Brothers,

It is hard to believe that almost one third of the year has past and what a busy four months it has been.  We have had a number of very successful events beginning with the Burns Night supper in January, the District Deputy Presentation and Ladies at table events in April.  My thanks to Brother Dinielli for his hard work in the kitchen these past few months, he has gone above and beyond for this lodge.  We had a wonderful time recently at the Ladies at Table Lodge. 

MWB Walter Kaechele his wife Martha and RWB Jim McWain did a great job in putting that evening together. We could not have put on these events without him.  Our stewards have also been busy assisting with these events and our regular meeting dinners there hard work is much appreciated.  A large contingent of brothers traveled to New York in March to see Garibaldi Lodge  confer the EA degree on eleven candidates.  Brother Duncan Stalker made us all feel welcome in the spectacular Grand Lodge of New York building.

We have welcomed in five new brothers as Master Masons and conferred the EA degree on six candidates and the FC degree on six new brothers.  The number of people inquiring about membership also continues to be strong as brothers reach out to interested men in their communities.  Brother Edward Brookshire recently took up the challenge to learn the long form of the middle chamber lecture and performed it with great proficiency at our FC degree in March after having studied for only five weeks.

There have been a number of significant improvements made to the building including the new stove, refrigerator and dish washer.  We are also enjoying movies and TV on our new surround sound system.  All these improvements being made due to the hard work of our members, Ozvaldo Alvarez and Cliff Cuseo to name just a few. 

I want to thank all the brothers that have given of their time to assist in degree work, maintain and improve the building as well as volunteer to assist with our special events.   We are a strong and growing lodge due to those efforts.

The lodge is off to a great start in 2008 with your help and I know we will continue to have a spectacular year.  Continuing with the plan laid out at the beginning of the year it is my goal to have a business meeting the first meeting of every month followed by a degree at the second meeting.  We have gone through one series of degrees and will begin again in May with an EA degree on May 22.  If you have any ideas or suggestions for future events or programs you would like to see please let me know.