Youngstown Chapter #93 150 Anniversary

Today in Canfield Ohio the Grand Chapter officers performed a rededication ceremony for the chapter. Several were present for the activity. Some Grand Officers were diverted on the way up due to a stormhistory of the Chapter was read after the ceremony and they had cake downstairs before everyone left.

closing roads. A nice

4 Degree Day in Middletown

Though today was miserable outside, the Middletown temple was nice and dry as all 4 Chapter degrees were performed. Our District Membership Chairman, EC Jim Potts, sets up everything (with some help) for this event each year. We had a nice attendance and brought in some new members on the day. It was very nasty outside with heavy storms which I think might have kept a few from attending.

10th District GHP Reception

Tonight was the GHP Reception in the 10th District for MEC Jeff Addis. Also in attendance were MEC Blankenhorn, REC Keith Green - Grand King and REC Ryan Adams - Grand Master 2nd Veil. I always enjoy this one as the restuarant is very good (Skyway East Mansfield). The District awards were handed out and MEC Addis made some comments and they presented him with some gifts.

Miami Valley York Rite College

Tonight was our York Rite College annual meeting and Installation of officers. As everyone in the College holds some type of title, I'll just mention that MWB Norm Mick was our outgoing Governor. I was honored to be added to the platform officers as Chancellor. REC John Watkins was installed as our new Governor. We only meet 3 times a year but due to a recently approved bylaw change it will be easier to remember meeting dates as all 3 are now on 4th Thursday with the first being for election and installation, second for practice and reading of petitions and the third for degree work.

Greeters Meeting

Tonight I had planned to head out of town for an activity but the time got away from me with some things I was doing since it was so nice out, that I ended up going to the Greeters meeting this evening.It was a nice surprise to be able to make the meeting but it was a fairly short meeting since our President Bill Garlow was stuck in Florida. The PResident from last year filled in and we talked about some of the upcoming events before hearing from the Potentate and then heading home.

6th District Chapter Activities

Today in Bellfontaine the 6th Capitular District held the King;s program presentation, a district meeting and the GHP Reception. REC Keith Green started out by presenting and discussing his program for next year. Afterwards, the business for the 6th District was conducted. They finished off the day with dinner and the Grand High Priest reception for MEC Jeff Addis was held. MEC Garis Pugh and MEC Bill Berry were both present in addition to REC Bob Neilsen who is the recommendation of the Grand Chapter to start in the Grand Line next year.

ROJ Play

Today at the Shrine we held the Book of the Play for the Jesters. We had several new persons, each who put their own spin on their parts. We brought in several new members and everyone got some laughs at sometime during the activities of the day. Afterwards, we had a nice lunch and then everyone headed home. Unfortunately it was a little later than I had expected so instead of heading south for a Chapter Inspection, I headed home and took Pam out for the evening.

Play Practice

Tonight we had practice for a play which we are putting on Saturday morning for the Jesters. We have several new members of the cast this year and many are in bigger parts. The good part is that I have been doing my part for some time and I think I have it down fairly well. I guess I will see for sure on Saturday morning.

Ormus Grotto Stated Meeting

Tonight was our monthly stated meeting and the DD Tom Schliep was in attendance. Our new Monarch went through the opening along with the Past Monarch's. We also went through several questions and continued to do some future planning. We also discussed the State and Supreme Meetings which will both be held in the Toledo Ohio area. The meeting stayed right on track and we were ready to leave before 9 PM.

Valley Commandery Stated

Tonight was the meeting for my Commandery and since we had no degree work to be done we spent some time discussing the future of the Commandery. Since we are down to 85 members with the costs to Grand Encampment and Grand Commandery along with the temple rent, it is making it such that we either raise dues or consider merging. Presenally, I really don't want to merge since will still have some progressing officers but to be truthful the Grand Encampment dues are killing us. We also usually have around 15-20 present at every meeting. The problem with raising dues is that as a member I'm already paying more in this group than almost every other one I belong. I can't imagine that most Commanderies are not in the same position. 

Adoniram Chapter and London Council Stated Meetings

Tonight I headed up to London Ohio to attend their stated Chapter and Council meetings. Unfortunately, they fell one short but we did stay around for about 45 minutes fellowshiping. This is often one of the best ways to get to know the Companions and for them to be very open about issues in their Chapters.

Busy With Couple Non-Masonic Items

While I normally try to keep this Masonic related, when I have something major occur I like to share it with others. Monday we closed on a house in Knoxville which we are going to rent to our daughter and her fiance. Hopefully this will help to make it easier on them for costs and us for when we visit. I also went today for training to Volunteer at Ohio Hospice of Dayton. I still have some health tests to finish but hope to start helping out there by May in addition to the USO at the Wright-Patterson Airforce Base where I am already volunteering.

Scottish Rite Dayton

Today and tomorrow are the Scottish Rite Degrees in Dayton in honor of Ill. and MWB Doug Kaylor. Doug was second in line when I was Thrice Potent Master in Dayton and we did lots of traveling together as Scottish Rite officers. I also saw some Brothers from the Valley of Columbus who I haven't seen in a while. The number of dignitaries is more than I have room to report but I tried to not only say hi to each of them but even more especially to say hi to the general members who if it weren't for them people like myself wouldn't have an opportunity to do what we do. Besides most of the time their stories are more interesting as for most dignitaries the story for each of us is similar in what we are doing. I really enjoy not having to do anything once in a while and just having an opportunity to enjoy the day without having any commitments to worry about in the upcoming degrees.

Antioch Shrine

Tonight we went to the Shrine for a Fish Fry and to help them out on decorating for the children's Easter egg hunt.Not only did we have a good turnout on the Fish Fry, we also had a large number of aides come up to help decorate which allowed the process to go very quickly. Now we can head home so we can finish getting ready to head down to Knoxville first thing in the morning to help watch our daughters dogs while she is out of town. 

York Chapter #155 Stated Meeting

Tonight I went to the stated meeting for York Chapter in Westerville. They had between 15-20 members present and really displayed what an active Chapter should be doing when they have only normal business. They went through their full opening and closing and did a very good job of both (I can say that as DDGHP Dave Percival was present and he said it!) They covered all necessary business and discussed some out-of-the-box thinking ideas and then the HP did a very good education program which I think got the members to think about what it means to be a Mason. We then went downstairs and had some good refreshments. Not once did I feel that they rushed or shortcut anything ... just to get downstairs for refreshments or to leave. I was one of the last to leave and was on the road by 9 PM. They were all very friendly and everyone spent time with several other members.

3rd District Chapter School

Well tonight was originally to be our school but do to a smaller than expected turnout by mainly the leaders of the District, we decided to change the focus of the evening and talk about things we could do to improve the District. It was nice as we got the perspective of long time members as well as newer members. We talked about what can be done to improve Inspection attendance and what to do to help struggling Chapters. Some of the ideas were old ideas with a new twist and then others were "real out of the box" ideas for our District. On of the thing we are going to try is to take some of the leaders of the District and for 6 months transplant them into a struggling Chapter so they can be there as the struggling Chapter is trying to make themselves better. We came up with a new idea for an award to be an incentive to travel to another Inspection. We also determined a new tactic we are going to do to improve communications. We came up with some additional ideas for events in the District to serve as a reason for people to join or belong to Chapter. We also talked about a program we are implementing in the near future to have teams to travel to Lodges with programs to improve membership growth. The bottom line is we didn't just talk about making these things happen but started the process to make them happen.

Trinity Chapter #44 Stated

Tonight was my Chapter's stated meeting and while we had no degree work we spent some time planning several upcoming events. We also heard about the Grand Chapter of North Carolina which REC John Watkins from our Chapter attended. The best part was although we spent some time discussing things we also spent some time joking around during the meeting and had almost everyone laughing at some of the stories being told. After the meeting, we had refreshments and spent some more time swapping stories.

Hi 12 Meeting

Today at noon I went to my Hi 12 Club Meeting in Dayton. As always we ate first and then had an interesting historical speaker. While she research on information from folks buried at Woodlands Cemetary (one of the most famous for the well known and powerful from Dayton) along with many unique and ornate burial markers and statues. The Wright Brothers are buried here, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Charles Kettering (was great friends and often collaborated with Thomas Edison) just to name a few. This talk today, however, focused on the numerous owners of breweries from 1810 to 1920 who are buried at the Cemetery. It was amazing that there were probably 40 different breweries during this timeframe in Dayton. (Maybe the microbrewery growth of which Dayton is a national leader is not so surprising.)

Valley Commandery - Order of Malta

Tonight we put on the full form Order of Malta on a new candidate. I went down to help as we had a couple of folks not able to be there and one did a part which I used to do around 15-20 years ago. I came down prepared but apparently they had a second person show up who had done the part more recently than I had so I told him to go ahead and do the part. But I didn't get to sit on the sidelines as they needed me for the table in the West. While there were a few hiccups we got the job done all with members of our Commandery. I was also happy that we had around 18 show up from our Commandery to help tonight perform the Order.

Shrine Jester's Meet the Candidate

This morning I attended a meeting to meet and greet our new members for this year. It was also a good time to see some Masonic friends I hadn't seen in a while. We had a nice time with a good meal and everyone was able to be on their way at a reasonable time.