whats happening in your lodge?

Hello all, thought it might be nice to start a thread where we can let everyone know whats happening in their lodge at the moment...... at our next meeting my candidate goes through his 3rd degree so I`m really looking forward to it. Going to be at least 50 brethren there which will make it extra special for him, also on a personal note I have been asked to go to another lodge to do the 1st degree TB which is both exciting and nerve racking! S&F

Ha... all we did was call a special for a FC return and MM on the 31st. Feel like my night's gonna be short.

We have an FC next month. We only ever do about six degrees a year. The rest of the time is spent on Brothers preparing and presenting papers (last night was Freemasons and Nazi Germany) and charity.

We're installing the new officers (including me) in two weeks. I've got a candidate waiting to have his investigation results returned. I'm returning the results of a different investigation. I'll be turning in the money from the disc golf tournament. Inviting the Widows out for dinner at a local restaurant toward the end of the month. Going to Grand Master's Fair over that weekend.

On the 5th, I'll be putting on my tux and heading to Gloucester, MA to be part of the procession to lay a cornerstone for a rebuilt Jewish Temple.

I guess we are going to have a busy summer

We installed officers Monday evening and are now dark until September. We do have two accepted petitions, so maybe we'll try to work out a special set of degrees during the summer. Other than that, we have a few Masonic family events, including a picnic, during the summer, and will stay busy with some Shrine fundraisers I help organize coming up in August. I do miss lodge during the summer.

I forgot to mention we had a charity crown green bowls game against another local lodge last night during which I had my ass handed to me by someone 3 times my age! oh well

Uh, what's a TB?

S&F

Tracing Board.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://freemasoninformation.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/freemasonry.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.freemasoninformation.com/masonic-education/freemasonry-in-general/first-degree-masonic-tracing-board/&usg=__s2dt7LlZbYqZog8gV6xVBg0gmhI=&h=647&w=500&sz=351&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=JPGzFm3VnjZlBM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=112&ei=xf7hTf-DEIHfgQe07om8Bg&prev=/search%3Fq%3D1st%2Bdegree%2Btracing%2Bboard%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7ADFA_en%26biw%3D1436%26bih%3D715%26tbm%3Disch%26prmd%3Divns&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=141&page=1&ndsp=44&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0&tx=76&ty=38

hi Bob as has been said it`s the tracing board connected to the 1st degree, the explanation of which is sometimes given on the night of the 1st but more often these days lodges wait until they have a few new members and deliver it to all of them a once. On this particular night I`m going to deliver it and then a PM is going to do a question and answer session upon its meaning... S&F

Sounds like that's what we call the Lecture of the Entered Apprentice Degree.
I gave it last year one time with a Tracing Board. It was nice, no hassles with the clicker not advancing the slides.
Thanks

S&F

What's going on in my lodge.

We've only got one apparent candidate. If he gets back from the Indy 500 with all his gray matter functional [I usually didn't], we'll continue to polish his Fellow Crafts Degree Catechism, and he should return it on June 6, and be Raised on the 20th.

We've got a few other candidates that have dropped away, one EA very recently just seemed more interested in riding with his motorcycle club to other states, but let his time run out to work on his Catechism...again. If he calls me, I'll help him apply for another extension, but I will not chase him.

One of our other recently Raised MMs, called yesterday and asked for a couple of current Petitions [our GL added a line about the extra $15 for the criminal background check], for his son and the son's best friend. I am green with envy, as it looks like my son has zero interest in the Craft.

S&F

June 7th I will be giving a presentation on Music and Masonry at White Rock Lodge, #234, in Addison, TX. It is their stated, so dinner will be at 6.30, the meeting will be at 7.30, and I will start my presentation when all business has been conducted.

I'm really looking forward to it. It'll be a good way to test out my material before I submit my article (on the same topic) to the Dallas Valley Newsletter editor.

If there are any brothers here who will be around this area, it'd be great to see you there!

<insert crickets here>........this would be whats going on in my lodge unless you count the monthly business meeting....

Most Lodges these days in the US use the slide projector method with each individual slide showing an image from that degree. This is a modern invention that most Lodges embraced when the "new" technology became available.

The traditional method before the slide projector used a Tracing Board. A small, usually portable piece of wood with the images painted on in varying artistic styles. Each Degree had a unique TB with the symbolism of that degree depicted on it and the appropriate TB was displayed depending on the Degree the Brothers were working in.

Before the Tracing Boards the symbols themselves were chalked onto the floor of the room that the degree would take place in and then used for instruction after the degree. The symbols would be cleaned off after the Degree. This is one of the reasons we square our corners. It was to prevent the chalk drawing from being made useless from walking over.

Many Lodges today are putting their projectors away and returning to the use of Tracing Boards. It makes, I believe, the instruction more personal and allows you to see all the symbolism fitted together into a beautiful whole.

Often, we do an Entered Apprentice Degree at our first meeting in October, and do the Tracing Board lecture, with the tracing board, at the next stated communication, which happens to be a table lodge. Our Lodge Education Officer, who gives it, is top notch with the lecture, but he also loves the "toasts" during table lodge. We generally break it up into three sections, with more "toasts" between the sections. By the time he wraps it up, he's starting to slurr a little, but he always nails it. Very impressive under the circumstances.

My lodge uses the slides for the first and 3rd degrees. However, on my 3rd i was a practice candidate for my lodge's civil war degree team and a canvas tracing board was held up by two brothers while a third pointed to the symbols with a period sword. It was pretty cool.

nice!! all I get is a little pointer, perhaps they dont trust me with anything to sharp...