Lions, Tigers, Bears, Oh My!

Every time I pass the Charlestown VFW, I smell Sumner House food and hear the pleasant buzz of conversation around a good speaker.  Even in dark of night, the ghosts of Harvest Past joyfully haunt Rt 12.  This past Harvest Dinner was no exception and only reinforced my expectations.  We were blessed with mild weather as Fall itself seemed to extend in joining our festivities.

As I had hoped, Rep. Michael Vose stimulated questions from the audience.  I noted several new attendees to SCGOP lists, which I also credit to our speaker.  I hope we can continue to draw such talent, most especially at the intersection of expertise and community needs.  Energy and education have been in the spotlight, for good reason.

Several folks from NHGOP were in attendance, helping us honor our former Chair, Rep. Michael Aron, for his many years of service with both SCGOP as well as a continuing part of our Sullivan County delegation.  Mike has spent many pleasant summer afternoons on the Newport town green, staffing the SCGOP tent. He fought a few windy ones too.

Many volunteers joined in to make short work of event preparations and help Judy Aron with her excellent table decorations.  Mrs. Stone continued her raffle winning streak.  Lily Tang-Williams got a jump on next year’s midterm elections and brought literature for attendees.

School board elections are the next bridge to cross.  The details of the Claremont SAU6 implosion are well covered in this blog.  Chartering a voyage to education reform, past the Scylla of entrenched elite control, avoiding the Charybdis of despair and apathy, while plugging our ears with wax to transit the socialist fiscal reefs around Siren Volinsky Island….  It has been a long 2025.  I understand member reticence in this matter.  Especially after SAU6 chose to illegally revive a zombie school board member over Halloween, rather than risk exposure to financial competence.  Hopefully not every school board in New Hampshire is as comically inept as SAU6.  However, if you have the intrepid nature of Odysseus, and are willing to tangle with the dreadful legacy of Horace Mann and Dewey, perhaps we can cut this Gordian knot rather than spend a lifetime disentangling the last century of failure.  Lotus eaters not welcome.

Looking forward to the coming year and midterm elections, members can expect more meetings with candidates as speakers, especially after the Lincoln-Reagan Dinner in late spring.  I made an initial outreach to NH chapter of the Federalist Society, but nothing is in Stone yet.  Expect more use of the office for sign and literature distribution. Candidates are welcome to use the office and conference room for campaign events.  Seriously, that is what its for!

Given the warm reception at our Acworth, Croydon, and Cornish Flat events, members can also expect a continuation of road meetings around the county. We found new members, renewed acquaintances in others, and generally had an excellent time.  What’s not to love?

You may recall we entertained a legislative delegation from NHGOP around the county on a factory tour, as well as a SCGOP legislative delegation tour of Professional Building Services in Claremont (both this summer).  The office and conference room are critical to draw such events and attendees.  In an effort to hold lower cost outreach events, we purchased a projector and hope to do movie nights in the conference room.  Kevin Tyson as our vice chair has been collecting suggestions for viewing.

This past year also saw our first machine gun shoot event. While attendance was light, interest was heavy, and I suspect this is an event that could slowly grow over time. Contact with other machine gun shoot event planners confirmed that it takes a while to build an audience. The biggest drawback is the spam email from WinRed, post event.

Lastly, we had two misfires.

A hoped for picnic in Moody Park was scratched last minute for an ominous weather pattern.  Former Newport resident Stacey Hammerlind was the recipient of said weather, as the tornadoes held off until they found her backyard in Mass. A few months of intermittent chainsaw and cleanup work solved the problem.

Our attempt at a listening session ran into determined activist opposition with hardly a republican voter to witness the exchanges. In spite of both our mistakes and their hijack attempts, we learned a few things about planning and running such a meeting going forward. Much thanks to Rep. Walter Spilsbury for his even tempered rescue.

Hope to see you at our Christmas Party, December 11 at the Elks in Claremont.  It’s the building with the moose in the front yard…..