Hello Brethren,

We kicked off the year with an excellent Stated Meeting on Wednesday night. Our Worshipful Master – Paul conducted his first meeting as WM with poise and solid leadership skills. Brother Paul also recognized the appointed officers for 2026. Brother Paul spoke on many subjects which included his plans for 2026. Lastly, Brother Paul spoke about the new Right Worshipful Grand Master plan’s for 2026.

We had solid participation at both the meal and meeting. Please see a picture we took at the end of the meal. We also celebrated 4 birthdays on Wednesday night. Each Brother was given a glass mug from our WM.

Here is a review of Paul’s initiatives and plans:
In order for a candidate’s petition to be read the man should participate in 2 dinners, a background check, and be fully aware of our expectations for being a brother in our Lodge.
Create a Bylaws committee so we can make sure our by-laws are up to date and relevant to our current needs as a Lodge.
Support our JW to activate the Retention Committee with the directive to engage more brothers that are not regularly participating.
Mason of the Year award. This will be based on a point system and the details are attached to this email.

Here are some of the changes/plans we will see this year from the Grand Lodge of PA:
All Stated Meetings will be in a Master Mason’s Degree.
We will go back to one black ball when voting on a candidate. Meaning that one black ball is for the rejection of a petitioner.
Elections and Installations will be done in December.
We no longer have to confer a First and Second Degree at the same Extra Meeting. They can be done separately.
The Grand Lodge of PA will start to offer Lifetime Memberships again, more details to follow.
The grace period for payment of dues will be until our April Stated Meeting for 2026.
The grace period for payment for next year’s dues will be January 31,2027.
A more extensive background check will start soon. The candidate will incur the fee of $35.00 for this. This will be done online. I will send more details as I get them.
There will be a continued fund raising effort to build the Tun Tavern in Olde City. Our Lodge donated $10,000.00 toward this effort. Our check was presented to the RWGM at the December Communication. Here is a link to the website: https://thetun.org/

I would also like to remind everyone that we are having an Extra Meeting on January 21st(Wednesday). The meal will start at 5:30pm at Maggiano’s and the Meeting will start earlier than usual at 7:00pm. We are going to confer 1- First Degree and 2- Second Degrees. It will be a late night and we will need all hands on deck to get this done. Your participation is greatly appreciated.

During our January Stated Meeting we voted to extend the deadline for dues payment until our next Stated Meeting in February so no delinquent Brothers were suspended. If you have not paid your dues please pay them as soon as possible. We currently have 76 members that have not paid. Please call me if you need financial assistance related to paying your dues.

With Brotherly Regards,

Andrew B. Schure