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

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