Relief Sought For Quake Victims in Chile
MAY THROUGH AUGUST MAY 1
The Grand Lod ge of Pennsylva nia has contributed $1.000 to the Disaster Re lief Fund being administered by the Masonic Service Association for the rei iefof Masons and their fam ilies who suffered great losses in the earthqua ke that struck large portio n s of Chi le on March5. Immediate re lie f efforts were initiated by the Grand Logia de Ch ile through its Grand Master, Most Worshipful Brother Per eira Henriquez, but the ava ilable funds were qui cl~l y d epleted . An appea l for assistance was then made to the Masonic Se rvice Association of the United States. Bro . Stewart M.L. Pollard, executive secretary of the association, said that a ll funds collected as a result of the appea l will be forwarded to the Gra nd Mas ter ofChile " for t he relie f o f the human n ee ds ofMason ic families and no t for the re bu ilding of Masonic p ro perties. In wri ting to th e Gra nd Masters of a ll United States jurisdictions, Bro. Po lla rd described the need as urgent. " It is hoped t ha t every Mason in your jurisdictio n w ill wa nt to exten d th e h elp ing hand to our Chilean brother s," he wrote. To minimize administrative costs, it is req uested that re lief funds be sent to the Mason ic Se rvice Association a t 8120 Fen ton Str eet. Silver Spring. Maryla nd 20910-4 785. C h ecl~s should be made payable to the M.S.A. Disaster Rel ief Fund. As th is repor t was b e ing prepared, word was received o f a second qual~e in the affected areas but a n assessm e nt of damages was not ava ilable.
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Grand Master's Itinera:ry Annual Maxwell Sommerville Banquet. Lodge No. 121, Philad elphia 2 Lodge No. 629, Har risburg 3 Lodge Nos. 466 and 249, Olyphant 4 Special Commun ication of Grand Lodge, Dedication of a Lodge Room, Lodge No. 618, Wyalusing 6 Lodge No. 409, Pine Grove 7 Lodge No. 4 87, Philadelphia 8 Lodge No. 242, J im Thorpe 9 Lodge No. 336, Gettysburg 10 Lodge No. 45, 200th Anniversary, Pittsburgh 11 Special Communication of Grand Lodge, Ded ication of a Lodge Building, Lodge No. 304, Albion 13 Lo dge No. 239, Freepo rt 14 Lo dge No. 1 97, Carlisle 15 Lo d ge No. 633, Marienville 16 Lodge No. 561, Allentown 19 Annual Masonic Breal{fast. Grand Lodge of New Yorl{, Buffalo, N.Y. 19-21 An nual Conclave, Grand Comma nde1y , Knights Templar of Pennsylvania, Erie 22 Lod ge No. 773, Philadelphia 24 Committee on Mason ic Homes 28 Lodge Nos. 477, 351 and 421, Westfield 29 Lodge Nos. 281, 490 and 6 16. Altoona 30 Lodge No.3, Philadelp hia 31 Lodge Nos. 70, 418 and 471, Athens
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Lodge No. 243. New Castle Lodge Nos. 296 and 624, J e nl~in town
14 15
Lodge No. 331. Ligonier Lodge No. 339, 125th Anniversary, Scranton 16 International Shr ine Hospital Day, Ph iladelphia 18 Lodge No. 762, Pittsburgh 19 Valley of Coudersport. AA.S.R. 20 Lodge No. 753, Indiana 21 Lodge Nos. 306 and 415. Troy 22 Lodge No. 340, 125th Anniversary, Paoli 25 Lodge Nos. 536 and 559. Reynoldsville 26 Lodge Nos. 791, Monaca 27 Lodge Nos. 6 64 and 504, Moosic 28 Committee on Masonic Homes 29 Special Comm unication of Grand Lodge, Cornerstone laying and dedication, Altoona
JULY 1 Lodge No. 6 2, West Reading 2-6 Imperial Shr ine, Atlanta, Georgia 12-14 Cou nci l of Deliberatio n, Hershey 20 !rem Temple, Potentate's Ball, Dallas 26 Committee on Masonic Homes 27 Mason ic Congress Committee, Masonic Hom es at Elizabethtown 27 Meeting. Board of Directors, Pennsylvania Youth Foundation
JUNE 4-5 Grand Lodge Quarterly Communica tio n, State College 6 Lodge Nos. 502 and 746, Tare ntum 7 Lodge No. 312, Ebensburg 8 Special Comm unica tion o f Grand Lodge, Cornerstone laying a nd dedica tion, Lodge No. 294, Ashland 10 Lodge No. 557, Tionesta
AUGUST 10 23 23 23
Lo dge No. 3 41, J 2 5 th An n iversa1y , Factoryville Com mittee on Maso nic Ho m es Lodges, 15th Maso n ic District, Kingsley Harford Agr icultural Society Annual Coun ty Fair, Harford Maso n ic Display
T h e Fennsylvania Freemason
Distribution Office
Masonic Temple One North Broad Street Philadelphia, Pa. 19107
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Second Class POSTAGE PAID Philade lphia Pe nnsylvania
AN OFFICIAL FUBLICATION OF THf: RIGHT WORSHIFFUL GRAN D LODGE OF FREE AND ACCEFTf:D MASONS OF F ENNSYLVANIA
VOLUME XXXII
MAY
•
1985
NUMBER2
Project SOLOMON II®Turns the Tide he continuous pat tern of members hip loss that has p lagu ed the Gran d Lodge of Pennsylvania since 1 961 has come to an e nd . Thanks to Proj ect SOLOMON II, the Rebuilding o f Freemason ry in Pennsylvan ia, the graying fratern ity is b eginning to grow green. The t urnab out cam e in the fi r st quar te r o f 1985 after a year end 19 84 loss factor of a m odest 1 ,8 65 members, attribu ted mostly to suspe nsions for nonpaym ent of d ues u nd e r new leg is la tion t hat require s dues paym en t in J anuary of each year with automa tic s us pension fo r those in a rrears. A l mos t 1 ,6 00 persons wer e s u s pende d in December of 1 984 fo r non p aym ent of due s. T he year e nd fig ure s, howeve r, d o n o t r e fl e ct t h e fact t h at m o r e than 1 ,500 petitions for initia tio n a nd m e mbershi p were i n p r ogress a t the tim e, and that m ore than 360 men were in vario u s stages of t he pro cess es for being restore d to m e mbership. A new member is not p laced on the rol ls o f t h e fratern ity u n t il he is made a Mason by re ce iving t h e ente re d apprenti ce degree. He is cou nted for purposes of Project SOLOMON II, h o wever, whe n his pe t it ion i s appr oved, thus the one m on th lag in statistics. Project SOLO MO N II uses t h e earlie r d a te s im ply to save t im e in p rocessing th e builders' ca rd s th at are used to r ecogn ize with bro n ze, si lver and gold lapel pins th o se who are m a l~ i ng t h e program worl{, th e m e n who are b r inging new m embers to th e fr at ernity. Even t h e offic ial1984 statistics r eflect the value o f Project SOLOMON II. however, wh e n the loss factor o f 1,8 6 5 is com p a r ed to t he losses of recent years. The lo ss of m e m b ership in 1 9 83 wa s 3,772 ; in 1 9 82 i t was 4 ,21 9; in 1981 it was 4,01 2, a n d in 1 9 80 it was 3,609. In fact yo u wi ll h ave to go bad~ 1 8 years to
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1 967 to find a m embership lo ss o f less than 2,000. A great d ea l of useful data has b een and is being collected through th e com pute r tr acking program that is a mos t important partofProjectSOLOMON I I. Th e information the lodges s ubm it directly to the computer tracking center ea ch month is used to develop new ideas to improve performa n ce. Dis t i nct patterns have develop ed over the first 15 months of the project. New di r ectio n bec omes appa rent as each mon t h's statistics are added to the pool of knowledge. The fraternity, for example, is g rowin g at a faster rate in th e rura l areas. In the seven regions, the five that are p redominately rura l are growing. wh ile the two regions tha t cove r t he major cit ies st ill show a mode st loss fact or. The statistics must b e analyzed very carefully however, since the major city reg ions, Pittsburgh and Philade lphia, have a lmost halfthe Masons in the s tate. The city r egions conta in m any more lodges and are much more. diffic ult to supe rvise. , Still, the loss fa ctor in the Pittsburgh area for 1 9 8 4 was less than 800 in a popu lation o f more than 52 thousand m embe rs, and less than 900 in a p o pulation of more than 43 thousand mem b ers in lhe Philade lphia area. At times, the d a ta t h ro ws off c o n fusing signals. In one a·r ea o f high unemployme nt. fo r ex ample, th e loss facto r se ems to reflect th at d i stressin g economic condition. Yet ano ther area o f equally high or greate r unemploym ent will show a h ealthy p attern o f grmvth. What is beco ming inc r easing app arent is tha t t h e p la n wor k s very we ll where it is foll owed closely an d is fully imple m e nted. All lodges s hou ld n ow b eatth at stage o f the progra m where th ey are rea ching o u t to those m emhf>rc; w h n h .,. ..~
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inactive for a nu mber of yea r s and who have resisted the invita t ions to attend a meetin g whe re Project SOLOMON I I w ill be explain ed to t hem . It is now the go ing g e ts tougher for t he chairm an o f the lo d ge's SOLOMON II Tas k Force and the m embers of th e force w ho m u st tal~e the a ud io -visual pres entatio n to t he homes of t h e memb er s. It is also n ow t ha t i ni t iat ive and inn ova t ive th inking com es into p lay. On e lo d ge had great s ucc ess i n la te 1984 with inactive member s by s ear c hin g its r ecords for th e recommen d ers o f t h ose o n t h ei r ind ividual l ist s a nd setti ng u p meetings in t h e h om e .w it h t he sam e people who sha red t he orig inal experience. I f an i n active me mber 's recom menders a r e not avai la ble, the m e m bers wh o se rved on th e Com m it tee of Inquiry or as lodge office rs at the ti m e l1e rece ived his degrees wou ld be a b le to ma ke a s im i la r co nnection. The lodges t hat ar e th is d ee p i nto th e program of reach in g o ut to th ei r m embership are fi n d ing g reat rewa r ds in doing so . Th ey h ave t11e o p por tun i ty to clar ifY o ld misundersta ndi ngs; to answer ques t ions fo r those w h o fea r t he r etu rn to the lod ge room beca use th ei r k nowledge o f th e r i t ual and procedure is rusty, and to learn fro m those who a re inac t ive the reaso n s why t h ey were not m o re d eeply to uc h ed by t he fratern a l exper ie n ce. Weare into t he s ixth of the 1 6 q u arters allotted to us for Project SOLO MON II in rea ch ing the go al o f in cr eas ing by 50,000 the m em b e r sh ip in Pennsylva nia. We ar e worl{ing t11e p la n and provi ng every d ay th at t h e pla n works. Most i mpor tan tly, ho wever, is the fact tha t weare learn ing m ore each d ay a b ou t ourselves, and, i n rea cl1ing o ut to o u r b rothe rs, we a re learn in!=l wh a t it is to