Grand Master's Newsletter - April 2024
24 April 24
Hello Brethren, and welcome to our April edition of the Grand Master’s Newsletter.
Hello Brethren and welcome to my April Newsletter
At the March Communication, elections were held for the office of Grand Master for the 2024/2025 term of office. Votes were tallied and our Deputy Grand Master- RW Bro Khris Albano was comprehensively elected as our next Grand Master.
Khris joined the ceremonial team in 2011, and he served in each office until becoming Grand Director of Ceremonies in 2019. In 2021 Khris was appointed Assistant Grand Master and the following year, Deputy Grand Master.
Khris has always worked incredibly hard for our jurisdiction. I congratulate Khris and his wife Caroline, and I look forward to seeing this jurisdiction which I love, flourish under his leadership.
Initially, we had the Grand Installation set down for August but, due to some unforeseen booking arrangement issues, RW Bro Albano will now be installed as our 41st Grand Master at the Sydney Town Hall on 28 September this year. This will be a momentous occasion brethren, and I encourage you all to make the effort to attend. The Grand Secretary will advise us when the online bookings are available.
There is no doubt that the past few years have been challenging ones. There have been many changes and difficult decisions that needed to be made but there have also been many highlights. It’s not often a new Worshipful Master gets installed in another state in front of the Grand Masters of two jurisdictions, and it was my absolute pleasure to be invited up to Scarborough in Queensland for the Elysian 418 NSW & ACT Constitution Installation. I attended alongside MW Bro Jeff Harper, the Grand Master of the UGLQ and I want to thank MW Bro Harper for allowing a NSW & ACT lodge to meet and work in his jurisdiction.
It made for a very historic night. It was witnessed by almost 100 masons from NSW the ACT and QLD, and I congratulate newly installed W Bro Charbel Haddad and his Lodge for organising what turned out to be a very successful ‘hands across the border’ type event, an event that created many great friendships between the brethren from NSW, the ACT and QLD.
Over the past couple of weeks we have attended the Grand Re-Installation of MW Bro Tony Bucca in Victoria, the Grand Installation of MW Bro Bill Merrill in South Australia and Northern Territory, as well as Lodge Army/Navy’s Centenary and ANZAC Ceremony with special Guest General Sir Peter Cosgrave and Lady Lynne Cosgrove in attendance. These were all wonderful events and I congratulate all involved.
Our new Management System (which is now much more than just a database) continues to roll out new features, all of which are improving the membership experience for our brethren.
It is well on its way to becoming a one-stop-shop for membership matters as well as making it easier for lodges to operate.
For example, soon you will be able to book and pay for a lodge south through the GL website, and maybe even, one day, pay your capitation fees by way of the system.
Every lodge now has its own web page that is visible to all when they use the greatly improved ‘find a lodge’ feature.
I urge lodge secretaries or a tech savvy brother to get some information about their lodge loaded onto the system so that the website can go to work promoting your lodge.
Our new membership interface is faster, cheaper, more efficient and has many more features than that of past systems; and I place on record my sincere appreciation and thanks to RW Bros Graeme Moller, Randall Wilson, Darren Allatt and the fantastic team of volunteers who have been slaving away in the background to make this all happen on time and under budget.
We are also trialling an online membership attraction campaign in the Central West region of the jurisdiction, and it’s showing positive results. Those at the last communication will have heard that our membership statistics are improving and, if the trial proves to be a success, we hope to one day implement it throughout the jurisdiction.
Reports from lodges and brethren in the area where the trial is taking place indicate an increase in membership inquiries which are translating into initiations as well as our seeing former members coming back to Freemasonry.
Brethren, people won’t know about us unless we let them know we are here and what we have to offer. Advertising is a serious balancing act; we want to attract eligible men to our wonderful organisation, but we must not lower our standards, so this is not a campaign to grow membership at any cost. The campaign is carefully targeted at appropriately qualified men who are keen to learn and want to discover more about our great organisation.
This is just some of what we are doing in the background in a never-ending effort to futureproof our Craft, and we must not forget that the Grand Lodge charity – Masonicare – also stands ready and willing to help you raise funds for your selected charities.
The interACTION grants provide the potential to double your fundraising efforts and provide even more assistance for local community organisations that need our support, and I urge you to contact Masonicare through the Grand Lodge website to find out how they can help your lodge do more to gain a larger profile within your local community.
Well that’s it for now, until next time please stay safe and look after your family and friends.
Les Hicks
Grand Master