MW Paul M. Curran, PGM
Grand Secretary
Brothers as I sit writing this, we are only a couple of weeks removed for what I think was a great Annual Communication. We conducted a lot of business, but also where able to meet up with old friends and have some fun and fellowship. The guest speaker on Friday night brought back a lot of old memories of days long past and Brothers who have long since laid down there working tools. They were the pioneers of the American Canadian Grand Lodge who started our legacy, which we are still living today 61 years later. If it were not for their determination and the willingness of all of the Grand Lodges in Germany to work together to find a way that five Grand Lodges could work in peace and harmony, we would not be here today.
I also think back to not too many years ago when Brothers of the Grand Lodge had to make some tuff choices on the future of our beloved Grand Lodge. The choices at the time where not popular choices but ones that had to made. So here we are today still moving forward, we are solvent and have Brothers joining of fraternity, so we should remain a Grand Lodge for many, many years.
Although we cannot sit back on our laurels and think that everything is going well and will remain that way, as I read in my annual report, we had a decrease of 43 Brothers in yearend 2022. Although we have Brothers joining our Grand Lodge it is not enough to cover the Brothers that we are losing, mostly from old age. As the Grand Master stated we have a Membership Chairman at Grand Lodge that is here to assist the lodges in trying to get men to join our ranks. This is not a save all, but a tool Lodges can use to try and increase their membership and maintain the Brothers they have. If the lodges do not reach out to him, he cannot help.
The bottom line is if we want to remain viable into the next 60 years, we have to think about membership not only today, but every day.
For those of you that did not attend the Annual Communication, the newly Elected Grand Line basically stayed in place except of the Grand Treasurer who term had expired. RW Greg Anderson was elected to a two-year term as the Grand Treasurer, we welcome RW Greg and look forward to him being a valuable member of our team for the next couple of years.
As it has been briefed at the Annual Communication, we will be changing our Membership Database to a platform called Grand View. This will give the Secretaries more flexibility in the way they manage their lodge and as Brothers told me they like that they can update their personnel data anytime anywhere, once they have the proper permissions. This is a big move forward for our Grand Lodge in its vision of bringing our IT systems into the 21st Century. As you know we have upgraded our Web Site, now a new Membership Database and then we will move on to bigger and better things for our Grand Lodge as far as IT. As I said in my Grand Secretaries Annual Report none of what is going on in IT world would be possible if it was not for the dedicated IT Team that is working, for free I might add, to bring us to the next level.
We also did quite a bit of legislation at the Annual Communication. The ACGL Code has been updated and ready for purchase. As opposed to years before where you had to purchase The ACGL Code and Standard Works, now you can purchase just The ACGL Code 2023 edition, without binder from the Grand Secretary. Please send the Grand Secretary an email to inquire about cost and shipping.
In closing I look forward to working with Masters and Secretaries in the new Masonic year. I also look forward to seeing all Brothers in my travels.
Please stay well and stay safe,
Bro Paul M. Curran, PGM
Grand Secretary
