Thank You For A Successful State Grange Convention
By Tom Gwin
State Grange
Master/President
The 136th Annual Session of the Washington State Grange is now history! The weather was beautiful, our hosts were friendly, and the fairgrounds proved to be an excellent venue for our session.
At the convention, we debated 42 resolutions and the recommendations of eight Standing Committees. We elected a full slate of state officers. There were inspirational speakers and a wide array of workshops. Contests were held and awards were presented. There certainly was something for everyone to enjoy at this year’s convention.
There are many, many Grange members who contributed to the success of this year’s convention:
➢ The Convention Steering Committee, chaired by Phyllis Ogden with Lucy Vest as the secretary, and Marilyn Armit as the treasurer, and all the other host committees… you did an excellent job of meeting the needs of the delegates. It was good to see representatives from several counties involved in the host duties.
➢ The staff of the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds in Centralia/Chehalis, specifically our fair contact, Violet Barboza, was wonderful to work with. Their excellent facilities and professional staff are to be commended!
➢ To those who completed each of the details necessary for our success, including Progress Room Workers, deputies, officers, directors, and others, thank you for your part to make this a memorable convention.
➢ To the National Grange Representatives, Christopher and Connie Johnson, thank you for your words of wisdom and guidance to the delegates. We also appreciate our other guests, Joyce and Marty Billquist (MT), Joseph Stefenoni (CA), and Priestess Annalist Martha Stefenoni.
➢ To the delegates and committee chairs, congratulations on discussing each aspect of every resolution and recommendation. The in-depth discussion on each subject was astounding! We had several first-time committee chairs who fully completed their tasks in a timely manner. You did a great job of answering the delegates’ questions and providing the requested information.
➢ To the office staff, each of whom brings their own special talent and skill level to their job, your long hours and dedication to your jobs is truly remarkable.
➢ To the youth and juniors, who bring a lively can-do attitude that reminds many of us of our not too distant past.
FAIRS – OUR NEXT EVENT
Now that the convention is over, we quickly turn our focus to the Grange Youth Fairs Program. Our fairs have already begun and will continue across the state through the month of September. There are 17 fairs across the state that are allowing our Grange Youth and Juniors to showcase their projects, including livestock animals. Other fairs will have intricate Grange designs and still others will have Grange operated food concessions. Whatever role your Grange plays in the fair, I encourage you to do it well and to the best of your ability.
STATE GRANGE LIVESTOCK JUDGING CONTEST
The State Grange Livestock Judging Contest will be on Friday, September 12 at 8 a.m. at the Othello Fair. Please arrive early to check in. We are counting on adults and parents to assist with monitoring the kids in our contest. All participants will need to pay fair admission. You will be reimbursed when you turn in your contest forms at the end of the contest. Awards for the top individuals and Grange teams will be presented that afternoon.
GRANGE LEADERSHIP ACADEMY
Plans are moving forward for our State Grange Leadership Academy. This event will focus on providing information to those interested in serving as State Grange Officers, Deputies, Directors, Standing Committee Members, and/or team members for the various departments. While locations are still to be determined, we have set aside Sunday, October 5 for the westside session and Sunday, October 26 for the eastside session. We will review the duties of each position, requirements, time commitment, etc. Lunch will be provided.
You may want to make plans now to attend the 137th Annual State Grange Session. We will be meeting at the Skagit County Fairgrounds in Mount Vernon on June 24-28, 2026. We’ve had some discussion on slightly altering the convention dates to begin on Tuesday, June 23 and closing on Saturday, June 27. That change is still pending and will be confirmed, one way or the other, in the next few weeks. The Grangers of the Northern District are already making plans for our visit to their area.
Legislative Update
By Jesse Taylor
Legislative Lobbyist
Happy August Washington Grange members! The warm, dry season is upon us and I hope you’ve had the opportunity to soak up some Vitamin D from the big orange thing in the sky. I’m starting to get little Mariner fever as the M’s are in the playoff hunt deep in the second half of the season! If any of you are Mariners fans you know the long half-century of misery we have endured trying to catch that elusive American League pennant. We will see what happens as the boys of summer become the boys of fall and the playoff picture comes into better view.
State Revenue Forecast
At the end of June our state issued a revenue forecast that had another round of bad news for the state budget. As a reminder, our state operates on a four-year outlook and we are mandated to pass budgets that balance over a four-year revenue cycle as predicted by the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (ERFC).
2025–27 Biennium: Projected revenues dropped by $490 million to around $70.95 billion, reflecting a 0.7% decrease from earlier estimates. The council contributes this decline to lower expectations for sales taxes, business and occupation (B&O) taxes.
2027–29 Biennium: Revenues are forecasted to decrease by $638 million to approximately $76.42 billion, a 0.8% reduction from prior projections, due to similar factors like reduced sales and B&O tax collections.
Combined, these don’t paint a great picture for the supplemental legislative session that will start in January 2026. Supplemental years offer legislators the opportunity to allocate additional resources that may be available from increased revenue. But when revenue forecasts are showing a billion dollar shortfall supplemental sessions can be used to trim spending that lawmakers deem as unnecessary. We will get two more revenue forecasts before the state of next session on September 27th and November 20th. This will be the story line as we meet soon at the capitol for legislative assembly days in preparation for the next session.
Capital Budget Grants
Granges which were awarded grants from the state capital budget this year have been contacted by their Department of Commerce agents and the process of using those grants is now underway. There will be several opportunities to join Department of Commerce live webinars on the grant process as well as view it later online. Once those calls starting coming out we realized two more grants that weren’t originally realized were awarded to two additional Granges. That brought our total capital budget allocation for the 2025 session to Washington State Grange’s to $2.98 Million and over $3.7 million over the past two sessions. Great job to all the Granges that have been active in this process!
Elections
By the time you get this version of the Grange News the votes will be counted for the August 5th primary. These primary races will set the stage for the general election on Tuesday, November 4, 2025. These “off-year’ elections are often very important as they include school board races, special elections, local school levies and bonds, county commissioners, port commissioner and others. Don’t forget to stay active with your local candidates in these odd year elections.
Enjoy the rest of your summer and I look forward to seeing many of you this fall!
By Grange News Staff
Delegates to the Annual State Grange Session elected a full slate of officers at this year’s session.
Tom Gwin (Humptulips Grange) was relected as the State Grange President. The former fair manager will continue leading the state organization through the next two years. He previously served as the State Lecturer, Assistant Steward, and Gatekeeper. Tom also holds the office of National Grange Lecturer, Pomona Grange Lecturer, and Subordinate Grange Secretary. He is a former State Grange Youth and Membership Director.
Rusty Hunt, of St. Andrews Grange in Douglas County, was elected to be the new State Grange Vice President. The wheat and cattle rancher currently serves as the Douglas County Pomona Grange President. Hunt previously served as the State Overseer, Steward, Treasurer and on the Executive Committee. He is a former State and National Grange Membership Director.
The newly elected State Lecturer is Claudine Mincks (Centerville Grange). Claudine moves to the Lecturer position after serving a year as the State Grange Community Service Director. She is the President of Klickitat County Pomona Grange and the Lecturer of Centerville Grange. She previously served as the Master of Columbia Grange.
Yakima County’s Tom Cullen (Buena Grange) was elected to serve as the State Grange Steward. Cullen is retired from the nursery industry and serves as the President of the Yakima Valley Pomona Grange. While new to the State Officer Team, Tom has a wealth of Grange experience. He was the Installing Officer at the 2024 and 2025 State Conventions, along with the 1981 State Convention held in Ellensburg.
Denise McCartan (Black Lake Grange) was elected to serve as the State Treasurer. Denise is a state employee who also serves as the Master of Black Lake Grange. She previously served as the Secretary and Treasurer of the State Grange.
Jarrod Gardner (McMillin Grange) was selected as a first-time officer to fill the office of State Gatekeeper. He is employed in Human Resources by the WA State Department of Natural Resources. Jarrod has served for the past ten years as the Master of Pierce County Pomona Grange.
Pam Mathews (South Union Grange) returns to the state officer team as the new State Ceres. Pam returns to the team after previously serving as the State Chaplain and State Lady Assistant Steward. She currently serves as her Pomona Grange Chaplain and Subordinate Grange Treasurer.
David Bryant (Elk Plain Grange) moved back to the State Grange Executive Committee. David is a retired state employee who most recently served as the State Vice President. He previously served as the State Secretary, Treasurer, and as an Executive Committeeman. He is active at the local level as the Subordinate Grange Secretary and Pomona Grange Treasurer.
Debbie Fisch (Bee Hive Grange) will serve as the new State Director of Family Living. Debbie is employed in local government in the Wenatchee area. She moves to her new position after serving as the State Ceres. Debbie is active as the Subordinate Grange Treasurer and has been active for several years in the Family Living program at both the subordinate and Pomona levels.
Other officers reelected this year include: Jonny Pittman (Moses Lake Grange) as the Assistant Steward; Alexis Kudsk (Haynie Grange) as the Lady Assistant Steward; Carolyn Hojem (Newaukum Grange) as the Chaplain; Isabella Lierman (Horseshoe Grange) as the Secretary; Jordanne Webb (Rimrock Grange) as the Pomona; and Jennifer Oliver (Collins Grange) as the Flora.
Two members of the State Grange Executive Committee, Rick Ferguson (Waitsburg Grange) and Brittney Pittman (Moses Lake Grange) will continue serving in their unexpired positions.
Thank you to our previous state officers for their dedication to the State Grange for the past two years: Leslie Wells (Tualco Grange) as Lecturer; Jacob Gwin (Humptulips Grange) as Steward; Annie Scott (Catlin Grange) as Treasurer; Butch Ogden (Sunnyside Grange) as Gatekeeper; Duane Hamp (Five Mile Prairie Grange) as Executive Committeeman; and Helen Berg (Sunnyside Grange) as Director of Family Living.
The next full election of State Grange officers will be held in 2027.
By Grange News Staff
With the 2021 State Grange Session canceled due to Covid, the State Grange presented two leadership awards this year. The awards were presented to Lucille Bevis and Davona Gwin. Both longtime active Grange members.
Lucille Bevis is one of the recipients of the 2025 Washington State Grange Leadership Award. Originally from New York, Lucille joined Elmira Grange. She served in numerous offices, including Junior Grange Deputy, County Deputy, and State Grange Flora. Lucille moved to Washington in 2000, where she joined Centerville Grange #81 and affiliated with Goldendale Grange #49. Lucille attended her first Washington State Grange Convention in 2000 and was quickly appointed to be the Deputy State Master for Klickitat County. She served as the Klickitat County Deputy for 25 years, before retiring last winter. She has held numerous offices in the Subordinate and Pomona Granges, including Pomona Master for several years. Lucille can still be called upon to provide guidance and a clear mind on all issues Grange!
Davona Gwin is a 54 year member of Humptulips Grange. As a child, she recalls attending the meetings of Quinault Grange with her grandmother. Davona was part of a group of “young” people that joined Humptulips Grange in 1971 after years of sparse activity. A fourth generation Grange member, she became the Subordinate Grange Master in 1974 and quickly became active in the Pomona Grange. Her area of interest was the Women’s Activities Department, where she was the Pomona CWA, later becoming the Northwest District Director of Women’s Activities for 14 years. She was elected to be the State Director of Women’s Activities in 2007. She has served as the Grays Harbor/Pacific Pomona Master sporadically for 12 years and been on several State Grange Committees. She was the Hospitality Committee Chair for the National Grange Convention in 2007 (Reno), 2012 (Boise), and 2017 (Spokane).
The awards were presented at the annual convention on Saturday, June 28. Both recipients were escorted to the President’s station where they graciously accepted the honor and provided numerous words of wisdom from their Grange involvement.
In announcing the awards, State President Tom Gwin stated. “Both Lucille and Davona are to be commended for the mentoring they have provided to Grangers from the local up through the state level is unparalleled. They are truly deserving of this honor.”
The State Grange Leadership Award, presented annually since 1957, is the highest honor accorded by the Washington State Grange.