[rules-users] Working Memory and agenda-group

I am a fairly new Drools user and am trying to understand how working memory is segmented when using agenda groups. I have an agenda-group that has focus set immediately from the session as follows with a few objects being inserted: ksession.insert(objectA); ksession.insert(objectB); ksession.getAgenda().getAgendaGroup("Foo").setFocus(); I have 2 rules simplified down to illustrate my confusion. The first rule simply sets some default values evaluated in the second rule if objectA exists. In the example that works I set the defaults in the RHS explicitly. However I want to use these defaults from different agenda-groups, so when I put them in a function, the second rule never fires, the activation is created for the first rule but never the second. Can someone tell me why the use of a function seems to alter the truth of the rule? THIS WORKS: declare SomeDefault minValueA : Integer minValueB : Double maxValueB : Double end rule "Check Object A and Set Default" agenda-group "Foo" salience 100 when $a : ObjectA() then default = new SomeDefault() default.minValueA = 100 default.minValueB = 20.0 default.maxValueB = 20000.0 insert(default) end rule "Use the defaults" agenda-group "Foo" salience 100 when $default : SomeDefault() then System.out.println("Default minA=" + $default.minValueA) end THIS DOES NOT WORK: declare SomeDefault minValueA : Integer minValueB : Double maxValueB : Double end rule "Check Object A and Set Default" agenda-group "Foo" salience 100 when $a : ObjectA() then insertDefault(drools.getWorkingMemory()) end rule "Use the defaults" agenda-group "Foo" salience 90 when $default : SomeDefault() then System.out.println("Default minA=" + $default.minValueA) end function void insertDefault(WorkingMemory workingMemory) { SomeDefault default = new SomeDefault(); default.setMinValueA(100); default.setMinValueB(20.0); default.setMaxValueB(20000.0); workingMemory.insert(default); } In the latter (non-working) example the first rule activates and then drools returns, it never even attempts to try to fire the second rule. However in the working example BOTH rules fire as I would expect. I am guessing this is a simple misunderstanding on my part. Any assistance in understanding why this nuance doesn't seem to work would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. MiKey