As the Warwickshire executive enters a new era with David Shakeshaft as our deputy. I’m sure you’ll all join with me in thanking David Butcher for the incredible work he has done over the last three years.
As we move forwards, the membership and engagement are a real focus for us all. Over the last six months, we have made some great progress in attracting new people to come and join us in this wonderful organisation. As a result, we will be having an increase in the number of candidates that Province will be able to allocate to lodges. We will speak to each of these candidates to ensure that they are qualified to become Freemasons in Warwickshire. However, when they are passed to lodges, it is important that you meet with these candidates and get to know them before you bring them into your Lodge. If you feel they’re not a good fit for your Lodge, then you can simply send them back to us and we will find a different lodge that more suits their personality or what they are hoping to get out of Freemasonry.
The membership team work incredibly hard on these candidates, and have made over 1000 phone calls in the last six months alone! This is a thankless and unending task for a small number of very hard-working volunteers. As a result, we want to make sure that these candidates are given the best opportunity to enjoy Freemasonry from day one. Equally, we are aware that many of the lodges, their secretaries and membership officers are also very busy people and so we don’t want to waste their time either. The Lodge profiles are therefore essential for the membership team to be able to match candidates with lodges that they will enjoy and feel at ease with. So I would ask each of you to check if your Lodge has done a Lodge profile and, if not, please take a short amount of time to complete this so we can support your lodge in the best way possible.
I am honoured and excited to be the new Assistant Provincial Grandmaster in this brilliant team. I look forward to getting out to as many of your lodges as possible and seeing you all.
Matt Perkins