Grand Secretary “Stuff” Information for Lodge Secretaries – May 2013

Brethren,

I held this month’s newsletter back until now in order to share news from the Annual Communication with you. We had a great session with the business accomplished and much enthusiasm among the Brethren in attendance.

M.W. A. James Ross, Grand Master; R.W. David A. Walker, Deputy Grand Master; R.W. Scott Whytock, Grand Treasurer, and I were elected to another term. R.W. Christian Ratliff is our new Grand Senior Warden, and R.W. Larry Vennell is our new Grand Junior Warden. M.W. Claire Tusch and R.W. John Irovando were elected as Trustees of the Maine Masonic Charitable Foundation and R.W. James May was elected to the Grand Lodge Finance Committee. The 2013 Directory of Officers and Committees should be in your hands soon.

The Brethren approved the official use of lapel buttons to mark years of good service in five year increments. These will soon be available through this office. I’ll e-mail you when they are available.

These awards are presented at the discretion of each local Lodge. The only award mandated and paid for by Grand Lodge is the 50 year Veterans Medal. The database will be adjusted to monitor these “milestones” and notify you of the people within your Lodge who are eligible. The awards sold by this office are the only ones approved for this purpose.

I put this proposal forward after a member of the Craft brought the idea up at a Secretaries meeting. The Fraternity is all of us. All good ideas deserve discussion. Thanks Ernie.

If your Lodge is covered by the Grand Lodge liability policy, you recently received a questionnaire asking whether you wish to continue with the policy. If you do not respond by May 17th, your Lodge policy will be renewed. If you have found other coverage, please let us know.

There is a Secretaries School for Districts 10 and 14 scheduled at 6:30 on May 29th at Solar Lodge in Bath. Secretaries from other Districts are invited to attend. A pizza supper is scheduled. If you wish to attend, e-mail me at  grandsecretary@mainemason.org so we can plan pizza for you. I plan to do meetings in all Districts through this Masonic year. Contact your District Deputy Grand Master and encourage him to schedule a meeting in your District.

An increasing number of Official Forms are being converted to fillable PDFs. These allow you to fill in the information and e-mail the form directly to the Office. The most recent version of Adobe Reader is needed to accomplish this. It’s a free download available at www.adobe.com.

Remember: No job is finished until the paperwork is done.

Fraternally,
Mark E. Rustin
Mark E. Rustin
Grand Secretary