At their last regular meeting the main item on the agenda was to consider whether to continue at the Caversham Centre or move to another venue. It is clear that it is becoming increasingly difficult to encourage new members as the majority of the Craft Lodges meeting at Caversham are part of the Province of Oxfordshire. Indeed Old Rectory Craft Lodge has recently handed back its warrant! We have only had two candidates since 2007 and we cannot continue recycling the Worshipful Commanders three of whom have now covered the role since 2012 and I am now doing a second consecutive year!
The subject produced an interesting debate amongst those who could attend and it was finally decided that to do nothing would result in closure, which was not wanted by anyone. It was decided by the majority of those in attendance to move to Wokingham as a Daylight Lodge where research suggests it should be possible to encourage some new members to join. It was decided to keep our May meeting but move the other to late August thereby to give the Lodge the status of a “Summer Lodge”. A sub-committee of the Scribe, D.C. and W.C. was agreed and they are pursuing the matter further with the Wokingham Centre with a view to commencing in 2019. They undertook to keep the membership appraised of progress.
So if you are a Mark Mason who would like to join the RAM Degree but find traveling at night a problem, or, unable to find a Lodge that suits your schedule, watch this space, as this should be an answer to your needs.
Brian Cook
Worshipful Commander
Old Rectory RAM Lodge No 1398
