Brethren,
As I write this article, it is evident that winter in Wisconsin has arrived. The snow and ice are upon us once again. While it is beautiful in its own way, it offers a lot of concerns for our Brothers as they travel around our state practicing our Masonic Principles. Please take every precaution when out and about traveling to other lodges and state functions. Your health and safety are our main concerns.
I hope everyone has been enjoying a wonderful start to a Happy New Year. I feel the excitement in the air everywhere I travel. We have a great deal of enthusiastic young Masons who are full of great ideas. They, along with the seasoned veterans of the Lodges are working together to make Masonry more visible in our local communities. We cannot underestimate those important principles that our Masonic Ritual teaches us, how it unites the young and old alike. It forms a bond of friendship and brotherhood that I feel is as strong and meaningful as any I’ve come across. I commend the Lodges who have united together for one common goal, making good men better and improving their communities.
Your Grand Lodge officers and myself have started the year the same way we ended 2011, installing officers. The great thing about installing officers is we get to meet some prospective future leaders of our Fraternity. I know that as I travel I write down names and take business cards from various Brothers in hope that they may become Area Administrators and work their way up through the various Grand Lodge offices. Never underestimate what a little old fashioned hard work will do for you in this Fraternity. Believe me, we take notice and have put together a list of people to watch in the coming years. We also look for people who specialize in certain areas to serve on Grand Lodge committees, whether it would be finance, human resources, architecture, business or in other capacities. The Craft is continually evolving, while we do rely on a lot of Past Grand Masters for their wisdom and knowledge, we also know that we have to prepare our Fraternity for the future. We thank all of you for your willingness to serve and move this Fraternity forward.
I, along with my wife Tammi, Past Grand Master Michael DeWolf, and our director of development have just recently returned from our trip to Florida to visit our Brothers who reside there. We had the opportunity to honor several fifty year Brothers and present several Brothers with our new sixty year pins that we just started this year. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet our Brothers and their Ladies and to give them an update on our technology improvements and the projects we have put into place so far this year. I explained that a lot of what we have accomplished this year was actually started last year with Past Grand Master Joe Harker and the progressive line officers. The idea is to work together and work towards our goals together. No more implementing a new state of the art idea every year, just working together and picking up where the previous Grand Master left off. I believe it is paying dividends and we will accomplish a lot more as your elected and appointed officers. Special thanks to Past Grand Master Carl Wussow and Bro. Billy Brown for setting up these events in Florida.
We have just completed the first state wide secretaries training session in Madison. I must apologize for missing this wonderful event, but I had pneumonia and didn’t want to infect anyone else. From all reports the training was a great success. The members who I have talked to said it was very informative and worth the time and cost to attend. I believe there were over 100 Lodges represented and close to 150 Brothers in attendance. Due to its success we are planning to make this an annual event. The details will be put together at our staff meeting and sent out to you in advance. Special thanks to our Most Worshipful Past Grand Master and current Grand Secretary Mike DeWolf and the Grand Lodge office staff for all their hard work putting this all together. More importantly we would like to thank the Lodges and the Brothers for attending and making this a huge success.
Many of you may have already received a Masonic Birthday Card in the mail. This is also a new program that has just started recently. We felt that we should give something back to our Brothers who support our great Fraternity here in Wisconsin. I would personally like to thank the Wisconsin Masonic Foundation Board members for supporting this program and also the development office staff for all of their work and assistance in making this program a reality.
With Brotherly Love,
Davey L. White Jr.
Grand Master
