A NEW BEGINNING

Last week I was installed as Master of my affiliate lodge and even though I just finished being Master of my home lodge for two years I am truly excited about this new opportunity to serve the craft. Being Master is a honor and a position of great responsibility, our fraternity is set up so that Master determines the level of activity of the lodge; hence to set the craft to work and give them good and wholesome instructions for their labors.

Each lodge has its own characteristics and customs. my affiliate lodge is much different than my home lodge and I am trying to take the best of both worlds as I prepare for the upcoming year. They have a full progressive line from JW on down and all the chairs are filled with brothers ready to do the work. This has not been seen in this lodge for many, many years. My main goal will be to continue to build the membership and to keep the new members engaged. We have a very busy year ahead of us as one of our members will be installed as Grand Master in March.

I was fortunate to have the Past Master who served my home lodge the year before me affiliate as well and will serve as SW this year. We are both solid ritualists and will be able to set the example for the junior officers. He however has no interest in serving as Master so I will be in the East for two years. I am confident that if the lodge continues along its current course in two years they will be one of the strongest lodges in the district and my work will have been well worth the effort.

Then I will be looking for my next new beginning..........

Masonic Management 101

Both the local and state lodges are set up as progressive lines in that, in a fully functional lodge, you start at the bottom of the line and progress one chair each year. In the local lodges that means you serve six years before you are Master and then one year and done. As much as you anticipate your "year" it is hard to learn the new position and accomplish much in that short period of time. Most of the time the Master simply survives his year everyone pats him on the back and its time for the next Master.

Although this system has worked for hundreds of years you have to ask; does it really ? Would you expect your favorite sports team to change Managers every year and get good results ? Does GE change CEO's every year ? Do we change Presidents every year ? You get the point, it often takes time to establish a direction therefore continuity is important.

Lodges often have a hard time filling the chairs and are willing to put any one in regardless of whether they will do a good job or not and often allow them to progress upward without doing the necessary work. It has come to the point where Masters now need to be certified to open and close, a basic duty because we allowed so many non-functional Masters to progress that the Grand Lodge said enough. Often brothers fly through the line, two or three years and bam they are Master another reason for poorly prepared leaders.

I have served as Master for two years since one of our officers dropped out and we did not want to throw a Past Master in the hole. I started out at the bottom and served in every chair and did all the duties, rituals associated with each chair. I have enjoyed my second year much more since I knew what to expect and could
focus on what I wanted to get done. During my year as Senior Warden I affiliated with a neighboring lodge and I will now head to the East there next year.

So I will be a recycle officer which if you asked me five years ago I would of said it was bad. I was proud of our lodge having a progressive line with no Past Masters in the line. At this point I am more convinced that the weak lodges need good leadership regardless of the source. While the need to develop new leaders is essential, we should be careful to select brothers who truly want to do the work. The rule of thumb should be the same as when one joins a lodge; becoming an officer should be of their own free will and accord.

BACK UP AND RUNNING

The first month of the masonic fall season is now almost over and the batteries are recharged. Two CHIP programs, a major construction project, a degree and a Blue Lodge council, busy, busy month but that is what gets the old fires burning. I now have five meetings as Master before I head off to my affiliate lodge and serve there. I had the pleasure of serving for two years as Master of my home lodge and I feel my term was very successful. We will have raised twenty two new brothers and did some major construction projects around the lodge. The construction projects showed me that there are some great leaders coming through the line behind me so I am confident that the lodge will continue to be a leader in our district.

My affiliate lodge continues to make progress as the new young officers continue to develop. There s much work ahead of us but slow steady progress shall prevail.

CORNERSTONES

Unfortunately every once in a while we get a call, letter or an e-mail regarding the passing of one of our brothers. The fraternity is full of so many brothers that have been members for decades and of these brothers there are a select few brothers who have been cornerstones for their respective lodges. The brother that you know will always be there and does all the little things behind the scenes. I received an e-mail this past week regarding one such brother from a lodge in my district. Even though this brother was not a member of my lodge I felt obligated to attend his masonic service. The brothers from his lodge were truly saddened by his sudden passing and appreciated the support.

On the way home my SW and I discussed this topic and it was clear based on the age of a few of our cornerstones that we were in for some sad occasions of our own in the coming years. The dedication and devotion to the craft by some of these brothers is simply amazing. Although I feel I make an impact, I ask myself if I can sustain the effort as many of these brothers have.

So I ask, are you a cornerstone ?

ONE LUMP OR TWO

As we have now reached the point of summer break and I am now preparing my fall Trestle Board I have been reflecting on being Master for a second year. Our lodge has had a progressive line for ten years however last year we had an officer who was unable to continue so we held the top three officers the same and moved everyone else up a chair. This gave me the unique opportunity to serve a second year.

Any one who has ever been Master probably will agree that as much as you plan and anticipate your year as Master nothing can truly prepare you for the task at hand. The year goes by so fast that next thing you know it is over and you say to yourself I wish I had another year knowing what I know now. Well I have had that chance and it has been much more relaxing than my first year. I think I have learned to expect the unexpected in a volunteer organization and to go with the flow better. I know also that there are many Masters that are happy when their year is over, one lump is fine by them

Next year I will move up the street as we say to my affiliate lodge and serve as Master for that lodge, if elected of course. I will face new challenges and hopefully provide steady leadership as they develop their junior officers. Being Master is a privilege and I only hope that I do well by the brethren and I don't mind taking a few lumps for the good of the craft.

ANSWERING THE CALL

In my last post I recalled how I was asked to join the officer line and how I answered the call. Having not been active in the lodge I knew nothing about lodge function or the ritual, it might as well been my first year in the lodge. Each year in the line I did a little extra, I learned extra ritual parts and eventually the charges as well. Now in my second year as Master I think most brothers would agree that I am a solid ritualist. I can also say that my time in the line has been one of the most positive expriences of my life.

Once again I have been asked to answer the call and under very similar circumstances. After I became active in the officer line of my blue lodge I decided to seek further light by joining the appendent bodies of the Scottish and York Rite as well as the Shrine. Since I have dedicated my time to my work in the blue lodge I have spent very little time in the appendent bodies. The other day I was asked to be appointed Grand Custodian which is the equivelent of DD for the blue lodge in York Rite Chapter. The brother recommending me knew that I had not been active in this body and yet felt that I was the right man for the job, despite my agruements otherwise.....so I accepted. So I laid the first stone upon which to build a new chapter in my masonic journey.

THE FIRST STONE

I joined the fraternity when I was 21 as the male members of my family were Masons for four generations and it was the thing to do. At 21 I had little interest but still respected the tradition and paid my dues and donated to the various activities of the lodge throughout the years. I came to awards nights for other family members and some dinners but never attended any degrees or regular meetings for my first fifteen years in the fraternity. After one of the awards nights I was asked if I wanted to help out on the fellowcraft team for an MM degree and I agreed. After working on the degree team I started attending once in awhile when I had the chance, Then in the fall of 2000 I was asked if I wanted to be a Steward by the incoming Master. After great personal debate I finally agreed and thus the first stone.

In our lodge it is a progressive line so you spend six years progressing through the chairs until your year as Master. So I became Master in 2007, the first of my family to do so.