usual, a regular part of every meeting.
So please join us, starting at 4:30 on Saturday, June 4th! We’ll be following the “precepts of our Order”, which call for Grange members and officers to exemplify high standards of discussion, financial responsibility and (as important) enjoying our feeling of community by joining in song and music while we “take care of business”.
(and don’t forget the potluck dinner starting by 6:30–another Grange tradition valued by all of us!)
Linda Vincent staffed the “Wholeshare” table, with information about the buyers’ club we host. This organization has been delivering fresh foods from Black River Produce and Meats, plus packaged foods and household supplies from “Honest Green Pantry”. Please note that the founding organizer, Rob Fish is seeking a successor–he has bought a house in Burlington, so coming here to supervise distribution of the orders is not so easy as when he lived in Montpelier! This is an opportunity to continue to build a community benefit organization. There is training available, and the organizer gets a commission based on sales–so the more orders you encourage, the more you can make. Contact Rob to learn more: Rob.Fish@wholeshare.com
John Harris talked to open-house attendees about his research on the Grange Hall acoustics–see above for more info
Patty Giavara and I staffed a Friends of the Grange Hall/CCG table–familiar faces to many of you!
Linda from Friends of the Winooski River staffed a table showing the work of this volunteer organization, which is putting on their “Onion River Race and Ramble” this coming Sunday–rain or shine! Merry and I plan to “ramble” with our kayaks, hope others will join us–check out https://www.winooskiriver.org/
Many thanks to all the “presenters” and performers!