This Week with Jay

This has been an incredibly busy week for me.

I am Secretary of two Lodges and St. Bartholomew Conclave. Being Secretary of the Lodge requires a great deal of work. I am not the guy who runs the Lodge but I must be "on deck" to support the Master in all that he does. If he needs a piece of information I need to be able to give it to him. If there are tickets to be made, letters to be written, money to collect and turn over to the Treasurer I get to do that also.

The Secretaries duties are defined by the Code of the Grand Lodge.

Section 6. THE SECRETARY.
It is the duty of the Secretary:
a. To observe the Worshipful Master’s will and pleasure; to record the proceedings of the lodge; to receive all moneys, pay them over to the Treasurer, and take his receipt therefore.
b. To include in the minutes such information as is proper to record, in keeping with Masonic usage and law; to enter in the record of each stated communication the amount of payment made by each person since the last stated communication and the purpose of such payment; and to pay over all moneys to the Treasurer without delay. Any neglect by the Secretary to pay over such moneys, unless such failure is due to the absence of the Treasurer or other good causes, is punishable by the arrest of his jewel by the Master.
c. To label and file for preservation all petitions and documents of every character on the business of the lodge and to keep the same in some safe and secure place and only deliver them by order of the lodge. However, the lodge may order the Secretary to have all such petitions and documents reduced by the use of microfilm or some similar process. When such petitions and documents have been so reduced and the reductions properly stored, the original thereof shall be destroyed, by burning, under the personal supervision of the Worshipful Master and the Secretary.
d. To prepare the Returns to the Grand Lodge under the forms furnished by the Grand Lodge, duly certify the same, and forward one copy to the Grand Secretary at the time required by law.
(Chapter 20, Sections 3 and 4 of the Laws for Subordinate Lodges)
e. To keep an account with each member, and to promptly collect all dues.
f. To prepare annually, at the close of his term of office, a balance sheet of all accounts of the members and a roll of all who are not entitled to vote; to furnish an official statement of his own account with the lodge; and to deliver all such documents to the Master.
g. To keep a register of members and record therein all important factors relative to the Masonic history of each member. (Chapter 19, Section 3 of the Laws for Subordinate Lodges)
h. To keep a Visitors Book.
i. To furnish diplomas, demits, certificates, etc., duly signed and sealed, when authorized.
j. To attend trials and meetings for taking evidence.
k. To furnish copies of all evidence taken on trials where an appeal is taken.
l. To notify the Grand Secretary promptly of all expulsions and suspensions from the lodge.
m. To preserve the seal of the lodge with care and at the close of his term of office to deliver it to the Master.
n. To deliver promptly to his successor in office all the books, papers, vouchers, etc., in his possession having any reference to the business of his office.

I know that most of you won't read that but I thought I should put it there so you could read it if you wanted to. You will notice that no where in there does it say "run the Lodge." Some secretaries feel that they are in charge of the Lodge and are there to run the place. But they are not. In fact when they try to run things they do the Lodge a disservice.

You can see that there is a lot to do and ordinarily it is not difficult to do. I generally don't mind the job but this week things caught up with me. What with the election and working at Consistory in Des Moines three days getting ready for Lodge and processing the many dues that came in plus answering questions and keeping up on other things this has been a very busy week. So busy that I was not able to write my Wordzzel contribution until this evening.

Thursday was play "catch up" and get things together for the Stated Meeting that evening. I finally finished up at about 4:30 PM and sat down to take a nap. Then I remembered that Jeremy wanted tickets made for the Holiday Party on December 13 so I got them ready to print and while they were printing they jammed up my printer. I got them printed but now I do not have a printer and that really limits me. Oh well, life happens. I did get them printed and after the meeting I came home and wrote the minutes and got them sent out to people. I don't know if they like getting them or not but I find it is helpful to send them out as soon as possible The next morning I got up and this is what I found outside.

I am so NOT ready for this kind of weather.

I had to drive to Des Moines to work in the Consistory Office. Well, I didn't have to work there but I had volunteered and so I drove down. Don was back so there were three of us in the office. And we all kept busy. I enjoy working there. It is good to get out of the house but it does cut into my blogging time. (Maybe that is a good thing.)

The "boys" and Ms Cassie missed me but they got along without me. Jon was over as I wrote earlier and I took him to the House of Chen for supper. The food was good but the restaurant has moved to a new location and the ambiance left a lot to be desired. There was only one waitperson and he was stressed. I was brought out my egg rolls before he brought out a plate for me. I had to send the plate back as it was wet.

The people who were also in there were so close and the acoustics were such that their conversations intruded on ours. I particularly did not enjoy hearing one bigot discussing the election of Barak Obama and his recitation of all of the spurious accusations about how he is not a citizen and how we will have problems because we elected a black man as our president. Same old same old. On top of that my blood sugar went up. When I asked the doctor about it he said that the Chinese food I had eaten probably caused it.

When I saw the doctor on Thursday (another reason I was late getting things ready) I got weighed. I need to loose some more weight. This is a crummy time to go on a diet but I think I had better do it. I don't like it but I don't want to have more problems. So send skinny thoughts my way.

Today I went to the Met to see Dr. Atomic.

The Opera is a contemporary masterpiece explores a momentous episode of modern history: the creation of the atomic bomb. Director Penny Woolcock makes her Met debut with this gripping story that changed the course of history. Baritone Gerald Finley plays J. Robert Oppenheimer, the title character.

Conductor: Alan Gilbert; Production: Penny Woolcock; Sasha Cooke, Meredith Arwady, Gerald Finley, Eric Owens, Richard Paul Fink

I knew about this because my Uncle Dave worked on the Manhattan Project that helped develop the Atomic Bomb. My whole life I have lived with the Atomic Bomb and atomic power. It is not always easy to think about it and why we dropped a bomb that destroyed cities in Japan. The Opera was ot an easy one to watch on an emotional level but it was very enjoyable on an artistic one. Gerald Finley has a great talent and he is a marvelous actor as well as being a talented operatoc talent. He used his eyes, the set of his mouth and his body language to emulate this complex man who headed up the team that developed the Bomb.

In many ways the Bomb itself was a character in the opera. Its presence on the stage was never far from your thoughts. The very last moments of the opera caused me to choke up and I will be pondering it for a long time. The HD series from the Met continues to be a highlight of my cultural experience.

Addendum: There is a great post over at Dr. Joan Bushwell's Chimpanzee Refuge with some clips from the productions if you want to see them and get an idea of what it was like.

I finally found time to write my Wordzzle (which I usually do on Friday night) and put it up I also got the pictures from the Double Eagle Gala and put them up on the Consistory Blog. I also got the dates for next year added to it and to the Scottish Rite Calendar.

So it has been a busy week and I thank you for stopping by. It has been hectic but fun and I guess I would rather be doing that than sitting home alone. I am really looking forward to this coming week. FedEx is supposed to deliver a package to me on Monday and I have plans with friends. I will be a year older this time next week. Such fun. ARTYAL, Hugs, j