October 27 agenda10/27/2024 10/27/2024 Proposed October Meeting Agenda
OPENING/FLAG SALUTE ROLL CALL MINUTES DRAPING OF THE CHARTER PROPOSALS FOR MEMBERSHIP WELCOME CEREMONY COMMITTEE REPORTS: Hall Report – Hall Projects (in priority order): Loose toilet in women’s bathroom Couple of dining room benches getting wobbly Remove old meter base and patch roof Insulate crawl space under bathrooms (1/2 done) Northeast side roof needs additional screws Kitchen counters need refinished Kitchen needs exhaust hood and fan Repainting under eves of hall Kitchen and dining hall floors need refinished Lawn sprinkler tractor has been repaired and is stored under the stairs with the hoses and weed sprayer. 7 party rentals scheduled (one gratis). Chaps and Zumba still have long term contracts. Oregon State Grange has asked for a bit of help looking after Fairfield grange hall since it’s closure. Dan will be looking in on it periodically. Anyone seeing abuse or damage please let Dan know. AGRICULTURE – Harvest is really over! Our nut crop was very good. Industry wide the crop was above average but not a record. Prices are also up a bit, edging into the profitable range. This is important because many other major crops remain unprofitable or barely profitable. Ag industry also on edge due to tariffs proposed by both major political parties. Republican party proposals are higher and thus more alarming but both sides seem intent on damaging Ag exports. From news reports it appears that insanity will prevail in eliminating glyphosate (roundup) as an herbicide despite the lack of any significant evidence it impacts human health. Multiple studies show no correlation between legal use of roundup or its generics and incidence of any sort of cancer. EDUCATION - A major push is emerging to require more civics instruction, at least in public schools. It appears this may be one issue that both sides of the political spectrum can agree on. Devil is in the details of course. Other subjects showing some signs of bipartisan agreement are technical education and college credit classes in high school. Saint Paul School District for example is building a new technical/industrial education building. We will see whether the budget will allow its operation long term. LEGISLATIVE – Small number of measures but important issues on the ballot in November. I will open the floor to any who want to discuss the measures. The following is a repeat from September for those just getting around to investigating the measures. Type Title Description LRCA Measure 115 Allow the Legislature to impeach elected state executives LRCA Measure 116 Establish the Independent Public Service Compensation Commission to determine certain public officials' salaries LRSS Measure 117 Establish ranked-choice voting (RCV) for federal and some state offices in Oregon CISS Measure 118 Require Oregon issue payments to residents from increased corporate taxes. CISS Measure 119 Require cannabis businesses to submit to the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission a signed labor peace agreement between the business and a labor organization with its licensure or renewal application I researched a few complaints about my favorite, ranked choice voting (RCV), that have cropped up online. First is why the legislature exempted themselves from the use of RCV in the measure. Turns out the county clerks association requested that less competitive races be exempted. Legislative races are often less competitive and were duly removed from the measure. Idea was to ease into the new system instead of jumping in all at once. Second is the cost of the new system. The states that have implemented RCV have seen up front costs in the one million dollar neighborhood, exclusive of educational and promotional efforts. In Oregon that would amount to around 50 cents per voter. In addition there will be some costs associated with the longer ballots. Estimates I have seen for that are in the 30 cent range. Another is complexity. Counting is indeed more complex, but is handled by computer. Some argue it is less secure due to the need to process statewide votes at one location. Others argue it is more secure due to tighter security at the state level and the difficulty of hacking into a more complex program without leaving evidence. Researching more than one candidate and then deciding who you like for second or third place is also more work, but it is optional. Voters can continue to vote their first choice and have the same input on the election they have always had. Actually filling out the ballot is no more complicated than a multiple choice test back in the school days. I hope most voters can handle that. SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE – COMMUNITY SERVICE – JoAnn COMMUNICATIONS – Betty Fildelity Bond Form & payment due Nov.15. (Confirm who is covered, limits) Audit Committee: Note: cannot include check signers on committee. 3rd Qtr Report to OSG due 10/31 TREASURERS REPORT - Bills – Dan Parts for lawn sprinkler 3.59 Garbage bags 10.99 Light string 10.98 2 light strings 21.96 Paper products 157.77 Total 205.29 UNFINSHED BUSINESS: Troy Bayless (membership status) NEW BUSINESS: Loose toilet – replace with ADA compliant one? Around $250 Do we want to apply for another grant from State Grange? If so, for what project? Anyone want to do a holiday outing this year? MEMBERS SICK OR IN DISTRESS: GOOD OF THE ORDER: The underlying essence of science is questioning. Ask an impertinent question and you are on your way to a pertinent answer. Jacob Bronowski, Mathematician and philosopher HEIRLOOM PROGRAM: NEXT MEETING CLOSING
0 Comments
Archives
November 2024
|
News and Special Events
NOTES!
ZUMBA! Shake it up at 9AM and 6PM! - Call Cristina for details at 503-984-8193 (Hall has AC)
As always, Maplewood Grange is looking for community minded folks willing to get involved and leave the world a bit better than they found it. Open to all since 1867. Please use the contact form to request more info on the opportunities and benefits of membership.