The All New England and Quebec Exchange

On February 23rd, 16 of us headed to Rhode Island for the All New England and Quebec Exchange hosted by the Grand Chapter of Rhode Island. I had the pleasure of driving with our Grand Secretary, Sister Anita Young (who is also a G.G.C.C.M. on Visionquet) and my sister Heather (our Grand Martha). We stayed at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick. It was a beautiful weekend, weather wise, albeit a little cool. On Friday night, we enjoyed a wonderful supper in the hotel’s restaurant. The service was a little slow, but I guess that is understandable considering we arrived in three large groups.

On Saturday morning we enjoyed a delicious buffet breakfast and then headed to the mall for a little shopping before it was time to get ready for the meeting.

At around 12:30 p.m. we headed off to Cranston for the meeting. The registration began at 1:00 p.m. and we wanted to give ourselves time to find parking. That alone was tricky! We finally found what we thought was a “legal” spot right in front of the Masonic Temple. Turns out we were blocking a driveway by about ½ an inch and the owners called the police. Sister Anita had to leave during the meeting to move her car before having it towed away!

After Registration, we enjoyed a Social Tea and met up with friends that we hadn’t seen for a while and made many new ones. The meeting began around 3:00 p.m. with a regular opening and closing, after which all the Distinguished Guests were presented. What a sight!! The room was packed to the gills. (I believe, in total there were 235 members at the meeting with almost 280 for the dinner later)! After the presentations, the degree work was exemplified. We are very proud of the three officers from Quebec who participated: Sisters Anita Young, G.G.C.C.M. as Secretary, Roberta Hall, P.G.M. as Esther and Brother Arthur Shore, Associate Grand Patron as Chaplain. A banquet was held after the meeting and put on by Rainbow Girls. They did a superb job. All the Worthy Grand Matrons & Worthy Grand Patrons were seated on the stage. Kinda made us feel like we were on display!

After we all returned to the hotel and had a chance to change and relax a bit, everyone from the Quebec delegations and a few from Connecticut and Vermont gathered in my room for some more socializing.

Sunday saw us up early to enjoy another great breakfast before the long drive home.