I hope this issue of the Trestleboard finds you all in good health and good spirits. We have started the New Year off with a bang, and I truly hope we can keep this motivation going. I strongly feel that we have the best line officer core in the State of Arizona. I have visited many lodges and none of them have demonstrated the Brotherly Love and affection that our lodge has and I am so privileged to serve as your Worshipful Master.
As we start this New Year it looks like we will be very busy with degree work as we will be initiating a new member on February 23rd as well as completing other degree work for our remaining three brothers who have not yet been passed or raised. I strongly encourage the brethern to try and promote Freemasonry whenever you can. I would love to see thirty or forty members at our stated meetings. So if you know of any people who you feel would be an asset to our lodge, please invite them to our dinners and let them meet the brethern. Membership is the key to our lodge's future success.
Financially our lodge is doing very well but we should not take that for granted. If any brother knows of or has any suggestions for a lodge fundraiser, please don't hesitate to speak up. I would like to keep our lodge's financial outlook strong for many years to come.
Please continue to keep Brother Bill Weigt and his family in your prayers as he continues with his rehabilitation. He is continuing to improve and he is now accepting visitors at the hospital. Get well soon, Brother Bill. We all love you and our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
Just a reminder - your 2006 dues are now due for any Master Mason who wants to remain in good standing. I do apologize for the late delivery of cards to the brothers. There was a delay getting them from the Grand Lodge.
Hope to see you all in lodge for the upcoming degree and for our stated meeting in March.
Fraternally,
Doug Schassler, WM
A VIEW FROM THE WEST
"To Retread or Not to Retread"
I've heard it said time after time (and I suppose that is sometimes true) that Past Masters are, at best, a risky proposition in the progressive line of a Lodge. They can be devisive, opinionated, and meddlesome. That is, if there is a shortage of Brotherly Love and respect. We, fortunately, DO NOT have this problem. The P.M.'s exist to serve and assist the Worshipful Master, thus becoming, again, the "better and squarer stones" that we promised to be. Good and timely council (along with the occasional shoulder to lean on for support) are among the many skills gleaned during the arduous journey from all points of the compass toward the greater light of the East, as well as the subsequent trek back to the West, the South, and beyond. As we were nurtured, so it is our invaluable duty to show that, in serving He who sits in the East, we are rendering one of the greatest services to the Craft, and our entire beloved Fraternity.
In conclusion, I say that MONTEZUMA LODGE is truly blessed in that we have some of the most selfless, loving, and caring Past Masters that I know of (and I am saying that as one of them). I hope that you feel the same way. If you have not experienced the joy of such Fellowship in some time, please accept my invitation to come down and spend some time with Montezuma Lodge, the FRIENDLIEST Lodge in Arizona.
Oh, and by the way, Retread us as needed. We wouldn't have it any other way.
Tom Sheldon, Senior Warden (2006)
