There Are No Designs on the Trestle Board!
The title of this post is a phrase we all have heard before. This announcement made by one causes others to join in, confusion occurs, and those involved wander around as if lost in a foreign...
5 Rules for Attending a Lodge Inspection
Let’s be honest. If you have been in the Fraternity any length of time, you like I have probably attended a lot of lodge inspections. So when inspection season rolls around, you may...
Will We Be Better Leaders in 2020?
With just a day before the end of the year I’m sure there are a great number of people who are busy making their New Year’s resolutions. I would suppose that a lot of lists contain the normal...
What If You Went To Church & The Minister Didn’t Talk About God?
A young minister began preparing his first sermon. It was Monday, and he was full of confidence that he would be able to craft a message that would impress the congregation. It was his first...
Can You Hear Me Now? – How to Make Your Lodge Communications Effective
You have just spent the better part of a week soliciting (begging for) articles for the lodge newsletter, editing the articles, formatting, printing, addressing and mailing. The next day you...
Does Your Lodge Have a Vision for a “Moon Shot?”
On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced before a special joint session of Congress the dramatic and ambitious goal of sending an American safely to the Moon before the end of the...
How’s Your Planning Going?
Several weeks ago, I presented a timeline for planning your next Masonic year. I’m just checking in to see if you have started. If you missed the article or need to refresh your memory here it is. I...
I Can’t, I Just Don’t Have the Time
It’s Monday, my lodge meets tonight, I should go… I can’t, I just don’t have the time I wonder how the're doing, if my old buddy Gene still comes, I should call somebody… I can’t, I just don’t have...
Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe, Please Show Me the Way To Go
Can you imagine jumping in your car and starting a family vacation trip and not know where you are going? With gas prices now close to $3 a gallon the trip will get expensive, real quick....
I dreamed I attended my Masonic Funeral – It wasn’t a dream, it was a Nightmare!
I woke up in a cold sweat. I had been dreaming, and while I don’t normally remember the details of my dreams, this time, the details were quite vivid. I had died, and my beloved Masonic Brothers had...
Your Lodge’s Worst Leadership Enemy
You. Effective leaders do these things – Assess themselves and determine what they are good at and not good at Determine what about themselves to improve and what leadership areas to rely on...
If I were the Sr. Warden of my Ohio Lodge, here is what I would be doing right now.
With annual Lodge Inspections in Ohio over and the majority of Lodges anticipating “going dark” for July and August, sometimes there is a tendency to sit back and relax a bit. I’ve heard many times...
You Should Re-Consecrate Your Lodge Now
The word consecrate means to: make or declare sacred; set apart make something an object of honor or veneration devote or dedicate to some purpose If your lodge is struggling, the Brothers...
Would You Pay 4% of Your Annual Income to Join Masonry?
Recently I was researching a topic and ran across the history of Blendon Lodge, Westerville, Ohio. I was reading through the history and discovered they were granted a dispensation in February 1862,...
How to be a (NON) Grumpy Old Past Master & Why Everyone Else Should Listen to You
I’ll try not to rant about this, but I am tired, absolutely tired of hearing lodge officers talk about wanting the Past Masters to “get out of the way” and let the current officers lead. Why does...