Provincial Grand Master’s Address to Annual Meeting June 2016
Good Morning Brethren and can I express my sincere thanks to you all, for attending this our Annual Meeting. It is an excellent opportunity for us to reacquaint long standing friendships, and more importantly to make new friends. May I firstly extend my congratulations to those Brethren whom I have had the privilege and pleasure of Investing with their Collars today. I must emphasise that the Members of my Executive spend a lot of time in considering these appointments, and I trust that each of you will have many happy years to enjoy your preferment. Whilst it also recognises the work you have done in your lodge and Masonic Hall, I do hope that it will act as a stimulant for you to give even greater support to our organisation and all of our activities.
Grand Officers At the Annual Investiture of Untied Grand Lodge in April, the following Brethren were appointed as follows: WBro David Hanson
Sportsman’s Lodge
GStdB
WBro Gordon Brewis
Sincerity Lodge
PAGDC
WBro Bill Crutchley
Lodge of Benevolence
PAGDC
WBro Edwin Jeffrey
Fenwick Lodge
PAGDC
WBro John Nicholson
Mowbray Lodge
PAGDC
WBro Paul Debenham
Elvet Lodge
PAsstGStB
WBro Ken Wake
Ravensworth Lodge
PJGD (Promotion)
Each of these Brethren have been recognised for the outstanding work they do for this Province, in many different ways, and we congratulate them on their preferment. Membership Officers Earlier this year, Grand Lodge introduced a new initiative when they invited each Province to appoint a Provincial Membership Officer. The purpose of this particular role, is to address the ongoing decline in membership numbers across the country. I am sure that you are all well aware that our numbers are reducing, and following discussions with my Executive I am delighted to announce that I have invited WBro Ian Heaviside, PPSGW, to undertake this position. He is to be assisted by having four Area Membership Officers as follows, and as I mention their name I would ask them to stand. North Area
WBro Mavin Macauley
Ryton Holy Cross Lodge
East Area
WBro Barrie Tudberry
Amity Lodge
West Area
WBro Ross Brown
Willington Lodge
South Area
WBro Matthew Pearce
Haven of Rest Lodge
We have purposely selected these brethren because they are young, they are IT competent, involved in Social Media and we believe that they have the right attitude and intelligence to look into the various reasons for falling numbers, and more importantly that they will create some new ideas and initiatives to address these problems. I anticipate that by September, they will have generated a programme of actions, which will be delivered to our lodges and Masonic Halls around the Province. Cathedral Many of you were able to attend the Private Viewing we had at Durham Cathedral in April and it was a hugely successful occasion. Those who were able to see the Great Kitchen Floor were highly impressed and of course were delighted to be able to identify where their particular stone was placed.
The Open Treasures Exhibition will be open to the Public from Saturday 23rd July and I encourage everyone to find time to visit this outstanding feature of The Cathedral. The quality of everything in the Monks Dormitory and Great Kitchen, have to be seen to be believed. I can also advise you brethren that we are to hold a Carol Service at The Cathedral on Monday 19th December. After the Recess we will circulate details of the Service and I look forward to your attendance and support. Tercentenary 2017 I am sure that most of you will be aware that next year, in 2017, is to feature our Celebration of 300 years since our Organisation was founded in 1717. Grand Lodge are very keen to ensure that, throughout the country and beyond, as many Events as possible can be arranged to mark this outstanding record. Briefly at this stage I can advise you of the following plans that we have: We are to have a Dedication Service in Durham Cathedral on Thursday 7th September, next year. At that Service we intend to make some Charitable donations, totalling ÂŁ100k, to mark this very special year. We are currently seeking to identify some local Charities who might benefit from our support. What we would really like to do is to identify a few Charities where : They are supporting young children who have not chosen to be in their situation, i.e through Physical or Mental Disability, Terminal illness, Young Carers, Poverty or broken homes. Also, that our donation will make a significant change to that Charity, in the work that they do. In this regard WBro Brian Footit, who is Chairman of our Community Grants Committee, will be delighted to receive any information you may have about a deserving Charity that meets the above criteria. On Tuesday 31st October there will be a Service of Dedication and Celebration in The Royal Albert Hall in London. This Service will be led
by our Grand Master and we are currently awaiting notification of how many tickets will be allocated to us. I believe we will be allowed about 70 Tickets for this Event, for which there will be no charge for admission. Following the Service in The Albert Hall, there is to be a Celebration Dinner in Battersea Park for 2,500 Brethren. I anticipate that we may be allocated about 30 tickets for this Event, at a charge of ÂŁ135 per head. After the recess, we will be circulating our plans for a variety of activities for next year, and I hope that every Lodge will be able to be involved in one way or another.
Website We have recently launched our New Provincial Website. Many of you, who are much more IT competent than I am, will recall that 12 months ago we rolled out a Survey to see how and why we can improve the information available to Brethren and Companions. After all Companions, this is YOUR Website. With increasing on-line enquiries and Membership applications, we have loaded onto the front end of the Website, information of interest to non-masons, helping those people to learn more about us and also how they can apply to be a Member. In the middle section we have included all of the latest news and information about our Charities. The final section is more of a reference area where people can enquire about Lodge information, what is happening around the Province and the diary of events. In many cases this will allow Members to find answers to their own queries, rather than having to contact Provincial Office.
Obviously Brethren this new Website will evolve over the next 12 months, as we learn even more about what you require from it, and it will no doubt be a case of continuous improvement. I am particularly grateful to WBro Michael Graham for his untiring commitment to our Communications role over the past four years or so. During that time Michael has created and master minded everything to do with the Website, The Gazette and the Area Communications facility. About 3 months ago I sat down with Michael to examine the full extent of his role and we agreed that it was far too much for one person to undertake, in addition to all of his other activities and not to mention the demands of running his own business. Very briefly, I can advise you that we have re-organised our Communications Team, reporting to our Communications Manager, WBro Michael Graham, as follows: The Website is now under the control of WBro Paul Jenkins. The Gazette is being managed by WBro Paul O’Doherty. The important development and use of Social Media, is under the watchful eye of WBro Tom Gittins. The Area Communications Team will continue to do their excellent reporting of special events around the Province. 2021 Festival Brethren I am absolutely delighted with the progress being made since that wonderful Launch back in January. That event exceeded all of our expectations, and I know that everyone who attended, was highly impressed with the
standard of all of the performing Artists. Many of you will recall that one of the acts was a young girl called Jasmine Elcock, with that wonderful voice. She recently came fourth in the TV Show Britains Got Talent and I can also advise you that she is performing this evening at The Cumberland & Westmorland Festival Dinner in Carlisle. Since the Launch, we have made tremendous strides in our financial donations, and I can tell you that at the end of last week we have now raised £960k. Since the Launch, we have been averaging £10k per week, and I can see us hitting the £1m level by the end of July. That is truly amazing in such a short time. On your behalf I wish to express our grateful thanks to WBro John Thompson, our Festival Director. He and his Team have really worked extremely hard over the past 12 months, to promote our Festival in so many different ways, and John you are an inspiration to us all. You all know that it is our Raby Gala next weekend and I do hope that as many as possible can attend and give their support, and their money, to all of the events and attractions that are being provided by Lodges, individuals and many corporate businesses. Trusting that we can have good weather, I am sure that it will be a resounding success.
Thank You I would like to express my own personal thanks to the following Brethren who are retiring from their position today, and who have given outstanding service to the Province in recent years.
WBro Geoff Lewis who has been our Tyler for the past 4 years and despite his poor health has always been there on our various Deputations. WBro John Parker has been our Orator since 2007 and he has done a brilliant job in delivering the Grand Lodge Orations, to so many Lodges. That was a very daunting task and John was probably the only person who could make the most boring talks almost interesting. The role of Provincial Orator is now changing, to include many other talks and Lectures, and WBro Bernard Hope is to be our new Provincial Orator. WBro David Hanson who retires as Prov Dep Director of Ceremonies. David has done an outstanding four years in that position and he has been duly rewarded with his recent Grand Lodge Appointment. WBro Andrew Foster who has been our Prov Director of Ceremonies for the past six years. Andrew has always tried to improve our Ceremonial Standards and I am particularly grateful for his quiet guidance and the delivery of his duties.
Brethren, I am most grateful to you all for your very kind attention to my Address and in wishing you all a relaxing Summer Recess, please continue to enjoy your Masonry.