Looking ahead to 2019

The elections are over and we have elected a new Governor and Lieutenant Governor and now they will be putting together the heads of departments.  I wonder who will be the next Commissioner of Agriculture in Connecticut.  Will the current commissioner, Steven K. Reviczky be re-appointed or will another be appointed?  We’ll have to wait and see.  We as Grangers need to watch and make sure the Department of Agriculture is not put into another agency.  We must keep this department its own entity with its own Commissioner.  We should also watch that the staff in the Dept. of Agriculture is not cut and se need the livestock and milk inspectors in the field to help the farmers.  Our legislative committee will be watching and lobbying against these changes they are proposing.

The new Pomona Granges seem to be well-established and are all planning meetings for 2019.  Try to get out to your Pomona meetings and visit one of the other two Pomona meetings in our state.  I have heard the attendance at our Pomona meetings have been good but could always use a few more.

At the state level, the committees seem to be getting together and putting together their plans for the upcoming year.  The CWA has already held their three regional Pomona meetings for November and I hope they were all well attended.  The Legislative Committee has also met at the Grange office.  They put together their legislative program.  I know the agriculture committee has some new ideas for the coming year.  I have added more members to the Youth Committee - they are Melissa Coleman from Riverton Grange and Jaimie Cameron from Ekonk Community Grange.

We are also working on putting together a program for the Northeast Leadership Conference which will be held in Connecticut in 2019.  We are planning on holding the conference on March 29-30 at the Holiday Inn Norwich in Norwich, CT.  We will be starting at 7:00 P.M. on Friday evening and on Saturday the time will be announced.  On Saturday evening there will be a banquet.  This conference is open to all Grange members so try to keep this date open.  There will be more information on this conference coming soon.

Sharon and I returned from the National Grange convention held in Stowe, Vermont as of this writing (December, 2019).  Sharon and I were busy working on committees and attending the sessions.  Sharon was on the Education and Health Committee and I served on the Conservation Committee working on resolutions that were brought up on the floor during the session.  More about the National Convention can be found in the CT Granger newspaper.

Sharon and I would like to wish all our Brothers and Sisters a safe and happy New Year to all our members and friends.