Brethren, I am pleased to provide you an update of the happenings at Raytown Lodge #391. We have had a busy winter so far. Luckily the weather has been cooperative and we have been able to complete all of our scheduled activities.

On Saturday, January 9th Raytown Lodge hosted the Region C School of Instruction conducted by RWB Glenn Burrows, Regional Grand Lecturer. The school was well attended and all of the participants learned a great deal about Masonic ritual.

We held a special communication on Saturday, January 23rd to confer two first degrees. Both new brothers received their degrees in good form and we look forward to helping them continue their Masonic journeys.

Membership in our lodge is growing. In addition to our two newest Entered Apprentices we have two candidates in the process of investigation. We also have four brothers working to join Raytown Lodge either by transfer or dual membership.

As stated previously, the 2016 lodge officers are committed to achieving the Grand Lodge Silver and Gold awards for excellence in Masonic ritual. We have been practicing at our regular Study Club meetings which take place on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month, the day before our stated meetings at 7:00pm. All members and interested brethren are encouraged to join us. It has been many years since Raytown Lodge achieved the Gold ritual award, and in fact has been a while since any lodge on our side of the state achieved it, so this is a major goal for us.

Along with our own degree work, several members of Raytown Lodge have traveled to other lodges to assist with degree work. We recently had teams visit Sheffield Lodge to assist with both a 2nd and 3rd degree.

Also on Saturday, January 23rd we held the winter Pot Luck dinner and social event at the lodge. Those in attendance had a nice time and enjoyed good fellowship.

At our last regular communication the membership voted to proceed with preparations for our annual fireworks fundraiser. This is a big activity and the largest annual fundraiser for the lodge. Brother Tony Mesa will be putting together a committee to coordinate execution of this event.

Included in the winter edition of the Trestleboard newsletter that was mailed to all members was an overview of the recent parking lot purchase and a completely voluntary request for donations to help the lodge offset the substantial cost of the purchase. I’m pleased to report that many members have generously provided contributions to help rebuild our coffers. Thank you to all who were able to make a contribution. We have a long way to go but every dollar helps.

Attendance at our lodge meetings has been very strong. We have also seen an increase in the number of new members and transfers. It seems that Freemasonry is experiencing a renaissance and Raytown Lodge is pleased to be a beneficiary of this trend.

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 for good food, fellowship and a great Masonic experience. Our officer line is committed to preserving the principles of Freemasonry and Masonic ritual and do a great job of conducting our meetings. 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

Brothers, as we approach the end of 2015 I would like to provide an update of activities at the Lodge.

We were excited to honor Brothers Robert Fray and William Rodgers with the presentation of pins commemorating 50 years of membership. Congratulations to Brothers Fray and Rodgers. It is always a pleasure to meet men who have been long time members of our Lodge and our organization.

On December 3rd we hosted RWB Scott Filkins, District Deputy Grand Master for our official visit. RWB Filkins delivered the latest message from the Grand Master.

The officers of Raytown Lodge are excited to have achieved the Bronze ritual award for opening and closing the lodge. This is a nice accomplishment. We are committed to continuing to perfect our Masonic ritual and we intend to achieve our Silver ritual award (conferring a first degree) in the near future. The officers are also committed to trying to earn a Gold ritual award this year. The Gold award is presented to lodges who successfully confer a third degree using all their own members. Raytown has not received this award for many years, and we intend to do our best to achieve it in 2016. This will require the assistance of all Lodge members who are knowledgeable in the ritual of the third degree. Please watch for more information soon.

To further education on ritual we continue to conduct our own Study Club on the first and third Wednesdays at 7:00pm. This effort is led by WB Michael Tatham, Lodge Education Officer. We encourage all officers and interested members to attend to take part in learning the ritual of opening and closing as well as degree conferral and other interesting Masonic education.

Raytown Lodge will be conferring a first degree at the next regular communication on Thursday, January 7, 2016. We will be starting at 7:00pm instead of our usual 7:30 start time. We encourage all members and brethren to join for this important event. In addition to this new member we have several other petitions in various stages of investigation so it appears we will have a busy winter and spring with degree work.

RWB Glenn Burrows, Regional Grand Lecturer, will conduct a regional School of Instruction at Raytown Lodge on Saturday, January 9, 2016. Breakfast will be served at 8:00am with the school to begin at 9:00am. Lunch will also be served. We hope Raytown Lodge is well represented and encourage all other brethren to join as well.

In closing, for myself and on behalf of the officers of Raytown Lodge I would like to thank each and every member and participating brother for your continued support of Freemasonry and of the Lodge. I would also like to wish each of you and your families the very best this Holiday season.

Please enjoy the holidays safely and we look forward to seeing you in 2016!

Fraternally,
Steven Holbrook
Worshipful Master

Brethren,

I would like to begin by wishing a Happy Thanksgiving to all the Brethren of Raytown Lodge #391. May the blessing of heaven be with you and your families on this Thanksgiving Day.

We have had a very busy fall at Raytown lodge. Our slate of officers for the 2015-2016 lodge year were installed on September 13th. This was followed by our annual Past Masters dinner.

At the end of September we completed the purchase of the adjacent parking lot that was formerly part of the bank property. This allowed us to secure the future use of the lot, protect the value of our lodge property and to have control over our parking area.

In October and early November, Raytown lodge officers and members participated in the 2015 Lodge of Instruction for the 19th Masonic district, and hosted the event on October 28th. Raytown lodge came in second overall in attendance which was a strong showing.

Our social committee has been busy planning the social calendar for 2015-2016 and have several nice events planned. The website calendar has been updated to show those events.

We have been very active in the membership area. Since installation we have passed four Entered Apprentices to the degree of Fellow Craft. Then, on Saturday, November 21st we conducted a day long special communication and raised those four worthy brothers to the sublime degree of Master Mason. We congratulate brothers Alex Keyworth, Grant Arnold, Bill Bishop and Lance Gilmore on their preferment. And special thanks to all members and brethren who came out to help deliver some excellent degree work!

In addition to raising our four newest Master Masons, we have three additional petitions under investigation at this time, with more possibly on the way. The winter looks to be busy with degree work.

The lodge membership has committed to conducting both our annual fireworks tent and the second annual lodge barbecue competition as fundraising events. We are also looking into other fundraising opportunities.

Our ritual study club, under the direction of our education officer Worshipful Brother Michael Tatham, is very active. We have a strong core of individuals who attend each club meeting to learn and practice degree and lodge ritual and encourage all interested members to join in the fun. Study club meets the first and third Wednesdays of each month (year round) at the lodge at 7:00pm. It is a great opportunity for learning and fellowship.

This update is being posted on the lodge website, but we also plan to reinstate a quarterly Trestleboard mailing to all members to help communicate with those who may not be aware of the website or have use of the internet. We encourage you to contribute items of interest for the new Trestleboard document. Please submit any material you would like considered for publishing to [email protected].

I am pleased to report that your lodge is a vibrant, active organization with many interested participants. We encourage all members to join in, whether you have been active recently or not. We love seeing members, both old and new, at meetings and invite all members to join us at our regular communications which are still held the first and third Thursdays of each month at 7:30pm.

Fraternally,

Steven Holbrook
Worshipful Master

Brothers-
We continue with our summer. I hope that everyone has enjoyed the warmer weather and that everyone has been able to enjoy the time with friends and family! As the summer comes to a close, our work continues at a frantic pace.

I have some bad news to share. RWB William “Bill” Baker with Prince Hall has lost his brother this week. Brother Bill’s brother, Richard Baker, has passed away. Memorial services for Richard Baker will be held Friday 08-14-15 from 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM at Watkins Memorial Chapel located at 4000 Emanuel Cleaver Blvd. Kansas City, MO. RWB Bill has supported many of our events and I would like to support Brother Bill in his time of mourning the loss of his brother. If anyone has the time to attend and pay their respects to Brother Bill I am sure the family would appreciate it.

Brother Steve Holbrook has been working hard to organize a BBQ competition for this weekend. It will Start on Friday (08-14-15) and continue to Saturday (08-15-15). This is a first for our Lodge. Please spread the word so we can get a large turn out. I should smell WOUNDERFUL!

We will have our second Special Communication on Thursday 08-20-15. The communication will start at 7:00 PM to discuss the possible purchase of part/all/none of the adjoining bank parking lot. We already had one Special Communication on this topic. The next meeting (08-20-15) will have limited presentation and discussion then I will ask someone to make a motion for the Lodge to vote on. We will have a course of action mapped out that night, the vote will dictate what that course of action will be.

We will have our next Regular Communication on Thursday 09-03-15 starting at 7:30 PM. Our regular communications continue to be the first and third Thursday of each month from September until June.

Stay well and I look forward to seeing my Brothers soon!
Tom Saccardi

Brothers of Raytown Masonic Lodge #391:
As you all know, for the last several decades Bank of America has owned the property directly south of our Lodge and our two parking lots are “joined”. Bank of America had allowed us to use the parking lot as we needed and even extended us the courtesy of plowing the snow from out lot when they plowed their own lot. We have been the recipient of great generosity.

Many of our Brothers may not know that Bank of America closed the branch and sold the property and building recently. This sale has potentially put parking and access to our Lodge at risk.

To try and stay ahead of this issue, I instructed Brother Rick Kingcade to look into the issue and I had Brother Rick form an investigative committee with Past Masters. I gave Brother Kingcade this task because he does this kind of thing for his work/job as well as personal investments for himself and family. I feel that he has great expertise in this kind of thing.

Brother Kingcade has done some research into the situation. The good news is that our Lodge has options, the bad news is that our Lodge needs to take action before we lose our options and we are put into a corner where we are struggling to keep easy access and parking to our Lodge building.

After many hours of research and phone calls, Brother Kingcade has determined that our Lodge has three (3) viable options:

Option #1: Do nothing and let our choice be made for us, rather than taking control of our destiny.

Option #2: Try and buy part of the property. We would have to spend some of the Lodge “savings” but we will still have savings and we would build the “asset” of property.

Option #3: Buy all the land and the building, take the land we need/want and try to sell the rest. This will take more money than we have in savings, we would have to obtain a loan/debt and this would be a gamble.

Brother Kingcade made a brief presentation on these options at a regular communication a few weeks ago. Unfortunately the attendance was low, since it was a regular communication. I feel that this is an important enough issue that I am calling two special communications specifically for this issue.

The first special communication will be on Thursday July 16, 2015. We will open and tile our lodge at 7:00 PM. Brother Kingcade will present the information he has gathered and answer questions. The possible purchase of the property will be the only item for discussion this night. We will close Lodge promptly at 9:00 PM. Many of the Brothers will have to get up early the following morning for work and I want them to get a good nights’ sleep.

The second special communication will be held on Thursday August 20, 2015 at 7:00 PM. Again the Lodge will be opened and tiled. Brother Kingcade will give a brief presentation and try and answer any further/new questions that Brothers may have. Discussion will be allowed for 1 ½ hours (90 minutes). After that time, I will ask for a motion on a course of action. We will then vote on that motion via ballot, not a show of hands. Again, many Brothers will have to get up for work early the following morning so I am limiting the time for this meeting.

I do not mean for this letter to sound “dictatorial” but I strongly feel that this is an issue that all our Brothers need to be aware of, I feel that it is an issue that needs to be given its full and fair attention and I do not want to inconvenience anyone more than necessary. Brother Kingcade and his committee have given a lot of time, effort and energy to try and help our Lodge find a solution and they deserve the respect of their time.

I encourage everyone to attend these meetings and to pass the word among all our Brothers. Whatever decision we reach will not only affect us in the short term, but it will have a lasting effect on our Lodge for decades to come.

Please feel free to visit our Lodge website at www.raytown391.com at any time. More information will be posted there as well as reminders of our regular meetings and special communications.

Fraternally;
W.M. Tom Saccardi
Raytown Masonic Lodge #391