Rusty Hunt is a third generation Grange member and a graduate of Whitworth College in Spokane, WA. He was a District Youth Director and became a State Officer in 1995. He eventually worked his way up through the ranks and now serves on the Washington State Grange Executive Committee. He was appointed Co-Membership/Leadership Development Director in 2000 and has gained lots of experience through the years working with the Granges around Washington State.
Rusty is excited about the new challenges that are before him in his new position with the National Grange as Membership/Leadership Director and is looking forward to meeting and working with Grangers all around the country.

To view a video message from Rusty, please go to: http://www.youtube.com/nationalgrange

Idaho Director of Agriculture Speaking at Convention

Celia R. Gould, Director of the Idaho State Department of Agriculture, will be addressing the attendees of the 141^st Annual National Convention in Reno, Nevada. Director Gould will be speaking at the Salute to Agriculture Breakfast at 8:00am on November 14^th. She was appointed Director of the Idaho State Department of Agriculture by Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter and assumed her post on January 2, 2007.

In addition to serving as the Idaho State Department of Agriculture Director, Celia is an owner/operator of the third generation GlennDale Ranches of Buhl, Idaho.  The family run operation produces commodities such as wheat, corn, hay, Black Angus and Angus-Wagyu cattle.  Celia and her husband Bruce Newcomb also have a beef operation in the Declo area.

Celia served sixteen years as a state legislator representing the western half of Twin Falls County.  During her tenure, she was a member of the House of Representatives Agricultural Affairs, Education, and Revenue and Taxation committees and served as Chairman of the Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee.  Highlights of Celia's political career include establishing the Department of Juvenile Corrections and sponsoring the progressive Drug Courts legislation.

Director Gould is a graduate of Buhl High School and has her BA in Political Science from Boise State University.  Currently, she is working on her Master's of Public Administration degree.

National Grange Family of the Year Award Application Deadline Approaching Soon
Family of the Year Award applications are due September 14th. The application can be downloaded from the National Grange website or by clicking on the following link below.

http://www.nationalgrange.org/departments/2007FamilyApplication.pdf

The National Grange "Family of the Year" Award is designed to identify and recognize outstanding Grange families. The Award is intended to acknowledge the accomplishments and achievements of a family in their local community and Grange. If your family has done something outstanding and has made a difference in your Grange or community, let us know. We want to celebrate your accomplishments and successes!

Winners will be announced at this year's National Grange Convention in Reno, Nevada.

If you have any questions or need additional copies of the application, please do not hesitate to contact DoriAnn Gedris at dgedris@nationalgrange.org, 888-447-2643 ext. 107 or Samantha Johnson at sjohnson@nationalgrange.org 888-447-2643 ext. 109.

John Ascuaga Set to Address Grangers at the 141^st Annual Convention
John Ascuaga is the President of John Ascuaga's Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, Nevada. The Nugget opened as a 60-seat coffee shop in March 1955. With a business style that has been described as "never stand still," Mr. Ascuaga emphasizes that everything must be done with care, quality and integrity. It's a method that has earned the Nugget and its employees the reputation as one of the most recognized and respected entertainment, dining and gaming venues in Northern Nevada and the entire hospitality industry.

Mr. Ascuaga was born in Caldwell, Idaho, in 1925. His father, Jose, was a Basque sheepherder from Spain who came to America in 1914. Jose and his wife, Marina, had four children, including John. In 1952, Mr. Ascuaga met another important figure in his life: restaurateur Dick Graves. Mr. Ascuaga became food manager for Graves' Idaho properties, and in 1954 he was named food director for Graves' Nevada restaurants. Mr. Ascuaga's duties included managing a small casino-café called Dick Graves' Nugget, which opened in Northern Nevada on March 17, 1955. With Graves' retirement in 1960, Ascuaga purchased the Nugget and became sole owner and operator. Today, John Ascuaga's Nugget Casino Resort features 1,600 hotel rooms, eight award-winning restaurants, 75,000 square feet of casino area, 110,000 square feet of convention space, a race and sports book, a keno area, a bingo parlor, a wedding chapel, a salon, spa and exercise facility, a cabaret, a 1,900-seat Rose Ballroom concert area, the 700-plus seat Celebrity Showroom and full business center.

Along with his hospitality endeavors, Mr. Ascuaga has been an active and avid rancher for most of his life. His has owned and operated a variety of working ranches throughout his career and at one time supplied all of the beef used at the Nugget and various other fine food establishments throughout the area.

Mr. Ascuaga holds a degree in accounting from the University of Idaho and a degree in hotel and restaurant management from Washington State. He has been married to his wife, Rose, for 47 years. They have four children, two of whom currently serve in senior executive roles in the family's namesake business.

The Grange is happy to have Mr. Ascuaga address its members at the 141^st Annual Convention in Reno, Nevada. He will be speaking at the 12:15 luncheon on Tuesday, Nov 13th.

Anniversary of 1616 H Street, NW

June 29^th will be the 47^th anniversary of the dedication of The National Grange Headquarters in our nation's capitol. President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicated the building in 1960. Details of this historic event can be found in the book by David H. Howard, People, Pride, and Progress: 125 Years of the Grange in America.

Celebration Banquet Entertainment: Chris Guenther
Attendees at the National Grange's 141^st Convention in Reno Nevada will sure to be entertained by Chris Guenther at the Celebration Banquet. Introduced to country music as a small child, Mossyrock, Washington native and Red Arrow Recording artist Chris Guenther began performing music at eleven, and turned professional at the age of seventeen. After formative years performing in acoustic strings bands, honing his guitar-playing, songwriting, and singing talents, Guenther took his music in another direction. Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell, and Ernest Tubb became strong influences, and after hearing a Buck Owens record for the first time while in high school, Guenther immediately found a connection to Tumwater native Don Rich, Buck Owen's lead guitar and fiddle player. It was this discovery that lead Guenther take up fiddle. At eighteen Guenther formed his first country band and began playing dance halls, honkytonks, and fair/festivals. A member of Mossyrock Grange #355, Guenther won second place in the National Grange Talent Contest in Fresno, CA. Success was slow to follow, yet after three years performing in greater Southwest Washington he formed Blackboard Records, and began his recording career with his debut release Honky Tonk Livin' (Blackboard 2001). Guenther continued building his band the Honky Tonk Drifters, and expanded his performance schedule, playing venues throughout Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, opening for acts including Merle Haggard and the Strangers, Lacy J. Dalton, and Lila McCann. In 2005, Guenther released Destinations Unknown (Blackboard/Red Arrow 2005). The album charted in European country radio markets, moving to #2 in Britain on the International Country Music Chart. Juarez Mexico, the first single from the album charted in the ECMA top 100, despite receiving limited play in Southwest Washington markets. In 2006, Guenther released his third album Ten Sides (Red Arrow 2006). Like the former album, European markets embraced Guenther's release, charting #1 in Britain on the ECMA, #2 in Denmark, Belgium, and Germany, and #3 in Italy. Guenther has never measured success by popularity and mainstream appeal. "It is not about blending the lines between contemporary rock and country music to make monetary gain, but staying true to the roots of the country music genre, and maintaining an American tradition."

Corn States Meet to Discuss Programs
The Nebraska State Grange hosted the five State ReJuv Program Directors Conference on June 1, 2, and 3, 2007 at the Carol Joy Holling Retreat Center, Ashland, Nebraska. Nebraska State Grange Program Director, Darlene Janing of Geneva, Nebraska organized and led the conference. Nebraska State Grange President, Joe Fryman (Blair, Nebraska) gave the Welcome address.

“With the tremendous explosion of ethanol production, what are the opportunities for agriculture and the entire state of Nebraska, and how do we sustain them? What are the challenges and what do we do to address those challenges?” were the leading questions for an Ethanol panel on Saturday morning. Members of the panel were Moderator, former State Senator Bob Kremer, who is on the steering committee for the 25 x 25 Coalition; Todd Sneller, Nebraska Ethanol Board; Victor Bohuslavsky, Nebraska Soybean Board; Randy Klein, Nebraska Corn Board; Pete McClymont, Nebraska Cattleman; Terry O’Neel, Nebraska Pork Producers and Dwight Baldwin, Iowa State Grange President. This panel presented data that will help agricultural leaders and organizations when they do their policy planning. The questions and answers and follow-up discussion helped keep our members informed of current developments.

Other highlights of the conference were the tour of the SAC Museum and Wildlife Safari, a Nebraska Humanities Council presentation of “Peter Sarpy” by Darrel Draper (Omaha, Nebraska); a presentation on the upcoming Oklahoma Centennial by Jennifer Larmon (Colcord, Oklahoma); interesting historical Grange facts and events by Edgar Hicks (Omaha, Nebraska) and an informative presentation of her trip around the southern tip of South America and the northwest corner of Antarctica by Marilyn Nichols (Geneva, Nebraska.)

The State Granges represented were Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska. This group addressed current National and State issues and ways to meet the needs of our organization. The National Grange was represented by Tammy Fryman (Blair, Nebraska) who is the National Flora. After the Sunday morning worship service lead by Nebraska State Grange Chaplain, Gwenda Cogswell (Friend, Nebraska), the group concluded the meeting with a group meal at the Mahoney Park Lodge. Oklahoma State Grange will host the ReJuv Grange conference in 2008.

Learn What Works!
Find out what successful Granges across the country are doing! How are they growing? How are they becoming more valuable in their communities? What are they doing that YOU could do in your own Grange? The May Successful Actions Tele-conference, hosted by Sally Crosiar, was held on May 16th. To listen to a recording, please visit the National Grange website, www.NationalGrange.org. Click on "Grange Action Program" and "Successful Actions Tele-conference."

Successful Actions tele-conferences are held every third Wednesday of the month. To participate, dial in at 8PM: (888) 872-1176 Passcode : 9632#.

Click on image to enlarge

“Words for Thirds” Well Past the 200,000 Mark
Since 2002, 538 Granges in 33 states have contributed a total of 239,543 dictionaries to third-graders. The 2006 total was 73,882, a slight decline from 2004 and 2005. This easy to execute program has really caught on with Granges across the country. The program has generated community outreach and image building for hundreds of Granges. Here is all a Grange has to do to execute the program.

1. Contact your local school principal and superintendent and tell them about the program.
2. Find out the number of third grade students in the schools your want to cover and develop a budget for the program. Dictionaries will run around $1.45 each.
3. Once you have the funding, contact the Dictionary Project by calling 843-856-2706 or 843-388-8375 or by visiting their Web site: www.dictionaryproject.org.
4. After the dictionaries arrive place a Grange label on the inside of the front cover. A label template can be downloaded from the National Grange Web site at www.nationalgrange.org.
5. Set up a date for delivery with the school or schools.
6. Let the local press know about the event.
7. Have fun presenting the dictionaries, some of which contain the longest word in the English language and other interesting features.
8. Send any articles or pictures to the National Grange and the Dictionary Project so we can share them with others on our Web sites.

• In most cases, you may have twenty minutes or less with a staff person, and as little as ten minutes with the actual legislator. Use that brief time well by sticking to your topic.
• Address your legislator as "Representative" or "Senator"
• Provide personal and local examples of the impact of your issue.
• Leave a one-page fact sheet on the issue.
• Leave a 2007 National Grange Legislative Policy Book a 2007 State Grange legislative Policy Book or 2007 National Grange Blueprint for Rural America.
• Before leaving, always thank the individual for their time and leave your contact information for any follow-up questions they may have.

To make your reservation for the Fly-In, please fill out the reservation form no later than March 9, 2007. Once again Potomac Grange #1 in Washington, D.C. is offering a limited number of scholarships for Grange members to attend the Fly-In. All forms for the Fly-In can be found on the National Grange website, www.nationalgrange.org, under Legislation or you can contact Samantha Johnson, Administrative Assistant, by phone at 202-628-3507 ext. 109, by fax at 202-347-1091, or by e-mail at sjohnson@nationalgrange.org if you have any questions.

For Grange members who will need a convenient place to stay while in Washington, D.C., the National Grange has reserved a block of rooms at the Club Quarters Hotel (839 17 th Street NW), just 1.5 blocks from the National Grange headquarters building. To make reservations at the Club Quarters please contact the hotel at (212) 575-0006 and mention “National Grange Fly-In 2007” code NG0429 to receive the special room rate of $139.00 per night + tax for standard executive type room or $159.00 per night + tax for a standard director type room. There is an extra $15.00 charge per extra guest per room per day. Parking costs are not included. Please be aware that hotel reservations are the individual responsibility of each Fly-In 2007 participant. Reservations at the Club Quarters must be made by March 16, 2007.

IT WON’T HAPPEN HERE!
Oh, but it could!

The Digest of Laws, Section 4.10.9, states that “the Secretary and Treasurer of each Subordinate, Pomona, State Grange and National Grange shall furnish, at the expense of their respective Granges, a fidelity bond or other approved surety, in such an amount as the Executive Committee of their respective Granges shall determine.”

The Section goes on to specify that the respective Granges may also require other officers and/or committee chairs to furnish such bonds so that all who handle the funds of the Grange in any capacity might be covered.

Each year several Granges across the nation end up with a problem of missing funds. In most cases, the Grange has not protected itself from this loss by insurance.

It is a mandatory requirement that an annual audit of the records of all funds be conducted in a timely manner, or the coverage is forfeited.

Fidelity bonds are available through the State Grange under a master policy issued to the National Grange by the NGM Insurance Group. This bond covers all who handle funds for the Grange.

Contact (enter name and phone number here) for coverage amounts available and the cost.

2007 Digest of Laws Now Available!
The 2007 Digest of Laws is now available on the website and through the Sales Department in hard copy.