Saturday 5th October 2024 saw the Provincial Grand Lodge meeting at Freemason’s House in London. The Right Worshipful Master, John Clark addresses the meeting….here is his address in full.

Once again, I welcome you all to our meeting in these magnificent surroundings at Freemasons Hall. I congratulate those who have received appointments and promotions today for all you have done for your lodges and our Province. Through your hard work and that of our Comms and Membership teams, more and more people want to join us.

 

The theatrical nature of our ceremonies, new sound, and lighting systems creating a theatrical experience now attracts initiates from lodges themselves rather than just via the Province.

In 2014 when I was an APGM, our publicity work started to take off under my watch led by Phil Witney on Marketing and Webster Springer on the shows team. It was Webby’s “Go BIG or go home” attitude which challenged the Province to buy the new show team tents and livery and the Kop Hill event stand was launched.

This was the start of the production of many exceptional film and marketing assets being produced. In the following years Webster was everywhere. He created and led a team that always got up at 6am to bang in the tent pegs including Phil, myself, and Matt Eaton and who were still there 3 days later putting it all away.

We soon learned that pictures of our members enjoying themselves always made others want to join and take part. We really must keep our foot on the pedal on that one.

“Remember Fidelity, Fidelity, Fidelity, Photo”

Promoted to ProvSGW and stepping down today as our Communications Officer is Grae Laws. Grae has taken our Comms team to an exceptionally high level, exceeding all targets set in the strategy. He has automated processes by adding additional, management components which mean that our high level of membership enquires can be sustained by simply executing the process.

He is currently working for UGLE on the launch of the new membership system, soon to be trialed, where he has added exceptional value and which will benefit all members of the craft.

Taking over from Grae today is Lee Buckingham who has some very big boots to fill, and I am sure that he will excel.

We have a solid 2027 strategy and if those stepping into new roles today sustain the same activity, a planned increase of between 35 and 50 per year will be achieved.

By the end of the current strategy in 2027 we shall have increased our membership by 650 when compared to the original downward trend which prevailed in 2017. To continue this success, everyone must play their part by bringing friends and family that might be interested in joining to our Bi-annual “Bring A Friend” events.

The next one is unique and will showcase our specialist lodges, but all are welcome to attend and join any lodge. I am sure you will have spotted our motorcycle lodge members in the procession today. This is a very successful lodge due to creativity and good leadership.

These “Bring A Friend” nights enable you to bring your own friends, sit back, relax, and let others do the hard work for you.

“By 2027 at this rate we shall have prevented the loss of a third of our 2017 membership”.

As a direct result of this hard work, we have been given an additional Assistant Provincial Grand Master and I have appointed Tim Anders, who has delivered Project Transform and run the Provincial meeting for several years, to this role. This will reduce the workload of our existing executive line up and deliver even better results.

You will see the revised APGM lodge groups in the 2025 update of the 2027 strategy in January 2025.

BIG123 was an outstanding success. Again delivered by an exceptional team in a very short time. Who would have believed that we could do over 150 Ceremonies in a single day, but then who thought we could initiate 100 in a single day at BIG100 here in 2021.

The reason these things are unusual is because they are hard work and we are blessed with so many hard working and resourceful people, many of whom are successful businessmen, very busy in their own lives, that can always push the envelope further and deliver.

My part in BiG123 was to Raise nearly 40 new members to the 3rd degree in the Grand Temple. My Deputy Provincial Grand Master passed a similar number to the 2nd degree in the magnificent Egyptian Temple with the sound of classical music playing. Multiple ceremonies really do form a special bond between new made brothers.

Raising all the candidates personally was very moving for me, and a strong bond was struck with these new guys.

My back however had a different story to tell. At 63 years old my bones don’t work as well as they used to! As our past Deputy Provincial Grand Master, Don Varney used to say.

“I am a man of many parts, most of which don’t work properly anymore”!

Although very successful at attracting new members, we must not be complacent. I recently received an invitation from the Provincial Grand Master of Berkshire, my close friend Anthony Howlett-Bolton, who presided over the creation of a Sci-Fi lodge two weeks ago where both the ceremony and dinner that followed raised the bar once again.

“The afternoon ended with two ProvGMs fighting with Star Wars Light Sabre in the lodge”.

Who would have thought it?

Please take notice that we must not rest on our laurels. Berkshire have shown us that there is always more to go for.
Buckinghamshire Province has grown at a faster rate than any other Province since the pandemic and I would like to thank all those Lodges that have taken part and our provincial teams who made this possible.
The Lodge Membership Challenge finishes up the year in December. Will your Lodge be successful?  Fresh thinking works wonders, whether it’s a curry night, a race day, a family BBQ, a trip to a WW2 bunker or the simple act of sponsoring a bench to remember a brother who’s no longer with us. It all helps secure the future of Lodges, the Province and Freemasonry in general. 
We now have many special interest lodges ourselves. Stephens Lodge has been recovered and repurposed into a walking lodge which holds a very well attended monthly walk on a Sunday. Their “Wee Stroll” event has recently raised over £11000 for charity.

Stephens has become a fast-track lodge for the Light Blues demonstration team, who have been helping me deliver Project Transform demonstrations around the Province.

I have recently joined Nestor Lodge which will be a Fast Track lodge for anyone wishing to excel at ritual. Nestor will be delivering training on Project Transform and assisting other lodges primarily with 3rd Degree Ceremonies with attention to detail, immersing classical music and lighting.

In the new year we will be creating a new football lodge. Please let me know directly if you would like to take part in these new opportunities.

Next week we will launch our very popular 12DX or 12 Days of Christmas event. The organisers, our two incoming wardens, have told me that they intend to smash all previous records and deliver the highest number of initiates for this event so far.

Looking after new and existing members is paramount to the success of Freemasonry. We are going to assist you with this in two ways.
Firstly, the office of Executive Officer or XO was created to support you in doing this, as well as to help you to attract new members and grow your Lodges. We will be asking all lodges who wish to receive candidates from the Province to sign up to a Membership Charter. The quality of incoming initiatives both home grown and from the Province is now very high and need to be engaged, and involved in something that will excite them. If we achieve this level of attention then they will quite simply retain themselves. 
I am therefore asking the XO’s to assist you with the introduction, engagement, and retention of Provincial Candidates. Over the next couple of weeks, your XO will contact you and explain how, together, you can build on our success to date.

Secondly, we are considering a new scheme to look after disabled and older members with the creation of a Buckinghamshire Disability Support Group. This group plans to assist and support those brethren with physical and hidden disabilities, to ensure that they get the most out of the fraternity.  They also propose to offer advice to lodges on how to be inclusive and engage with those members with additional needs.

“This is another example of Buckinghamshire leading the way with inclusivity and engagement.” 

Please remember that working guys cannot attend meetings at 4pm without taking a half day off work. If you have new younger members, please make sure your meetings start at 6pm, with 2 hours for the meeting and 2 hours for the festive board and I encourage you to consider, paying dues monthly to help everyone manage their finances.

It really has been another exceptional year in this amazing Province. Things do seem to get better and better and here’s to another even more exceptional year as we go into 2025.

I thank the Provincial Grand Secretary and his team, the Stewards lodge and all those who have helped today. My personal thanks go out to my own family and my wife Sarah for their unwavering support.

It’s easy to shine as a Provincial Grand Master in this exceptional Province.

It has been my great privilege and honour to be your Provincial Grand Master and I thank you all for your continued support.

God bless you all.

John Clark
Provincial Grand Master for Buckinghamshire

With thanks to Bucks PGL, the original post can be found by clicking here