Secretary's Message

Ohio Grotto Association

40 Public Square Willoughby, Ohio 44094-7864
Telephone: (440) 946-2334

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This is for all Officers and Board members of the Ohio Grotto Association; The date for the OGA picnic and Board meeting has been changed from July 17 to July 10, 2010 because of a Scheduled conflict!!!

Hello to everyone that cares to take the time to read this article and to all those that don't care to read it all.

By the way I have a picture here for everyone to see. It is a picture of two Executive Secretaries. One makes the big money (hee hee) and the other one has a grand office (but no desk) can you tell the difference between the two? The one with the gold must make the big money, NO !

To anyone that is reading this article - hello and God bless!

I do have some good news and some bad news to start with. The good news is I just bought a new computer and I really like it. The bad news is that before I could transfer all the files that I had on the old one to the new one my old one went South. For those of you that don't know what the expression means, my old computer shut down on me, because of something I did. I am trying everything I can to retrieve the old files and I should have had them backed up but I am only a man, what can I say! But our newsletter must go out so here it goes.

Now about things that you read this newsletter for, the OGA and what is happening around the realm.

The first thing to talk about is what the OGA Officers and the Board members did in trying to make the dues structure the same for all Prophets. You may not know this but until this last year there were Grottoes that the Prophets only paid 30 cents per man. They were large Grottoes. There were also smaller Grottoes where each Prophet paid $3.85 per man. The OGA thought that this was not a thing that a Mason would like to do. He is taught to pay his way and not ride on another Masons tail. So the Association decided to make the dues for each Prophet that wanted to belong to the Association one dollar. For some reason two Grottoes felt that this put to much of a strain on their Prophets. (The cost was less then a draft beer in a cheap bar.) They as Masons felt that some one else should carry the load for them to belong. They both were very large Grottoes and if they had come to the Annual meeting in force they could have voted to keep it the same or go for say 50 cents per Prophet, but being the Masons that they are they just said lets drop out, but I bet that their Grotto dues did not drop. I just bet you that what they paid last year to their Grotto to belong to the Ohio Grotto Association is still on their dues and the Grotto is keeping it without telling their Prophets that they no longer have to pay that amount. If the Grotto that drooped out of the Association because as they say "it cost to much for their Prophets to belong" they should lower that Prophets dues by the amount that was being paid into the Association and not just keep it in their coffers.

I am a Mason first and I will do whatever it takes to carry my load. I feel that all my brothers should do the same. I also feel that just like in a Blue Lodge that if you can not, for whatever reason, pay your dues the Lodge would vote to carry you till you came upon good time again. What a shame that those Grottoes could not come to the Board meeting and explain their troubles to us.

Now on to the lighter side of the Ohio Grotto Association. This newsletter has taken a few weeks to put together because of time and late articles. I just got word that the Brother that was checking out my old computer has retrieved all my old files. Now everyone that was on the mailing list will get a copy of this newsletter. Yes I did have a back up file, but it had not been backed up for a long while. I will not make that mistake again.

Sue and I just got home from a long road trip that started at Marty Young's funeral. Then back up to the middle of the state for a double installation which I feel went very well and then up to the top of the state for another installation. We came home after that one on Saturday night. It is so good to sleep in your own bed!

And may I say in my own way "A very merry Christmas to all and a safe and happy New Year" and to my friends in the north "Happy Boxing Day."

grumpy gone