Page 3 - Sojourner Newsletter Winter 2021-5_Neat

VOL. 98 ISS. 1 3

National Commander’s Message

My brothers, first and fore- My brothers I continue to encourage you to meet as
most, I wish all of you continued often as you can either virtually or in person as the circum-
health and safe passage through stances permit. Circumstances should be governed by
the current pandemic. Needless to Governmental and Masonic guidelines. We should never
say my travel plans have been violate restrictions imposed by the various Grand Lodges.
greatly curtailed by governmental Remember we operate under the auspices of the Grand
restrictions and cancellation of Jurisdictions where we are located. Finally I will reiterate
many annual events. I have been that the degree is not to be conferred virtually on any plat-
able to attend those conference form nor may It be taped for later presentation.
and encampments where the conference portion was avail- Finally, I look forward to meeting this summer in Mil-
able virtually. Recruits were initiated at the Great Lakes waukee, WI, for the Annual National Convention and En-

encampment and Georgia area encampment. Unfortunate- campment. I say this with a firm belief that this too will
ly I was once again precluded from attendance by trans- pass and we will once again be able to meet in person to
portation and contact concerns. There is a lesson here renew old friendships and personally conduct the business
which we should be best able to teach. No other group of of the Order. Until then may the Great and Grand Com-
Americans have had to endure isolation and separation mander of us all continue to bless each of you, our active
from friends and family to the extent that veterans have. I duty troops and the United States of America.
know of no other unit of our society that has this kind of
experience dealing with hardship than you who have Sincerely and Fraternally,
served this great Nation in its military establishment. Martin D. Schwebel

National Secretary’s Desk the legacy system started intermittently failing and causing
multiple issues. We ended up replacing the very old NE-
TOPIA router with a new CISCO router and, knock on
The National Office continues to operate on an anti- wood, all seems fine now. However, that system failure
quated server, computers, and software. This makes it very and a few other unexpected surprises will probably mean
challenging to provide the level of support I wish to pro- the “roll out” to push into February. Everyone’s patience
vide to our members and Chapters. It also makes for a and understanding will be most appreciated while we work
frustrating work environment. The COVID-19 pandemic on all these projects.
has prevented the initial planned set-up of new technology. Some Chapters are still outstanding in filing their An-
The pandemic continues to be an issue and rather than wait nual Reports (or have some missing reports) even after six
any longer, I asked that the new server, computers, and months past the July 31 deadline. The Secretaries of the
other related hardware be transported to the National Of- following Chapters need to contact the National Office and
fice so I can have it installed sooner rather than later. allow us to help you to complete this important and re-
Everything arrived the week after Christmas by the efforts quired task as soon as possible: LOUISIANE #33, FORT
of Brother Barnes, NPE. He stayed for two days and we JACKSON #184, CAMP FANNIN #228, PASADENA
had a very enjoyable visit together discussing plans for the #265, STOCKTON #266, MONTGOMERY #365,
upcoming year. SEMINOLE #373, ARROWHEAD #421, VENTURA
The installation of the new system, installation of new COUNTY #494, MELVIN W. BYERS #503, ANSON
software, updating older software, and migration of the JONES #507, KNOXVILLE #514, LUBBOCK #517,
database and other related database software is going to GREEN MOUNTAIN #527, WILLAMETTE VAL-
require my time, focus, and oversight. January has already LEY #529, SHENANDOAH VALLEY #543, EDWIN
been a busy month working on publishing the WINTER HICKMAN #550, NORTH MISSISSIPPI #554,
SOJOURNER magazine, preparing for the Friday night BLOOD MOUNTAIN #555, LYMAN HALL #557,
session of the Mid Winter Meeting (which went very well 1776 MILITIA #560.
and I appreciate all the kind words and thoughts given to I respectfully ask the Area Representatives and Re-
me afterwards), and preparing and sending out the EOY gional Representatives to aid and assist the National Office
(end of year) and quarterly reports for the Executive Com- in having the Secretaries of these Chapters to submit their
mittee (EXCOM) and Board of Trustees. Previously I stat- FIVE 2020 Annual Reports (Officer Info Sheet, Annual
ed it is my ardent desire to “roll out” the ability of the Return, Heroes report, Americanism report, and Bridge of
Chapter Secretaries to pull their own Alpha reports and Light report).
make member updates to the database by the end of Janu-
ary utilizing the existing Member Management System Sincerely and fraternally,
(MMS) database. Unfortunately we lost a week because Mark W. Underwood