Annual Communication 2023

It'll be great!

Bright and early tomorrow morning Melinda and I are off for Washington’s Annual Communication. Oh, how I hate ‘bright and early.’

166th Installation of Officers, the MWGL of Washington

Other than having to get up so early to get there, I expect it to be a great time. We first started attending many years ago, when I was elected one of my Lodge’s Wardens, and we’ve never missed one since.

It is a truly superb opportunity to catch up with old friends, and make new ones too.

As I’ll be there, and have Official Duties (I think that I’m supposed to be sitting next to our Grand Master as a sort of advisor or something, but he certainly needs none of that, so I think my real Official Duty is to say the word ‘Second’ whenever anyone offers a motion. I watched MW Coffman with care last year, so I think that my Seconding Game will be on point!) that will certainly interfere with my ability to produce Emeth in a normal manner for a handful of days.

My plan, instead of the usual essays or discussions is to give a bit of commentary about interesting things that happen around the event.

I hope to be able to briefly post something interesting, or two or three interesting somethings that I encountered each day of the Communication. I’m hopeful that for Washington Masons who are unable to attend this year that information will prove helpful, and for everyone outside of Washington, perhaps I will be able to write about things that can spark something good and actionable in their Lodges or their personal Masonic paths. I will try to make the posts of wide interest, as Emeth is certainly not limited to Washington Masons. Indeed twice as many California Masons read it as Washington Masons, with about equal numbers from Texas and New York.

That is my hope anyway.

Rummer & Grapes:

I regret that I will not be able to host a Rummer & Grapes gathering on Sunday. I’m sorry about that, but will not be home Sunday evening.

If anyone would like to host it in my place, as W Glenn has done quite a few times in the past, please just let me know. I can get the notice out once you let me know the Zoom information, and what topic you would like to discuss.

I’ll be back to normal next week following our 167th Installation of Officers!

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In other news entirely, and I’m sorry, but this is a hyper local thing.

I try to keep Emeth away from local events as it has subscribers in 124 countries, but this one time I just can’t resist.

In my Jurisdiction, we have a truly unique little Lodge. It has always been tiny, and it has always been located in a tiny rural town with severe poverty.

The story goes that one day a member of the Lodge was watching little kids as they were trying to play a game with a ball. Alas, the ball had a hole, couldn’t hold air, but they were doing their best to play with a flat ball, as there was no money to buy a new one. So, the Lodge bought them a ball.

Not long after that, he noticed that a little girl wore the exact same clothes to school every single day. As he saw her come and go from school, he noticed the clothes badly deteriorate over time. Apparently there was no money to buy her more than one set of clothing. So, the Lodge bought her new clothes.

And, from then on, this tiny little Lodge had a mission.

In the years since, it has held one, half insane fundraiser per year, and raised enough money to buy all the needy children of that community school clothes, school supplies, and Christmas gifts.

The man who started this passed away some years ago.

And unfortunately, the Lodge has seen a marked membership decline, from tiny to almost non-functional.

It has enough men to hold its fundraiser each year, and continues to do so with great success, but not enough to do much of anything else, including the purchase and distribution of the clothing, supplies, and gifts.

Earlier this week our Grand Master directed me to step into the East and serve as Master of this Lodge in an effort to rebuild it so that it can continue its vital mission of service.

Obviously, in order to attempt this, I am going to need a good deal of assistance. I will have the three Master Masons needed to open Lodge, but not much more, at least until things get rolling again.

I have called a Special Meeting of the Lodge for:

Saturday, June 17

Noon

Centralia Masonic Temple

218 N. Pearl Street, Centralia, WA

If you live near enough to attend, and if you have the Saturday free, I ask that you consider attending. We’ll share lunch and a beer. This will be a planning meeting. An opportunity for those who want to see this tiny little Lodge with its massive mission survive to come together and create a plan for how the Lodge should function, and what it needs to do in order to be able to thrive in the future as it did in the past.

The good news is that this Lodge does not have a financial challenge. It’s finances are strong, strong enough to be able to continue forever. Nor does it have a problem raising the needed funds for its vital charitable endeavors.

The only problem it faces is manpower. It no longer has enough members to sustain itself, nor has it been able to attract non-members to assist in the purchasing and distribution of school clothes, supplies, and Christmas gifts. (It has traditionally relied upon the assistance of non-Masons to help with at least some of this work.)

Coming out of the pandemic, it did appear that the Lodge was starting to show signs of a brighter future and was attracting a good amount of local interest, but some poor practices and decisions from the East snuffed out that excitement before the spark had a chance to light a fire. I am hopeful that we can make a much better start this time, and I’m committed to doing all that I can do to see that happens.

Plus I’ll get to wear my extra cool hat once again!

Sorry for the digression into something so hyper local, but I’m excited to face the challenge the Grand Master has placed in front of me, so I couldn’t resist mentioning it here, and asking for the consideration of my local Brothers.