I just love going to anti mason sites to get the newest wacko theory, like how global warming is "Brother" Gore's plan for continued Freemason domination (is he even a Mason?). As much as I don't want to give credence to their existence, I still love to check them out once in a while for pure fun. For me, they are like the Weekly World News, as dumb as "Bat Boy Found" was as a headline the W.W.W. always had a great picture and some other crazy sub story that kept my minds attention for more than I care to admit at the grocery store check out aisle, its much the same at the anti sites. But I do not want to write about my favorite kooks, I have a much more important and pressing matter that I want to address.
The Minutes........ or as they become for some of the brothers, nap time.
After the debacle of the fumbling Fellowcraft my lodge is getting back to business. Unless there is a petition to be voted on, we will be having our stated communication and a regular business meeting. How boring. If there is one thing that I could change about my lodge it is our regular business meetings. I know that an organization needs to have records and pay bills but is there any way to do it better?
First of all I would like to somehow get rid of reading the minutes of the last meeting. If there is one time that I look around the lodge and see the brethren daydreaming or even worse really dreaming it is during the reading of the minutes. I think we really have a solution to interrogating terrorists properly, sit them through the reading of the minutes and if they are still awake at the end they will give us all the information we want! But I digress, I have read and daydreamed about a traditional observance lodge or a European style lodge as we call it here in America and I believe that they do not read minutes. Is this true? How do brothers at those lodges catch up on their sleep? ha ha. I would really like to hear about ideas on how to record the lodge proceedings and check that the Secretary is not making stuff up without going about boring the whole lodge.
Secondly I would welcome any ideas to breeze past the bill paying and voting on them, that only take a few minutes. I know the bills have to be voted on and paid but there has to be a better way.
Maybe if we streamlined the business aspect and turned to more interesting use of our two times a month to get together, we would see more brethren on the sidelines. I don't know if this is the case at your lodge but it certainly is the case at mine.
And they think that we run the world during our meetings!
6 comments:
In many lodges in the UK, the minutes are circulated amongst the brethren via e-mail or snail-mail 2 weeks before the meeting. If they have anything to add, or want changed, they contact the Secretary.
At the meeting the Secretary will say 'The minutes have been circulated, and I've heard nothing to the contrary - are you, WM, happy to take the minutes as read?'
WM will agree, then will put it to the vote. Always passes, always fine.
And saves 10 minutes of boredom.
In addition, you could put a dozen copies of the minutes out an hour before the meeting, so when the guys come for coffee, the ones that don't get email can look them over.
In the past, we've tried to hit just the highlights of the previous meeting, and not enumerate every visitor, what the DD was wearing, etc.
Some lodges have an agreement that the regular bills that don't change (cable tv, phone, garage fee for the black helicopter) are just paid automatically - no vote needed. You vote on it at the beginning of the year, and renew that with each year to keep it legal.
Other bills, however, should be looked over - after all, you're spending the money that all your brothers put in.
Y.M.,
That would be a great idea if our Secretary used a computer and he would think snail mail is between gastropods!
Tom,
"Some lodges have an agreement that the regular bills that don't change (cable tv, phone, garage fee for the black helicopter)" I did'nt get that untill the second reading.
You guys have cable!
NEC
A few lodges have cable - we have basic, basic cable, but some have more amenities because they have nicer meeting halls where the guys will hang out.
Some of our bills are handled by the Temple Corp, so the lodge itself doesn't even have to vote - either cable or phone, oil, gas, water, etc.
The previous ideas aren't just for TO lodges. The officers of Adelphi Momauguin Lodge #63 are planning on implementing ways to expedite the boring parts of meetings next year. We're doing this in two ways. First, adopting a budget which is voted on at the beginning of year and covers all standard operating expenses. Therefore, if a bill needs to be paid, it's already been voted on. Second, we're going to "spread" the minutes prior to the meeting at the secretary's desk, so brothers can read them at their leisure and not have to have them read in lodge.
I'll let you know how this goes a couple of months into next year :)
Thanks Bro. Charles,
I cant wait to hear about it.
Bro. Tom,
I was just joking about the cable, we have one too, we just use it for the candidates. haha
NEC
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