Monday, March 12, 2007

The Month of November 2006

Brother Bill, WGP and I had the pleasure of being asked to install the Officers of seven subordinate chapters: Lachute #54, Lake St. Louis #45, Victory #34, Maple Leaf #2, Cowansville #17, Cookshire #46 and Friendship-Victoria #54. What a wonderful experience. The first three installations were held back to back – that was tough, but we managed and everything went off without a hitch. During the Installation at Cowansville Chapter, I ended up taking a really bad coughing fit and we had to stop for a few minutes. The Secretary, who is also our Associate Grand Matron, had some peppermint oil and she told me to put a couple of drops on my tongue. It worked great, but what an awful taste! After I recovered, the rest went very smooth.

On November 9th, I had a meeting with the Grand Secretary, Sister Anita Young, P.G.M., to choose the Grand Representatives. This year, I will have the pleasure to present 30 new Grand Representatives. Although choosing those to receive Grand Representative Commissions was arduous, it was also an incredibly rewarding task. It was indeed a privilege and a joy to make these decisions and will be a joy to present them. Every recipient is most deserving of this honour.

November 11th: I attended a Table Chapter in Stanbridge East, Quebec, hosted by Sister Robert Hall, P.G.M. and Brother Angus Strong, P.G.P., of which the proceeds are to benefit our Special Projects. What a wonderful time we had. Although Brother Bill, WGP has attended one in the past, this was my first Table Chapter and I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard. I was still aching all over the next day! Most of the people who attended had never participated in a Table Chapter. They were new to the ceremonies, new to the multi-course dinner and new to the “between-course” antics (Brother Bill and I seemed to be the targets for the “between-course” antics!!!). I thank Sister Bobby and Brother Angus and their hard working team for making this one of the most successful and profitable Table Chapters. The final total was $911.50, ½ of which will go to the Parkinson’s Society of Quebec and ½ to Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of Canada.

On November 30th I attended a Concordant Bodies meeting held at the Karnak Temple in Montreal. These meetings increase the communication between the different Masonic bodies and help us to understand the aims of each other. Many things are discussed at these meetings. One of the main problems discussed, which we are all suffering from, is the decline in membership. We need to work together with each of the Masonic bodies to find ways to help each other. A couple of outstanding issues were finalized at these meetings. The sign in front of the Masonic Temple is to be redone to include the logos of all the Masonic Bodies, along with the Grand Lodge’s and the Rough Ashler website addresses. A link to the Eastern Star is on the Rough Ashler website. Also, Grand Lodge is producing a pamphlet explaining what the Masons are. This pamphlet will also include descriptions of all the other Masonic Bodies. The new Potentate, John MacDonald, is putting together a handout to be given to all new Shriners, which will include petitions to all the other Bodies. Our ever-efficient Grand Secretary happened to have one of our petitions with her at the meeting and he gladly took this to include in the handout.

No comments: