I have been a mason for almost 10 years and a master of my lodge for 5. I have learned my faults and strengths in this time and it is about time I share some tips and news about my masonic life.
Tonight I will be attending a Lodge of Instruction in the EA and FC degrees. We will be concentrating on portraying the degree work in the accepted form based upon the ritual code in its fully typed version. While I believe the best way to learn the ritual is to spend time with a knowledgeable brother, we have also found that as someone learns the ritual incorrectly, they will pass along that same knowledge to the next person. As you can imagine, thinking of that game called telephone, the ritual changes over the years. With the typed out version written in full English, we can learn the Ohio version ritual as it was recorded back in the 1950s. Hopefully, we can then share our knowledge of the correct ritual to our younger members and continue the tradition as it was meant to be shared.
I am also the secretary of one lodge and plan to share news and tips for other new secretaries in Ohio lodges. My first hint will be to make sure that contact data for each of your members are correct in the MORI system. There is a new tool called the “Lodge Communicator” that relies upon the email addresses for your members to be correctly entered into the system. It really makes getting news out to your members very easy to those that check their email.