Since
I had to leave the lodge earlier than expected last Thursday I was unable to
sit down and get to know a petitioner that I had arranged to meet with during
dinner. Thankfully things have since calmed down and the evening worked in
everyone’s schedule so I was able to set aside the time last night and finally
have a great conversation with our new petitioner. This is the first step, the
most important step in my opinion, which is too often overlooked which is a
shame because for me it is the most enjoyable part of the process. There is
nothing like seeing that fascination and anticipation in the eyes of a candidate.
That
was only the first of many productive conversation that I was able to have last
night with various brothers as attendance at this particular fellowship was the
highest that it has been in some time and a welcome sight for sure. Once the
candidate was on his way, I soon transitioned to coordinating a few items with
the Worshipful Master. There are a number of additional items that need to be
included in the notice and some paperwork that needs to be prepared for the
next meeting that I really don’t want to fall behind on. Ten minutes of productive
dialogue is sometimes all it take to ensure that projects will be done on time.
And
while it was great to meet with a candidate and have a petition in hand to read
at the next stated meeting, I was greeted with an additional surprise when a
seconded completed petition was discovered in my folder. However, this one came
with a few questions and so my next conversation was with the first line signer
of the petition. There are a few questions that still remain but there is a
plan in place to address any and all concerns that I have moving forward so
while there may be an additional step in the process it is a rather simple solution.
My
final interjections for the evening was with a few of the other brothers who
had convened to discuss the upcoming building committee meeting. There are a
lot of projects that need to be undertaken both immediately as well as a few
years from now and the list that was reviewed reflected exactly that dilemma.
It will actually be interesting to see how this upcoming meeting is run as the
roles overlap significantly with some of the other responsibilities of other
brothers in the lodge namely the Trustees. I am hoping that this can be
resolved quickly so that each can move in the right direction… the same
positive direction that the membership is moving in.
So,
while I may have missed the stated meeting last week and there are undoubtedly
a number of things that I am still missing, I managed to get up to speed on just
about everything that needed to be taken care of this week. It won’t be long
now before the next meeting is upon us and then it will be back to the monthly
routine. In the meantime, I am sure that there will be plenty of discussions, debates,
and projects started. It is going to be a busy year but the good kind of bust
this time around.
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