Come to Order!

To a Stampin' Up demo, "come to order"  means you should drop by their house to place an order for some stamps, ink or paper!


To the rest of the earth, "Come to order" is the start of meeting or courtroom session.

Mary Lou Schussler emailed me for some tips on making a gavel for a journal project for a judge - she even sent a picture of what she had in mind.  (Way to go, Mary Lou!)  I figured it out and gave her the scoop....

But after a few days, I decided to go ahead a make the gavel myself since I was a PTA president 'once upon the past' and have not scrapped that yet.  I bought a gavel for my charm bracelet so that should work on a layout too...

Sooooooooooo easy

Rectangle - approx. 1.5 (maybe a gooch smaller) x 2 inches
2 word windows
Strip 1/2 inch x 4.25 inches

Trim the strip a little narrower at one end (look at the photo)

Stamp all with wood grain background - sponge a little ink and stick it all together!

More blathering to follow - you can stop reading - no punch talk (promise!)

"Come to order" reminds me of one of my BEST meeting ideas EVER.  

First, you need to know that I HATE meetings.  I was a BELOVED PTA pres 'cause I had super short meetings (probably set a world record (or two) for getting 'em in and out)

I found myself in another organization where 3 committees were being merged into ONE and they needed a leader.  I was drafted into the position (I think they must have known about my PTA reputation for speed).  Now, this was with a group of people - nice people - who liked to talk and didn't particularly like to make decisions.  Meetings for all 3 committees could go on all  night - so combining them was a potential disaster.  What to do????

Crafts to the rescue!  I made a little bald eagle statue and brought it to the first meeting.

I explained.  "See the eagle?  The eagle is a good thing.  Majestic. Beloved symbol of our country.  We all have good feelings about an eagle.  BUT an eagle doesn't belong in this room.  A real eagle would be terrifying in this room with us - not to mention messy and the situation would be miserable for him."

After getting their agreement, I continued, "Just as an eagle doesn't belong here - there are other things that don't belong here.  Lots of good information and interesting topics could be discussed BUT we don't have time.  So, if you begin talking about things that aren't part of our meeting, I will quietly slide the eagle statue towards you.  This is your cue to wrap it up and get back to our business.  It isn't that what you have to say is bad - but just like the great eagle - it doesn't belong in this room tonight"

Ha, no one wanted that eagle in front of them - we stayed on target and got everything done in just a couple hours.  No one's toes were stepped on. 

There may not have been any eagles in the room but they all watched me like hawks during the next few meetings, hoping to push that eagle MY way.....