Greetings!
It has taken a few days to recover from our EA Inspection. The good news was three-fold.
- RWB Matt Pollock, DDGM, described our degree work as “great”, and reported that our paperwork was in order.
- RWB Steve Markley, District Advisor, praised us for overcoming the many challenges we have faced.
- WB Don Broadwater, DEO, noted that we have an excellent Education program, guided by an imaginative LEO.
Some of the challenges we anticipated. A new location, unfamiliar surroundings, and more things in storage containers than most Lodges own each presented unique challenges. The various virus cautions and restrictions have been inconvenient, but we learned how to operate within the guidelines. Other challenges were not anticipated. Our SW and JW had to work, and our SD was in the hospital. As one might expect, other Brothers stepped up to assist. The result was that our candidate was treated to an excellent degree experience. Not the way we would have drawn it up, but in this situation it was the result that counted most.
Courtesy of the Grand Secretary, we have received news that changes are coming to the annual dues process.
The past several years have seen a national trend toward using credit or debit cards more often for purchases. Due to the COVID-19 situation, this trend became even more pronounced with the desire for cash-less transactions. Lodges attempted to embrace that trend, as more and more members don’t carry cash or have checkbooks. Smaller Lodges, like ours, quickly learned that the processing fees to pay annual dues via a card would be a significant additional expense. Grand Lodge is stepping in to make the dues process both simpler and cheaper for everyone.
This year annual dues notices will be sent by Grand Lodge rather than the individual Lodge. These will be sent by the communication method marked as your preference in the Grandview system. For example, those who are marked for preferring email or text notifications will receive their dues notices that way. Those who have marked USPS mail as their preference will receive their notice by mail. All of these methods of notification will have the option of paying by credit or debit card. This obviously includes annual dues, but also includes contributions to the Ohio Masonic Home, donations to the Lodge, or any other listing customarily found on your dues notice.
The exact mechanism for directing payments to the appropriate Lodge is being fine-tuned. It is our guess that it may resemble the process used to provide per diem payments for attendance at the Grand Lodge Annual Communication. For our part, we are excited to be able to offer alternatives for taking care of your dues.
For those who do not yet have a Grandview account, it is easy to set up. Using the link to the left on our web site (http://larue463.blogspot.com/ ), click on Grand View System Access. On the next screen click on Member Registration. That will lead you to a screen which requests your Lodge number (as in La Rue 463), membership number (found on your plastic dues card), and last name. The site will verify your membership, then lead you through the rest of the registration process. FYI – You will be asked to provide a password to access your account in the future.
After registering with Grandview you will be able to make adjustments to your contact information and preferences, read Lodge notices and meeting minutes, and a host of other things.
We are excited about this new process, and hope you find it more convenient than what we’ve used in the past. As always, should you have any questions about this process, or anything else, give us a call or send us an email. If we don’t know the answer we’ll try to find it for you.
Before closing, we have some reminders.
Wednesday, May 19, we will be having pizza before our Stated Meeting. Pizza will be available at 6:30pm, with the meeting starting at 7:30pm. At this time we are anticipating a FC degree, depending on the progress of our candidate.
- Due to Ohio restrictions regarding the COVID-19 virus, the 2021 Masonic Home Day has been cancelled. They are hopeful the event can be reintroduced in 2022.
- The Grand Lodge of Ohio has been informed that the 2021 Special Olympics Ohio State Games have been cancelled for 2021.
As additional information becomes available it will be posted.
See you in Lodge!
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