** Newsletter **

Greetings Companions:    

I hope that those of you that attended the 154th Annual Assembly of the Grand Council enjoyed it and received some information to take back to your councils.

I am very honored to have been elected as your Grand Master for this year. I will try to live up to the trust you have placed in me. I look forward to working with all of you. I welcome any and all ideas and suggestions. We must all work in harmony if we are to accomplish anything.

Here are some of the things we are going to do this year. We have area coordinators that our District Inspectors can call on for any information and help you may need. Our Grand Officers will accompany them on their first visit to a council to help them get started and to visit with our members.

We have a Grand Orator who can be called on for special events. He is the York Rite State Membership Chairman. He will have information for those who attend Grand Lodge this year. There are Grand Lecturers and Instructors who are willing to come to your councils and put on a school of instructions. We hope you will take advantage of this and have as many members present as possible. Our Grand Officers are also willing to help in any way they can. We are elected to help you, so feel free to call on us.

The Grand Council has a Web Site to put any events you may have on the web (http://www.crypticmasons-il.org/). There is also the Illinois York Rite e-mail network by Companion Earl Knight (opc@shawneelink.net) who does an excellent job with this.

I just returned from a York Rite Day at Mr. Vernon where I enjoyed seeing the best Masonic work I have seen in a long while. It was very well done. If you missed it, you missed a great day. Eighteen new members joined our ranks. It was a site to behold. We thank all of you who made this possible. A Special thanks to Mt. Vernon for sponsoring this day and to Larry Martin M.I.P.G.M. for his hard work keeping records for everyone. Congratulations on a job well done.

Please let your members know about our Nurses Scholarship Training Program. The money from our endowment fund interest and from our sale of calendars helps us keep those who want to become nurses. You can also help by enrolling in the Cryptic Masons University. Basic enrollment is $27.00. You will receive a nice lapel pin and can add to the degrees at any time. If more information is needed on this, let me know. We also support the Cryptic Masons Research Foundation - research on arterosc1erosis, which affects all of us is some way or another.

We belong to a great fraternity and should be proud of it. Enjoy it and talk about it so that others know what we represent.

I hope to see all of you and greet you down the road.

Fraternally,

Chet M.I.G.M.

Archives