Robert Burns Lodge #243 F&AM of

UPCOMING ROBERT BURNS EVENTS

Items in bold have changed since last trestleboard

May:

2 7:30PM Stated meeting EMC (Grand Lodge Resolutions to be discussed)

6 8AM Dist. 8 SLOC; Centennial Lodge, Snohomish-MM degree to follow.

16 7PM MM degree EMC

17 7PM Line officer meeting, WB Wallinger’s house-All invited

20 Open air degree, Roche Harbor; Noon lunch, degree to follow

June:

3 8AM Dist. #8 SLOC Everett #137, EMC

6 7:30PM Stated meeting EMC, official visit DDGM for dist #8

7-10 Grand Lodge, Ocean Shores

30 EMC 4-lodge joint table lodge with visit from Grand Master

July:

15 All EMC lodge picnic, time and place TBD

UPCOMING EVENTS OF OTHER BODIES

April:

24 Edmonds Rainbow Majority ceremony

24 Everett #137 MM Degree 6:30 dinner, 7:30 degree EMC

29 Alderwood Rainbow car wash: Dairy Queen at Thrasher’s Corner and Jiffy Lube on 164^th St. East of I-5

29 8AM-4 EMC garage sale—tables available for group or personal sales

May:

8-10 Alderwood Rainbow rest stop Northbound I-5 at Smokey Point-volunteers needed, contact Harry Sherman 425-776-1578

14 8AM-12:30 Fellowship Chapter #61 RAM Mothers’ Day pancake breakfast, Ashler Lodge

21 4-6PM T. H. Little Spaghetti feed, Ashler Lodge

At our April stated meeting, Officer Steve Paxton of the Everett Police Department gave a very interesting presentation on the prevalent problem of identity theft and offered suggestions to reduce your risk of becoming an unhappy statistic. According to a recent article in the Seattle Times, 3.6 million households were affected in varying degrees by this type of crime in a single year to an estimated value of $3.2 billion dollars.

Suggestions for reducing your exposure included shredding all junk mail applications for credit cards and any other mail that has personal information. Even the smallest amount of information that most people consider unimportant, can be used by these people. Also, fiercely guard PINs, passwords, and Social Security numbers, all prime targets for identity theft.

The annual lodge officers’ proficiency competition for district #8 was held at the last district officers meeting (SLOC). Your master and wardens participated in the competition along with the officers of Everett #137 and Sultan-Monroe #160. The work of all three lodges was outstanding and the final grading very close, with Everett #137 being the overall winner. The winner of this district will compete in May against the winners of other districts and the final winner will be announced at Grand Lodge. We wish Everett Lodge the very best, as they represent our district. Your wardens worked hard to represent your lodge and should be congratulated for their effort. Although we did not win the competition, the lodge is the real winner by improving the overall quality of our work.

Brother Omar Baltuth proved up on the Fellowcraft degree at the April meeting and did a very fine job. Our junior warden, Bro. Steve Wandel, is now putting together the degree team to confer the Master Mason degree on Bro. Omar. Due to scheduling conflicts, the degree will be May 16th at 7:00 PM. If you would like to take part, or if you haven’t seen a MM degree for awhile, come and support the lodge in this Masonic celebration.

Robert Burns has three candidates, Brothers Randy and Darral Miles, and Bro. Ron Donovan who will participate in the Grand Lodge one day conferral of the degrees on May 13th at the Des Moines MRC. If any brothers would like to go and support our candidates please let me or the secretary know.

Brothers Matthew Appel and Omar Baltuth are working on establishing a new Web page for the lodge. As part of this process you were given a new link last month to access the Trestleboard. The current link is part of Bro. Omar’s own web site, however we are in the process of filing for a lodge domain registration and will have soon have our own web page. When built, we will include a calendar of events, articles of interest as well as the Trestleboard and other items deemed important. This is a big step forward in making our lodge visible to the public and has proven to be a good source of membership requests in other lodges. Stay tuned for further updates.

As noted last month, the Everett Masonic Center is holding an area garage sale in the parking lot on Saturday, April 29^th from 8:00AM-4:00PM. Tables are free; you can sell personal items on your own, or you can designate items to be sold and the money donated to the lodge. The choice is yours.

Additionally, during the sale the Childhood Identification Program (CHIPs) team, sponsored by Grand Lodge, will be in the fellowship hall. If you have a child or grandchild that has not been through this process yet, this is a good opportunity to get it done. Each child goes through a process of taking fingerprints, a dental impression, and a DNA swab is preserved. Also, a short video interview is recorded on tape. All information is combined in a packet and given to the parent, nothing is kept by the program. This process has been helpful in several cases to assist law enforcement locate and identify missing children in several states.

At the building of King Solomon’s Temple, this was the only seaport the Israelites possessed. Therefore all materials and goods must pass thru this location. Name this port.

The sprig of Acacia, is an emblem of our faith in the immortality of the soul. By it we are reminded of ….. what?

On March 24 thru 26, John and I attended the Warden’s Conference put on by Grand Lodge in Yakima. The conference was packed with informational classes designed to prepare us for our travels to the East. I want to personally thank the Lodge for sending us to the conference and I assure you all that the money spent and lessons learned will be a benefit to the Lodge over the next few years.

At this point it looks like we will be putting on a third degree for Omar Baltuth on May 16^th at 7:00pm. I think everyone knows Omar and he has worked hard recently to prove up on his Fellowcraft degree. Let’s show our support and appreciation as we raise Omar to the sublime degree of a Master Mason. PS- if you want to be a part of the Drama contact me ASAP, we have a part for everyone!

I’m thinking about a visitation to Damascus Lodge in Granite Falls on May 9^th. Let me know if that works with your schedule. So far this year we have visited six lodges in district. That’s pretty good, we will finish with the last 3 lodges when we come back after September.