Lunch and the Grand Master's Meeting

Today Ginny and I went out to lunch with Mrs. Walker. We were going to go to the Reiman Gardens but when we got there we discovered that not only was the Gift shop closed but they no longer had a place to eat lunch. So we got our money back and went to The Cafe.


I like the Cafe very much and we had a great lunch.

Mrs. Walker is in her 90's and she seems younger than me. She walks all over the place, babysits and helps people pack to move. She is a dynamo and we both love her. You can see why if you look at the picture of her with Ginny at lunch.














Later I came home and had blog conversations with Kurt and Tim about the new Lodge we are going to try and start here in Iowa. You can read about it here.
The Lodge documents are posted to read now and we (Kurt) sent out 40 letters of invitation to Masons we think might be interested in joining with us in this exciting endeavour.



Iowa's Most Worshipful Grand Master Donald E. Mosier.

M. W. Don held an Iowa Masonic Membership Retention Forum in Nevada tonight. There were 29 Masons in attendance.


The "Red Brigade" Paul and Bill



Don describes these meetings on his Web Site.

So, we are having 19 meetings or forums across the state over the next two months to talk about this. The figures will be presented. Opinions will be asked for. Discussions will be held. And we will talk about HOW TO MENTOR NEW MASONS. The Master, Wardens, and Secretaries of each Iowa Lodge will receive a letter inviting them to these meetings. They will each be expected to attend one of them. They will also be asked to bring others from their lodges. All are welcome, Young, Old, New Mason, Seasoned Mason.

There was a lot of good discussion and many suggestions were made about ways to mentor new Masons and help them to become full members of the Fraternity.

Don started the evening by showing us a movie on The Nature of Success.

Following that he presented information showing the Membership Trends. We held a discussion on the reasons for SNPD's and Demits and approaches to reducing them.


He discussed the New Master Masons Forums and the (sometimes startling) revelations from their questions.




We were asked to come up with some suggestions on how we can improve the Mentoring of New Iowa Masons. Some of the suggestions were:

• Hold Mentoring Schools to teach Masons how to Mentor.
• Work with a Coach before the initiation. One Mason mentioned that his son was joining and there was a class of five who regularly met before they even received the first degree.
• One person suggested that there should be an attempt to have the Mentor and the Mason being mentored to "fit" together.

There was a suggestion that they may hold Mentoring/Leadership classes across the state.

For me the most important message of the evening was one I had heard before.

"The most important part of leadership is to train our replacement."

Another thing I read on one of the slides was "Investment leads to success." If that statement is true - and I know it is. Don is a very successful Grand Master. I have watched him this year and have seen him put a lot of time and investment into the office of Grand Master and for what he is doing and has done for our fraternity I salute him. Thanks Don, for the time and effort you put into these meetings, It will make a difference. ARTYAL, Hugs, j

Home Again

So, I am back in Ames after a wonderful trip to Kansas City, which I am assuming you read about earlier (If not scroll down to read it.). I have been properly greeted by the dogs and Bailey has cleaned my nose with five minutes of licks.

Last evening I was e-mail chatting with Kurt and he got me to try something new. It is called i-chat and I am assuming most of you know about it. I had heard of it but never tried it. So through the magic of technology I can now i-chat (screen name jsimser) This is a picture I took of us chatting (I am in the lower right hand corner) - It was fun but we talked until after midnight

Speaking of Kurt. When I got home I found a cryptically addressed letter. Addressed to (my mark) and I opened it and found thank-you notes from Jakob and Kurt. I had not really done much of anything except get the kids Easter presents and helped play with them at the Maundy Thursday dinner but he must have put them right in the mail the next morning for them to have gotten here already. So I fired up an e-mail and thanked him for thanking-me.

I met a guy at the motel yesterday in the breakfast area and today he came out and we visited again. He had kids with him yesterday. Really nice fellow from Little Rock, Arkansas. He has a job delivering airplanes to customers round the world. I told him about the blog so I may have a new blog reader. I meant to ask him how he spells his last name because I know someone with the same last name (maybe)

I got an e-mail from the son of one of my mother's bridge club ladies (they played bridge together for over 40 years) and it was nice to reminisce with him a little. He is older than me but I don't pay much attention to that. He had attended the same grade school that I did and he found me through Google. He said he remembered me as being tall and red haired. Better memory than I do.

We had Easter Brunch at Cracker Barrel and it was good. While there I fount this little monkey which is now my new mascot. I have named him K C Crackers (K C for short) and he rides on the dashboard. Just to keep me alert.

I know I bet you think I am reverting. Well I am. So what. If you are nice I will be glad to introduce you to him. I understand that there is a virtual reality series on line so I can follow his adventures.

I left down there at 12:20 and arrived in Ames at 4:20 - I stopped once to get gas. ARTYAL and Thanks for reading my blog. Hugs, j-bear

Maundy Thursday

I had a present (Easter) for my friend Matt's son Jack so I stopped down to deliver it. He has a really nice place. I got a tour. I am jealous. Sorry the picture is blurry. They are nice kids (I am old enough I can call them both kids.)




Matt grows orchids so I took picture of them. I really wish I had nerve enough to try them. I am afraid Cassie would eat them Perhaps I will try. They are just beautiful.




Then I went to the Scottish Rite for the Maundy Thursday Dinner and service. I took two pictures of my dinner companions. Unfortunately the other folks (who were very nice) did not come out. I have to learn how to press gently. Sorry folks. But this picture of Kurt and his kids came out very nice. Click on it to go the the Consistory Blog where you can find other pictures of the event.

I really like Jakob and Abbie ( I know that is the diminutive of her name and her name is not Abigail. Kurt is going to have to put it in the comments). They are sweet kids and were both very well behaved.

You know I am so fortunate that other people will share their kids with me. Ginny and Jon have grown up and they are just not as much fun as these guys are. Jon called me this evening and told me that his friend Nick and his girlfriend are foster parents for a little baby. I told him he was old enough to have a child of his own. Then we got into a discussion about his age. I have been telling people I was 67. But I am not I was born in 1941 in November so I will be 67. Gawd it is bad enough being old with out adding a year onto my age. I must be getting senile.

Tomorrow I drive to Kansas City to be with Ginny and Bruce for a couple of days. and I need to pack. ARTYAL. Hugs, j-bear

Am I NUTS?

I am going to tell you something - it may be me. I just tallied up the last 12 months of Masonic and Masonic related meetings I have participated in this past year. I started keeping track in November last year and I have projected through the rest of this month for a total of 142 meetings. That is 11.8 meetings a month.

Sometimes I counted three meetings on one day. Last Saturday was one of those days.

I belong to two Lodges (although I did not join the second one until May) Two Chapters, Councils and Commanderies. I also belong to Eastern Star, the Red Cross of Constantine and others which I won't name. You can check it out on the left hand side.

Actually I am not really mentally unbalanced (anymore) - Masonry has become my "family" and I spend a lot of time with them. I used to spend that time with 20 to 28 kids aged 10 to 12. Sometimes I feel like I am still with kids of that age but mostly they are great people to work with and be with and I would not change a thing, So keep coming back to the Blog to keep up with my doings if you want. I am thinking of working some of my posts up into an article to send into the Philalathes magazine. If I ever get the time between meetings and writing up minutes for some of those meetings. In fact, that is what I am going to do now. Hugs, j-bear. j