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Degree work

Benjamin Baxter

Moderator
Premium Member
How many proficient brothers do you have to put on degrees? Do you have certain brothers that know it all or do they specialize in certain degrees?


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Bloke

Premium Member
We have one goal - to have every charge and skill in triplicate.

To achieve that, we have the mantra - "no one owns a charge' and we give preference to Master Masons so we can skill them up and keep them involved.

Hence we tend to mix our degree teams and personnel and jobs, the only exceptions being the Master, who will always preside unless he decided to delegate the work (unusual) and the installed officers who will do the job they were installed as; noting we have Master Masons in every progressive office (IG, JD, SD, JW, SW) and MMs in non-progressive offices like Almoner and Assist. Sec. Better to develop a Master Mason in a progressive office or with a charge than to have a proficient PM do the job. The exception is Director of Ceremonies ( sort of like Marshal from what I understand, he oversees the work, delegated this job by the master and should be the primary trainer and teacher) but I would happily have a MM do that too.
 

Keith C

Registered User
In our District you must know all 3 degrees to be WM, and we have a bunch of active PMs in our Lodge. I am currently JW, so have to fill out the Trestle Board for Degrees and I have no trouble finding Brothers willing and able to confer the degrees. The WM, SW, myself, SD, Chaplain and Asst Secretary are rock solid and will always be there. I have more trouble filling in the other appointed chairs, as several of the Brothers in those positions have commitments on the nights we have Extra Meetings. I struggle to get enough folks to turn out to Extra Meetings so that I have enough people to fill the chairs and have some Brothers on the sidelines.

I conferred 2 EA Degrees as soon as I was signed off at District School to do so. Our current SD will confer an EA degree within a month of him being signed off this fall, and I will do a FC Degree as soon as I am signed off at that. Our SW will confer 2 MM degrees in September as he was signed off on that just before we went dark for the Summer.

So, as I said no lack of folks who can confer degrees and take the "Active" chairs, but sometimes a struggle to fill the JD, SMC, JMC and Pursuivant chairs.
 

TXStrat

Registered User
For a long time, my Lodge had a core group of members that conferred degrees. They did a great job, but the time commitment was getting overwhelming. Around the time I was raised they branched out, and started actively developing other members to participate in degrees. The response was unanimously positive. We now have a pool of Brethren that are adept at various parts of all three degrees. This is a good thing when you approach things like summer vacation season, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. It is a good way to keep people engaged as well.
 

jermy Bell

Registered User
In my lodge, we have 3 grand lectures.and when we have degree work we have another 3-4 grand lectures show up. So, it kind works out
 

Keith C

Registered User
I am happy to report that at our District School of Instruction Wednesday Evening I was "signed off" on the Fellowcraft Mason Degree. At our Stated Meeting next week we will vote on 3 petitions so in November we should have 3 EA Degrees to confer. Assuming our SD gets signed off on the EA Degree at our November School, He will confer one and I will confer the other 2. We do not have Extra Meetings in December so I will be handing off the Trestle Board duties to our new JW in the new year!
 

dfreybur

Premium Member
In my lodge, we have 3 grand lectures.and when we have degree work we have another 3-4 grand lectures show up. So, it kind works out

For Texas Masons that's Brothers with A certificates, chartered to instruct like the district instructor. They way ritual is taught and the terms for it are so different from state to state it gets bewildering.
 
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