Wow, have we been busy or what? Since last week's edition, seven Lodges have Installed their officers, Naurashank and West Point Lodges held Master Mason Degrees, and R:.W:. was presented with his Grand Reprsentative's apron. Forgive me if this message is brief, but I was at all but one of these, and I'm exhausted! Our Installations have been well attended, with a lot of family and friends in attendance, and our new officers' lines are looking great! I'm looking forward to working with all of our new officers, and hope to see all of our Masters and Wardens at our meeting on Monday evening at Jerusalem Temple. Please remember that our new meeting time for Masters and Wardens is 7:30 p.m.; the date remains the second Monday of every month.
We have another busy week ahead of us, with Naurashank's Installation this evening, JTL's Fellowcraft Degree tomorrow morning, Masters and Wardens on Monday, Warwick's Installation on Tuesday, and Cornerstone's on Wednesday. Lest we forget, Warwick Lodge will also hold its annual Lobster Bake this Sunday and tickets are still available from Wor. Luke Gordon. This is always a mind-blowing seafood feast, and I hope to see many of you there as Warwick raises funds to support important programs in their community. Be sure to read further in this issue for information about the Walkill Lodge Chicken Barbecue (the Feeding of the 600), JTL's Renegades Game Outing, and Hudson River's Annual Pig Roast.
That's about it. We have finished our podcast survey and I was surprised to see so many responses, 54 in total. 29 visitors (54%) expressed an interest in weekly episodes, 21 (29%) in biweekly or less frequent episodes, and a surprisingly few 7 asked, "What's a Podcast?". We've alraedy recorded interviews with a few new Masters, so it looks like we'll have a first episode out toward the end of the month. That's all for now, we'll see you next week!
DISTRICT NEWS
Warwick Lobster Bake
Warwick Lodge will hold its Annual Loster Bake on Sunday June 10th, beginning at noon. The afternoon seafood feast includes crabs, steamers, and lobster (of course!) along with all the fixings and beverages. Tickets are $45 per person and may be obtained from Wor. Luke Gordon.
Masters and Wardens Meeting
The Masters and Wardens will meet at Jerusalem Temple Lodge on Monday
June 11th at 7:30 p.m. Please note the change in starting time. The
School of Instruction will henceforth be held on other evenings and
locations around the District. It is important that all of our newly-elected
Masters and Wardens attend this meeting so that we can meet each other
and go over dates and plans for the coming year. These meetings and
this newsletter are the primary coordination and communication venues
in this District and each Lodge is responsible for the information
disseminated therein . If your Lodge is not represented, the officers
are still responsible for obtaining the information from othuer Lodges
in attendance. Thus attendance is expected of Masters and Wardens
but everyone is welcome to attend and we hope to see other elected
and appointed officers there!
Renegades Baseball Night
Jerusalem Temple Lodge will sponsor another outing to see the
Hudson Valley Renegades play on Saturday July 28th. This year's outing will be special because it is being sponsored in conjunction with several veteran's organizations, and we will be arranging to have a group of disabled veterans from the Castle Point VA Hospital join us. The evening is $25 and includes admission to the game and all the hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hotdogs and chicken sandwiches you can eat along with soft drinks and the usual fixings. For more information, click here. We hope you can join us!
2007-2008 Individual Development Course (iDC) Registration for next year’s Individual Development Course will be available soon. This course provides skills useful in every aspect of our lives and helps to develop us in our roles at work, our homes, our communities, and our Craft. The course focuses on personal skills such as time management, goal setting, and self-discipline; interpersonal skills such as public speaking, e-mail and written materials, dealing with difficult people, running effective meetings, and the group process; and other important skills such as problem and data analysis, brainstorming, surveys, and project management. These are skills that apply to all areas of our lives and next year’s course, scheduled to begin in September and run one Saturday a month for six months, will be open to spouses as well as Masons. We hope to see many of you take advantage of this important and very valuable opportunity. For more information, please contact the DDGM.
Orange-Rockland Central Chapter, Order of DeMolay DeMolay is a Masonic youth program for boys ages 12-21, which teaches leadership within a fun, moral framework in line with our own principles and tenets. The local Chapter, which meets at Wallkill Lodge in Walden, is in desperate need of advisors, Brothers willing to give up a few hours a month to mentor and work with these inspiring young men. There’s no commitment required to obtain information, give us a call and see what it’s all about. For more information, please contact R:.W:. Hank Stoveland.
UPCOMING CHILD ID PROGRAMS
Child ID System
The District Child ID System is available to Lodges who have two Brothers
trained in its use. These Brothers may sign out the system by contacting
Wor. Robert Morlang, Jr.. Please allow
a month in advance to reserve the system and allow the District Committee
to order the necessary supplies for your program. Please remember
that all unused materials must be returned with the system, there
is to be no stockpiling of supplies for future programs.
Thank You ORDMA!
We would like to thank the Orange-Rockland District Masonic Association
for their generous donation of $500 toward a second Child ID system.
We still have a ways to go, anyone wishing to make a donation should
contact Wor. Robert Morlang, Jr.
Upcoming Programs
West Point Lodge will hold a Child ID system training program on Thursday
June 14th at 7:30 p.m. For more information, please contact the
Secretary.
West Point Lodge will be holding a large Child ID program on Wednesday,
July 4th in Highland Falls. Assistance is requested. For
more information, please contact the
Secretary.
ORDMA NEWS
Next ORDMA Meeting
The next meeting of the Orange-Rockland District Masonic Association
(ORDMA) will be held on Tuesday June 25th at West Point Lodge. A light
supper will be served at 6:30 p.m. followed by the meeting and program
at 7:30 p.m. All Brothers of the District are invited and encouraged
to attend!
ORDMA Calendars Still Available! The 2006-2007 ORDMA Calendars are still available! These handy pocket calendars contain all of our District's Lodge and Concordant Bodies meetings, important events, Lodge and District officers, and directions to our Lodges. The calendars cost $5 each and the proceeds go to support our District's community service and charitable efforts, including our new District child ID system. To obtain a calendar, contact any of ORDMA's officers.
* Denotes a dinner will precede or
follow the meeting or event. Please check with the contact for
details.
2007-2008 DDGM Visits
Athelstane Lodge No. 839
Tuesday October 16th, 2007
Cornerstone Lodge No. 711
Wednesday September 26th, 2007
Goshen Lodge No. 365
Monday September 17th
Hoffman Lodge No. 412
Tuesday November 20th, 2007
Hudson River Lodge No. 309
Wednesday November 14th, 2007
Jerusalem Temple Lodge No. 721
Saturday January 12th, 2009
Naurashank Lodge No. 589
Friday October 12th, 2007
Port Jervis Lodge No. 328
Friday September 14th
Stony Point-Wawayanda Lodge No. 313
Wednesday September 19th, 2007
Wallkill Lodge No. 627
Wednesday December 19th, 2007
Warwick Lodge No. 544
Tuesday October 23rd, 2007
West Point Lodge No. 877
Thursday October 4th, 2007
SCHOOL OF INSTRUCTION
The Orange-Rockland District School of Instruction is on a hiatus for the summer. We will re-open in August to review the Opening and Closing, and should you wish to hold other rehearsals for your new officers over the summer, your AGLs will be glad to attend provided you give them sufficient notice. The School will recommence in September, rotating on a different evening each month throughout the District at the invitation of individual Lodges. More details will be provided as the time draws closer, Have a great summer! If you have any questions, please contact the DDGM.
SICKNESS AND DISTRESS
Our esteemed Brother, R:.W:. Harold Jones, underwent a procedure to put a stent in last weekend. Harold is a Past District Deputy Grand Master of our District, serves as Superintendent of the George Washington Historical Site at Tappan (the DeWint House), and is the Senior Warden of Naurashank Lodge. He is home and recuperating, and I know our entire District joins in wishing him the speediest of recoveries!
Leadership Essentials
THE TOUGHEST CHOICES A LEADER MUST MAKE excerpted from Leadership Wired
Americans crave the right to choose. We revere our autonomy. We don’t want to participate in a predetermined plot; we want to create our own future. We are the masters of our own destiny—the captain of our ship. No one else is allowed at the helm.
The entertainment industry bears out the American preference for individual choice. As far back as 1979, Bantam Books begin publishing its Choose Your Own Adventure series. No longer was a reader tyrannized by the will of the author. Instead, by making crucial decisions at pivotal plot points, the reader could shape the outcome of the story.
In the infancy of the video gaming industry, most games followed a fairly predictable “mission.” Players guided characters through a prearranged series of levels to overthrow a villain and rescue a princess. Through time, the landscape of the gaming industry has shifted to cater to the American love of choice. The highest-selling PC game of all time, The Sims allows gamers to design, define, and guide the lives of its characters. At the end of 2006, Nintendo introduced the Wii to the market. The highly integrated system allows users to bowl or play baseball by physically maneuvering the controllers. No longer are gamers required to direct on-screen characters—now, gamers are the characters.
Television has also not been ignorant of its audience’s desire to participate in programming. Whereas judges solely used to determine the outcome of contests, now the viewing audience can pick who wins and loses by text messaging their votes to the show. American Idol and Dancing with the Stars have become cultural phenomenon in large part because of their interactive format, which draws the viewer into the show’s outcome.
As resolute as Americans can be about exercising our right to choose, it’s amazing how little thought we devote in choosing the direction of our lives. An alarming percentage of us simply drift through life as captives of circumstance. We don’t select a purpose for our lives, we don’t bother about the legacy we leave, and we aren’t strategic about which activities will take up our time.
In a feature for GovLeaders.org, Roy Blunt talks about the three most important choices a leader faces in life: purpose, usage of time, and legacy.
The First Choice – Purpose
Blunt ranks purpose as the top choice a leader must make. Why are you here? What do you hope to accomplish during your lifetime? What is the mission statement of your life? Perhaps the most fundamental of all human choices, selecting purpose guides every area of a leader’s life.
The Second Choice - Time
In Blunt’s opinion, the second most important choice made by leaders is how they use their most precious resource—time. In the words of Annie Dillard, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” Each person is handed an equal allotment of hours each day. Leaders leverage their hours. They recognize how much today matters, and they prioritize the activities on which to spend their valuable minutes.
The Third Choice - Legacy
Blunt lists legacy as the third essential choice made by a leader. He describes legacy as “where your energies take you at the end of each day.” Every person must choose what they are chasing in life. Is personal fame the goal? Philanthropy? Relationships with friends and family? Whether a person’s leadership is remembered as worthwhile or worthless depends greatly upon his or her chosen legacy.
Next ORDMA Meeting