Page 7 - Keystone Spring 2021 Issue 6

A Year In The Life Of Our Provincial Grand Secretary

Last summer I recall the Grand Secretary writing here
that he had always tended toward ceremonial duties in
all the active offices he had previously held. So too it was
with me until becoming Scribe in Thackeray Royal Ark
Mariners, then PrDepSec and then PGSecretary. I fear
the similarity ends there, however!

Until this last 12 months I had settled into a regular
schedule of following specific target dates in the calendar
– such as preparing for and seeing through the Annual
Mark Provincial Meeting, then the Royal Ark Mariner
Assembly, ensuring Grand Lodge & Provincial Grand Lodge dues were paid in the
Autumn, the Secretaries & DCs meeting in September; that Provincial Honours
were agreed and sent out for the following year, and so it goes on. Meanwhile
dealing with the usual correspondence and forms for London, and the minutiae of
business arising regularly in our Mark and Royal Ark Mariner Lodges. It was an
ordered schedule, apart from the occasional need to get a dispensation from
London at the last minute or plan for something unusual such as the St. John’s
Ambulance presentation with our past PGM.

At the same time, there were other Annual Provincial Grand Meetings to attend,
Grand Lodge Quarterly Communications in London, and of course the various
Provincial team Visits around the county to enjoy. All regular dates in the diary and
a variety of settings.

Then, as we all know only too well, it all fell apart with the Covid pandemic.

In ever-changing times, Grand lodge has been keeping us abreast of the latest
rules and requirements for meetings, whether actual or virtual, which have needed
passing on to Lodges. I have learned a new word, “Zoom”, and attended more of
these Zoom meetings than I used to real ones! Fortunately, we have benefitted
from a forward-looking Grand Lodge (and a favourable set of Constitutions and
Regulations) which have enabled Virtual Business meetings to keep Lodges
ticking over. Likewise, a Provincial Executive able and willing to grasp this new
medium of Virtual online get-togethers for brethren. Not as good as the real thing,
but at least a means of keeping the Province in touch. So, for the past 12 months
Secretarial life has been as busy as usual but in a completely different way; now
sat even more in front of a keyboard and less wearing an apron and collar!

As for ritual, like most of you mine is going to need a good application of “Masonic
WD 40” to get up and running again!
The past year has been remarkably interesting for me in ways inconcievable 18
months ago, but like all of you I look forward to a return to near normality later in
the summer!

And one more thing, I have put on more weight not eating Festive Boards, and so
cannot wait to get back to normal Lodge dining for the sake of my figure!

Spring Issue 2021 Page7