Oswego District AGL article November 2009

The Grand Lecturer's Convention

My brothers in the Oswego District and wherever else this issue of the Word may find you. By the time you read this the 2009 Grand Lecturers convention will have come and gone. Norm Kruth and I spent a considerable amount of time and effort to assure that it would be provide a valuable and fun event for those in attendance. I think we were successful. There were a few false starts and fumbles here and there but those incidents often provide the most effective lessons.

Attendance was again quite good, there were 42 brothers in the afternoon session and 62 in the evening session. It is great to see a nice full lodge and realize that 1 out of every 10 masons in the district had the interest in and was able to take advantage of this years proceeding.

The Ritual and Standard Work are the foundation of all Freemasonry. Once each year, the District Conventions provide an opportunity for the lodges in New York to spend time demonstrating proficiency, making mistakes and having their questions answered by the Grand Lecturer, face to face. RW Toombs again led an informative session, praising good work, issuing gentile corrections and sprinkling it all with entertaining stories illustrating various points.

Because the Convention is so important to the maintenance of the Ritual, there have been a number of awards created to encourage the brothers in each district to attend. First among those is the Potts Award presented by the Grand Lodge to any local lodge that has all officers, Master through Jr. Master of Ceremonies, in attendance. This year Sandy Creek #564 was the only one to achieve this result and their master will march up to the dais at Grand Lodge next May to accept the award.

In addition, there were several District Awards presented as well. The Sheldon K. Blank award for increase in attendance went to Hannibal #550. The Richard Darling award for the largest number of Line Officers in attendance went to Sandy Creek #564. Finally, the Vernon S. Goettel award for the largest total number of brothers in attendance was returned to Lake City #127 whence it came.

This was my first convention as an AGL and I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of VW Norm Kruth and myself to thank all the brothers who came out and made it such a success. I would also like to express my great appreciation to the Brothers and Sisters of Pulaski Puritan Chapter Eastern Star for the fine dinner we were served. A good meal adds tremendously to the success of the convention.

Home: