‘On the road to the East, 24 inches at a time’

    

The Road to the East class today in 2 East.

I ought to have tackled this years ago, but it was only this morning that I finally attended Grand Lodge’s Road to the East course. Or Part I at least. The second half will take place in a few weeks. It didn’t seem necessary to me these past nine years, but since I’ll be installed in the East of The American Lodge of Research in June (that’s the plan anyway), it occurred to me I’d better receive this good and wholesome instruction.

One of the dozens of PowerPoint slides.

The sum of that instruction is in the form of an unwieldy binder titled The 24-Inch Gauge Masonic Resource Guide that is available to New York Masons from our Grand Lodge’s business office. It contains accumulated knowledge and wisdom from the ages. The current version is dated 2018 and could use refreshing. (Just speaking as an editor, there are things in here that drive me bananas.) Here’s the advice on lodge publications:

But it’s a must read because it is a broad compendium of information about our fraternity’s idiomatic ways of doing things. I won’t make any friends by offering this advice, but every lodge should acquire a copy, digitize it, and make it available to the brethren. Sorry.

It was a fun, interactive class led by Bro. Tomas, the Fourth Manhattan District’s Staff Officer (and incoming District Deputy Grand Master), with the assistance of Bro. Philippe, our retiring DDGM. There were fourteen students in attendance, including the Wardens and Junior Deacon of Publicity Lodge.

Bro. Michael Siegel, in a video presentation, explained how to navigate the more than 400 pages of our law book. Will you guys please stop making new laws? Barring future scientific advancements, like the cloning of Masons, everything has been covered and codified into law already.

I realize the prospective Master of a research lodge—talk about idiom!—actually doesn’t require this training, but it’s perfectly worthwhile and is a big part of the education and development our Grand Lodge makes available.