Organising
Lodges may organize themselves in different ways in the running of the Lodge. At Oak Tree, the Lodge of Instruction immediately following a Lodge Meeting is dedicated as a committee meeting. I’ll explain more about LofI in a future post.
Although our committee has a defined list of attendees (WM, Sec, Treas, SW, JW, SD, and JD), because we are a small Lodge it is generally open to all Lodge members.
At committee, we typically discuss how the previous meeting went – what was good and what needs improvement. We also confirm the main focus for the next meeting if that has not already been agreed upon previously. Activities can then be planned for the coming Lodges of Instruction and people know if there is any learning to be done.
Procedure
While we make some decisions in the committee, Freemasonry is very democratic. Major decisions must be agreed by all brethren during a Lodge meeting.
In fact, in most cases, it is necessary to give a Notice of Motion at one meeting for an item to be discussed and voted on at the next. This gives all brethren ample time to arrange to attend a meeting if they wish to vote on a specific item.
For example, at last week’s meeting, there was a Notice of Motion given about the distribution of charity monies. So at our next meeting in April, we will vote on what money to donate and to whom.
Outcomes
This week, because of the situation we are in with regards moving to another Centre, most of the committee meeting was taken up with discussions about relocation;
- What Centres are there?
- Do they have space?
- What are they like (car parking, food quality, other amenities)?
- Can we go and visit them to see for ourselves?
- What dates do they have available for our meetings?
Happily, most of this was resolved and will be proposed to all Brethren in April so I’ll update you on that after the meeting.
Other Matters Arising
We discussed Charitable donations and agreed on a couple of charities that we’d like to support this year.
There was a proposal made for the coming Masonic year (which for us begins with our autumn meeting) about who would be installed as Worshipful Master and who would take up the other key positions – again this was positively received by everyone.
And I was nominated as Membership Officer which is exciting!
All in all, it was a very productive hour and a half.
S&F – Paul C.