Greetings, Brethren! I bring you an update on the latest happenings at Raytown Lodge.

We have continued to be busy on the membership front. Just today we conducted a special meeting and initiated a new brother. As of now we have one Fellowcraft awaiting his 3rd degree and two Entered Apprentices ready for their 2nd degrees. We also have one investigation still in process and several membership inquiries. We will have a good deal of degree work coming up this spring.

Our lodge has been busy on the ritual front. I am pleased to report that we completed the necessary proficiency to receive our Grand Lodge Silver Ritual award on Wednesday, April 6th. Thank you to all of the members who attended and participated in this great event!

We will now focus our attention on achieving the Gold Ritual award, which is the highest lodge ritual honor and a very rare occurrence. We will continue to meet each Wednesday at 7:00pm for study club ritual practice, focusing on the components of the Gold Ritual award. Our hope is to be able to complete the proficiency qualification by late May.

We have a social event scheduled for Saturday, April 16th. This is our annual Tax Day celebration. It will take place at the lodge starting at 6:00pm. This is an adults only event featuring food and adult beverages.

As an update on Lodge business, I will be establishing a number of standing committees to oversee important functions. These committees will consist of current officers, past masters and members. Some of the committees will coordinate the planning and activities involving the fireworks tent, the annual barbecue competition, building maintenance, ritual study club, social events and membership. More information will be provided at the next stated communication and in upcoming Trestleboard posts.

Tony Mesa, our Junior Warden reports that the sign-up sheets are ready for staffing our fireworks tent. These will be available at the next stated communication. We urge all members to sign up to help as your time spent helps the lodge keep a greater percentage of the money generated by this activity. The fireworks tent is our largest single fundraising event and is very important to the continued success of the lodge.

Planning for our 2nd annual barbecue competition is continuing, and we are seeing a very high level of interest from participants. In addition to individuals and teams, we need as many teams from other lodges as possible to join us as we will be awarding the Masonic Traveling Trophy to the lodge team scoring the highest in the competition. Please contact me for any questions.

I am pleased to report that through diligent fundraising, conservative spending and the generosity of a number of members we are making progress restoring the funds we spent to purchase the parking lot. However we still have a long way to go. If any member is interested in donating to this cause please contact our lodge Secretary.

We continue to be blessed with excellent turnout for our meetings as well as our study club practices and other activities. Your lodge is one of the most active in the Kansas City area and we would like for that to continue. As a reminder, our stated communications are the first and third Thursdays of each month at 7:30pm with dinner served by our Junior Warden and Stewards before the meeting. We encourage all Raytown Lodge members and any other interested brethren to join us. If you haven’t been to lodge in a while please don’t let that stop you; we are happy to help a brother get back into the swing of Freemasonry. We hope to see you all at our meetings.

Fraternally,
Steven Holbrook
Worshipful Master