At a recent Regional Grange Leaders Conference in New Hampshire, the legislative and agriculture directors began work on a joint issues outline.  The group is ready t o draft a position paper focusing on issues affecting the northeastern states, including land use, dairy support, agricultural trade with other countries, food security, environmental issues, energy alternatives, transportation, health care, and voter issues. They have established a web site at northeast.mygrange.org where they will be able to make the Grange’s position on these issues available to both members and non-members. The northeastern states will also hold their own fly-in program to the nation’s capitol where they will meet to review the issues they will discuss with their senators and representatives in Washington, D.C.

Allison Fowler is the new Legislative Director for the North Carolina State Grange. She is a graduate of NC State University with a B.A. Degree in Political Science with a concentration in Public Policy. Allison is extremely interested in legislative affairs and is excited about serving as a lobbyist for the NC State Grange. She also has an interest in community service, having volunteered a total of 225 hours for a variety of organizations in the Raleigh area while a student at NC State.

Jessica Newton began with the North Carolina Grange as the Membership Development Director for the organization. Jessica is a graduate of UNC Greensboro with a B.S. Degree in Recreation, Parks, and Tourism. Jessica’s interest in the Grange was developed through her involvement in the Youth Program. She served as a member of the 1999 and 2001 Youth Team. In 2001, she was crowned as the Camp Queen, and was also the Youth President the same year. Jessica also has an interest in community service, volunteering for such organizations as the Eastern NC Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity, and the Horsepower Therapeutic Learning Center.