From the Editor's Desk


BEST WISHES

1997 is fast approaching. My best
wishes to each and everyone of you, for
a Happy and Healthy New Year.

FIRST CLASS  TOP LINE

These are but two of the words that
could be used to describe the Semian-
nual Meeting of The Society held in
conjunction with the Grand Lodge of
Minnesota's NATIONAL MASONIC
EXPO. The Masons of Minnesota have
every reason to be proud. Not only was
your hospitality extraordinary, the
whole weekend was superbly planned
and executed.

To Most Worshipful Brother Eric J.
Neetenbeek, and the Brethren of the
Grand Lodge of Minnesota, on behalf
of the Society thank you for your hospi-
tality, you made each and everyone of us
us feel that we were at home. To Duane
E. Anderson, FPS, thank you, your plan-
ning of the Semi-annual meeting and
execution of the planning was a delight
to behold.

Nelson King, FPS

SAY IT ISN'T SO

On September 18 and 22 members of
the Grand Orient of France, The Droit
Humaine of France. and the Grand
Lodge Mixte of France, demonstrated
in public and in Masonic Regalia
against the upcoming visit to France of
His Holiness The Pope. Yet once again
Freemasonry has been dishonored by
quasi-masonic groups, who profess to
be Masons.
SPAIN

Our Society continues to grow. We
now have a Corresponding Secretary in
Madrid, Spain.

Jose Luis Menoyo
Apartado de Correos, 19261
28080 Madrid, Spain

Bro. Menoyo is the Editor of GENE-
SIS, the official publication of Gran
Logia de Espaia.




As I See It

by D. J. Van Kirk, MPS

The first decade of the 21st century
will hold great promise and uncertainty.
There will be many new technologies
and events that will change how society
thinks and functions while challenging
us to address problems that never
before existed.

The 1980's saw the advent of the mi-
croprocessor which triggered the stand
alone personal computer. The 1990 ' s
were dominated by cheap lasers hidden
in everything from CD-ROM drives to
optical fibers. The result being the
access revolution where the Internet
now holds center stage. The next de-
cade, according to the Futurists, will be
shaped by cheap sensors that will give
more powerful and smaller computers
the ability to detect, anticipate and ad-
just to the physical world around them.
Tiny cameras will be mounted on chips
for increased video conferencing, they
can also be mounted on a car to show
you the road ahead. Inexpensive sen-
sors will detect temperature, pressure,
and all types of environmental condi-
tions and correct our interior atmos-
phere almost instantly. Health care sys-
tems will be such that a person waiting
in a Doctor' s of fice will have his
temperature, blood pressure, heart rate
and a variety of other functions detected
and recorded while sitting reading a
magazine. When the Doctor arrives he
will have all the information at his fin-
gertips in the patient' s chart. All of these
innovations will bring about new ways
of working and doing business.

For the past 100 years, U. S. Compa-
nies have been built on a now fraying
hierarchical management structure.
This model will continue to erode to the
point of wholesale abandonment. The
company organizations will become
closer to biological models. They will be
weblike with flexible ever-changing re-
lationship webs. Those who occupy a
"rich" node on the web will wield
enormous power. The individual that
has the capability of adapting most
quickly to these changing environments
and conditions will do the best. When
you think about a web like structure the
first thing that comes to mind is not re-
porting to a particular office building but
working out of their homes. Man is by na-
ture a social ar~imal. Working alone at
home will cause him to lose the social inter-
course that he now enjoys. No more sitting
over a cup of coffee in the morning and
discussing last night's footbaU game or the
latest fads or even the trends in the sock
market. There will be a lack of face to face
interaction on a daily basis.

Masonry in the Twenty-first century
will have to be ready for these changes.
We are not even sure what all the
changes will be but we know this, man
must have social contacts, it is inherent
in his genetic makeup. We are going to
have to consider the Lodge as a place of
social contact as it once was in the past.
Think back to the time of George Wash-
ington. The Lodge was a meeting place,
a place where you could enjoy a light
repast and heavy conversation, a Post
office, where you would find out what
had happened in the other parts of the
13 colonies, the news might be a month
late, but at least you knew what was
happening. There was little or no com-
munication system then. We, in the 21st
century, are going to have the utmost in
communications but little social con-
tacts. We must be able to provide a place
where men are going to be able to sit face
to face and enjoy each other's company
more than we have ever before because
that might be a Brother's only social
contact for extended periods of time.

These men will be more educated,
more creative and seek a higher level of
intellectual interest. We have to be pre-
pared to engage in this higher level of
enlightenment if we are to interest them
in becoming a member of our Frater-
nity. One way is by knowing our Frater-
nity inside and out. We have to know
every thing about it so we can transmit
that to these young people who will be
seeking a place of social contact and in-
tellectual stimulation. If this social in-
tercourse is to take place we must train
our Officers in interpersonal skills and
relationships, and how to deal with
people which is what Masons have al-
ways done in the past but we have lost
due to the ever increasing technology
that surrounds us.

Now we all know as we age that none
of us like change. We like to wear the
same old shoes with the creases in them
because they are so comfortable, or the
old sweater or jacket because it just feels
right. But there comes a time when you
have to get rid of that old sweater and
those old shoes because our feet get wet
when it rains and the cold blows
through the sweater on the backside
when you step outside. It's time then to
go and get a new sweater and shoes.
My Brothers we have reached that time
in our Masonic Lodge history. If we are
going to exist in the Twenty-first cen-
tury we must change the way we do
things. We have existed since 1771 in
England when our modern Grand
Lodge system as we know it was first
formed. For the over two-hundred years
of our existence we have grown into the
worlds largest Fraternity. We have ex-
isted through World War I and II,
Korea and Vietnam. The Russians, Ja-
panese and the Germans tried to get rid
of us. They did not succeed, we went
underground, we still existed. Why? I
believe that it was due mainly to our
face to face social contact. It was one
Brother extending his hand to another
Brother, lifting him out of his sorrow
and pain at a particular point in his life
when he needed it. Helping him to live
through the agony of the loss of a loved
one, or a particular career. You can't do
that for someone when you can not
meet them face to face because you are
working out of your house.

I have read many books on highly
successful people in the United States
and throu~hout the world. The one
thing they have in common, besides
hard work, is the fact that they all
looked to the future. They did not con-
cern themselves with what was going to
happen a month or six months from
now. They asked themselves what do I
want my company to be five years from
now? Ten years from now? They set that
goal and then worked towards it, that is
why those companies are successful be-
cause they continually look to the future
and change with the world.

Our Grand Lodge has developed a Vi-
sion for Masonry and a Mission state-
ment on how to get there. We are trying
to change the way we "do business".
There is nothing in the world that you
can't do if you set your mind to it and
you say, "I'm going to do it". That is
the key or important phrase. Masonry
will continue to exist even when you
hear people tell you we are dying off
just like the Grange, or the Oddfellows.
The Lodges are closing, therefore Ma-
sonry is done for.

All we are doing is coalescing into a
core group, a stronger group than we
were before. We are coming together
and forming the nucleus of a strong
Masonry for the future. We are going to
continue to exist into the 21st century.
There are too many of us that want to
see it happen, there are too many of us
that are working to make it happen. If
we all work together and accept the
changes necessary to make it happen it
will happen.

I've gone to small Lodges of forty and
fifty members and have seen goals
exceeded because the Brothers worked
together to make it happen. One Lodge
I remember in particular had a corned
beef dinner as their main fund raiser
each year. Nine-hundred and fifty
pounds of corn beef they served in one
night . That ' s an awful lot of corned
beef, especially to be served in one
night. They did it every year. How
many did it take to make it happen?
Only forty people worked the dinner.
They had a goal, they needed funds for
various projects that they wanted to do
during the year and the Dinner was the
means to raise the money. It worked! !

I was privileged to go to Grand Lodge
of Oklahoma for the National Masonic
Renewal Program. As part of the pro-
gram we were allowed to ask Lodges
involved in the program for the last four
years what they have done under their
renewal plan. The Brothers of Pawnee
Lodge came in and they were typical
Westerners, jeans, white shirts, bolos
and ten gallon hats. They sat at the
table and they were so excited that they
could not sit still to tell us their story.
They said, "We have never worked to-
gether so well as a Lodge since we have
in the last four years. " What have you
done? "We went down to the local City,
there was a park that was run down and
owned by the City. Nobody went there,
it was a mess. We said if you will deed
that land to us, we will take care of it.
We will put in tables, barbecues, put our
name across it and we will take care of
it. " Pawnee Lodge in Pawnee, Ok-
lahoma has the best looking park in the
City and it is full every day of the week.
The City now comes to Pawnee Lodge
and says, "Can you help us with fund
raisers, can tell us what to do?" They
had a goal in mind. They had a com-
mon idea they worked for. To make the
park the best one in the town, with the
name Pawnee Lodge across it. And they
succeeded. The Brothers came together
and coalesced. It was apparent that it
was going to happen.

We can meet the Twenty-first century,
but we have to do it head on--to climb in
through the back door. We're not going
to go in a side window and we sure as
heck aren't going to go underneath it.
We have got to meet it head on. And

I'm asking each one of you to meet it
head on with me. Learn as much as you
can about Masonry. Learn and dissemi-
nate that information. Go to your local
clubs, your societies, anybody that will
have you as a speaker and tell them our
story, tell them what we do for people.

The Masons were known as the place
to come if you wanted anything done in
the community. You went to the Ma-
sons because they could make things
happen. Why? Because they knew that
they could do it. They had that feeling
that no one can stop us. When we set
our minds to something we can do it.
My Brothers, I say we can still do it.
Let's meet the challenge of the Twenty-
first century head on.

The Philalethes, December 1996
