Guarding the west gate

[6-7]

How do other lodges proceed to gtwg

 

[Bloke]

How does your lodge do it ?

 

[6-7]

Since you're telling me to look it up on the internet it appears to me that possibly you have no idea what your Lodge does.

 

[6-7]

Once Bassmaster and not a Shriner I will withdraw my question

 

[Winter]

Since you're telling me to look it up on the internet it appears to me that possibly you have no idea what your Lodge does.

Does your jurisdiction make you letter "guarding the west gate"? It's a pretty broad question. Is there a reason behind the question or just random curiosity?

Once Bassmaster and not a Shriner I will withdraw my question

You lost me with that one. I have no idea what you are trying to say here.

 

[Bloke]

Since you're telling me to look it up on the internet it appears to me that possibly you have no idea what your Lodge does.

As Sec of my lodge, I have a pretty good idea of how my two Craft lodges deal with these. I would automatically be involved with any applicant with a criminal conviction.

My short response came because of your short question without context. I would certainly be in a very informed position to make comment on your process, if you wished, but also, cautious. I would not be telling the whole world, esp potential applicants who might have bad intentions and use my words to navigate or circumvent a process which is designed to filter out men of poor character.

The worst of men might not have criminal convictions. while men of the best character might have convictions,

Men of good character might even have very serous ones, but being a Freemason is a privilege, not a right, and sadly some good men have made mistakes in their past with prohibits them from becoming Freemasons. Sadly, it ut better to miss good applicants than let a bad apple in is my approach.


I note your other thread, where you ask about how Grand Lodges deal with these. I would be surprised if any decision about "felonies" or even minor criminal convictions are devolved down to Lodge Level (it actually is in our Constitution, but policy and implications of other rules on conduct, means that they must go to GL, ). Here, anyone with a conviction, however old or small, needs to be referred to GL for review. I think something like about 7% of our inquiries to GL disclose a conviction, with the most common being what Americans would call DUI.

As a Sec, I would say the Lodge considers if we want to consider his application, and if we do, then we would write to Grand Lodge to ask if they have any objection to us considering the applicant and if we decided that we want to proceed to ballot, that we have wriiten permission to do so.. They would either then decline the application, or allow us to consider it, give us some extra hoops to jump through and then reserve a final decision.

Once Bassmaster and not a Shriner I will withdraw my question

Noted, but if you need help with a specific applicant, ask your Lodge Sec, but don't proceed without having consulted your own GL.