Using Technology to help with my duties as District Deputy

During the orientation of the new District Deputies and Associate Grand Marshals on Saturday, we were supplied with a CD containing a digital copy of all required manuals, documentation, rules, regulations and protocols required for District Deputies to have possession of and be familiar with. In past years, this was supplied in paper form and was sizable. I'm extremely excited to see the Grand Lodge move in this direction for two reasons; it saves the Grand Lodge money and I can transfer the documents to handheld devices and not carry them around in massive paper form.

Today, I transferred all the documents to my iPad. Now instead of carrying around several books and storing them in the back of my car, I have my single digital device, which I carry everywhere. Woot!

My First Week as District Deputy

On Monday, April 4th, I was installed as Right Worshipful District Deputy of Masonic District 4A in Connecticut, along with my Associate Grand Marshal, Wayne G. Bailey. Attending Grand Lodge came on the heals of a last minute business trip to Montreal for three days. Grand Lodge was a lot of fun and before the banquet on Sunday, I was given the opportunity to give a technology talk to an audience comprised of most of the several Worshipful Masters, Grand Lodge officers, the outgoing Grand Master and the incoming Grand Master. The presentation went very well!

On Tuesday, I attended my mother lodge where I currently sit as Tyler and on Wednesday, I performed my first visitation as District Deputy at Cosmopolitan Lodge No. 125 in New Haven. Cosmopolitan Lodge is one of the lodges that I formerly visited as Associate Grand Marshal, while accompanying Right Worshipful Brother Ted Doolittle. They are a bunch of great guys and I look forward to frequenting their meetings in the future.

Thursday was a night off, which I spent with my wife (an important part of my schedule that I can't forget about). On Friday, Illa and I (along with a brother from the Valley of New Haven) went to Lexington, Ma to attend the Scottish Right Leadership Conference. We got to meet up with brothers we haven't seen in a while, attend some great talks/workshops and had a wonderful time.

After rushing back from Massachusetts Saturday afternoon, Illa and I attended the Grand Masters dinner and orientation. We got to meet some great brothers and their ladies from around the state. At this event, we were informed of the new programs that the Grand Master, James T. McWain, is instituting. I'm looking forward to helping him implement his programs in my district and assisting the brothers of my district with keeping our fraternity the great brotherhood it is.

Overall, the past week has been very busy and this coming week will be likewise busy with a business trip to Boston, an awards night and a social event at my local lodge. Although busy, it's also extremely exciting and continues to fuel the fire in my soul for our great fraternity. Masonry is about establishing personal connections and meeting new people. This is why I love being a Freemason.

The Bridge Builder

The Bridge Builder is a poem written by Will Allen Dromgoole around the turn of the 20th Century. This poem is used by many fraternal societies to teach the importance of building for future generations. In fact, this poem was extensively used by my college fraternity and I have heard it used during additional lectures of masonic ritual.

Please take a moment to read this humble poem and reflect. What bridges have you built in your life?

The Bridge Builder

"An old man, going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim, near,
"You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again will pass this way;
You've crossed the chasm, deep and wide-
Why build you this bridge at the evening tide?"

The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today,
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him."

An Amazing Lodge Newsletter - The Rural Lodge Newsletter

Recently, I came across the Rural Lodge Newsletter via a Facebook Masonic Group. Rural Lodge is a Masonic Lodge in Quincy, Massachusetts and their webmaster/ambassador RWB Graeme Marsden produces a weekly newsletter. This newsletter is available digitally and is typically twenty pages or more long. Currently, more than 4000 people internationally subscribe to this lodge newsletter!

Check it out here.

So, how does a single lodge newsletter get a subscription list so large? Here are several of the items that make it unique.

• It's very frequent. This newsletter is weekly and if you're on the mailing list, you'll receive an email notifying you that a new edition is out. This makes it very current and very relevant.
  
• It's packed with content. In addition to listing the activities of Rural Lodge it has a calendar that encompasses all of their district with dates going five months forward. After the calendar, it's has stories and pictures from the happenings around their district. It also has several pages of stories from all around the Masonic world, making it interesting to more than just MA Masons.
  
• It's in a universally readable format. Unlike many digital newsletter that created in a digital format that is windows/mac/linux-specific. This newsletter is in the PDF format that is viewable by all systems, allows for the compression of images and isn't a potential digital security threat (like viruses in an MS Word Doc).
  
• It's bright, colorful and fun. It's not dry and boring. It shows that Masonry is alive and well. People are doing things in their lodges and enjoying themselves.
  
• It's digital only. RWB Graeme doesn't have to worry about costs or postage or stuffing envelopes. He posts it to the web and emails his list a web address. That's it. Cheap, fast and easy to distribute.
  

I am absolutely amazed that RWB Graeme can put out such a great publication ever week. I enjoy reading the articles within and seeing the different kinds of events going on with my brothers to the north. This is a great example of a brother who has adopted the technology of the information age and is using it for the betterment of Masonry.

For a free subscription, contact Graeme Marsden (graeme0marsden@gmail.com). Include your name, title (RW, Wor, Bro), Blue Lodge (city and state) and your email.

Are you a traveling man?

One of the most important rights and privileges of a Master Mason is his freedom to travel. In ancient times, this privilege permitted Master Masons to work and travel in foreign lands, unlike other craftsmen. This special privilege was afforded to our craft, because their labor was required in different locations depending on which cathedral was being built at the time. As Operative Masonry gave way to Speculative Masonry, this ancient right was retained and a Master Mason was allowed to freely travel from one lodge to another, even though he is not a member of that specific lodge.

In the modern day, "traveling" is the primary method by which a Masons expands his Masonic horizons, gains increased knowledge of our craft and meets new brothers. By visiting another lodge, a Mason gets to see variations in the work and gains insight into the different ways Masonic Lodges handle their internal business. This valuable experience will make the man traveling a better Mason and in return will make his lodge better by virtue of his experience.

For the past four years, I have had the privilege to serve as a Grand Lodge Officer, first as District Grand Lecturer and then as Associate Grand Marshal. During this time, I visited dozens of lodges in my jurisdiction. Each lodge had its own particularities, which I found fascinating. Here are some of the differences that you will find between lodges:

• Differences in the "Work" (floorwork, additional lectures, different officers doing different parts, etc.)
  
• How budgets are executed (Voting on standard items once annually, Masters discretionary funds).
  
• How minutes are circulated (posted, emailed, read out loud, etc.)
  
• Different lodge dress (Tuxes, business suits, come-as-you-are, Tails, Colonial Dress, Variant Aprons, etc.)
  
• Different Programs
  
• How candidates and new brothers are mentored
  
• Lodge bylaws
  
• How fellowcraft clubs, board of managers, temple building associations, etc. are handled
  
• Much, much, more
  

Many of the superior differences in operations that I experienced in other lodges, I brought back to my mother lodge and helped to implement. Many of the programs that I implemented during my two years as Worshipful Master were taken from the best practices of other lodges. The majority of the improvements implemented at the local lodge level are the product of imitation after a brother has traveled to other lodges. "Traveling" is one of the primary methods by which we "improve ourselves in Masonry." Without it, your lodge and Masonry will grow stale. Unfortunately, I have met many brothers who have not traveled. Their only Masonic experience is their own lodge and their small circle of brothers. There are many brothers who sit as Worshipful Master, who have never even visited another lodge. It is important to encourage your brothers, from the youngest Entered Apprentice to the oldest Past Master, to travel. Here are some methods to get out there and to be a true traveling man:

• Attend Blue Lodge Council or District Wide Meetings and meet other brothers/officers in your area.
  
• Ask your lodge secretary for copies of local trestleboards to find out when other lodges are holding events and degrees.
  
• Many lodges have websites and Facebook pages, check these out for information.
  
• Meet brothers from your area at Appendent Body Meetings, such as the Shrine, the Scottish Rite, the York Rite, etc.
  
• If you're in the "line" of your lodge, personally contact brothers in other lodges that fill the same position and set up a time to meet them. These brothers will be your peers when you are in the East and are an invaluable resource.
  
• Attend the meetings of your Grand Lodge, especially the night before. Grand Lodge events are filled with meet-and-greets and hospitality rooms, which are fantastic opportunities to meet other brothers.
  

Finally, "Traveling" is just plain fun! Brothers love to meet someone new and welcome them as a guest. So, get out there, travel some and have some fun. You'll be surprised at the adventures you will have and the friends that you will make!

Masonic Resource: The Website of the Masonic Renewal Committee of the Conference of Grand Masters of North America

Keeping with the theme started in the post Masonic Education Program Basics, I will showcase another great resource for Masters and Officers to use in their respective lodges, the Website of the Masonic Renewal Committee of the Conference of Grand Masters of North America.

According to their website, the purpose of the Masonic Renewal Committee (MRC) is:

"to provide continuity for Masonic Renewal efforts by Grand Lodges of North America and bring about the renewal of Freemasonry as an active, viable and relevant institution for the 21st Century."

In accordance with this charge, the MRC developed this website to help share information between the Grand Lodges of Canada, the United States and Mexico. This website is a virtual treasure trove of information relative to Masonic Renewal and acts a clearinghouse for documents from the member Grand Lodges of the CoGMoNA. The raw documents (policies, procedures, guides, slideshows, etc.) from the member Grand Lodges are available in their original form for visitors to download and use as they see fit.

The website is divided into the following sections:

• Lodge Programs
• Membership
• Mentoring
• Leadership
• Community
• Retention
• Promotional
• Communication
• Training
• Secretarial
• Renewal

Each section contains dozens of documents, from a multitude of Grand Jurisdictions, relative to the topic. In addition, the website hosts documents written by the MRC with the collaboration of many Grand Jurisdictions. Of particular interest to incoming Worshipful Masters is the section dedicated to Lodge Programs. This section contains documents focusing on developing interesting programs to use during a stated communication. Here are a few of the more interesting examples that I found:

• Charter Night Program
• Hobby Night Program
• Honor our Veterans Program
• Masonic Hero's Night
• Re-Obligation Night

This is just a short sampling of the great documents that this website holds. Check it out, explore it and use this invaluable resource for the benefit of your lodge!

A special thanks to the Grand Junior Warden of the Grand Lodge of Connecticut, Simon LaPlace, for recommending this website to be reviewed on Masonic Renaissance. RWB Simon is a shining example of a forward-thinking Grand Lodge officer, who strives to keep Masonry relevant through the use of new technology. Thank you Simon for your efforts and your continued support!

As the Grand Master rises in the Grand East, so rises his Son in the East

Tonight, Most Worshipful Brother Charles A. Buck, Jr, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Connecticut, presided as Installing Master at Ansantawae Lodge No 89 in Milford, Ct.

MW Brother Buck had the privilege to install Worshipful Brother Christopher J. Buck as Worshipful Master of Ansantawae Lodge. In addition to being brothers of the same Mother Lodge, the Brothers Buck are also father and son. It is a rare occasion and perhaps a singular circumstance to have a sitting Grand Master install his son to the oriental chair.

In addition, Worshipful Brother Charles A. Buck, Sr., Chris' Grandfather and Charlie's father served as Worshipful Master of Ansantawae Lodge in 1968. The cuff-links and Tux studs worn by Worshipful Master Chris this evening were also worn by his Grandfather in 1968 and his father in 1985 when he was installed as WM of Ansantawae Lodge and in 2010 when he was installed as Most Worshipful Grand Master.

After the installation, the guests were treated to a fantastic dinner and to this wonderful cake made by the wife of Ansantawae's Senior Deacon, John Hanson.



Congratulations to Worshipful Master Chris and to his suite of officers for 2011!

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Location:Milford Masonic Temple