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 The
lunchtime autumn meeting of the Provincial Officers Mess was held at the
Winter Gardens, Margate on Thursday 18th October, and proved to be a very
enjoyable occasion for the four hundred or so Brethren who attended.
It was a chance for old friends and new to meet informally in a relaxed
atmosphere, and take the opportunity to catch up with one another over a
drink or two at the bar, before going through to the main hall to enjoy the
convivial company and an excellent three course meal with wine and coffee.
Grace and return of Grace were offered in unique and heartfelt manner by
Excellent Companion Brian Barden, Provincial Grand Third Principal in the
Holy Royal Arch.
WBro Roger Odd was re-elected Secretary of the Mess. The previous year's
accounts were confirmed, and WBro John Cooper was elected as Treasurer of the
Mess for the ensuing year.
Before making his address, The President of the Mess, Right Worshipful
Brother Michael Bailey, invited his Deputies and Assistants to talk briefly
about progress within their specific areas of responsibility, along with an
update from WBro John Baker of the Provincial Mentoring Team.
VWBro Peter Brooshooft, Deputy Provincial Grand Master, was confident that
the PGM's Mission Statement was being successfully implemented with "full and
effective force", and EComp Reg Walter, Deputy Grand Superintendent, was
delighted with the development of a pool of Brethren with valuable skills
which could be called upon to assist the Province and its Members in many
different ways.
WBro Baker told the Brethren of the great success of the pilot Mentoring
Scheme, and confirmed that the scheme was now ready to be rolled out to the
rest of the Province in the months to come. The intention is to focus on
clusters of around 18 Lodges at a time, and immediate focus is being given to
the first 6 such clusters. Volunteers are required to act as Mentoring
Coordinators at each Masonic Centre around the Province. It is anticipated
that all clusters will be addressed by the end of May 2008, and that the full
scheme will have been fully implemented Province wide by September 2008.
WBro Pat Thomas urged all Lodges to adopt the Gift Aid scheme, commenting
that the hurdle to clear for the forthcoming festival will be higher if they
don't.
Whilst Charities were being addressed, the President took the opportunity to
inform the Brethren that £125,000 had recently been donated by the Freemasons
Grand Charity for flood relief, both in this country and abroad, and that
£440,000 had been donated this year alone to non-masonic causes. He also
talked about the recent very successful day at the Invicta Barracks in
Maidstone, home to the Ghurkas, when he distributed £20,000 from his
discretionary fund to a number of Kent based charities and causes (for
further information about this event, please see the specific news item on
this web site)
WBro Charles Boxer talked about the Library and Museum, which should now be
called the KENT MUSEUM OF FREEMASONRY. An application for a grant from the
Heritage Lottery Fund is being submitted, and it is confidently hoped that a
major grant will be forthcoming to enable us to re-present our extensive
collection so that the general public can further understand Freemasonry. A
short film is available to view at
www.kenttv.com under
'Tourism'.
WBro Brian Powell confirmed that the new web site is now on-line, and along
with the President was effusive in his thanks and acknowledgement of the
enormous amount of work done by WBro Michael Lewis to get the new site
operative. Further thanks were extended to Webmaster WBro Chris Saville for
his great work and commitment to the project. Early feedback from visitors to
the site has been very positive, and has confirmed that it is user friendly,
easy to navigate, and the content is exactly what was required. The
Provincial Office has already received an enquiry from a visitor to the web
site who would like to seriously consider joining Freemasonry.
EComp Reg Walter extended his thanks to everyone for their efforts to
encourage Master Masons to join the Royal Arch. Exaltations in this Province
have increased this year by 8% to 114. Whilst on his feet, he requested that
Brethren and Companions should please confirm their bookings for the Gala
Festival of Music (see specific page on this web site for details).
In the main address to the Brethren, the President of the
Mess confirmed that in this Province the number of candidates being
initiated is increasing, but that we must not cease in our efforts to keep
the new members. He urged Lodges to present Freemasonry as 3 + 1 degrees (ie
Craft and Royal Arch together) at the candidate interview stage.
He further urged all Lodges to ensure that a separate account is set up for
Almoner's use, and that those accounts should be properly funded.
Moving on to the start times for meetings (where he has for some time urged
Lodges and Chapters to start installation meetings no earlier than 5.00pm) he
told the story of a Chapter which started its meeting at 4.00, which resulted
in no less than four of the Chapter's Stewards being unable to attend because
they could not get away from work early enough.
The President was pleased to note that most Lodges now circulate their minutes
to Members, thereby enabling Members who are unable to attend regularly to
keep up to date with Lodge affairs.
The launch date of the forthcoming Festival was formally announced as 26th
September 2008, and the President said that targets will be "comfortable to
achieve".
Reference to the forthcoming moves for the Provincial Office and EKPCA Office
was made, reiterating the reasons for the moves, and confirming that a short
term appeal will be launched imminently to raise the balance of the necessary
capital, 60% of which is already available. The appeal would not be allowed
to continue for a lengthy period, to ensure that it does not encroach upon
the forthcoming Festival.
Under "Any Other Business" the consecration of a new Lodge in February was
announced. The Lodge is for musicians and those interested in music, and will
be called the Sir Edward Elgar Lodge.
The date of the next Mess was confirmed as Thursday 27th March (changed due
to Easter dates) which will be an evening meeting.
The meeting concluded with Provincial Senior Grand Warden, WBro Clive Manuel,
proposing the health of the President. The toast was amusing and sincere, and
acclaimed the excellent leadership and great enthusiasm of the Right
Worshipful President.
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