The Pursuit of Excellence

“Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.” —Brother Booker T. Washington

This issue of The Northern Light is dedicated to excellence—not just Valleys of Excellence, though we do feature a few of them here, but the general pursuit of that elusive and seemingly unattainable goal.

As we slowly emerge from our collective pandemic-induced standstill, we have the chance to look back over the past year and assess the way we have approached the business of Scottish Rite Masonry. What we have seen is that there are ways to do the usual business of the Valleys in unusual ways. Brotherhood drop-ins, caring for our widows, recruiting and involving our new members—all of these things have

been reimagined to fit into today’s world. While they are admittedly not the way we have always done them, the result is clear: they work. And they work well. As Brother Henry Ford said, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” Thanks to things like Virtual Reunions, Rite on the Road, and innumerable out-of-the-box ideas that Supreme Council and our Valleys have tried, the Scottish Rite, NMJ has not gotten what we have always got, but rather we have been able to succeed in spite of all that has happened in the world around us.

This issue is filled with stories of the pursuit of excellence. The Valley of Northern New Jersey developed a unique recruitment program to help them grow while the rest of the world was contracting (see Twelve Tips to Win at Recruitment, page 36). In Onboarding Your New Members (page 39), Bob Siebold, 32°, MSA, Commander in Chief of the Valley of The Hudson, details some of their Valley’s best practices for getting new members involved. Finally, beginning on page 24, you can read about just a few of the Valleys who have found ways to achieve the title, Valley of Excellence.

I hope that this issue of The Northern Light inspires you to work within your Valleys to help them achieve greater things than any of us could have imagined just over a year ago. It’s all about the pursuit of excellence. Each step forward, no matter how small, is a positive for your Valley. As Brother Vince Lombardi said, “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.”