Brethren, it gives me great pleasure to provide you with an important update about activities at Raytown Lodge.

I am pleased to report that at the regular communication of June 2, the following individuals were elected as lodge officers for the 2017 lodge year:

Bryan Cutler, Worshipful Master
Tony Mesa, Senior Warden
Tom Ballieu, Junior Warden
WB Hank Bedsaul, Secretary
WB Jim Thayne, Treasurer

Congratulations to the new officers for the upcoming lodge year. Their installation will be scheduled for a date to be determined in September.

As you may be aware, the tradition at Raytown Lodge was to go ‘dark’, with no regular communications in July and August of each year. This year, however, with the amount of degree work and other activities in process we have decided to conduct regular meetings in July on the normal schedule of first and third Thursdays. We will go ‘dark’ in August.

We have also scheduled a special communication for Saturday, June 18th, at 12:00pm for degree conferral. We will be conferring at least one and possibly two third degrees and encourage all interested brethren to join us. We are also in the process of scheduling a second degree.

The lodge is making good progress on our Gold Ritual Award work. We have completed two of the three segments toward this goal. The remaining section involves a great deal of work and requires 24 Master Masons to complete. We urgently need the assistance of all Master Mason members of Raytown Lodge for this important task. We meet every Wednesday during our normal Study Club session at 7:00pm to practice. We hope to test for the final segment in late June or early July.

I’m pleased to report that WB Hank Bedsaul and Bro. Tony Mesa have been working very hard to fill out the schedule for staffing the fireworks tent. This is the largest fundraiser for the lodge each year and it is important to fill as many of the shifts as possible with Raytown Lodge members. If you haven’t signed up to help yet please contact WB Bedsaul or Bro. Mesa to sign up for one or more shifts.

We have also finalized the schedule for the 2nd annual Raytown Lodge Barbecue Competition which will take place on August 19-20. We hope the event will be bigger than the first event last year and the committee is working hard to make sure it is successful. We are also scheduling a barbecue class to be conducted by Paul Kirk, one of the most well known barbecue chefs, to take place some time in late July or early August. If you are interested in signing up for the competition or class, or if you know of any businesses or individuals who would be interested in helping sponsor the competition event please contact me.

I am pleased to continue to report strong attendance at our meetings, study clubs and events. Your lodge is an active, vibrant group and we encourage all members to join us at our meetings and events and enjoy the fraternity, friendship and fun. We hope to see you at an upcoming meeting!

Fraternally,
Steven Holbrook
Worshipful Master

Greetings Brethren,

Raytown Lodge continues to be a very active and busy group with many exciting happenings. The lodge is busy preparing for our summer fundraising activities. Junior Warden Tony Mesa is coordinating sign-ups for staffing the fireworks tent. If you can assist, even with one shift, please contact Tony to sign up. The fireworks tent is our largest single fundraising activity and the more shifts we can cover with our own members and family the less we will have to share the proceeds with other groups.

The barbecue committee is also hard at work preparing for the 2nd annual barbecue competition. Activities so far are encouraging and we hope to have even better participation than last year from both teams competing and sponsors. Please contact our Marshall, Mike Gatchet or myself for any additional information or if you would like to assist in the preparations for this fun event.

On the membership front we recently conferred a second degree, and now have two Fellow Crafts who we are preparing to raise to Master Mason. We also have one Entered Apprentice awaiting his second degree, and one petition out for investigation. Look for a special meeting soon to confer degrees.

I’m pleased to report that the lodge continues to work toward our Gold ritual award. We are splitting up the qualification for this award into three blocks, and have successfully completed the first block and are working on the second. We hope to complete the second block in the next couple of weeks, and complete the entire process by the end of June. The third block requires the participation of at least 22 Master Masons who must be lodge members, so all active Master Masons may be called upon to assist with this important event.

The lodge held our annual picnic this past weekend. Although there was competition with many events including several graduations and other functions, we had a nice turnout and those in attendance had a great afternoon.

As always, we encourage all members to attend our stated communications. We usually have a very good turnout with great food and fellowship, and welcome our members and other brethren. Even if you haven’t attended lodge in some time, please join us. We can help you with meeting ritual if you are a little rusty. As a reminder, stated meetings are the first and third Thursdays of each month, except for July and August. Dinner is served beginning around 6:30 and the meeting time is 7:30pm. We hope to see you there!

Fraternally,
Steven Holbrook
Worshipful Master