Winter Gardens, Margate

on Thursday 15th October 2009

325 members were in attendance as contrasted with 250 in March.

The Rt.W.Bro. President of the Mess, Michael Bailey, opened the meeting and welcomed new members. In his opening address, he noted that:
 

- 145 Almoners attended a recent Almoners meeting and dealt with 12 petitions

- A Family Festival of Music will be held at St Barbara’s Church, Brompton on 11th December 2009

- Best wishes should be extended to W.Bro Roy Williams who had recently suffered a bout of poor health

In conclusion, the President reminded members (particular officers) that if they could not attend a meeting they should tender their apologies for absence; it was no more than good manners to do so. Members should be urged to note meeting dates in their diaries.

The Mess Accounts
were then formally presented by the President of the Mess and adopted. It was noted that membership had declined by 123. If members would take advantage of the standing order payment scheme it would stream line the booking process and help to retain membership.

Mentoring Scheme
W.Bro. Andy Notley reported that the Initiates Pack now includes a booklet upon mentoring. The progress of local schemes continues to be very encouraging and 154 lodges have now appointed a mentoring officer. Their names now appear in the East Kent Manual. Printing their details in Lodge Summonses is recommended

‘Preparing for the Chair’ seminars have now taken place and the feedback has been positive. A further round of seminars are planned for next spring and they will be extended to include Senior Deacons.

Work is underway to develop a tool kit to provide guidance to potential members. A Grand Lodge web site called ‘The 3R Library’ also provides information on successful masonic membership, recruitment, retention and retrieval. See www.3rlibrary.org.uk.

Library and Museum
W.Bro Charles Boxer reported on the progress of planning the improvements to the Library and Museum using the enablement grant of £8,000 received from the National Lottery. A visit by the Heritage Lottery Fund team is due to be hosted on Monday the 19th of October 2009.

The late W.Bro. Teddy Church was viewed as an expert on Genealogy and 6,000 books from his collection have been gifted to the museum. It is hoped that these books can be made available for public research through an income generation scheme.

Good progress is being made on the historical record project, which is vitally important in documenting our history and knowing where the records are kept for safe keeping and future reference. It is important to conclude the work. Some slippage has occurred and lodges are encouraged to keep up the momentum to make sure that the deadlines are met as only a few weeks are left before lodges are to put forward their submissions.

Charity
The Provincial Grand Charity Steward, W.Bro. Stewart Cale, gave a brief oversight of the 2014 Festival and reported that overall he is pleased with the progress being made. To help in reaching the £3,000,000 target, members were reminded that Provincial ties are available as well as the new Festival Jewel, which should be worn in preference to previous festival Jewels.

New Gift Aid envelopes will shortly arrive at Lodge centres and these will ensure that the individual member and his lodge are credited.

The Grand Charity has donated £50,000 to the Red Cross to assist in the recent terrible and tragic Asian Pacific disasters.

This year £25,800 has been donated by the Provincial Grand Masters Charity Fund to local non Masonic charities. Whilst the support of local charity causes by Lodges is encouraged, there should now be more focus on the 2014 Festival. Over the last twelve months East Kent has received grants totalling £800,000 from the four main charities and we need to redress the imbalance.

The next Charity Stewards’ meeting has been arranged for Friday the 13th of November at Dover.

Public Relations and Communications
W.Bro. Brian Powell reported that Issue number 53 of the Provincial Magazine had now been distributed and members are encouraged to share this very informative publication with family and friends.

The Provincial web site now provides a wealth of information and members and lodges are encouraged to use it actively. An Information and Download section has now been created where forms and information on Charity, the Director of Ceremonies and the Mentoring Scheme can accessed. Further information will be added throughout the year.

Importantly, both the Provincial Magazine and the web site help to communicate with the outside world. This work is vital in helping to shape opinion and generate membership and this year saw another combined stand at the Kent Show with the Province of West Kent.

Public open days were also held at Canterbury, Dover and Paddock Wood from which 20 membership enquiries were generated.

Members are to be reminded and encouraged to relay what is happening in and around the Province so that events can be reported on appropriately. To do so, contact any of the following:
 

Michael Lewis:	Provincial Web Site editor
Roger Waltham:	Provincial Magazine editor
Tony Elliott:	Provincial Information Officer

Royal Arch Chapter
E.Comp. Trevor Climpson advised that a seminar called ‘The Way Forward’ is planned for the 30th of November 2009 for the Chapters in the Gillingham area. St George’s Chapter will host the meeting.

A minimum of three members will be invited from each Chapter, although it is hoped that more will attend. Discussion will centre on how to increase membership and heighten the Chapter profile. An informal session will be held at the end to encourage the free flow of information, thinking and ideas.

As this is the first seminar of its kind, it is expected that a lot will be learnt from it. Further seminars are planned. E.Comp. Climpson would like to know if other Chapters would be willing to host a future meeting.

A Chapter Director of Ceremonies handbook prepared by E.Comp. Keith Elgar will soon be available. A copy will be posted up on the Information and Downloads section of the Provincial web site.

Closure
The meeting was closed after the Provincial Senior Grand Warden, W. Bro Pat King, on behalf of the members of the Mess, had expressed thanks to the Rt.W.Bro. President of the Mess.