A message from the Office of Grand Master of The Grand Lodge of Freemasons.
Greetings Distinguished Rulers, Brothers and Cowans,
January has come and gone and its passing brought promise of prosperity and growth for the Lodge with a good and steady rise in our strength and numbers.
Internal Works
January was a month of consolidation for most of the Grand Council as we routinely processed the daily tasks of our respective departments. Our forums underwent some more minor changes in an attempt to make it easier to categorize and find information as did the degree structure, testing and graduation process.
After a brief period of stagnation mid-month, the Grand Superintendent has had his work cut out for him lately with a rush of new candidates wishing to become Masons. We peaked at 139 nations, up from 129 at December 30th. In total we had 18 new members, 2 ghosts and 10 deletions/resignations.
We only lost one high profile member this month. That being High Emperor Dave, who returned back to AiD to save his former alliance from further decline.
Foreign Affairs
Another month passes with no change to our treaty portfolio. The Grand Chancellor did however secure changes to our MDPs with UCN and KoC to ensure they are non-chaining in the event of conflict. By all reports our ambassadors have been well received around the multitude of alliance forums and IRC channels.
Order of the Red Cross
The month started with the defense of a brother, which seemed to go quite well with the eventual deletion of the aggressive nation. The month ended with the "accidental" retaliatory action against one of our Entered Apprentices by a previously wronged nation. Reps were brokered due to the swift and expert work the Grand Knight and staff, so all's well that ends well.
State of the Masons
As mentioned in the opening paragraph, our strength continues to increase steadily as we pass the 1.6 million mark. With the ratification of the Masonic Code, version 5, some major changes have taken place with the Lodge. The Grand Steward has been retired as an office of government, the testing and progression of degrees has been overhauled and come March we will return to having one Registrar.
It has been decided that we should ditch our acronym of GLOF for something more appealing. We believe it would be beneficial to drop the unattractive GLOF tag and from this point forward the shortened reference for The Grand Lodge of Freemasons shall be Mason (for IRC tags) or Lodge (when referring to the alliance in correspondence).
Awards
12 months long service is a mighty achievement and these Masons have celebrated that anniversary during the month of January.
For achieving 12 months Masonic service:AlexG314, MarkUK, Alaric, Great Oak, Charles the Great and Nightshift.
Reaching 6 months is nothing to sneeze at either and several Masons have reached that milestone.
For achieving 6 months Masonic service:underbg, ZayneHumphrey, mynamehere, wardog360, Chigurh, The Machine, princess jessica, Moosewizard, Tak178, Zellx and gidon.
Some worthy members managed to stick out 3 months to receive the first of the long service badges.
For achieving 3 months Masonic service:Penedono, Quinzy, Ionis, Lionel Mandrake, General Tito, Bower3aj, Yvonne, jaycee1318, Oso Oakenclaw, Acedelma, Timmy09, Phlogiston, Popsbw3 and ModusOperandi.
When this Mason was affiliated with the Lodge for just one day he helped defend a Brother with a full 7 day war effort at great expense to himself. Not only once but on two occasions has he come to the defense of his brethren without once asking for aid or thanks. In the short time he has been here he has been both active on the forum and more importantly, not afraid to put his own nations growth at risk to help the security of the alliance. Solarius is a deserving recipient of the Good Conduct Medal.
For displaying Good Conduct:Solarius
The background tasks required to keep an alliance smoothly operating are many and varied. This Mason has implemented and maintained a Mass Mailing List for quite some time and does so without complaint or request for recompense whatsoever. This unassuming job may not be interesting nor overly rewarding however it is necessary and beneficial to the Communications office. It is always up to date when required and often done in silence and without fanfare. For continued effort and dedication, Stooo is recognised with the Good Conduct Medal.
For displaying Good Conduct:Stooo
As January ends, we enter the final month of the 5th term of Council office. In just over 3 weeks we shall visit the polls yet again to elect the Grand Master and Registrar. I'm looking forward to seeing the outcome of that one as I feel it will be one of our best ballots to date. Once again, the brethren of the Lodge have done me proud by always remembering that they are Masons and that the Lodge to which they have shown their obligation is a most honorable and extraordinary alliance destined for greater times.
Yours in Brotherhood,
Genghis
Grand Master
The Grand Lodge of Freemasons
