Dear Brothers and Friends,

Just a reminder that the Flag Retirement Program will be held on Saturday, June 14th starting at Noon. If you, or anyone you know, has a United States flag that is not in servicable condition, please bring it for this most impressive ceremony as we celebrate Flag Day, 2008.

Welcome to the first issue of the Valley of Orlando eNews. We will publish this with updates on Valley activities, and promise not to spam your inbox with too many messages (2 per month, max). We look forward to any comments about the newsletter you may have, or any opportunties for improvment. Just let us know by hitting the reply button.

Welcome to our new Members!

At out just completed reunion, 23 new Masters of the Royal Secret joined the Valley of Orlando. We wish to welcome each of you, and hope that you find a home here in our Valley. We have lots of events coming up, and you are welcome to attend and participate in all of them, and bring your family! We have a great dinner before our meetings at a very reasonable cost, and we have some great fellowship. (Plus it is a lot of fun to figure out who the guys are that you saw on stage at the Reunion.) We hope to see you at your first Valley Meeting very soon.

Scottish Rite Master Craftsman Education Program Starts

The Master Craftsman Program is an exciting new by-mail correspondence course designed and administered by staff at the House of the Temple in Washington, DC under the guidance and leadership of the Supreme Council, 33° of the A. and A. Scottish Rite – Southern Jurisdiction. Consisting of 6 lessons, it utilizes “The Scottish Rite Ritual Monitor and Guide” by Arturo de Hoyos, 33°, and “A Bridge to Light” by Rex Hutchens, 33°, Grand Cross, as its textbooks, and will be available at an astonishingly low price.

Several brothers in the Valley of Orlando have already started the program, and have received their materials for Lesson 1.

For more information check out the Southern Jurisdiction web site.

It's the finest thing you can do …

Teach, give, mentor. Please don’t leave this all important duty for someone else to do, you are that “someone.” Make “someday” … TODAY and give every new Mason and Master of the Royal Secret the best chance to not only learn, but stay involved in Masonry by you simply giving what someone else gave you, the foundation to stay involved … knowledge and inspiration!

The role of a mentor covers such areas as a master craftsman overseeing an apprentice, and a thesis supervisor with a doctorial candidate. Resident physicians and interns are cases of using the term of mentor in the form of the host organization. The challenge becomes a learning experience. Musicians learn from watching better musicians. Looking over the shoulders of experienced people helps in countless jobs. Mentors may be assigned to have their Mentees shadow them to learn the nuances of what they do. There is a learning experience gained by working closely with someone who supervises and fine-tunes the less experienced person / Brother. It is Impossible to impart this level of knowledge in any other way. Mentoring provides for watching a best example in action and communicates a desire to see the Mentees succeed. There is no faster way to accomplish this task than direct Mentoring.

Give back the gifts that someone gave you … Mentor. You will never regret the time and effort given to your Mentees! We are all caretakers of this Grand Fraternity, mentoring keeps it all going and growing.
— Curtis Johnson, 32° KCCH, OSRB Mentor Chairman

KCCH Court of Honor

At our last meeting it was agreed that we would work on the “Ritetoberfest” Valley fund raiser scheduled for October 18, 2008. A PDF flyer is available on our website at http://www.srorlando.org look at the “Special Events” link on the left hand column. This will be a fun night of fine food and fellowship. Tickets are $25.00 per person; also you can reserve a table for $250.00. Registration starts at 5:30 p.m., dinner at 6:00 p.m., program at 7:00 p.m. Pass the word around your District, print a flyer from the web page and post it at the Lodges in your District. All proceeds will go to the Valley. Lets get behind this effort and make the inaugural event one to remember and start a tradition that we will want to continue in the future.

We also have a fundraiser planned for the Scottish Rite Foundation this year. The members of District 16 have performed a “Mystery Dinner Theater” for several years to help raise funds for the Worthy Grand Matron of the Grand Chapter Eastern Star. They have agreed to come to Orlando and perform for us. A date has not been set as of yet but it will soon once Grand Chapter meets. Hopefully, at our next meeting we can set the date. Tickets will be $20.00 per person and $30.00 per couple. Dinner will be roast beef, mashed potatoes and a vegetable. Please keep an eye on this column for more information to come in the future.

Our next meeting is scheduled for May 23 at 5:30 p.m. in the Library. Bring a fellow member with you. Our next two Lodge visits are scheduled for May 19th at New Smyrna #149 and June 12th at St. Cloud #221. Contact a friend and come visit with us. We always have a fun time on these visits.
— Fred C. Baker, 32° KCCH, Commander KCCH Court of Honor

Knights of Saint Andrews

At the Double Eagle Awards we Knighted 11 new Knights of Saint Andrew. Our next Knighting ceremony will be in November in conjunction with the Double Eagle Awards program.

We are in the process of reestablishing our Saber Team for this year, and have made arrangements to purchase 10 new sabers for the team. If you were a member of the past Saber Team, or if you have an interest in being on this one, please call or e-mail me at Goldwingorl@aol.com and let me know your interests.

Our main KSA focus at present is the Flag Retirement Program for June 14, 2008. This also happens to be FLAG DAY this year. We will have an active part it the program this year, and we need as many of you to participate as possible.

I look forward to seeing many of you there.
— Don Martin, 32°, Venerable Master

From the desk of the Personal Representative

YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO DETERMINE THE FUTURE OF MASONRY.

As we prepare for the Spring Reunion, we are hopeful that soon our initiations will over-take our losses. My past few messages I have focused on the reasons for these losses, quality vs. quantity, etc. Masonry is still following that downward spiral and I hear many Masons saying, “Masonry is the greatest fraternity in the world!” If that’s true, then you have to ask yourself, “Why the Losses?” Why is it that not only our organization is suffering these losses, but all organizations worldwide are suffering losses? As our population grows in all areas of the world, so should our numbers, instead our fraternal organizations continue to decline in membership.

We continue to debate the reasons, the causes and even possible answers. We write books, articles and messages in our publications about this. We place blame, but the losses continue. Could it be, no one wants to be a part of a losing team, or an organization that appears to be old fashioned and outdated. No one likes being around negative people, badly planned meetings or sessions. Many of us (and we know who we are) give a lot of “Happy Talk” about Masonry, but fail to deliver to our new members. We rest on our traditions and tout historical accounts of famous men who have been Masons and brag on these “Giants in Masonry”, as if they were our very own brothers! Today’s Mason is failing to provide for our future leaders in Masonry, to provide the continuance of the Foundation we have been given and may not even understand how or why it’s crumbling. Now to my point!

YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO DETERMINE THE FUTURE OF MASONRY!

You may not agree with this so far, but you have to admit, something MUST be done! We have the traditions, the tools, the plans and the talent among our members to change our direction and the person responsible for this change is YOU! It’s that simple. It’s not too difficult to understand that Masonry needs to assess its status and role of our Lodges and Valley in the community and then, take control of our future. It takes people to change our course of action and to bring about a positive course correction to put Masonry back into the greatness it had a hundred years ago.

For the past few years I have talked about the Scottish Rite Strategic Plan, how important that is to not just our survival, but to the future of Masonry and Scottish Rite. This is one powerful tool we have at our disposal to formulate a plan designed especially for the Valley of Orlando, not just Scottish Rite, but all Masonry in Central Florida. I am sure there can be hundreds of ideas, projects, programs and events formulated from this Strategic Plan, but we need people to step up to the plate and help us to generate these ideas and put them into action. I don’t expect to hit a home run each time we try something new, but I do expect we will turn around our losses and build on these ideas for the betterment of the Valley.

To create a winning environment in the Orlando Scottish Rite Masonic Center is the first step to the “Stop Loss” in membership. Everyone loves to be on or be associated with a winning team and WE WILL BE that “Winning Team”! Our “Mentor Program” and the “Ring Ceremony” was a Home Run for the Valley of Orlando. I expect our Degree Teams will follow suit this year, as we are very close to putting on all Degrees annually. I feel strongly that we can do more for Masonry, share a positive experience with our old as well as new members, to create this dream to make, “Becoming a Mason”, a much sought after goal for a good man to aspire towards. After all, everyone loves to be associated with success and we are destined to be that success in Central Florida. Let me know what you think!
— Zeb E Blanton, Jr., 33°, Personal Representative of the S.G.I.G.

Upcoming Events:

Club Meetings

• Central Brevard Scottish Rite Club
  Meets 3rd Thursday each month at Brevard Lodge #113 at 7:00 p.m. Covered dish dinner.
• Deltona Scottish Rite Club
  Meets 3rd Monday each month at Landmark Lodge #383 at 7:00 p.m. Covered dish dinner.
• Halifax Scottish Rite Club
  Meets 1st Monday each month at Daytona Beach Lodge #270 at 7:00 p.m.
• Lake Scottish Rite Club
  Meets 1st Wednesday each month at Tavares Lodge #234 at 7:00 p.m. Reservations required.
• New Smyrna Beach Scottish Rite Club
  Meets the 1st Tuesday of each month at the New Smyrna Beach Shrine Club 7:00 p.m. for covered dish dinner.
• Osceola Scottish Rite Club
  Meets 2nd Friday each month at St. Cloud Lodge #221 at 7:30 p.m. Spaghetti Dinner.
• Sanford Scottish Rite Club
  Meets 2nd Wednesday each month at I-Hop Orlando Ave (US 17-92) south of the 417 at 6:00 p.m. Dinner meeting.
• South Brevard Scottish Rite Club
  Meets 4th Thursday each month at Melbourne Lodge #143 at 6:30 p.m. Covered dish dinner.
• Titusville Scottish Rite Club
  Meets 2nd Tuesday each month at Indian River Lodge #90 at 6:30 p.m. Covered dish dinner.