The Committee on Masonic Education hosted an online seminar that covered a variety of topics, from membership to lodge management to mission effectiveness. The core was four questions for eight very worthy brothers. It is easy to share a part of this with your lodge as a module of lodge instruction, like a lodge talk.

I speak here with Bro. Tony Gilbert, who is with the Masonic Medical Research Institute. I learn more about the organization, its roots and what it is working on right now.

You can learn more at https://www.mmri.edu/ or email Tony at [email protected] to help support their great mission.

Kyle Podpolucha is a rising leader in the fraternity who has been tasked with reinvigorating the Child ID charitable program, which provides resources to families free of charge to be able to locate their child if something terrible happened and they disappeared. There are hundreds of thousands of cases inthe United States each year and this program aims to help recover children when the worst happens.

On this episode we talk about Brother Ken's experience joining Masonry. Ken is the head Chef of Krust Pizza in Middletown and owner of Ritual Pizza, where you can find his pop up happen at breweries and parties around CT. 

This is the audio track from our Committee for Masonic Education of the Grand Lodge of Connecticut. I hope you get some value out of these presentations on membership attraction and retention, using the legal side of Masonry properly and creating great events. It was recorded on Zoom, so the audio quality is so-so, but we are happy to be able to share this with all of you.

RWB Steven Allinson and WB Chris Ozog worked very hard to bring the language up to date in the instructional booklets we have distributed for years. You will find the newest versions on Grand View for members. There are five of them: 1-Accepted (once petition is approved) 2-EA, 3-FC, 4-MM and 5-Historical Information about the degrees. All of these are a great way to structure your lodge of instruction to help onboard your newest brothers to the fraternity we love so much. 

A big shout-out to Brothers Steve and Chris for over a year of hard work and collaboration!

Brother Benjamin Valinsky was recently raised to the sublime degree last April and now shares his thoughts as he transitions to the full wages of a Master Mason.

Sometimes we forget about what it was like to be a Fellowcraft. We see a number of degrees and they often run together. There is nothing like your first degree. I chat with Bro. Ben Valinsky, a member of Ouroboros No. 151 on his progress and what it is like to pass through the degree process at an especially strange time (COVID-19).

It is not easy to get your lodge trustee account on track. We have lodges that have ancient accounts and there are often changes in leadership that can lead to confusion. Bro. Andrew Boone of Hiram Lodge No. 1 and UBS talks to us about how we can approach setting our lodges into a more advantageous place financially. 

The role of the Marshall can be difficult to pin down. Sometimes, we find it as the beginning of the line, or it can be a place for a revered past master. However that role is defined, it is important to have the Marshall of your lodge contributing in a meaningful way to the life of your brothers. We discuss many of the options and the history of the position.