Masonic Life Network

Operation Literacy Committee At Work

Dave Hall, P.M.

As the sun lowered in the west on the eve of last weekend, Div VIII committeemen sat at their laptops busily searching for photographs and icons that will convey the important message of our 2012 program Operation Literacy in partnering with the Grand Master’s project “Raising A Reader”.  As some searched, others worked on articulative narrations for their various tableaus.  Why?  What is so important to the Masons of Division VIII that many willingly sacrifice their personal time to prepare a program for the Grand Master’s project?

1% Improvement In Literacy Scores Increases Productivity

It has recently been documented that improvement in literacy scores demonstratively increases productivity.  The Grand Master’s Project “Raising A Reader” is worthwhile because it will help our underprivileged children make that quantum leap from their present futility to a successful future in life’s achievements.

Division8masons.com

Division VIII Masons have raised the bar every year in sponsoring programs that partner with the Grand Masters’ projects – all of them very worthwhile.  All Masons get involved because this is what Masons do!

Division VIII Masons want you and all Masons to join us in making Operation Literacy a success.  We are working hard but it will only be a success if you join us – boots, shoes, and saddle!  The real success is when our kids have the books and their mentors’ interest achieved in Raising A Reader.

Each one of our degrees has a special value in helping us to understand what it means to be a Mason. And each of us may have a special degree that we like more than others. Some the First, others the Second, and still others the Third Degree.

 I would like us to take a short look at the Fellowcraft. Degree. The Staircase lecture, in part, addresses many aspects of education. It discusses the degrees of Masonry, the human senses, architecture, and the seven liberal arts and sciences.

My question to you is this? Have you made a daily advancement in Masonry? Weekly? Monthly? When was the last time you read a serious book on the Craft, or an article? When did you attend a lecture discussing some aspect of Masonic education, philosophy or history?

Probably one of the best bargains in Masonic Education is the Southern California Research Lodge. http://www.theresearchlodge.org/ For a mere $20.00 a year you will receive a monthly mailing filling with gleanings of Masonic Education. You will find there excellent material for Stated meeting talks. Members also receive the Short Talk Bulletins, from the Masonic Service Bureau of North America.

But one of the best hidden secrets of the SCRL is their project for Candidate Awareness and Education. If you are a member of the SCRL, you can request a copy of Allen Robert’s book, The Craft and It’s Symbols, to be given, free of charge to the Entered Apprentice on the night of his degree. If you would do this once or twice this would more than pay for your membership. And what a great gift you have given the new Entered Apprentice; not only have you given him what might be his first book in his Masonic Library, but you have started him on the path of the Mason’s quest for Knowledge and Truth.

A visit to the SCRL website will give you a listing of dozens of quality books on Masonry at a discount price.

Have you ever attended one of the Masonic Symposiums sponsored by our Grand Lodge? The 2012 California Masonic Symposium, “The Emergence of Speculative Masonry,” will be held on June 30 in San Francisco and July 1 in Pasadena. For questions, please contact Kim Hegg, program services manager, at khegg@freemason.org or 415/292-9111.

Are you a member of The Philalethes society (freemasonry.org) or The Masonic Society (themasonicsociety.com)? Membership fees run between $39-50 annually. Both provide excellent journals.

Now you might say that it is too costly, in time or money, to do this. Allen Roberts used to say, “If you think Education is expensive, try ignorance.”

So, I ask you again: Have you had your Educational D-8 Today? Have you made your daily advancement in Freemasonry?

Mark R. Sandstrom, Inspector at Large, Division 8

Temecula Catalina Island Lodge presented a Golden Veterans award at their stated meeting on Monday, April 2, 2012, to Brother Ralph Wetmore. The pin was presented by the Master, Worshipful Anthony McLean, and Brother Wetmore’s wife of 43 years, Jenny. They were also joined by the Temecula Job’s Daughters Bethel #187, who prepared the dinner that evening.

Brother Wetmore is still a very active member of the Lodge. He is the head candidates’ coach, the tiler and a member of the Board of Trustees. He was also the Lodge’s Hiram award recipient in 2011.

Congratulations, Brother Wetmore for achieving this prestigious milestone.

Anthony McLean

Master Temecula Catalina Island Lodge #524

California Rainbow Girls had their annual convention, the past weekend March 31 – April 3, 2011, in Fresno, California. The theme this year was “A Rainbow Camporee in Nature’s National Parks”. The Grand Worthy Advisor was Megan Crowley, from Green Valley Assembly in Yucaipa.   This years Grand Service Project was the San Diego Adaptive Sports Foundation, and they raised $72,746.64.

The Grand Master and the Grand Lodge officers attended the VIP/Grand Officer/Grand Family dinner on Sunday evening. The Rainbow Grand Officers included everyone in the camp songs and campfire stories.

Following the banquet, at the evening session, the Grand Master was escorted. The Grand Assembly room was lined with Master Masons’ wearing their Masonic aprons. It was quite an impressive site.  The other Grand Lodge officers who were introduced were, Grand Chaplain Joseph Ross, the AGL of Division 4, Ricky Lawler,  the AGL of Division 6, Cub Jack, the AGL of Division 8 Frank Lee, the Grand Marshall, Allen Weisser, the Sr. Grand Deacon, Mario Balbiani, the Jr. Grand Deacon, Victor Key, Jr, Sr. Grand Steward Runo Lemming, and the Jr. Grand Steward Thomas Thompson.  There were also two Past Grand Master’s introduced, C. Ray Whitaker  and Richard Wakefield Hopper.

The evening concluded with the announcement of the new Grand Officers for 2012-2013. The new Grand Worthy Advisor is Shelby Zimmerman from Diablo Valley.  Rick Lawler’s daughter, Rebecca was appointed as the Dean to the Grand Cross of Color and Representative to Connecticut and Rhode Island.  From our Division, Nicole Patterson from the Green Valley Assembly, in Yucaipa, was appointed to the Grand Executive Committee California Flag Bearer and Grand Representative to Aruba, Florida and Tennessee.

Hello Everyone! Have you ever wondered what that "G+" logo was all around our site? Well today I figured I would write a short article explaining what it is and what it does…

That logo you see belongs to a system that Google has implemented called "Google+1." This system allows the general public to rate and recommend sites as relavant and reputable thus worthy of a higher search engine ranking. Basically a public rating system of websites.

So what does this mean for us at Division8Masons.com? Well basically it means every time a viewer like you recommends our site we get a little nudge on our search engine placement. As a hypothetical example: Someone decided to search for "Masonic News." Google was going to place us as the 11th listing because it found a bunch of sites talking about brick and stone masonry. However because 30 people recommended us we got place on the first page of the results at listing number 5 which in turn allowed more people to find and view the site.

Why is this necessary? Well how many times have you searched for something and gotten results that have nothing to even do with the topic? It happens quite often and unfortunately is getting worse but why? Well there are many companies and people that specialize in driving search engine traffic to sites in order to make money. They dont necessarily care about if the person was interested in "socks" but got a website related to "car parts" because they got paid on the advertising from the person simply viewing the page. Furthermore it is also a numbers game because they know if they drive 1 million people to their site they will get around 100 deals or people interested in a product they are offering somewhere.

So in conclusion if you have some time and like what you see here. Please recommend us on Google+1 by clicking on one of the "G+" icons. It will help us get more viewers like you and thrive online.