Brethren, welcome back from the summer!

I trust you all had a good break, and are ready to get back to business. For me July and August went by far too quickly. But then again it always does every year.  A number of items has come to me by way of Grand Lodge, and have been added to the package you have just received with this Trestle Board.

We have a lot on our “plate” for our September, as you should note below:

District Lodge of Instruction

The District Lodge of Instruction for September is to be held at Hightstown Apollo #41 Lodge at 6 PM on September 10^th. There will be a guest speaker on the subject of the Masonic Home. The topic for ritual work will be “Purging a lodge and Openings.”  All officers are required to attend this DLI.

September Business Meeting

On September 9, we will hold our regular business meeting for the month. Dinner will start at 6:30 PM, and I will open the Lodge at 7:15 PM. We will proceed with business discussions promptly at 7: 30. Based on some of the responses I received from the questionnaire I sent to everyone, I am going to try the following:

1: Dress Code will be business casual. For degree nights and for official visits we will revert to tie and jacket.

2: We will start to close the meeting at 8:45 with the intent of leaving the lodge room at 9 PM.

3: If there are outstanding issues to be covered and we run out of time they will be deferred to the next meeting. We will note in the minutes what those items are so we don’t forget them.

The dinner will consist of Beef Stroganoff (noodles, beef chunks, and sauce) green beans, salad with a roll.  Chef Horton will once again honor us with his cooking.

New Petitions for Membership

We have in process a petition from Brother D. P. for dual membership. Brother P.  is currently a member of Hackenburg Mount Moria No#19 Lodge in Philadelphia Pa.  Brother P.  is recommended by Brother J. R..

New Member Balloting

Assuming the investigation report is favorable, we will be balloting on Mr. R. S.. Mr. S. was recommended by Brother C. B..

Degree Work for September

Our next degree effort will be for the Fellow Craft. We have four candidates in waiting for this degree: Brothers E. D., N. W., F. P., and D. S.. After careful consideration I believe we need 3 practice sessions, which will occur on September 14^th, 21^st, and the 28^th.  All officers are required to attend these practice sessions. The actual degree will occur on October 1^st.  We will schedule their Master Mason degree’s in November.

Board of Trustee’s Fiscal Report for 2009

At the September Meeting Brother R. R. the Board of Trustee’s treasurer will present a 5-minute presentation on the Lodge financial status.

Brother Jay Stryker Presentation

On May 13^th at our regular meeting we had a “Gold Token” presentation. We have some members who have been with us for a long time! For those of you who could not attend the presentation I did send out a package to you, and you should have it by now. If you feel you should have received something in the mail and did not. Please contact me at the Lodge address.

Of particular note Brother Jay Stryker received his 75-year award in June at a special ceremony. Brother Stryker is in a nursing home at the moment (he is 97 years old!) and the presentation was made at his location.  Attending the award presentation were the MW William Berman our present Grand Master, RW Earl Reeder our present DDGM, RW Glen Murray, and myself.

Questionnaire Responses

In June I sent out a questionnaire to the entire membership of Amwell lodge. We currently have around 200 members as a mix of regular members, dual members and honorary members. I received back 59 of the questionnaires, which I am told by people who do stuff like this that a 25% response is pretty good. (For those of you who did not respond I want the stamps back…)  The responses on the questionnaire ran the gambit from not surprising to curiously surprising. Some of the highlights are the following:

1: There was an overwhelming response that indicated paying for a part of a social lodge function is acceptable. (Note that this year’s Fellowship Dinner in November will reflect this.) A very few indicated the Lodge should pay for everything. The truth is we just can’t do this any longer, and there is going to have to be some sharing of cost on some functions. (We have to put a new roof on the building and this is going to run $80,000.00 plus dollars and we will be self-funding this. This project will commence this fall.)

2: We have a lot of members who have been Masons longer that 25 years.

3: It was clear that the reason for becoming a Mason was to be with good men doing good things.

4: Some of the Hopewell members requested some recognition. Please note I have started the “Hopewell Forum” in the Trestle board.

5: A number of the responses requested that we lighten up a bit on the dress code. We will try that and see how it works. I do know some of our members would like us to stay with the tie and jacket dress code. So I know in advance this will not be universally received as a positive move. But let’s see how it works for a month or two.

6:  Many members want the monthly meetings to be shorter. In response to this request we will enforce a time limit of 8:45 to start our closing ritual.  This means we can get out the door by 9 PM sharp.

7: Most of you don’t know how many members we have, or how much money we have. We have around 200 members. There will be presentation on how much money we have this month by Brother Robert Reed our Board of Trustee’s treasurer. (I am dying to find out too..)

Scholarship Program

I am pleased to announce that all but one scholarship check  have been sent out.  I want to personally thank Brothers G. M. and A. H. for producing the letters and sending the checks out to the scholarship Recipients.

Charity Committee Meeting

It has been a tradition that the Charity Committee meets on the Monday prior to our 2^nd Wednesday business meeting. Since this would place the meeting on Labor Day this month, so the Charity Committee will meet at 6 PM on September 9^th which is before our regular business meeting.  One half hour should be sufficient to cover everything.

Bylaw Changes for Amwell #12

There are a number of Bylaw Changes being proposed. The sponsors are Brother D. M. and myself. I have included with this Trestle Board a document, which shows the proposed changes. The plan is this: We will spend about 10 minutes during the September Meeting briefly discussing the proposed changes to our Bylaws.  At the end of the discussion we can set a date for a Bylaw “mini convention” where any interested lodge member can attend. This event will occur towards the end of the month.  A new printed set of Bylaws will be again sent out with the October Trestle Board and in November we will vote on the modifications.

Hopewell #155 Forum

A number of our members who originally were from the Hopewell lodge in their questionnaire responses asked for a “spot” in the Trestle Board. What I would like to see happen with this is to have a “guest” author who was a member of Hopewell Lodge send me a short story about his experiences there. I will publish a new story with every Trestle Board.  Brother Jay Stryker, who just received his 75-year award, was from Hopewell, and I am sure that many of our members are unaware that I was raised in Hopewell. So for those who made the request (and for those who like the idea) send me a story and you will see it here!

Fellowship Dinner

We will once again have an annual Fellowship dinner for our members. The dinner will be held at the Lambertville Inn on November 14, 2009. Cocktail hour will start at 6:30 PM and Dinner will commence at 7:30 PM. Due to budget modifications this year things will be working a little differently. There will now be a charge of $50.00 per couple, and there will be a “cash” bar as opposed to an “open” bar.  Invitations will go out Mid September, and the RSVP cutoff date will be October 20^th.  A check must be returned with the RSVP coupon to be counted.  The minimum count needs to be 50 couples to meet the budget requirements. The dinner offerings will be comparable to our past Fellowship dinners.

December Installation of New Officers

It is anticipated that for 2010 Brother D. M. our current Senior Warden will be the new Worshipful Master for Amwell Lodge. He is presently planning an open installation with dinner on December 13^th. Brother Don is also planning a Past Masters dinner for sometime in November. An exact date for this event will be published in the October Trestle Board.

Electronic Trestle Board

To date I have received only about a 10% request  for getting the Trestle Board by Email. I know that for some of you electronic delivery is not possible. But for the vast majority of you out there with email addresses, this will be a much more cost-effective way to get the Trestle Board published.  I took it upon myself to improve the content of our Trestle Board and Grand Lodge is now requesting that we include extra materials from them. The problem is the cost. If I cannot get at least a 50% signup for electronic delivery the mailing costs will continue to be prohibitive. It would be a shame I think to go back to the abbreviated format we were using before.

To sign up for an e-Tboard just email me at: protoelec@aol.com and I will add you to the routing list for electronic delivery.

God Bless you all, and I hope to see a good turn out for the September Business meeting.

Jay B. Ross

Worshipful Master, Amwell Lodge #12 F&AM

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