Yeah, His Excellency dropped us a note about it, and I thought it was a spiffy idea, too. I am sorry that we were unable to come - the weather-based rejiggering of the schedule and a long-standing evening committment just made it not possible - but I am totally up for stealing the idea. We did manage to communicate directly with some of the newcomers and ask specific people to look out for them, but it's certainly something that would have been most expediently done by us directly. (And certainly, as you point out, better in the long run to be done by us instead of our neighbors.)

Another idea for long-term mulling, also, is What To Do if we can't make it to an event. Certainly, it makes sense to turn to you, but that puts a whole lot of onus and work on you, since you're not actually deputy to the Chatelaines. Maybe a team of little deputy Chatelaines...but then, of course, do we want to promulgate the idea that reaching out to newcomers is only something done by the designated officers? A mix of both, I think...