Newsletter from the Grand Secretary
Hollis G. Dixon, Grand Secretary
September 2009
George Washington Masonic Memorial: In the 1790s the Federal Government hired operative Masons from Scotland to build the U. S. Capital, the White House and other structures. Many of them were also speculative Masons. These Masons formed Federal Lodge No. 1 and helped constitute the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia. In 1948, the White House was completely renovated and President Harry Truman, who was also a Past Grand Master, found one hundred foundation stones with Masonic marks on them at the White House. He sent one of these stones to every Grand Lodge in America and to a number of O.E.S. Grand Chapters and other Masonic organizations.
Recently, we received correspondence from the Memorial, which contained a request for every Grand Lodge jurisdiction in the United States, to loan their White House stone to the Memorial for a special display during the 100th Anniversary of the Memorial Association. These building blocks will be displayed together at the Memorial through May, 2011. In February, 2010, the Conference of Grand Masters and Grand Secretaries will be held in Virginia and those in attendance will have a good opportunity to view the display while visiting the Memorial, which is in Alexandria, Virginia.
Maine’s building block is presently in our Museum and the Trustees of the Charitable Foundation will be asked to approve the loan to the George Washington National Masonic Memorial.
Review of the Constitution, Standing Regulations and Digest of Decisions: For those lodges that have been at recess during the summer months, I would like to remind you that our Grand Master has requested that all of our lodges make an effort to review a section of the Constitution at each Stated Communication. A good method of doing this might be to ask a different line officer each month to be prepared to read and discuss a section of the Constitution at the next Stated Meeting.
Electronic Mail: Over the past several years, many of the Grand Lodges in other jurisdictions have moved toward greater use of electronic mail. Some of them send regular mail through the Post Office only to those that do not have E-mail capabilities. Some Grand Lodges have actually required each of their lodges to designate someone in the lodge that has access to the internet to receive their electronic correspondence if their Secretary does not have E-mail access.
Considering the fact that many of the Brethren that vote at our Annual Session seem reluctant to approve an increase in the Per Capita Tax, I believe that we must do everything we can to reduce the costs of operating the Grand Lodge office. Of our 187 lodges, we now have thirteen whose Secretaries do not have E-mail capabilities. In so far as most or all of those Secretaries are our most capable long term Secretaries, we would not want to lose them. Therefore, I would suggest that our lodges consider appointing an Assistant Secretary that would be able to handle written correspondence (such as the Trestle Board) for the lodge, while the Secretary maintains the lodge records in his usual efficient manner.
Included with this Newsletter you will find our Grand Librarian’s, “From the Stacks” flyer for September and October, 2009. [webmaster note: the flyer is available as a PDF file and can be downloaded on the link above]
Fraternally,
Hollis G. Dixon
Grand Secretary
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