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Grange meeting: Saturday Jan. 3, planning for a New Year

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Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) January 2, 2026

January, 2026 Grange Meeting–this Saturday

We’ll have a full Grange meeting, using our version of the Grange meeting ritual, and we have plenty to talk about:
  • We’ve gotten a great start on the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall’s “Indoor Air Quality Improvement” project, with the ERV and the 14″ supply duct installed just before Christmas.    Our electrician will be connecting the wiring to the ERV and the associated duct heater, perhaps this week, so that Peak Mechanical can set up the controls for the system.
  • We mounted the Iso-Aire air purifier on Tuesday, 12/30; the installation of a ceiling-mounted “smart outlet” will get done in a week or two as well.  Quieter air cleaning is coming soon!
  • The State Grange has begun requiring that Community Granges like ours perform the first of the 4 Degrees of Community Grange membership in 2026.  We’ll be discussing how we can do this in conjunction with at least one other Grange.   I hope to have copies of the text of the First Degree available at this meeting.  There’s a lot of beautiful, nature- and farming-based language in these ceremonies.  We hope that all Capital City Grange members will see or take part; at the meeting we’ll talk about how to encourage that.
  • The illustration to the left is an 1873 poster promoting the Grange, then only 6 years old!
  • We’ll be discussing how to encourage people to sign up for the Red Cross Blood Drive which we’ll host on Friday, Jan. 16.   See more details below.
  • The National Grange has raised the amount of dues which go to the national organization–we’ll decide how much our dues payments need to go up as a consequence.
  • We’ll also be reviewing the Grange Holiday Sing-Along which we held on Dec. 20, and how we can attract even more singers next year.
       As usual, we’ll have a Community Potluck following the meeting, from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM.  Even if you can’t attend the meeting, we hope you will join us for the eating!

Sign up now to donate at the
Jan. 16 Blood Drive

As usually happens in the winter, the Red Cross has an urgent need for blood donors!   This year, the Grange is in a great position to help–because we are sponsoring a Red Cross Blood Drive on Friday, Jan. 16, from 10:30 AM to 3:00 PM.   With our large, free parking lot, our location safe from any chance of flooding, and our tradition of community service, the Grange is a great match for these events.
It’s easy to sign up:  just click this link, and you’ll see our currently scheduled blood drives.  Click “See Times” and you can choose when you want to donate whole blood, or do a “Power Red” donation.   If you’re not familiar with Power Red donations, it’s a way to donate two unit’s worth of red blood cells.  It takes a little longer than donating blood, but you can only donate every 16 weeks.  If you want to hear more, email me, Tim–I’ve been making Power Red donations for about a decade!  Or, you can learn about all types of blood donations at this Red Cross page.
All donors before Jan. 25 also can win a chance for a Super Bowl trip, with airfare to San Francisco, hotel and a $1,000 gift card.
We’re also looking for a couple of volunteers to help give out snacks to donors, and wipe down the donation beds during the drive (you won’t be touching any blood).  I will be staffing the welcome desk for the drive, and so far we have one volunteer for a couple of hours–but it will really help to have one or two others to help too.   Red Cross folks will train you (and me–it’s my first time as a volunteer, not a donor).

Holiday Sing-Along–report

Our annual Holiday Sing-Along took place on Saturday, Dec. 20.  We had about 25 people there, and we all had a good time!   In addition to Grange members, we had a good number of other folks show up to enjoy the singing, plus the cocoa we served (many thanks to Liz Benjamin for taking care of that).   Many thanks also to Grange Musician Matt Nunnelly, who led songs and accompanied all on the piano.  As usual, we sang songs of many types, including traditional carols (like Good King Wenceslas,  O Come All Ye Faithful and We Wish You a Merry Christmas), plus more modern takes on the season (like I’m Gettin’ Nuttin’ for Christmas, Rudolph, and Jingle Bell Rock).  We’ll be doing a Sing-Along like this next December, keep an eye out!  Below are some pictures taken by Patty Giavara, showing some of the action.

IAQ project update

IAQ stands for Indoor Air Quality.  The box shown above, an Iso-Aire RSH1000, is a ceiling-mounted air purifier–and we’ve just mounted it on the ceiling in the Main Hall!   This unit is just part of the project.  It will filter the inside air through a HEPA 99.99% filter, and circulate the filtered air around the Hall.  The filter removes virtually all particles down to .3 microns–below the typical size of COVID-19 virus droplets.   This unit is a different version of the Iso-Aire RSF1000, which is located in the Lower Level.  It will replace the 4–“Room Air Filter Boxes” we’ve had hanging in the Hall, and will filter as much air as 2 of those, while running at only half-speed, and more quietly.  The electricians will install a “smart outlet” in the ceiling, into which the unit can plug, early in January.  We’ll be able to take the 4 RAFBs down once that is done.


Meanwhile, the ERV has also been installed.   Peak Mechanical installed the unit in the attic, plus the duct visible in the photo below that will supply filtered, warmed outside air to the Main Hall!  This will provide fresh, outside air to supplement the filtration of the indoor air by the Iso-Aire unit.  Peak will be back soon to install the controls (occupancy sensor and CO2 sensor) and to get it ready to start up soon!
Read on, in the article below, to find out how we’ve been able to make this project (and many others) happen, and how you can help.

Matching grant funding from the Friends!

Long-time readers won’t be surprised to be reminded that the Grange can’t accomplish projects like this Indoor Air Quality one without the backing of the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall.  We’re able to make this one, the overall cost of which is about $50,000, happen because the FCCGH applied for a grant to cover half the cost.  It actually took a few attempts to get the grant awarded.   The Friends can’t do it alone either–it’s thanks to the generosity of many supporters in the Grange community (members, Hall users, and more) that the Friends have also been able to raise the matching funds needed pay the other half of the project cost.
Right now, the FCCGH’s Fall Appeal is still underway.   I’m pleased to report that the Treasurer thinks we are “well on our way” to make our fundraising goal for this campaign, with donations from 35 people so far.  You can help us get there!   All the information on how to donate, including a PayPal link, is on the Donate page on the Grange’s website.  Just click that bright yellow link, and you’ll find the Paypal link, the postal address, and information on the many projects that have been accomplished by the Friends, the Grange, and our many supporters who have donated in the past.  There’s also a link to view the Fall Appeal letter we sent out.  Please join the other generous donors–any amount helps, and lets us know how important the Grange and the Hall are to you.  And donations to the Friends are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by the IRS!

If you’ve taken 2 of our tables, PLEASE RETURN THEM

We’ve realized that we are missing 2 of the 30″ x 60″ folding tables that we store in the “Table Closet” in the Main Hall.  It’s easy to tell they’re ours:  each is labeled “Property of Capital City Grange” on the bottom.
We had to replace 2 “borrowed” tables that never came back in 2024, also–it cost us over $150.   We cannot afford to have items like this “walk away”!  As of this writing, we haven’t seen them return since my appeal in the previous Grange Notes.

Grange meeting–in person or via Zoom! Setup 3:30, meeting starts at 4:30

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In person or Zoom meetings!  Be part of our meeting, safely

We’ll be happy to  have you, any way you want to attend!

We’ll be running the Room Air Filter Boxes that filter and recirculate the air in the Hall, to reduce the risk of transmitting diseases.

On odd-numbered months, we usually hold a full, official Grange meeting, complete with officers wearing sashes, sitting in their assigned locations.

Via Zoom, we have had to make some changes, of course.   Officers don’t sit in their places, or wear sashes–but we try to get through Grange business (described below) systematically.  We welcome anyone who wants to join us, and wants to help the Grange to function smoothly, improve our outreach, and broaden the community services we provide.  If you have questions, comments or ideas, please join us!   You can always contact Grange President Tim Swartz at:  grangepresident@capitalcitygrange.org in between meetings.

Zoom link:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84842267015?pwd=AuJ04IfCWgI7NQlkneAdrdqGFipIwc.1

Meeting ID: 848 4226 7015
Passcode: 729874

 

Grange meetings: What happens there, anyway?

What happens at a Grange meeting?

A Grange meeting might seem intimidating, before you check one out yourself, because it seems a little mysterious and full of “Grange Ritual”. Let’s describe a bit of what goes on, to take away the mystery.

Overall structure:

We do have a ritual opening and closing process, adapted by our Community Grange a few years ago to be a little more stream-lined than the ritual outlined in the Grange manual. Our Opening serves as a formal introduction to the “work of the day”–the agenda of reports and discussions which all Community Granges are expected to go through. It always includes singing—of the National Anthem or an alternative, and of an opening song chosen by our Grange Musician.   Singing together is one of the fun parts!   The opening also includes a performance of the “Grange Salutation” which reminds us of the ideals that Grange Members are to live by—Faith, Hope, Charity and Fidelity.

Next, we start work on the agenda, which includes reports on Agriculture and Legislative matters. In our Grange, which does not currently include any active farmers, but does include many with an interest in locally-grown food and the localvore movement, the Agriculture report often includes discussions of farmers’ markets, schools supplying themselves with local foods, and ways that people can preserve food for off-season storage, climate change, state and national food polices, and so on. The Legislative report follows the health-care system debates in Vermont, the “hot issues” on the legislative table, the actions of the Governor, and describes the internal workings of the political system.

We also have a report on Health Concerns from a working nurse about issues she sees in her practice with Central VT Home Health & Hospice, and in her reading about health-care. We hear from our Secretary, who is a former VT State Grange Chair for Home Economics, about upcoming knitting and sewing contests, or the annual baking contest.

We have a report on the Hall, which is such a large part of our activities, as well of our expenses. We talk about problems that need addressing, and about plans for the future improvement of the Hall. This responsibility is shared with the “Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall”, which was set up to focus on Hall projects and ways to fund them.

Every meeting includes a Treasurer’s report, which lets us know how the Grange’s bank accounts are doing, what the prospects are for rental income, and upcoming expenses. Members have the opportunity to question the Treasurer about details, and financial decisions being taken, before the report is accepted by the membership.

“Suggestions for the Good of the Order” is a regular item of discussion, as we continue to figure out how to be a Grange in the 21st century.  We are in a Grange Hall which is not a central meeting place for a farm community, but is rather on the outskirts of a (small) state capital.  We draw hundreds of people from long distances to use our community Hall as a meeting place, dance hall and performance space.  We work on building our relationship with the Town of Berlin, for which we serve as a vital meeting-place for Town residents, families, and organizations.  The Town itself also holds public hearings and meetings in our Hall.

During the meeting, members who are present may suggest a motion to commit the Grange to a project, express an opinion, send a letter or make a contribution. Members are given the opportunity to discuss all aspects, before the Grange votes for or against the resolution. Grange meetings are run on Roberts’ Rules of Order, and are designed as a forum for civil discussion and debate, in which all can have their say and be equal in decision-making.  We’re happy to support projects when there is someone who cares to follow through on the outcome, so bring your ideas!

Each meeting also asks if any Grange members are “sick or in distress”, and if so, may direct Flora (one of the 3 Graces) to send a card, fruit and/or flowers.  Or someone may volunteer to visit and help out.

After completing the agenda, the meeting closes with a little more ritual.   It always includes a closing song in which all can join, and the Grange Salutation affirming our commitment to Faith, Hope, Charity and Fidelity.

Then, we move the furniture around, put away the sashes, special stations, staves for officers, and re-arrange the chairs for the “Community Potluck” that starts about 6:00–we always have good food and people to join us, and hope that you will too!

Contact Us

Tim Swartz, President, CCG#469
802-225-8921 (cell)
grangepresident@capitalcitygrange.org

 

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