WK News Summer 2023 - Magazine - Page 10
ISSUE NO.10 SUMMER 2023 | WEST KENT NEWS 10
3rd PROVINCIAL GRAND PRINCIPAL:
TONY BURD
It is just over a year since I was invested as your Third
Provincial Grand Principal, where has that year gone?
Representing our Province at other Provincial Grand
Chapter meetings, interacting with my peers, building
relationships, has been incredibly rewarding, and I have
been fortunate to attend a number in the year.
It was always be going to be a full on and intense
masonic year, and without doubt with the greatest
number of changes in the Royal Arch in West Kent, in
the fifty years since the Province came into existence!
Freemasonry three hundred years ago, is beyond
recognition to as it is now, so “we have always done it
this way” is a single generation perception! We have to
change and adapt to external influences, necessary for
us to thrive.
Following the appointment of Visiting Officers last year,
the Royal Arch Executive and the Membership
Development Team (RAMDT) has been in overdrive. In
summary the key element changes this year have been
the following:
The appointment by Chapters of a Chapter
Membership Officer (CMO).
We are now in the process of a similar exercise for
the placement of a Royal Arch Liasson Officer
(RALO) in every Lodge. The RALO will receive Royal
Arch Membership Eligibility Record, RAMER,
detailing all in his Lodge, eligible to become
members of the RA, for him to use as a tool in his
key role.
Next stage will be to link up the CMOs with Lodge
Membership Officers (LMOs), and RALOs, to
complete the circuit, to promote RA membership
attraction. Under the direction of the Craft APGMs,
the Royal Arch will be actively promoted in Lodges.
A Freemason who is a member of the Royal Arch as well
as the Craft, is three times less likely to leave
Freemasonry than if he is only in the Craft, that’s a win
for the Craft!
Other innovations, include the recent issue of
“Managing Resignations in the RA WK flowchart” for
Scribes E, to fully explore why a member may be
contemplating resigning.
Chapters might want to give some consideration on how
to make their meetings more appealing. When without
any work, or developing items of interest, rather than
“open your meeting, carry out admin items, and closing
the meeting”, some may question what is of interest to
attend this limited format?
New Master Masons receive a letter from the PGM,
congratulating him on taking his third of the four
elements in Pure Ancient Freemasonry, delivering a
personal invitation to take his fourth step.
The questions a candidate for Initiation is asked at his
interview has undergone a complete review, and now
includes a section on the fourth element, the RA.
A year of many, but essential, developments and
changes!
Please contact me with anything I may be able to assist,
by emailing to 3PGP@westkentmasons.org.uk