From the Deputy ...

My Brethren:

Welcome back to where we left off on our renewal of your Board of General Purposes and the Grand Lodge programs. It seems strange to be writing this with all our Masonic meetings in recess, but I want to let you know that the work of your Grand Lodge continues in our homes and with each other via video and
teleconferencing.

This month, I would like to report on the progress of the Communications Pillar, under Chairman R.W. Bro. Tom Siemiernik, with an update on the progress of their
special assignments given to them this year:

1) Support the Grand Lodge Committee communications efforts by providing the service of reviewing all Grand Lodge Committee documents for proper grammar and spelling and Grand Lodge branding and protocol prior to publication.

V.W. Bro. Rob Leffley and his team have been offering this service to the Committees of your Grand Lodge for the last several years quietly behind the scenes to assist the Grand Lodge Chairman in making their publications appear as professional as they do. The protocol for having documents reviewed by Publishing Review Committee is for the Pillar Chairmen to submit the document to be reviewed. After the document has been reviewed, it is returned to the Pillar Chairman with the recommended revisions. The originating Committee takes these suggested revisions into account, revises as necessary, and then the Pillar
Chairman forwards the approved document to the Email Distribution team or Grand Lodge office for mass communication. Bro. Leffley and his team are to be
commended as all documents are reviewed within a few days, larger ones may take up to a week and when documents are received, they are sent immediately to
reviewers

2) Library and Museums Committee needs to get the catalogue search working on their web site.

R.W. Bro. Lanny Salmon and his team were quick to get this very important Library service working again when it was discovered to be out of service.

3) Library and Museums Committee needs to revise their brochure for circulation via hard copy as the on-line Guidelines to view and order material was not functional.

The Library and Museum Committee was quick to
reproduce their brochure and circulate it to assist with
this function and correct the web site.

4) Explore the publication to assist Lodges in the preservation of their antiquated possessions a la "Caring for your Masonic Treasures" from the Massachusetts Scottish Rite.

The Grand Archivist, R.W. Bro. Dan Glenney, has produced such a document and future plans include placing current documents more appropriately on the new Grand Lodge website to ensure wider distribution, plus using the documents as a guideline for the assessment of the Masonic collection at Grand Lodge.

5) Share the Events Digest and Resource Digest with every Mason in our Grand Jurisdiction.

The Email Distribution Committee, under the direction of R.W. Bro David Neave, has the year-long charge to be the repository of Pillar documents so approved for
distribution and Grand Lodge event communications that have been approved by the Grand Secretary via the Resource and Event Digests to every Mason. At this
time, they are doing so via the Lodge Secretaries who have been further charged to forward these emails on to their membership via their electronic Summons
database. Changes are coming where the Digests will be emailed to each individual member, but the current method is a big improvement over going through the District Deputy Grand Masters in past years.

6) Review and report on potential copyright infringement regarding educational materials on the web site.

In addition to the regular work our Web Site Committee has been charged with under the direction of the Chairman and Web Master, R.W. Bro. Michael Locke,
the team was charged with assuring our web site was not in violation of any copyright laws with material we had posted on the site.

We have received a lot of very positive comments on the changes that have been implemented on the Grand Lodge website in the past year and look forward to the
continued improvements being made by this team daily!

Please tune back in next month to hear how your Grand Lodge Operations Pillar is supporting these efforts. See you then!

Thomas W. Hogeboom
Deputy Grand Master