| Los Altos Lodge No. 712: | Last Updated on January 30, 2002 |
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Wow! What a start to our 2002 Masonic year. Our annual installation of officers was January 5th. It was wonderful. Thanks again to all of those who helped in the planning, decoration and food preparation. Less than 48 hours after we left the installation we were back for our January stated meeting. Our annual budget was presented and approved, our investigating committee reported favorably, we balloted and will be having our first initiation of the year on January 28th, 7:30 pm. Please make every effort to attend. This is the first (and best) opportunity to show a new member how really special is their becoming a mason.
While doing some reading on the Entered Apprentice degree (taken from One Hundred One Questions About Freemasonry by the Masonic Service Association), I learned the following:
Q: Define Hele; Hail; Hale; Heal. A: The first three words are pronounced alike, but with different meanings. Hele (Anglo-Saxon) is an old word meaning to cover, conceal. Hail is to greet. Hale means hearty. Heal means to make well. "Hele and conceal" is one of the many word pairs in ritual which go back to the growth of the English language, when two words were often used to insure that the hearer understood the meaning of at least one.
February will see our Superbowl Party, our Stated meeting and our Annual Crabfeed/Sweethearts dinner. The Superbowl party will be on Sunday, Feb 3 starting at 2:00 pm (game time is 3 pm). We will have some sodas, burgers, and hot-dogs. Please bring munches, other food and drinks. Our annual Crab Feed and Sweetheart Dinner is February 18th. 6:30 pm. The cost is $20, reservations to our Junior Warden [snip] by Sunday February 10th. Don't forget to bring your crab tools, bibs and cocktail sauce.
We hope to see you in February.
Fraternally,
Robert Lake
Master
February, 2002 is upon us and we find ourselves thrust into the primary reason Masonic Blue Lodges exist. We will be conferring the first degree of Masonry upon a candidate on Monday night, January 28th at 7:30 pm. Please join us in forming the lines for our newest candidate.
I remember when I received my first degree. I was most impressed when I was brought from darkness to light to see how Masons work. It was a pure joy to see my future Brethren filling the lodge room. Please make every effort to attend and make a favorable impression on our candidate.
Now, on to something that brings absolute Masonic joy to my heart! I have a friend from work who asked me the question! Oh, how long I have endured to receive that. Hopefully, we will be reading his petition at our February Stated Meeting. Yes, it is my first, and hopefully the start of many more to come.
In early December, the Los Altos Lodge Brethren distributed tasty aplets and cotlets gifts and Holiday wishes to the widows of Los Altos Lodge. If you were missed, please contact me directly at [snip] and we will be sure to catch up with you. We have received many thoughtful Thank You notes and well-wishes for year 2002.
Fraternally,
Richard G. Weyers
Senior Warden
Wasn't it only yesterday that I was receiving instruction on my duties as the Junior Steward? My how time flies . . .
Because now I'm being instructed on my high twelve duties. And as such, we have a couple new things for improving your refreshment before the stated meeting.
For those of you who prefer E-mail, we now have an easy-to-remember E-mail address to make dinner reservations. You can send your reservation to: DinnerReservations@yahoo.com.
Of course, if you prefer, you can still call on the phone [snip] to make your reservations.
To help in the planning and thereby reduce cost and waste of food, we encourage you to make an annual reservation. The cost of all meals from February 2000 through January 2003 is $95.00. However, if you buy an annual meal ticket by the February stated meeting, the cost is only $85.00. Not only do you not need to make reservations all year, that's a discount that is many times better than what you can get by keeping your $85.00 in a savings account! By the way, in case you forget your checkbook, we take IOUs . . . Also, the annual meal ticket will cost $80.00 if you procrastinate to buy your meal ticket at the March stated meeting.
Speaking of the April stated meeting, the ladies of Valley Star will be joining us for dinner in all their regalia. Yes, that means Valley Star will not be preparing the April dinner meal. And yes, that also means the dinner will be catered. I encourage all of you to join us for dinner with the Ladies of Valley Star they deserve all our support!
Fraternally,
Harold C. Bain
Junior Warden
One of the most colorful events of the year, the Los Altos Lodge Installation of Officers, has long been an annual favorite. Pictured here are several pictures of the event.
This year the elected officers include Brother Robert G. Lake, Jr. as Master, Brother Richard G. Weyers, as Senior Warden, Brother Harold C. Bain, as Junior Warden, Worshipful Brother H. Sterling Bailey, H.A., P.M., as Treasurer, and Worshipful Brother Richard L. Rosenberg, H. A., P.M., as Secretary.
This year the appointed officers include Worshipful Brother J. Kermit Williams, H.A., P.M., as Chaplain, Worshipful Brother Gregory Buschek, P.M., as Senior Deacon, Brother Earl Gault, as Junior Deacon, Brother Michael Sadler, as Senior Steward, Brother John J. Graham, Junior Steward, Brother C. Eugene McMahon, Marshal, Brother Luis J. Orozco, II, H.A., F.M., Organist, and Brother H. David Kirnball, II, Tiler. Patrick Bailey was again asked by the Master to continue on as the Lodge's webmaster.
The event is always open to the public, and affords non-Masons a first hand look at one of our many colorful events.
Over the past several years Master Masons throughout California have been concerned about what seems to be a serious downturn in new membership candidates. Some have expressed the fear that our fraternity will end in less than 15 years if today's trend continues unchanged. Others, being more optimistic, feel we have hit bottom, and should soon see a complete turn-around in numbers. The problem with both camps is that no one seems to be seriously addressing some of our real problems.
Before we can expect the present and future generations to embrace our fraternity, we must understand our failings, as well as their needs. We must answer the question of why 90% of our present membership do not attend lodge regularly. We must also answer the question of what it is that prompts men to take the degrees, continue to pay their dues, and then just never come to lodge again. It is an undisputed fact that on average, only about 10 to 15% of lodge membership regularly attend lodge.
In fact, it seems that it is this same group of dedicated members who also support all other Masonic organizations. When we attend our Scottish Rite Stated Meetings we see basically the same faces as we see when attending our York Rite Bodies. When we attend Masonic District Officer meetings we find the very same people as at the other Masonic meetings. In all cases we convince ourselves that ours is the best fraternity in the world, and we agree we are glad to be a member. The real problem however is that we are preaching to the choir, when we should be communicating with the world. Some brothers believe we need new membership, while on the other hand there are those who believe we have more than enough. Instead, these brothers believe we should be getting our present members to come back to lodge.
At present our regular operating policy seems to fully expect them not to show up for lodge functions. For example if a lodge has 200 members, and they should somehow all show up for a stated meeting at the same time, in most cases there would not be enough seats in the lodge room to accommodate them.
Perhaps the problem is that our beloved "Craft" means something different to each of us. We each joined for our own private reasons. Some of us enjoy learning the ritual in detail and going through the chairs, others enjoy learning the history and following a more scholarly path in seeking more light. Still others enjoy serving on the many boards and committees it takes to manage our fraternity. No lodge can continue for very long without its devoted quarry workers. In fact these unsung heroes of our fraternity are of such importance, that our Grand Lodge has established the Hiram Award in their honor.
All this having been said, we are still in general missing the boat. We continue to loose many otherwise devoted members because we fail to allow them an equal share of the fraternity pie. In our California fraternity no Master Mason has a voice or vote at Grand Lodge unless he has gone through the chairs and served as Master of a Blue Lodge (except sitting wardens). "Well," some will say, "That is exactly as it should be! After all any Master Mason who wishes to can work his way through the chairs, become Master of his Blue Lodge, and thereby become eligible to a voice at Grand Lodge."
While this may very well be the present predominate viewpoint, it may also be a nail in our fraternal coffin. By excluding members from participation simply because they are not interested in memorizing pages upon pages of boring ritual, also excludes many capable Brothers who would otherwise be active contributing members.
If our fraternity is intended simply to be a ritual mill, then we close the door to all who are not interested in that avenue of our Craft. In fact, it often happens that the best ritualist turns out to be lacking in management skills, and often has little or no interest in the history or esoteric values and meanings of the very ritual he is so good at delivering. We have all lived through a year with a ritualist instead of a manager in the East. Often it will take a lodge several years to recover from such a disaster. Sometimes the Brothers who leave in disgust, never return at all. Instead they become part of that 90% who are devoted dues paying absentees.
Our degrees are important, and should not be watered down. All to often our officers who are good managers are poor ritualists. In this case, the Brethren stop coming to the degrees, because the poor ritual becomes an embarrassment to them. Then once they get out of the habit of coming to lodge, we have lost them forever.
This is also critical for the candidate. All to often we have seen a man take the degrees from a stumbling, bumbling officer's corps, and after almost falling asleep during the lectures of the first and third degrees, never come back again. Some will attend lodge for a year or so, then find out there is nothing there if they are not into ritual learning, and so promptly bid adieu to the lodge for good.
Another problem is with the Former Masters of our research lodges. These are usually Brethren more interested in the scholarly aspects of the fraternity than memorizing ritual. As Masters of a California Masonic Research Lodge, their duties are probably even more demanding than that of a Blue Lodge Master, in that they have a first duty to serve all the Blue Lodges in their area upon demand. The Master of a Research Lodge, if he is doing his job, will probably visit 30 to 40 Masonic and civic gatherings during his year in the East. Additionally it will be his duty to assist the Blue Lodge with their Masonic Education and lodge history programs, by organizing and supervising a speakers bureau. In many Research Lodges the Master will have the additional duty of administrating the local Masonic Research Lodge Library.
Because there are only five such Research Lodges in California, his year will often require him to travel long distances, and it is also important to notice that Research Lodges are usually not in the habit of funding their Master's travels. This means his duties as Master often require a considerable financial responsibility, something usually not experienced by masters of Blue Lodges. All the members of his Research Lodge must already be members of a Blue Lodge, so in addition to everything else, he will be facing assigning duties to people who, in most cases already have a full plate of duties to perform for their respective Blue Lodge. Despite all this, many Former Masters of Research Lodges prefer serving there to the Blue Lodge, because of the Blue Lodge emphasis on ritual rather than the managerial or scholarly aspects of Masonic duties.
Interestingly enough, the expressed purpose of a Research Lodge, the very reason for their charters, is to advise and direct in the scholarly aspects of our "Craft" to our Grand and Blue Lodge leaders. This they are asked to do, while at the same time having no vote or voice in the Grand Lodge. How can we expect our fraternity to continue to flourish when we send the message that we are more interested in being a ritual mill, than helping them expand in their search for more light? What harm would it do to allow Masters, Wardens, and Former Masters of Research Lodges the same voice and consideration at Grand Lodge as Masters, Wardens, and Past Masters of Blue Lodges? It would not be necessary to give them the title of Past Master, but it is important that they have the opportunity, of voice, and membership at Grand Lodge.
Still another major problem which, has developed over years, is the rushing through the degrees to the accomplishment of the Master Mason Degree. I would wager that 80% of Master Masons have never had the opportunity to study the Blue Lodge degrees in depth. In fact, we even have a regulation, which requires a candidate to complete all three degrees in a period of time no longer than three years. If we took advantage of the full three years and required each candidate to spend a full year studying each degree before we would consider him proficient and ready to progress to the next degree we would begin to have informed and interested members, at labor with enthusiasm and constantly coming back for more assignments. What the Masonic World needs now is more good candidate coaches willing and informed enough to coach these wonderful young men properly in the details of Masonic history, and esoteric symbolism as well as ritual.
I can recall that as an Entered Apprentice I pleaded time and again for more time to complete my degrees. As far as I was concerned each degree, studied properly, would require at least a full year of attention. To rush through as we do today, is in effect to say to the candidate that our degrees are nothing more than shallow ritual for the sake of giving us old men something to do on "The Boy's Night Out." Carried to its logical conclusion, the young man finds little or no value in our degrees or our fraternity. As a young family man, his time is valuable, and we are simply offering to waste it on seemingly unimportant mumbo jumbo ritual. What do we expect from an environment like this in this advanced day and age?
I am not suggesting that we shorten or do away with our ritual, I am simply suggesting that if we wish to keep our new members, and entice our many inactive members to come back to lodge, maybe we should give them more to do. Maybe we should center more on understanding the historic and esoteric meanings of our degrees. Yes, perhaps we should slow down, be not in such a hurry, and take time to teach our candidates the real meaning and beauty of our degrees.
Some of us are good at ritual, let that person teach ritual. Some are proven historians. Let them teach our history. Where is it written that a candidate can not be coached by two or three brothers, each proficient in his own Masonic specialty.
When the Great Architect built the staircase of life, he didn't build it going nowhere, and each step was intended to teach us a lesson, so that the next and more advanced step would be better understood and more easily accomplished. When we skim through our degrees without allowing our candidates to savor the delicacies of the meanings of its ritualistic menu, we more often than not leave a bad taste in his mouth. What else is he to do but leave the Masonic table to feast elsewhere? Thus we are not only guilty of taking his money without fair return, we are guilty of betraying our very own Masonic mission in life, that of bringing more light into the world that it might become a better place in which to live.
It is often quoted that we should not display our wisdom before the profane, but this does not in any way lessen our responsibility to shower it upon our candidates.
Proclamation: Masonic Youth Orders Month
[Official letter as sent by the Grand Master.]
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