Welcome Back Extra Meetings

It has been too long since we had an extra meeting. Thanks to the work of many brothers at the lodge, we resumed degree conferrals last night for the first time in over a year. While we have had a few transfers and reinstatements since the last extra meeting, I hate to admit it but it has been that long since we welcomed a new brother to the lodge. Things are changing once again for the better and it really is a credit to many of the brothers who have taken a leadership role in the lodge.

While these are my favorite kinds of meetings to attend I was, unfortunately, unable to attend once again due to family commitments. It has been one of those periods when other unavoidable occurrences seem to be part of the regular routine. Actually, I haven’t been able to get completely caught up from the last stated so I now find myself two meeting behind with an official visitation looming in the near future. It is going to be a trying remainder of the month for sure but I am confident that I can, with the continued support of the lodge, make it through these tenuous weeks.

Even though I wasn’t able to attend the meeting, I did manage to stop by the lodge before the meeting and make sure that the candidates were present and that everything was relatively in order for the night. It may have been the most relaxed that I had seen the brethren before a degree conferral in a long time and I hope that this pattern continues as more and more petitions are received and read. Seeing this also reassured me that I was making the right decision to be with my family last night as my only concerns were at home.

By the end of the night, before heading off to bed, it was a great feeling adding three brothers to our roles following the transfer of one brother and the initiation of two others. While I don’t expect a drastic increase in membership, I hope that we can repeat our slow and steady growth from 2014 (2015 was an off year) and build upon these additions to the lodge. At the very least, it will be great to see new masons pursuing the Master Builder Award again along with mentors pursuing the newly established Master Craftsman Award (or Master Pillar Award for that matter). It will take time and effort, but we gladly give of ourselves as these meetings and pursuits will certainly pay dividends in the future.

Double Duty

Last night I experienced a case of masonic split personality as we struggled to fill all the positions to get the degree work done. Oddly, it wasn’t that we were short on men present at the lodge as we saw plenty on hand during the sandwich bar before the meeting but we had a number of brothers that had to accompany candidates, serve as guides, and a couple that needed to sit on the sidelines and observe. So during a night when my role is relatively limited as Secretary, I was also called into service to sit in the chair of the Senior Deacon. For many of you this all seems like a foreign language but my fellow brothers know that by moving over a chair, I was now right in the middle of the degree work.

However, there were a few things that I still had to do as Secretary throughout the night as there were still communication from the Grand Lodge, a few notes that had to be taken, attendance that had to be checked, and the ledger had to be prepared for the new brothers to sign. Basically, the times when the Senior Deacon would normally be resting, I was shifting back to my desk to take care of all these things to ensure that they were not forgotten. The last thing I want to do is forget any of my primary duties. After all, that is the job I am expected to do.

There were still a few things that had to get done after the conferrals came to an end around 10:30 so it was back down to the basement office to take care of the book keeping, correspondences, and updating of Masonic records. Many of these things I usually start while at my desk during the meeting but on a double duty night they were obviously pushed back making the night a little bit longer. Fortunately for me, my assistant was there to give me a hand and the Treasurer has always been a great brother to work with as we both do our best to be efficient with our time when work needs to be done.

So, after a full day at the car dealer and office and pulling double duty at the lodge it was finally time for me to head back home and get some rest. Usually I am up for some time but when I made it home it didn’t take long to get from the apartment door to the bed. Thankfully, today was a relatively light day. Well, at least as uneventful as I could have hoped for which just means that it was really busy but without any major surprises. Most importantly, no double duty beyond my split time between my regular occupation and my lodge duties.