Why am I seeking this office? We are about 53 weeks from the opening of the 69th Triennial Conclave of the Grand Encampment in Salt Lake City, Utah. I hope that many of you will make plans to attend, because we have a lot of important work to do. As I write this message, the Masonic…
Tag: Grand Encampment
Improving the Knights Templar Educational Foundation – 1 August 2023
Our Knights Templar Educational Foundation — What can we do to improve it? Happy Tuesday! Hope you enjoy a taco or two. Well, last week’s message about the Holy Land Pilgrimage garnered some attention. I want to remind folks that for every issue or opportunity we face, there are places where it is not an issue at…
The Sun Never Sets on the Grand Encampment – 18 July 2023
The Sun Never Sets on the Grand Encampment! Ooh….did I hit a nerve or two with last week’s message, especially from Facebook readers. Had several messages, both public and private, from some widows of our Masonic brothers. Gentlemen, we have some work to do on that front, and that’s all I will say about it right…
Caring for the Wife, Widow, and Orphan (or Not) – 11 July 2023
Caring for the wife, widow, and orphan? Do we? Last week’s message on overcoming mediocracy garnered a lot of response and sharing across different groups. That is the kind of response I was hoping to see. Now, if we can take the sharing and convert it into action. This week, I’d like to address a…
Overcoming Mediocrity- 3 July 2023
Overcoming Mediocrity Harry Truman once said, “Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.” I have to admit that I chuckled a bit when I read this. I didn’t know Brother Truman, other than as the historical figure who died when I was 11 years old, but I…
Stemming the Tide of Membership Decline – 27 June 2023
Stemming the tide of Membership Decline Our membership is dropping about 6% every Triennium. When I was knighted in 1985, there were 319,798 Knights. In 1997, about 12 years after I was knighted, our membership was 210,019. In 2015, the year i was installed as Grand Commander of Maryland, our membership was 92,180. On the…
The Holy Land Pilgrimage – 25 July 2023
The Holy Land Pilgrimage An apology: I have mentioned that I attended the Holy Land Pilgrimage in 2005. I was wrong. I was selected in 2005 and made the pilgrimage in 2006. A minor oops, but when I realize I make a mistake, I own up to it. I opened with that apology because it leads…
Good Governance: Part 2 – 20 June 2023
Good Governance, continued… Last week, I introduced the idea of creating a new Constitution, Statutes, and Decisions (CSD) from scratch, and offered some thoughts about the roles, responsibilities, and authority that rests in the Grand Encampment in conclave and the Grand Master when not in conclave. I’m going to leave that and uniforms for now. Let’s look…
Good Governance: Part 1 – 13 June 2023
Good Governance: Do we have it? I have mentioned several times over the past 18 months that our governing documents, the Constitution, Statutes, and Decisions (CSD), have not had a serious revision since being implemented in 1910, and now are well over 260 pages, or more than ten times the length of the US Constitution, as amended, when both…
Honesty, Integrity, and Trust – 6 June 2023
Honesty, Integrity, Trust Greetings, Sir Knights! I’m Art Hebbeler, candidate for Deputy Grand Master, and welcome to another edition of Four Minutes with Art. This week, the topic is core values: Honesty, Integrity, and Trust. Honesty: “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” So said Thomas Jefferson in a letter he wrote in 1819. Without…