Need a Program for your Next Lodge Meeting?

The membership development committee is now fully capable of giving presentations about the Scottish Rite to local Blue Lodges. In the spring of 2008, we purchased a digital overhead projector that works with a laptop to display great looking multi-media presentations. We have the ability to show the "Scottish Rite for the 21st Century" DVDs or a powerpoint presentation about the history of Freemasonry.

Now we just need to get the word out! Make sure that our WMs and officers know that we are available to them. Many brothers find it difficult to fill all the nights in their schedule and this is a great opportunity to have the Scottish Rite take care of the evening's program.

The MD Committee has made up a great flyer to give to local lodges to get the word out. Feel free to print the one linked below. Additionally, the Blue Lodge Ambassadors will be given copies at the next Stated Meeting and we'll have extra copies for any other brothers who are interested.

Get the word out!

Talking Points - January 2009

Here are the Blue Lodge Ambassador "Talking Points" for January 2009. Please make an attempt to bring up these topics within your blue lodge during the following month.

• "Scottish Rite for the 21st Century" DVDs - We have tons of these DVDs and are willing to give them out to anyone who wants one. The DVD gives a professionally crafted overview of the Scottish Rite, our history, our charities and our principles. The entire DVD takes about 30 minutes and would be a great program for a Stated Comunication!
• "Masonic Information Night" - On Monday, January 19th, the Valley of the New Haven will be hosting a Masonic Information Night. This night is open to Masons and non-masons interested in Masonry. We'll have talks about our rich Masonic history and about Masonry and the Scottish Rite are all about. Following the talks, we will have refreshments and fellowship!
• "4th Degree" - On January 26th, we will be having our first degree of the Spring season. If a brother is interested in joining the Scottish Rite, he should come to this evening! Please see Charles Tirrell or Vern Cleaves for a petition.
  

Scottish Rite Degree Team

Please take a moment and imagine the following situation:

You’re a new mason, having only been raised a year ago. You’ve seen the sublime degree of a Master Mason portrayed by your lodge, but there was never enough brothers or preparation to put on a truly aspiring account of the legend of our ancient Grand Master. Although this story was interesting, you never felt that the performances that you witnessed held the gravity that was due to this pinnacle of Masonic experience.

But then comes a night, when the Worshipful Master of your lodge invites a degree team to perform the second half of this life-altering drama. This degree team is like none other that you have seen before. It is comprised of your district’s preeminent Masonic leaders and most excellent ritualists. Their portrayal of the allegory is flawless. They not only speak the words; they breath life into them. The dress of the degree is in costumes fit for the time of King Solomon with flowing robes for the officers and full craftsmen dress for the fellows of the craft. Drama and spectacle fill the night. This degree stirs your soul and awakens your desire to seek further light in Masonry.

We, the Sublime Princes of the Valley of New Haven, can make this happen! Our ranks are filled with our area’s finest performers, who have lived and breathed Masonry for decades. We have the ability to fill our brothers with excitement and awe for our great fraternity. This excitement will naturally led our yearning brothers to the hillside crest of our humble Valley. Our dedication to further light in Masonry can draw countless brothers into the Scottish Rite.

So what’s the plan?

I purpose that the Membership Development Committee for our Valley form a Blue Lodge Degree Team that specializes in the second half of the Master Mason Degree. With this team, we can introduce many new brothers to the Scottish Rite and energize them within their own lodges. Our degree team can use the costumes that we use for many of our Old Testament period degrees, which will be a trademark attribute of our team, as most lodges perform their second half with little-to-no costumes.

Many lodges find it difficult to properly portray this degree, because of the number of people required for the second half. This gives our Valley the unique opportunity to help, aid and assist our constituent lodges make Master Masons. This will in turn help our membership to grow as we will become increasingly visible and our reputation will grow for being dedicated ritualists and true Masonic leaders.

How can we get this going?

Before we can publicize this as an option to Worshipful Masters in the district, I would like to securely know if we can get this team operational. I need to know what brothers would be willing to participate in this degree team and what parts they are available for. We will need both speaking and non-speaking parts. Please send me an email with which parts you would be willing to do. Assume that you will always have a month’s notice to practice. This degree team would not work without ample notice and you will not be called upon to do a part that you are not comfortable with. So far, we have several brothers who have volunteered for this team. The listing of the parts and the volunteers can be found in the bottom section of this blog.

I truly believe that this will help increase awareness in our Rite amongst the Blue Lodges and will become an important means for us to increase our own membership. Please deeply consider this request and tell me how you can help! Contact Charles Tirrell if you are interested in getting involved.

"Scottish Rite for the 21st Century" DVDs

As many you know, the Supreme Council has produced an informative DVD called "Scottish Rite for the 21st Century." This DVD is a great recruitment tool that gives our Rite a professional look.

Our Valley initially received 300 of these DVDs, however we quickly handed them all out to anyone who wanted them. We've recently received another batch of 600 DVDs and plan to continue giving them out as much as possible. Remember, we have plenty of these DVDs! They are not to be hoarded! We have more than enough for our members and for men interested in the Scottish Rite. Be generous in handing them out! If you need more please contact Charles Tirrell or another Blue Lodge Ambassador.

Here is the Supreme Council write-up about the DVD

"An eight-module, menu-driven DVD recording titled, “Scottish Rite for the 21st Century” has been produced by the Supreme Council. The idea for the DVD germinated with the question, “How do you state the case for the Scottish Rite in the 21st century?” It is not the charities, although the membership has always been very generous in support of many charitable programs. It is not the history, despite the rich legacy it enjoys.

Masonic Information Night - 2009-01-19

On Monday, January 19th, 2009, the Scottish Rite Valley of New Haven will be hosting a Masonic Information Night. This event introduces the principles and history of both Blue Lodge and Scottish Rite Masonry. It is open to Master Masons and non-Masons who are interested in Masonry. These events have been highly successful in the past with most attendees joining Masonry or the Scottish Rite.

It is greatly important that our members and ambassadors invite all interested men and Masons to this event! Here is a link to the PDF file for the event, if you would like to print it out and give it to someone.

Introduction to this Blog

This blog has been set up to assist in disseminating membership development information to the members of the Scottish Rite Valley of New Haven. This will serve as a repository for files, articles, event postings and any other information that needs to be given to the valley. For those of you who are new to "blogs", let's start with a little introduction.

What's a blog? (from wikipedia, click here for the full article)

A blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketches (sketchblog), videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting), which are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, one which consists of blogs with very short posts. As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs.^[1] With the advent of video blogging, the word blog has taken on an even looser meaning — that of any bit of media wherein the subject expresses his opinion or simply talks about something.