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Outside of North America there never was the switch to Stated meetings in the third degree in the first place. For that matter there never was a time when EAs weren't charged dues or weren't allowed a vote at Stated meetings. Correcting back towards the world-wide standard was absolutely not a...

The right to attend your own lodge is a landmark. The privilege to attend other lodges is a landmark. The right to object to block a brother from visiting is a side effect of those two parts of the landmark. Sometimes it's explicit in the rules sometimes not. At GL the objection would be...

Re: Membership and participation in Freemasonry to There are jurisdictions in the world that use invitations as their standard method. I remember a talk on it one of the years I attended GL in California 97-99. One or more of the European countries. I would love to be membership data for...

Choosing a McDonald's conspiracy theory is a decision to ignore market forces. It's irrational. Choosing an Anti-Mason conspiracy theory is ignoring eminent neighborhood Grandpas who are involved in multiple of our orders who would have rejected Masonry had any of the conspiracy theorists...

Trying to compare those charts after adjusting for inflation makes a very large difference. Since around 1980 there has been roughly a factor of 10 increase in prices. That means in 1982 when there was a 50% income tax on income over $102K that's the equivalent now on $1M. The accelerating...

This doesn't need analysis paralysis. This needs a sample booklet to be proposed and voted on. And since there's a ritual in the Gr Sec office that's all that's needed. "We have this one. It works. It was approved in 1991. We want it to be available to members by order from the Gr Sec...

As an OES sister you can join the OES chapter of research. If our state does not have one yet you can work to get one chartered and/or you can join one in another state. Your point that research lodges should consider female members is an interesting one. The annual meeting of LofR is tiled...

One of the lessons I learned after being raised is every Master Mason in the world is welcome at ever GL meeting in the world. Just like we're supposed to visit lodges. Thanks for pointing out that the 300th anniversary meeting will be so popular that only GMs will be able to get tickets...

Absolute secrecy of the ballot is a landmark whether it is in the list of any one GL or not so it should be forbidden in every regular jurisdiction.

The logic that it encourages large lodges is clear. The question is why large lodges should be encouraged in the first place? For the first century American jurisdictions followed the established tradition of small lodges that lived and died. But around a century ago the American tradition...

There are people who say McDonalds is a conspiracy to make us all fat with their high carb high fat high salt junk food super sized. In reality all it takes is market forces and a profit motive. Restaurants offer an assortment of foods. They constantly evolve their menus. They increase the...

If there were some fraternal order that insisted a member hold exclusive membership you can bet few of us would be willing to deal with them. They would definitely never earn such high repute as the odd Fellows. You name the fraternity or service club, there's no conflict with any other...

Illinois calls this "Blue Lightning" and has been doing it for years. What changed my attitude was when a brother who had skipped 2nd degrees scheduled at lodge showed up to get his degrees together and then became a regular at lodge. Having been through my degrees, degrees are now about the...

The word is cowan. Someone who claims to be a Mason but is not. There are Masonic rules against making such a claim but Masonic rules do not apply to non-Masons. Of course cowans ignore such rules.

If you want a Masonic watch I see those advertized in the GL quartlerly magazine from two of my jurisdictions. I'm too new to my third jurisdiction to have received a quarterly yet but I won't be surprised to see one advertized. That looked like a wrist watch sized equivalent of a smart phone...

Re: Prince hall masons why are they not accepted i I figure it's okay to offer a merge. The Antients and the Moderns managed it back in the day. But I also figure it's okay to decline such an offer because of the value of the two parallel heritages that are now two centuries old...

Verbose but I found it simple enough. Quorum - Seven to open a lodge in a new location, nice and small number. Twenty to open a lodge in a county that already has a lodge, the traditional number I know from other jurisdictions. Fifty to open a lodge in a town that isn't tiny, a number I...

Masons can't "create their own lodge" as such. They have to go through a regular and recognized Grand Lodge. It may sound the same on the surface but the distinction is important. Every regular lodge must have a clearly documented lineage to the founding lodges. Any other lineage is...

Speak it out loud while you are in a place none will hear you like your commute to/from work. Speaking aloud and reading engage different parts of the mind so they trigger memory differently. Consider an extreme case - Reading about bicycles versus riding a bicycle. Riding generates muscle...

Re: Question regarding "ongoing" fundraising and m There was a joke printed in Temple Topics which I receive monthly from one of my lodges. The DDGM arrived as scheduled to give a talk. The room was almost empty. He asked the WM if he had published word of the talk. "No, but I guess the...