Cake provided by Muriel for the 2023 Joint Festive Board
Brethren,
A huge thank you to all who attended our August Stated! I was humbled to have so many long-time no-seers in our Lodge and enjoying the fellowship of our ice cream social. We had the added post-Lodge pleasure of enjoying Bro. Tommy Ripke’s performance a block away at Lima Twist, where he was a guest DJ for the evening and showed us just how talented he is with his music craft.
In September, I plan to discuss ways that we fund our Lodge activities, business, and fellowship going forward. You are all very familiar with, I’m sure, W.B. Treasurer’s most common phrase when giving his report that “we have money; we need more.” I intend to address this financial stressor and set our Lodge on a path towards growth and operational efficiency for all our Officers and Brethren by use of the Gowans fund. After consultation with Bro. Paul Elliott - our financial adviser, Bros. Senior Warden and Junior Warden, Bro. Heath – for the Trustees’ perspective, and Worshipful Bros. Secretary and Treasurer, I believe that we are provisioned to utilize the fund in a manner that would allow the Lodge to budget each year with a percentage of the annualized interest the fund earns without touching the principal amount, ensuring that the Gowans Fund continues to grow, we have an anticipated operational budget for planning each year, and a process exists that reduces the current barriers in planning and operating the Lodge.
The language governing the use of the Gowans Fund is: “This fund was established because of a bequeath to St. John’s Lodge No. 11 from Marvin and Vernell Gowans. The interest of this fund may be used for general Lodge operations and donations. These include, but may not be limited to, special events to promote fellowship and camaraderie for the benefit of the Lodge members (e.g., Family Appreciation, Ladies’ Appreciation, etc.), entertainment at Lodge or special events, donations to organizations (e.g., Job’s Daughters, Rainbow Girls, Masonic Service Association, etc.), Grand Lodge dues and assessments, Lodge officer salaries, and Masonic paraphernalia (e.g., aprons, degree items, etc.). Lodge approval is required to transfer funds from this fund to the checking account. As stated previously, only the interest of this fund will be used – the principle of this fund will not be used without modification to these by-laws. These funds will not be used for events that occur on a regular basis; such as Lodge Brothers breakfasts or any other event that occurs on a regularly scheduled basis.”
My proposal to the Lodge is this: starting in September of each year, the Trustees issue a report to the Financial Committee and the Pillar officers that includes the average percentage of interest earned on the Gowans fund from September of the previous year to August 31st of the current year. The Financial Committee will then supply the maximum operational budget to the Pillar officers by reducing the percentage in the Trustees’ report by 2%, creating a buffer of financial growth. For example, if the average interest earned on the Gowans Fund during a period is 6%, then the maximum operational budget would be 4% of the total balance in the account as of August 31st of the current year, and the remaining 2% earned would then be reinvested into the account.
Using the maximum operational budget supplied by the Financial Committee, the incumbent Worshipful Master will then craft their proposed budget for the following year by clearly identifying all line items that utilize Gowans funds vs general funds. The follow-through in this process is to utilize our current procedures, in that the incumbent Worshipful Master will then supply the proposed budget to the Financial Committee for review and approval before submitting it to the Lodge for voting. Once approved by both the Financial Committee and the Brethren of the Lodge, the Trustees can move money from the appropriate accounts into our checking account at the start of the following year. This approach guarantees financial stability with our operations, growth through investment in our craft, and transparency to the Brethren.
It is vitally important that we have an many of you in Lodge in September as possible to discuss the above proposal. We need to define the boundaries on what we consider acceptable expenses for use of the Gowans Fund and codify this process. I’m vested in making this proposal work for our Lodge, and encourage anyone with input, who may not be able to attend, to reach out with suggested modifications, improvements, or thoughts.
I look forward to seeing you all September 1st.
Sincerely and Fraternally,
W.B. James M. Hall
Worshipful Master
Full Trestleboard available here.