Herman Lawrence AMD

Tonight was the AMD meeting for the Council I belong to and many years back presided over. We had a good meeting and covered many topics. We also covered many of the upcoming York Rite events. From our Council, we have a good representation from each of the Masonic bodies. Afterwards we had some great food and fellowship.

Preble SEM

Normally I don't like to do this but tonight I really had no choice as I had two activities the same night during the week which were about an hour apart in distance from each other. I have helped out this council for many years with the part of Nebuchadnezzar for their SEM degree and this year was no difference. While they indicated they might have someone set up to start to learn the part, it really doesn't bother me going over here to do the part as during my DeMolay days I was in this temple at Eaton almost every week helping them out with something. I also encourage the fact that it is obvious that this group really wants to do a good job and appreciates everyone who comes to help them out.

Shrine Circus Wrap Meeting

Tonight was the Antioch Circus wrap meeting and I was very anxious to see the results as part of our Chapter fund raiser is to assist with the parking and is where we make our money. We have done very well on this in the past and this year came up with a new formula which would allow us to keep the job but reduce the percentage amount we would receive. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the amount but even happier when I saw the net profit for the Shrine increased again for the circus overall. Just three years back when I was Potentate in 2012, we did some significant changes to the administrative portion of the circus as the amount of profit we received almost didn't justify having the circus. I'm glad to say the changes made (and the few we continue to make) keep helping us every year to inch up on the profit and attendance standpoint and we are back to the point that the circus allows the Shrine to continue to stay in business as this is our only real major fund raiser.

Shrine Greeters Meeting

Tonight was the Shrine Greeters Unit meeting of which I am a member but haven't had much opportunity to attend lately. I decided to try to stay a little closer to home this week in case mom has any additional issues though as they released her today the only problem they could find was some dehydration. It ended up being ladies night but unfortunately Pam was not able to go with me. It was also good to see Tom Schoff who has been out of commission for some time and seemed to be doing fairly well.

Sometimes a Higher Power Changes Plans

Today I intended to attend Garfield's Chapter Inspection but late in the afternoon the technical team was able tell me that my work laptop had a major issue and they would need to "clean" all information off the system to make it useable again. Since I have years of information I need, I quickly looked to the backup to ensure it was working. To my surprise it didn't appear that it has been working (though it had indicated it had) as expected. While not happy, I decided I needed to head home from work to start working on getting a good work PC backup before the reimage. On the way home I decided that I would just go to the Past Potentate's (Cabiri) Meeting and then start on the backup. When I got home I received somewhat good news that they may have a newer PC at work in which I could get and directly transfer from the old PC any data. Once I got home from that Cabiri meeting, I started doing a couple things around the house that had to get done last night and got a call from my sister that they had to rush my mother into the hospital. Needless to say I immediately headed to the hospital and have been there the rest of the evening. Had it not been for the work situation changing my plans at the last minute, I would have been 2+ hours away from here. FYI... they are keeping mom overnight for observations but to this point have found nothing serious other than they still can't determine why she is passing out unexpectedly.

3rd District All Degree Day

At the beginning of the year I decided to have a new District Officer...a Membership Chairman. During the Grand Master's Class it became apparent to me that if Grand Chapter or Grand Lodge ever had a program in the future in which needed to be administered, such a position would make it much easier as the DEO and DDGHP already have lots on their plates to do. One of the tasks that I charged the Membership Chairman with was to hold and promote an All Degree Day close to the end of the year to bring in new members "cleanup" all outstanding candidates in the District. Well this worked great. We ended up with 12 out of the 16 Chapter participating and 13 persons Exalted to the degree of Royal Arch Mason (11 who received all 4 degrees). What is even better is that 6 more had planned to come to get the Royal Arch only and had to work so the group in attendance today got together and planned a separate day portray the Royal Arch Degree prior to the end of the year Capitular year to get them done. In addition, at least 6 other persons signed up to join the Chapter but doing the traditional way as a result of the promotion. So as a result right at 25 persons will probably become Royal Arch Masons mainly due to this promotion. We also had around 60 members from the Distinct show up to help out with the degree work and be part of the sidelines. If you couldn't tell I'm one very happy person ...and I want to congratulate EC Jim Potts our District Membership Chairman on a great day along with all who made this activity such a success.

10th District Grand High Priest Reception

Tonight was the Grand High Priest Reception and Awards Night for the 10th District in Mansfield. MEC Robert Crabbs and MEC Jim Himmelright were both present. Grand Marshal Ryan Adams and Grand King Robert Blankenhorn were also present in addition to our Grand High Priest Keith O'Dell and his wife Cindy. It was at the Skyway Restaurant and I will have to admit the food was great along with a very good turnout. (But it is hard to go wrong with Prime Rib and Shrimp)  I really like something which this District does which is to find local products and give them as their gift.

 

Minerva Lodge Stated

Tonight was a stated meeting for my lodge and nice to just be able to sit on the sidelines as a Past Master. We had around 25 present and around 7-8 visitors. We heard an outstanding EA work returned. Unfortunately I was unable to make a dinner they had at a local restaurant prior to the meeting. I think this was the first meeting I haven't either seen a candidate having work conferred or a petition being read. 

Miami Valley York Rite College

Tonight was the annual meeting for our York Rite College in Lebanon. Since most of our members have more titles than times they have said no when asked to serve, I'll just mention our Grand Illustrious Master and Grand Commander were both present. I was lucky enough to move up one station and am now the Preceptor. It was nice to have a meeting at a closer location tonight as it was a very busy day at work.

Finally met up

For several days, the 14th DDGHP and I have been trying to meet up to transfer some Grand Chapter material and finally today we were able to meet up around Reynoldsburg to do the transfer. We also discussed some difficulties some of the Chapters are having and discussed ideas to potentially help them out as much as we can help them. REC Mark Bruns is an active Mason who we in the Grand Chapter are lucky to have as a DDGHP as he really wants to make a difference.

Busy Day in 6th Capitular District

Today was definitely a busy day in the 6th District. They held their Grand King's Program, District Meeting and Grand High Priest Dinner. Luckily all were in New Carlisle. Grand King Robert Blankenhorn presented his program for the first time today. Past Grand High Priest Garis Pugh filled in for the DDGHP who had a family emergency and Past Grand High Priest Bill Berry was also present. Our Grand High Priest Keith O'Dell and Cindy were present for the reception. While it was a long day in flowed well and covered all the topics adequately for the various activities. 

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Grand Chapter Business

Sometimes the less glamorous part of being an officer is the administrative jobs which you need to fulfill in conjunction with the office you hold, yesterday and today are such days. I've got some Inspection reports I reviewed and paperwork I need to distribute out to the District Deputy Grand High Priest in person (luckily he lives somewhat near Columbus and I'm working there so the travel commute for us to meet won't be too bad). I will admit, though, with the weather getting warmer and the days a little longer on sunlight, it is really making me happy the many Masonic cancellations over the winter due to weather are now at least for a while a thing of the past.

3rd Capitular District School

Well back in the swing of Masonic events and while some of the upcoming activities in the next couple of days are more administrative in nature, it does feel good to be back engaged in activities. Seemingly forever the High Priest, King and Scribe School has been held on the first Saturday in August and Kings dinner has been in April. This year we did a flop of events and held the High Priest, King and Scribe School tonight and the Kings Dinner will be in the evening with the ladies on the first Saturday in August. The first part of the change definitely proved to be a hit tonight as more than half of the potential incoming High Priest for next year were present and almost every Chapter was represented at Rabboni Chapter who was the host for the evening. We had a nice program and kept it moving. I think presenting the information we did tonight is much more useful to the incoming officers than waiting until August. We also had a total attendance around 3 times the number from last year at this event. 

Grand Commander's Visit - Valley Commandery

Tonight was the Grand Commander's visit to my Commandery so I decided this was the place I should be tonight. We had a fairly decent turnout with several Past Commandery and many dignitaries. Since REGC Tom Gault is from Middletown, almost every in our Commandery is very familiar with Tom. He gave a nice speech following our stated meeting and covered dish dinner with the ladies. It will be about another week before I have my next entry since I'm doing something I haven't done in many years, taking off for a few days to Florida for a NON-MASONIC trip to watch my daughter compete in the college cheerleading championships. I rarely have any vacation days spent on anything other than Masonic activities. I will have to say though that in order to get off, I probably will still have to work at least half the time for work but working from Florida should be much nicer.