I for one would like to know. How much time a week on AVG do you brothers dedicate to some form of freemasonry? Doing what? What makes you most happy about it? I know how much time i put in, just curious.
Carl H Claudy was a member of our AMD body. St. Andrews 1A Monroe NC. I love his short stories.
I'm with you, I love Claudy's writings. Indeed, I followed his instructions in The Master's Book very closely during my term as Worshipful Master, and it worked out great!
I'm sorry that no one chimed in with an answer to your question. I'm pleased to do so, but my example isn't typical, so likely unhelpful. I do something Masonic virtually every day of the year, even when I'm on vacation. Some days it might take me an hour, other days it might take me 8. When I was in the East my Masonic obligations very often started in the mid morning and didn't end until late at night.
MW Cameron, this quote describes my experience in the East very well. After my installation, I felt as though I was drifting through my year. Plans I had weren’t coming to fruition. Many Brothers / Past Masters were no longer attending and I felt disheartened. Then Covid came and I felt a certain level of relief that we weren’t meeting. When we couldn’t hold elections and I was relegated to a second year in the East I had many conversations with Brothers to gain guidance and quickly realized I needed to become more organized than I had been. There were still Trestle Boards that needed to be written and a Lodge to lead. After learning the magic of Zoom I was able to present several programs and was able to encourage many of the Brothers to do the same. When my second year came to an end, I felt I could lay my head down knowing I had done all I could do to keep my lodge alive and active.
Regret? Seeing all of my work I did get blown up within a year or two leaving the east. Deluding myself into thinking that the lodge was willing to make much needed changes to make the lodge experience better.
I loved my time in the east, and as far as I could tell, things were turning around. Attendance of meetings were up over the year before, and there was a lot of positive feedback from the new members that they liked what was happening.
But the old members (usually the same 2-3 men) fought me at every turn, and in the end, they "won".
The only real chance to save the fraternity will be when these old members die off and the younger crowd more open to embracing new ideas take charge. The race, therefore, is between that happening, and the entire fraternity goes down the tubes.
What is encouraging is that across the jurisdiction you can see a groundswell of movement as those younger members start to take over. Where it is not making headway are the old lodges that should have closed decades ago, but the members, usually all PMs, cling to the idea that they will some how turn things around. Yet, they don't do anything to do so. They don't go out in public. They don't do public events. They don't help the community. Some hold bitter grudges against old slights from other members or other lodges, and refuse to help each other, instead sit in their sinking boat with righteous indignation.
And as always, I've drifted out into left field with my reply to the original question.
I agree to the extent of wanting to do more….the question is “Did you make it better then how you found it l” despite not doing everything, but did you take what you saw as you traveled and altered even one issue you wanted to change?
Did you just “maintain the status quo”?
IMHO: my role as a PM can be you do get to be influential by implementing those changes and newer ones with support of the WM looking for suggestions.
Well, each of my 3 terms as Worshipful Master were a little different.
I was 24 when I was installed the first time, and I was really green, having less than three years as a Master Mason. What had transpired during the 1999 year exceeded my expectations, so I had no regrets upon handing the gavel over to WB Paul Tubman at the end of that year. But somehow, I knew that I would eventually preside in the East again. Most Worshipful Masters do not repeat, so it’s going to work differently for them.
My second term came quicker than I anticipated, being only 10 years later. This time, I had more experience, and therefore, more ideas. This time around, my term as Worshipful Master was to actually preside over the Lodge, rather than on-the-job training like the last time. It wound up being a strange year, with Lodge room damage at the start of the year and the subsequent meetings that had to work around the remodeling, my acceptance and appointment as the Deputy of the Grand Master, and the two items coming together as the Grand Master visited our Lodge when the remodel was completed. We covered many other items as well, including a triple move-up night and courtesy degrees. Again, when I handed the gavel over to WB Tim Lund, the year exceeded my expectations, and I was fairly certain I wouldn’t preside over a Lodge again. But no regrets at all. I was going to kick back and be a sideliner, and focus on the concordant bodies.
My third term started at an unexpected time, so I shot from the hip. This time, I was doing it as a sort of demonstration to the newer Brothers on how to preside over a Lodge. For topics, I thought of the things I didn’t know well about our Fraternity and Masonic family, and those became my educational topics for the meetings. In addition, I oversaw a Past Grand Master’s night.
At that point, I had no desire to do a fourth term. I had covered all the bases and then some. But I’ll admit this! With the lessons learned during the infamous shutdown, and the Hybrid meetings that my Centralia Lodge are now doing, I must admit I could theoretically see myself creating a program for a fourth term as a Worshipful Master, utilizing the new technology and the vast opportunities it opens up to our Lodge. So, in this day and age, Carl Claudy’s quote actually has another point of view, in that even if a Past Master had no regrets after the conclusion of his term, he might get regrets further in the future as society and technology evolves. But like others have mentioned here, I do have the time, as a Past Master, to assist those who are coming up through the line to the East, and it’s an honor to assist these new Worshipful Masters succeed with the new ideas and new opportunities. This is how you handle any regrets about things you might not have accomplished during your year in the East.
I for one would like to know. How much time a week on AVG do you brothers dedicate to some form of freemasonry? Doing what? What makes you most happy about it? I know how much time i put in, just curious.
Carl H Claudy was a member of our AMD body. St. Andrews 1A Monroe NC. I love his short stories.
I'm with you, I love Claudy's writings. Indeed, I followed his instructions in The Master's Book very closely during my term as Worshipful Master, and it worked out great!
I'm sorry that no one chimed in with an answer to your question. I'm pleased to do so, but my example isn't typical, so likely unhelpful. I do something Masonic virtually every day of the year, even when I'm on vacation. Some days it might take me an hour, other days it might take me 8. When I was in the East my Masonic obligations very often started in the mid morning and didn't end until late at night.
Same here, it's the love of labor and a labor of love.
MW Cameron, this quote describes my experience in the East very well. After my installation, I felt as though I was drifting through my year. Plans I had weren’t coming to fruition. Many Brothers / Past Masters were no longer attending and I felt disheartened. Then Covid came and I felt a certain level of relief that we weren’t meeting. When we couldn’t hold elections and I was relegated to a second year in the East I had many conversations with Brothers to gain guidance and quickly realized I needed to become more organized than I had been. There were still Trestle Boards that needed to be written and a Lodge to lead. After learning the magic of Zoom I was able to present several programs and was able to encourage many of the Brothers to do the same. When my second year came to an end, I felt I could lay my head down knowing I had done all I could do to keep my lodge alive and active.
Regret? Seeing all of my work I did get blown up within a year or two leaving the east. Deluding myself into thinking that the lodge was willing to make much needed changes to make the lodge experience better.
I loved my time in the east, and as far as I could tell, things were turning around. Attendance of meetings were up over the year before, and there was a lot of positive feedback from the new members that they liked what was happening.
But the old members (usually the same 2-3 men) fought me at every turn, and in the end, they "won".
The only real chance to save the fraternity will be when these old members die off and the younger crowd more open to embracing new ideas take charge. The race, therefore, is between that happening, and the entire fraternity goes down the tubes.
What is encouraging is that across the jurisdiction you can see a groundswell of movement as those younger members start to take over. Where it is not making headway are the old lodges that should have closed decades ago, but the members, usually all PMs, cling to the idea that they will some how turn things around. Yet, they don't do anything to do so. They don't go out in public. They don't do public events. They don't help the community. Some hold bitter grudges against old slights from other members or other lodges, and refuse to help each other, instead sit in their sinking boat with righteous indignation.
And as always, I've drifted out into left field with my reply to the original question.
I agree to the extent of wanting to do more….the question is “Did you make it better then how you found it l” despite not doing everything, but did you take what you saw as you traveled and altered even one issue you wanted to change?
Did you just “maintain the status quo”?
IMHO: my role as a PM can be you do get to be influential by implementing those changes and newer ones with support of the WM looking for suggestions.
Regrets?
Well, each of my 3 terms as Worshipful Master were a little different.
I was 24 when I was installed the first time, and I was really green, having less than three years as a Master Mason. What had transpired during the 1999 year exceeded my expectations, so I had no regrets upon handing the gavel over to WB Paul Tubman at the end of that year. But somehow, I knew that I would eventually preside in the East again. Most Worshipful Masters do not repeat, so it’s going to work differently for them.
My second term came quicker than I anticipated, being only 10 years later. This time, I had more experience, and therefore, more ideas. This time around, my term as Worshipful Master was to actually preside over the Lodge, rather than on-the-job training like the last time. It wound up being a strange year, with Lodge room damage at the start of the year and the subsequent meetings that had to work around the remodeling, my acceptance and appointment as the Deputy of the Grand Master, and the two items coming together as the Grand Master visited our Lodge when the remodel was completed. We covered many other items as well, including a triple move-up night and courtesy degrees. Again, when I handed the gavel over to WB Tim Lund, the year exceeded my expectations, and I was fairly certain I wouldn’t preside over a Lodge again. But no regrets at all. I was going to kick back and be a sideliner, and focus on the concordant bodies.
My third term started at an unexpected time, so I shot from the hip. This time, I was doing it as a sort of demonstration to the newer Brothers on how to preside over a Lodge. For topics, I thought of the things I didn’t know well about our Fraternity and Masonic family, and those became my educational topics for the meetings. In addition, I oversaw a Past Grand Master’s night.
At that point, I had no desire to do a fourth term. I had covered all the bases and then some. But I’ll admit this! With the lessons learned during the infamous shutdown, and the Hybrid meetings that my Centralia Lodge are now doing, I must admit I could theoretically see myself creating a program for a fourth term as a Worshipful Master, utilizing the new technology and the vast opportunities it opens up to our Lodge. So, in this day and age, Carl Claudy’s quote actually has another point of view, in that even if a Past Master had no regrets after the conclusion of his term, he might get regrets further in the future as society and technology evolves. But like others have mentioned here, I do have the time, as a Past Master, to assist those who are coming up through the line to the East, and it’s an honor to assist these new Worshipful Masters succeed with the new ideas and new opportunities. This is how you handle any regrets about things you might not have accomplished during your year in the East.