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Results- 2013 Texas Grand Annual Communication

Bill Lins

Moderating Staff
Staff Member
what is "walking" in the MM Degree?
Moving about in the Lodgeroom & pointing things out while giving the Lecture. The Committee on Work prefers the entire Lecture be given from the WM's station.

I may offer a resolution next year to allow a "walking" Lecture in the FC degree- IMHO, I feel the candidate gets a better understanding of what you are explaining to him if you can move about the Lodgeroom & point the various items out to him as you're talking about them.
 

relapse98

Registered User
(original post was deleted?)

then turned our Grand Lodge session into a joke-telling marathon for the next 2 1/2 hours

So, if this is true, can someone tell me why I should attend Grand Lodge? Aint nobody got time for that.
 

relapse98

Registered User
Abbreviating the Fraternal Relations report seemed very strange. I privately inquired of a friend on that committee, and he says they haven't heard anything from the MWPHGLOT since they cancelled that previous meeting.

So was that stated in Grand Lodge, and if not, why? Seems like important information that would maybe stop 'rumors'.
 

Bro. Stewart P.M.

Lead Moderator Emeritus
Staff Member
(original post was deleted?)



So, if this is true, can someone tell me why I should attend Grand Lodge? Aint nobody got time for that.

Yes. The original post that you are referring to was deleted. The author (whom only has two posts) posted the exact same commentary within two separate forums here. Not realizing that the user had already been "quoted", I removed the duplicated "post" in this thread.
 

jwardl

Registered User
Thanks.

If he happens to be reading, please contact me. We'll need you in January if possible.
 

rhitland

Founding Member
Premium Member
Bro. Bill if you have the report could post the death to raised report for the most current year? I believe it is in the Grand Sec. report they hand out???
 

tomasball

Premium Member
Now that I think of it, I can't recall hearing a report from a lot of committees...public relations, public education, membership maintenance, masonic education, mediation, gift of life, take time to read, grievances and appeals...help me out--did I just sleep through those?
 

dfreybur

Premium Member
So, if this is true, can someone tell me why I should attend Grand Lodge? Aint nobody got time for that.

So that by your votes you can push for it to be otherwise. Those who don't attend never vote on anything.

If you do feel strongly about a topic then submit legislation do not wait for the grand line to do it.
 

relapse98

Registered User
So that by your votes you can push for it to be otherwise. Those who don't attend never vote on anything.

If you do feel strongly about a topic then submit legislation do not wait for the grand line to do it.

I get that part. It was more of a comment about not wasting everyone's time. That's 2.5 hours (or whatever it was) multiplied by everyone that was there.
 

dfreybur

Premium Member
I am a Mississippi Mason so I have a couple of questions what is "walking" in the MM Degree and what are "table lodges"?

In Mississippi is the staircase lecture in the second degree delivered by the Senior Deacon as he walks along a display that shows the numbers 3, 5 and 7? Until I saw a Texas 2nd, all of the versions of the 2nd I had seen before were done like that. That's a "walking" 2nd degree lecture. There are lodges that have posted displays of the symbols in the 3rd degree lecture instead of (or in addition to) slides. What was authorized is the option of delivering the 3rd degree lecture the way so many of us experienced the staircase lecture in our 2nd degree.

Thanks to R W Bro Bill for considering a submittal to authorize a walking 2nd in next year's legislation. The floor work involved would come out repetitive.

A Table Lodge is the type of meeting where grand lodge Freemasonry was founded. It is a tiled meeting in a secured location with several brethren, charter, VSL, S&C and a set ritual. It includes a catered dinner. There is a script, toasts and free form timed talks. The talks are not to include quoted lectures; they are to be a brother's thoughts on the topic.

I googled Table Lodge and in under an hour I found the scripts for Illinois and Maine. Illinois has a specific pattern of topics for the talks but less structure for the toasts. Maine has a specific pattern for the toasts but less structure for the talks. Those appear to be the two main variations already in use in the US. If you have not yet been to a Table Lodge I urge to to go to the first one you can find.
 

tomasball

Premium Member
I would comment, not as an excuse, but as a pertinent fact, that a lot of that joking and tapdancing was to kill time while they waited for the count on the ballot for GJW to come in. According to our law, there's a limit to what you can do while the election is still undecided. That said, I think they could have called for some more reports. It is very obvious that we need to find some way to automate our ballot counting. They have machines that can count dollar bills, they ought to have something that could count our ballots. What do they do in other jurisdictions?
 

dfreybur

Premium Member
2012 Tabled #17A- regarding criminal background reports- POSTPONED UNTIL 2014

I wonder why this good idea keeps getting pushed? It has also been proposed in Illinois multiple years in a row and it keeps getting pushed there as well.

2013 #3- to rescind existing Title V & restore it to as it existed in 2004- POSTPONED UNTIL 2014

When this one was read at my lodge it was dismissed as administrivia. Not so. It moves the responsibility for discipline through trials back to lodges where it belongs. It reverses a change made to the balance of power between lodge and grand lodge.

2013 #15- AMENDED to prohibit possession of cipher work IN ANY FORM, including electronic/digital, on Lodge premises or in the presence of a candidate- PASSED

Good clarification.

2013 #16- to allow "walking" MM Lectures- PASSED

This is a fun variation from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Texas now requires that second degree lectures here be delivered like third degree lectures in most other jurisdiction. But now we allow third degree lectures to be delivered like second degree lectures in most other jurisdictions.

It was my experience that I retained more when I was presented a walking lecture in my second. In my first and third degree with the lecturer staying in the east I was amazed at the amount of effort it took to memorize it all but I remembered close to zero from the first times I heard those lectures.

GM's RECOMMENDATION #1- to place a moratorium on the holding of "table Lodges" until a uniform procedure & ritual for such is established & approved by Grand Lodge- PASSED

A shame. Table Lodge was approved in Texas in 1991. That's 22 years of GMs not punishing the few lodges that do it, and now one GM who did punish the few lodges that do it. That's 22 years of the Committee on Work not being pro-active on a topic that took me an hour in Google to cover.

GM's RECOMMENDATION #2- that the methods of preparation of candidates for the degrees and all paraphernalia used therein be only that approved by the Committee on Work and listed or provided for in the Monitor and/or the Grand Lodge Law (NO "Chambers of Reflection")- PASSED

Not the result I hoped for but that's how federated republics work when the legislature is in session. As the now MW PGM stated if someone wants to put forward legislation to authorize CofR they can.

Thanks for the detailed report!
 

tomasball

Premium Member
Oh, I just noticed. Grand Master's recommendation No. 2 has the unavoidable effect of banning robes in degrees. Makes me feel better.
 

crono782

Premium Member
As I recall, the intent of the recommendation was to 86 CoRs, which it indeed does. However, the placement of the word "therein" is the crux of this new rule. Is it meaning paraphernalia used therein during the preparation of the candidate? Or does it mean paraphernalia used therein during the entire degree? The former interpretation accomplishes the goal of crushing CoRs, but the latter interpretation also bans anything not explicity defined in the related article and/or monitor (i.e. robes, etc). I'd be curious as to the interpretation.

EDIT: Although, perhaps you could argue that robes are not "paraphernalia" in the degree at all but rather just articles of clothing.
 
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