Amwell Lodge No.12 F:. & A:. M:.

Brethren, here is the lineup for the month of May:

May 11 is our Grand Lodge of Instruction for the 15^th district. ALL Amwell officers must be in attendance. Those members of the lodge who are not officers are most welcome to attend this function (and should). The GLI will be held at Gothic Lodge 270. If anyone needs directions to Gothic give me a call. If possible we should try to car pool from Lambertville. Let’s try to reduce our carbon footprint. We need to leave this planet in better shape for our children’s children…

There will be two key activities occurring for our May 13^th business meeting. First it will be our “Gold Token” event for 25, 50 and 75 year members.  We will offer a meal to our members, their family and friends who will be attending the presentations. Secondly we will be balloting on two new petitions.

Dinner will start at 6:30, and we will open the lodge around 7:10 PM. At 7:30 PM we will proceed with the balloting on our two petitioners.  Once Balloting is completed, we will put the lodge on refreshment, and invite our guests into the lodge room. I would normally delay the balloting but I think it’s important we get it done. It will also allow some of our members who do not attend lodge meetings regularly to participate in the balloting process (which I hope they will enjoy).

The Right Worshipful District Deputy Grand Master, Brother Earl Reeder assures me that he will have a wonderful program set up for the Gold Token presentations. We will also take pictures for the recipients, which when printed will be sent to them as a memento of the evening.  Of considerable note is that Brother Jay Stryker has achieved the 75 year milestone. Unfortunately due to Brother Stryker’s heath issues he will not be attending the presentation on May 13^th. I am however arranging it so that if possible the District Deputy and myself (plus anyone else who wants to go) will visit Brother Stryker and we will present his award to him for his 75 years as a Freemason.

The dinner for May 13^th will be ham, mashed potatoes, peas, cranberry sauce, (because I like cranberry sauce, and its good to be king) a side salad and for dessert apple pie and a scoop of vanilla or chocolate ice cream on the side.  (Yum!) Did you know that Thomas Edison ate apple pie almost every night for dinner?

May 19^th we will be performing an Entered Apprentice degree for 3 or 4 candidates as an emergent meeting. Two of the candidates are Amwell’s, one will be from Trenton/Cyrus 5, and possibly one other will be from Mercer 50 (I do not have a confirmation on Mercer 50’s candidate at the time of this writing.)

For the lodge officers, April 27th, and May 4^th we will be practicing for GLI and the EA degree. On May 18^th there will be a final practice for the EA degree (yes it is the day before the actual degree night, just get over it…)

Sometime during the Month of May I will be sending out a questionnaire to every Amwell member requesting his feedback on the lodge. I will enclose a self-addressed envelope so that everyone can mail the questionnaire back to me. I will be the only one reading the answers. What I will be looking for are comments, suggestions, and any frustration members might have regarding Amwell 12. I want candid responses. I hope everyone will respond, so I can develop some ideas on what we need to be doing to better serve the lodge brethren.

As a heads up, for our June 10th business meeting, we will have a lot to do. By then we would have deferred two months of business activities, and I will be calling on an important vote for both the Blue Lodge and Board of Trustee budgets. A number of the lodge members have indicated they want to be more involved with the financial decisions being made. Well, here is your chance! I will have some handouts at the meeting to help understand what we are doing with our lodge funds and why. Your right as a lodge member to vote is a precious right, so please plan on attending in June and exercise it.

Finally, I am planning a Fellow Craft Degree also in June. Stay tuned for more details on this and other exciting Masonic stuff in the next “Message from the East”!

Its almost spring weather! Yea!

As always take care and may the God of love and peace bless you and your family.

Jay B. Ross

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