My Freemasonry | Freemason Information and Discussion Forum

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

master serving on investigation committee

E

eagle1966

Guest
Can the WM serve on an investgation committee? can you tell me where it is prohibited in the law book if so? thanks
 

HKTidwell

Premium Member
I look in the 2008 law book and have found nothing that prohibits it, bit of a novice so hopefully some of our well informed brethren will help out. That I know of there were no changes to the investigation committees setup.EDIT: please look at Brother Bills post in reference to Article 412

I am guessing you are referring to a Petitioners Investigation committee and not a Member in Arrears Investigation Committee. If this is the case here is the section of the law that I found discussing the committee.

Art. 407. Referred to Committee. A petition for the degrees
shall be presented at a stated meeting and referred by the Master
presiding to a committee of three members for investigation and
report. A member of this committee may not be a recommender
or any Mason listed as a reference on such petition, unless and
except no otherwise qualified Brother is available to serve as
such. Such report may be made at a subsequent stated meeting;
but no ballot shall be taken thereon in less than one lunar month
from the date the petition is received, unless dispensation is
granted by the Grand Master under Article 414.
The Lodge may grant the committee further time upon
request of one of its members; but no recommitment may be made
after the committee has reported to the Lodge. (Revised 2008)
Art. 408. No Standing Committee. No standing committee
shall be appointed for investigation of candidates petitioning for
the degrees.
Art. 409. New Committee: When. When the investigating
committee fails to report within two months, it may be
discharged,and a new committee appointed, which shall report
at a subsequent stated meeting.

I hope this helps there are a couple of other places where it talks about the WM appointing a committee and even in those areas I did not find anything that stated the WM could not appoint himself.
 
Last edited:

Smokey613

Registered User
This the only thing I found pertaining to the members of the committee.

Art. 407. Referred to Committee. A petition for the degrees
shall be presented at a stated meeting and referred by the Master
presiding to a committee of three members for investigation and
report. A member of this committee may not be a recommender
or any Mason listed as a reference on such petition, unless and
except no otherwise qualified Brother is available to serve as
such. Such report may be made at a subsequent stated meeting;
but no ballot shall be taken thereon in less than one lunar month
from the date the petition is received, unless dispensation is
granted by the Grand Master under Article 414.
The Lodge may grant the committee further time upon
request of one of its members; but no recommitment may be made
after the committee has reported to the Lodge. (Revised 2008)
 

Bill Lins

Moderating Staff
Staff Member
If you'll look at the last sentence of Article 412, you'll find the following: "If the Master of the Lodge is a member of the committee before his installation he may continue to serve thereon."

Conversely, he may not serve on an investigating committee after he has been installed as Master.
 

Smokey613

Registered User
I glad you posted this. I knew it was in there somewhere as I had read it before, but for the life of me could not find it again. I used to think trying to find something in the Texas Penal Code and Texas Government Code books were hard. That was nothing compared to the Texas Masonic Law book.
 
Last edited:

Smokey613

Registered User
I wonder how many MM have never even seen a Texas Masonic Law book much less actually read at least part of it. I like having it in PDF form because I put it on my cell phone and can reference it while I am on the road. Sometimes finding what I am looking for in it is a challenge, but that may be more a function of age and not format. :laugh:
 

Joey

Co-Founder
Staff Member
Thank you Brother Lins.... Yet again you have shed further Light on the situation.
 

JTM

"Just in case"
Premium Member
well, if i have it right, the WM is technically on every committee he gets together, so yea, he's on every investigation committee.
 
H

Huw

Guest
Hi Bill.

What's your cite?

Of course I've no idea what the rules are in Texas, but in UGLE what JTM says would normally be correct. Lodge by-laws over here usually say that the WM is not only a member of every committee of the Lodge, but is also automatically chairman of every committee. In some cases, the by-laws even allow for an applicant to be investigated by a committee or by the Master acting alone, although it is now discouraged for the Master to decide the recommendation alone.

On one occasion a few years ago, I proposed a Candidate myself whilst WM, and then also made the investigatory recommendation for my own Candidate by myself acting alone (because there was a reason for doing it in a hurry). I know that'd have been a forbidden procedure in a lot of places, but under the rules here it was abnormal but not actually forbidden. Normally what we do here is a committee process, probably rather like what you do, but our rules grant a lot of discretionary authority to a WM to act alone when necessary.

T & F,

Huw
 
Top