Even though we’ve been pretty much stymied by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Grand Parlor is still working to doing the best we can during this challenging and difficult time. Here are just some of the highlights from what the Grand Parlor and Board of Grand Officers are doings:
- For Veteran’s Day, we honored nearly 100 NSGW brothers who served in our military with a Proclamation and will present a proclamation from a United States House of Representative Congressman at Grand Parlor. Regularly honoring our NSGW Veterans will become part of our enhanced Membership Program;
- We held a Grand Parlor dedication at the Calistoga Mini-Railroad Park in Calistoga and Foulk’s Ranch in Elk Grove. Both dedications were well attended and a special thank you goes to the members of Calistoga Parlor #86 and Elk Grove #41 for putting on a wonderful dedication and bringing their parlors and communities together for the event;
- The NSGW Collection Project has kicked off with Grand 2nd Vice President Jeff Schmidt leading a steering committee with the goal of finding a home for our NSGW historical artifacts and possibly our administrative offices. This project represents the future of the Native Sons and will enable our order to preserve and bring visibility to our own history while also establishing our own “home” for our current members, future members and the public as a whole;
- We have partnered with the Native Daughters of the Golden West in a fundraising event for the Mission San Gabriel which was severely damaged by a catastrophic fire this past July. All proceeds will be donated to the Mission for repair and damage caused by the fire. More information may be found at https://www.customink.com/fundraising/race-to-rebuild;
- Our official visits are being performed remotely and virtually by our Grand Officers. This is not as easy as it seems as parlor officers still have to fill out the necessary forms and present the information to our Grand Officers all while we all trying to stay safe from COVID-19. I kindly ask parlor offices to help us get your official visits completed. These are extraordinary times and we will all need extraordinary efforts to complete the business of the order;
- We have established the foundation of our enhanced Membership Program which will focus on recognizing and awarding our CURRENT members. Fran Carothers, Rio Hondo Parlor #294, has been named Chairperson of the Membership Committee and will direct activities to bring more beneficial programs to our current members, which will hopefully bring in more new members as we will show we are an order which makes our members it’s top priority;
- Our next Board of Director meeting will be January 16, 2021. This will be a virtual, online meeting as we will be unable to meet in person due to COVID-19, but we still plan on commemorating the 173rd anniversary of the Discovery of Gold. I hope you can join us as our Grand Officers will put on a presentation which may have never been done before at a Board of Grand Officer meeting;
