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Master's Message January 2009 |
Greetings Brothers:
I am humbled by the vote of confidence in the brothers to have me serve in the East for Columbia Lodge #25 this coming year. It came a little quicker than expected, but I have already been working diligently to come up with a program that will merit your confidence in me.
As a third generation Mason and now a third generation Master, I am honored to have risen to the oriental chair in this lodge. My first Masonic memory was from the mid 1970’s when I was about 11 years old and I went to a York Rite session in Kentucky when my grandfather was installed as the Most Illustrious Grand Master of the Grand Council of Kentucky Royal and Select Masters. I didn’t fully understand why all of these men were wearing the Aprons and Jewels and were so proud of them. When I started my Masonic career, about 8 years ago, during a one day class with Garden Lodge #366 in Florida, I didn’t really understand what I was getting involved in. But I quickly became involved in the lodge and took an appointment in the line. I am a firm believer that you get out of Masonry what you put into it. When I moved to Connecticut I attended one of the breakfasts at the lodge, met several of the brothers, and was welcomed into the lodge. I feel very fortunate to have found this lodge and to be a brother among you.I intend to continue with many of the successful programs from the past several years. I have scheduled our annual Ladies at Table again during the first quarter of the year. This event has been very well received over the past two years and will likely sell out once again this year, so get your reservation in early. You can contact me at 614-5474 or Past Master, Skip House, at 916-1973.
RWB Rich Beebe is working on putting another CPTV/UCONN Lady Huskies telethon event together for the Lodge to work, but at press time of our trestleboard we haven’t finalized a date. Please call either myself or brother Rich if you are interested in being a part of that. If we have your email address, when we finalize the date we will announce it via email and in the Lodge room.
Speaking of email addresses, included in this trestleboard mailing is a short questionnaire. If you have an email address and would like to be notified of late breaking news that affects the Lodge, please let us know, so we can keep you informed as to what is happening. We are also looking for your input as to how you would like to be involved in your lodge. We have plenty of things to do in the lodge and would welcome any assistance and help we can get. As I was preparing committees this year I realized we are tapping the same brothers year after year. We need new sets of eyes on what we have been doing year after year so we can do it better. Your time commitment can be big or small, just let us know what you might like to get involved in.
We will continue our tradition this year of having dinners on the Entered Apprentice and Master Mason degrees. I have offered to help the Junior Warden with the reservations and coordination of these dinners, so when we have a dinner, please make sure that I get your reservations, so we have accurate counts for the meals and act as good stewards of the lodge funds.
As I reported in my Annual report to the lodge, I felt the Ceilidh we did last year was one of the social highlights of the year. WB Skip House and I are in talks of planning a similar event, possibly without the degree and opening it to the ladies. It would be a dinner with entertainment in the lodge room afterwards. If any other brother has an idea for a fundraising activity, please let me know, so we can plan activities that might be of interest to the brothers, their ladies and our friends and families.
I am looking forward to a great year and hope all you are too.
Fraternally, Brother Jeff
January-March 2009 TB as PDF
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