District V Annual Meeting March 2016

The Annual Meeting was out at Ceresville Mansion in Frederick area. Look for the old Ceresville Mill and there’s a turn off driveway off Route 27–before you get to the bridge.

The mill is circa 1790’s while the mansion was built later in the 1870’s. Apparently the owners were fond of large parties and eventually it was remodeled to become a commercial spot for gatherings like weddings and meetings.

District members begin to arrive to check in and get name badges at the front tables. This is also an opportunity to take pictures of the table arrangements that each club has been asked to bring. This meeting was to follow a kitchenalia theme, but not everyone got the message. It was still fun to see hat people came up with.

A District Meeting is in some ways like a regular club meeting in that there are reports given by the executives and committees, only at a step up since the representation is over 26 clubs. Awards are given out for yearbooks and for any endeavor that clubs have submitted paperwork for which was judged worthy at District and State levels. So, our FGCMD President Nicki Schwab was there to give some awards. People are recognized for service in their clubs. Also a selected group of club presidents give oral reports.

We break for catered luncheon which is always quite good and have an opportunity to chat with our friends at the table. If another club shares your table, you meet those ladies too and at the next meeting you’ll at least recall their faces and perhaps have another conversation!

Finally after a leisurely lunch comes the program, about an hour long. This year, Sylvia Deck, who is also a FGCMD member, brought in tons of flowers and proceeded to do a bang-up job creating arrangement after arrangement from small and low, narrow verticals, displays for pedestals and lush rose heavy extravaganzas. Sylvia keeps up a running, friendly patter while she creates and makes everyone feel like it’s your friend showing you a little something. There was a flurry of raffle ticket purchases as the audience realized that they could indeed go home with a gorgeous arrangement.

Thanks to Brenda for doing Carroll’s table arrangement. We had a good showing with Marjorie, Sue, Brenda, Nancy, Diane, Kelly, Jan, Gayle and Jackie attending.

CERESVILLE