| Los Altos Lodge No. 712: | Last Updated on June 23, 2004 |
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Here we are, with the year half gone and I am struggling with the fact that I have failed to present masonic education in our stated meetings.
There are yet many other things, I would like to get accomplished. I will not go into them here but what I feel is lacking, is a need to have some interesting masonic education at our meetings.
I know the brethren wish to know that our lodge is well managed, but we need some soul food in the form of Masonry in action at our meetings. This last meeting was very gratifying. Sterling Bailey informed us of his recent move to the Masonic Home. He was so pleased to find that as soon as they were there, they took Virginia in hand and she is showing immediate improvement in her health. He said he is quite comfortable and regrets that now due to the distance he will not be able to attend lodge as often as before.
Sterling presented the lodge with much of his memorabilia and particularly presented the very first Los Altos Trestleboard. That Trestleboard was a postcard. He had this postcard Trestleboard framed and it is now on display in our display cabinet in the Tiler’s area. Please stop by to view it.
We need to set up a committee to organize and inventory our archives. Sterling was the lodge historian and he has now handed over a filing cabinet of lodge historical data. Anyone interested in the job, please contact me.
Switching to a summer topic. I have attend four of our little league games. Our team is the ‘Cardinals’ and as of this writing will finish the year either as the champs of their league or the runner up. The team presented us with a plaque and bat. The plaque contains a picture of all the players and coaches. The bat has been signed by all the team members. We will have to find room for these items somewhere in the display cabinet.
The combined Eastern Star and Los Altos Lodge picnic is scheduled on Saturday July 31 in Shoup Park. We have it reserved from 8 AM to 2 PM so we can safely say that the festivities should start around 10 AM. Please plan on attending. We hope to individually contact all the local brethren and Eastern Star members to invite and inform. As usual this is a pot luck. Everyone attending should bring a dish that will serve 6 to 8 persons. The lodge will provide the meat and refreshments.
The Lodge Management Certification Program was attended by myself, Robert Sohigian, Richard Rosenberg and David Kimball. Each of us is now certified in one of the aspects of this program, I received the Program Planning, Robert the Membership Development, Richard the Lodge Administration and David in Hall Association Management certification. There will be more said about these courses in Lodge as we will have to make some changes in our way of administering the Lodge affairs. Nothing serious or complicated but to be in compliance with the California Masonic Code (CMC) a few changes will have to be made.
I feel we need to include more masonic related items both in our Trestleboard and at the stated meeting. During July stated meetings. During July and August I will be recommending some changes to the brethren to see if we can make our meetings more interesting. More will be written about this in the August Trestleboard. As a start I have included an article in this trestleboard on some masonic related information. Have a great summer!
Fraternally,
Ernest Casilo
Master
Well I have been pretty much out of it for quite some time now, but while healing at home, I have been able to observe our lodge and its membership activity from a distance. As Masons we each have an obligation to find in our hearts some brotherly love toward one an other, to relieve our distressed worthy brothers wherever we can, and to render truth unto one another, as well as to our fellow creatures.
During the time of my repair, I can only say I have truly reaped these benefits in full from my lodge brothers. I received more than 100 cards, letters, emails, and phone calls. As I became stronger, many brothers took the time to visit and wish me well. Others, such as Worshipful Ernie Castillo, Brother Larry Fagan, and his wife Joannie, Brother Maury Dunbar, and Brother David Kimball assisted by making themselves available to drive my wife Jeanna to and from work. This was an enormous help, considering that she does not drive, and I was far to weak to do so. Brother David Kimball went even further, and almost daily attend to my needs when I could not get out of bed. As I improved, he further assisted me almost every day by helping me walk around the block, and following me with a wheel chair. Brother Tommy Thomason lent me his wheel chair, and the Scottish Rite lent me a walker.
Because of all this brotherly love, I had improved enough to attend our last stated meeting, and although I was to weak to stay for the whole meeting, I was privileged in that I did get to play some music for the opening ritual, and thereby be of some slight service to those lodge Brethren who were in attendance that evening. It was a very rewarding experience for me. Thank you all.
Now however, “The time has come the Walrus said, to speak of many things…” It has come to my attention that several brothers have become discouraged, and feel that our activities are no longer fun, and have instead simply become reduced to the elements of a second full time job.
Some have pointed out that we don't do anything which would interest young men anymore, and for this reason we will have an increasingly more difficult time in acquiring new members. Their arguments are both valid and timely, and we must give them good heed.
Many of we older brothers will remember the days when not only did we have an overabundance of new members, we also had people standing in line to become officers. I can remember only 13 years ago when in the old Great Lights Lodge No. 818, we not only had every officer’s chair filled two years in advance, but in addition we had a full line in a sideliner’s team which met and practiced on the same night as the regular officers practiced, albeit in another room. It seems those days are gone forever, but they don't have to be if we work together.
I have some ideas on how we might help to rectify these problems, and I urge you to contact our Master, or one of our officers with your ideas. We each have a duty to understand the needs and wishes of our broth ers, and in so doing create peace and harmony within our lodge.
Please help us serve you better by letting us know what kind of a lodge you want, and what activities you think would attract younger members. That at least would be a start, and from there up, the sky is the limit.
Fraternally,
Brother Luis J. Orozco, II
Senior Warden
Well it’s already July. Happy Birthday America! You’re still the best country in the world.
OK, now for my monthly installment. As I stated last month, there are overwhelming requirements associated with lodge work for an officer. If we list the current structure we have: monthly stated meetings (usually requiring a matching dinner); weekly practices; monthly Officer Association Meetings; special events (like Constitutional Observance, Public Schools Night, Art & Wine Festivals, etc.); committee work; monthly Temple Board Meetings; schools of instruction; receptions; visitations to other lodges; support for youth groups; candidate coaching; and the list goes on & on. Add to this that the top 4 offices require qualification in one or more degree lectures, and you now have a full time job. And worse yet, there is nothing listed above that is just relaxed enjoyable fun. While I enjoy meeting and visiting with my brothers as much as anyone, all of the above activities require a fair amount of work, whether you’re in charge of the event or not.
The result is catastrophic, and worsens the longer it is allowed to exist. With too many requirements you get decreased active involvement from the brethren. As the involvement decreases the officers are required to do more, creating more strain on them. This ultimately results in even more of a decrease in active membership. The spiral goes on until lodges no longer are able to fill their officer’s stations and move to consolidate. Is this what Masonry is about? Are we so stuck in tradition and holding to the “way things have always been done” that we are willing to loose it all? I’m not talking about changing what Freemasonry is about, or anything to do with ritual. I’m talking about the way our business is done. If we fail to see that by making things so involved, we loose our younger members to this overwhelming situation, then I fear that masonry will be greatly minimized and nothing more than an old men’s society. We must realize that the younger, more energetic members are our future, but that they are busy building careers and raising families. Another full time job is not what they want or will sign up for.
So what can we do about it? It’s simple, ECONOMIZE. Let’s change masonry and make more efficient. If we need to have monthly stated meetings, then let’s do our degrees during them. If that means that we can’t afford two hour sessions to conduct business and banter, squabble and bicker about each issue (Oops, that’s next month’s subject), then so be it. Let’s form active alliances with other local lodges and knock down the stress associated with required Grand Lodge events by sharing the burden. Let’s form traveling degree teams to put on degrees and alleviate the requirements for the top officers to have to polish their ritual. And by all means, let’s schedule more events where we just go have old fashioned FUN! If we can manage to make masonry easier, then I would estimate that involvement would increase. As the activity level goes up, and the stress on each officer is further reduced. At some point, the requirements will be reduced on the individual member to a point where the younger, energetic members can safely assume active roles and the future of the lodge is assured.
For those of you who doubt my words and say that we can’t change masonry because of requirements, then I will take you to task. As many of you know, I am on the board of the local Corvette club. They are also a non-profit organization that does charity work as a justification for their non-profit status. The difference is that we haven’t lost sight that our ‘primary focus’ in on having fun. In actuality, we are more visible to the public and donate more to charity then our lodge presently does. More is better. We average 50% membership turnout for each of our monthly business meetings. Although our meetings are often 2 hours long, they are almost exclusively focused on planning more fun events. We even proposed, discussed and positively voted to move our meeting site in a period of only two meetings. Could masonry do that? Why not? We better figure it out and FAST! Although Grand Lodge denies it, we’re loosing our membership and IT IS A CRISIS. Let’s change the rules and have some fun doing it.
Lastly, it is with regret that I must inform you that I am one of the victims of the conditions that I write about so vehemently. Since my return to the lodge some 18 months ago, I have moved from Senior Steward to Junior Warden with all that it entails, including assuming seat on the LAMTA Board. The stress and requirements have, in one short year, burned me out to where Freemasonry is no longer any fun. Enjoyable ‘Yes’, fun ‘No’. So I have notified the Master and Senior Warden that it is my intent to not seek or accept election to the Senior Warden’s station next year. As I watch and understand the increasing spiral of requirements leading to the Master’s chair, I find that masonry becomes less attractive and fear that it will only get worse as I advance. While my biggest reasons are based around disharmony (next month’s article), I find myself unwilling and unable to maintain my present activity level, let alone stand up for what is to come. For my own sanity and for the sake of the lodge I need to seek a less active role at the end of this year. I am truly sorry if this disappoints any of you.
Fraternally,
Jim Gable,
Junior Warden
[Excerpted from the Empire State Mason Magazine. (Originally Published in the Mason Outlook, Sept. 1927) Written by H.L. Haywood]
What has certain things of metallic character to do with being offensive or defensive? In an article I recently read I found an answer.
“The ceremony and question harks back to primitive times - probably the ancient Babylonians. According to this ancient belief, each planet, including the sun and the moon wielded a fateful influence over men. Out of such belief came astrology, which even today is a living thing for many persons - The theory being that every individual is born under the influence of a star, or a house of stars, so that from one’s birth hour the astrologer strives to predict fortunes that will ensue.
At a remote time the planets as then known and including the sun and moon were arranged in this sequence: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn.
Now it chances that metals known at that period were also seven in number and men divined a connection between the luster of those metals and the planets, whence developed the belief that each planet had on earth a corresponding metal - gold for the Sun, silver for the Moon, iron for Mars, quicksilver for Mercury, tin for Jupiter, copper for Venus, and lead for Saturn. As the astrologers developed their theories about such matters they came to attach to each planet and its corresponding metal a definite character: Mercury was the prince of wisdom, artifice, and cunning; Venus was the lady of love; Mars was ruler of violence and war; Jupiter was ruler of gods and men; Saturn was lord of turculence; both the Sun and the Moon were propitious, the former by day, the latter by night.
Believing that a metal called down the influence of a planet, the astrologers were careful as to how they handled the metals, what metals they could keep in their possession, and where they could safely take them. Iron might lead one into warfare, private or tribal, under the influence of Mars; copper might involve one in troubles affairs of the heart; lead might draw down Saturn’s truculence and lead to quarrels - and so on. It is easy to understand that when a group of men were to gather in conference, or were to meet to form some social circle, they would see to it that nobody had in his possession a metal that might draw upon them influences to cause disunion, bickerings, and quarrels,. Also we can understand that in their religious an other solemn convocations, as in initiation into their mysteries, they would be even more careful to shut out all disturbing influences by seeing to it that metals were left outside.”
Brother Sohigian is available to drive any brother wishing to attend Lodge. If you need a ride please call the Lodge reservation line and let us know of your request. Or call the Master or Bro. Sohigian directly.
Third Degree Conferral on August 28th at Paradise Park
Permission has been obtained to hold a third degree Conferral on August 28th at Paradise Park. Degree starts at 10 AM. All visitor are welcome to the FREE BBQ taking place that morning
The following events are scheduled for this year. Some of the dates are tentative others are in place.
Firm dates:
July 31. - Los Altos/ Valley Star OES annual Picnic 10 AM to 2 PM at Shoup Park in Los Altos. The picnic coordinator is David Anderson. As usual it will be a pot luck with the Lodge providing drinks and meat dishes and Valley Star providing accessories and set up.
August 28 - Hold a third degree in Paradise Park in the morning followed by free BBQ lunch at the park.
September 3 - Constitutional Observance Event in SJMC.
Tentative:
Roll Call night on Sept. 20.
Visit to Masonic Home.
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