As many of you are aware, this has been a difficult year for many due to the faltering economy. The hardships being felt by many families will especially hit home over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. To experience the true joy of giving, I invite you to share in purchasing and delivering a holiday dinner to a needy family! Our Lodge has not suffered too much with the downturn in the economy; however, there has certainly been some impact on our portfolio. The trustees and officers of St. John's remain committed to making this the best Lodge in the jurisdiction, and will continue to do so in the coming year. We are trying to think of ways to economize without unduly affecting our activities and particularly our charitable contributions. For example, we would like to get a better handle on how many dinners to serve at our Stated meetings. We may try to implement some kind of RSVP system in the coming year. I would like to ask you to help us in whatever plan materializes. Speaking of food, we had a very successful "Teen Feed" program Sunday evening, October 20. About ten brothers came down to the University Christian church to lend a hand in preparing and serving dinner to 33 hungry teenagers. They really dug into the steaks and pasta. Dessert was a special delight! Many of us also had a chance to serve at the annual oyster feed at the Masonic Retirement Center earlier this month. It was good to see our old Tyler and resident Frank Cushman. For those that have not noticed yet, Frank is still active and sharing his wisdom on our website. He has written several great articles and I encourage you to find and read them at www.seattlemasons.org. Please join us for our November meeting at which time we honor our Past Masters. It has often been said that the Past Masters are the backbone of our institution and here is your chance to meet them all (we hope - get well, Bill) in one place. The question is, who would you most like to make into a Past Master next? We will find out later in the meeting as we have our annual elections. See you then! Past Masters Night, MW Bro. Bill Wood Will be Featured! Once again it is that time of year when we honor the Past Masters of St. John's Lodge No. 9. Of the 125 Past Masters of St. John's, twenty-three are still with us. In addition, we are blessed to have 40 living Past Masters who served the three Lodges who have consolidated with St. John's - Ionic, Elliott Bay and Roosevelt. In Carl Cloudy's "The Master's Book," he describes the ideal Master as one who (among other things) leaves the Lodge better off financially than he found it, who has interesting meetings and who gives good and wholesome instruction. For these many reasons, every Lodge is indebted to its Past Masters. St. John's Lodge No. 9 is especially fortunate to have such a solid base of commitment from so many of its members. We take this special opportunity to annually recognize their contributions. Past Grand Master MWBro. Bill Wood (1999-2000) will be our featured speaker. The theme of his talk will be, "If Freemasonry were to become illegal and you were arrested for being a Freemason, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" MWBro. Wood is a highly entertaining speaker. His presence and the topic of his address will be a special delight. Also at that meeting we will be electing officers and a Trustee for the next term. Any Lodge brother may declare his availability as Trustee for this four year term. We anticipate that Brother Terry Grove, our Senior Warden, will be elevated to the East. Dinner will be served at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center at 6 p.m.
"Thank you" all who helped make our annual oyster dinner at the Masonic Retirement Center a huge success! We had thirteen from our Lodge (and a few wives and one mother) and VWB David Julian from Daylight Lodge No. 232 actively making this one of our best turnouts in recent oyster memories. VWB Julian played the piano during the dinner, and then entertained for another 45 minutes following the dinner in the front lounge. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the music. Others who helped to serve were our Master, Skip Albertson, assisted by SW Terry Grove, SD Joseph Lund, Marshall Jim Wold, Secretary Jim Russell, Trustees David Campbell and Chuck Brockway, and other brothers from the Lodge, webmaster Charlie Tupper, Al Thornton, Richard Oslund, Glenn Goodson, Darrel Womak, and Steve Specht. WB Skip Albertson presented a $1000 check for the resident's "cheer fund," which goes to help support special activities for the residents of the Center. You can bet there was a spontaneous response of cheers and whistles as this was announced! Again, "Thank You," Brothers, for your active part in this great St. John's tradition that dates back to at least 1937.`ôQ The following resolution will be presented at the November meeting:
November 6 (6pm) 7:30pm: St. John's 9 (dinner) Stated Past Masters & Elections November 13 (5pm): Officer Appreciation Dinner November 20 (7pm): Officers Practice November 23 (8:30am): Degree November 30: Secrets of the Chair December 4 (6pm) 7:30pm: St. John's 9 (dinner) Stated Officer Step-Up Night December 7: Installation of Officers December 11 (7pm): FC Joint Degree Practice December 18 (7pm): FC Joint Degree
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