A Great Big Room with Trumpets

This past weekend was the Annual Communication of the Grand Lodge of California, their statewide meeting, the counterpart to our Annual Session of Grand Chapter. Unlike our event, which has to move all over because we have to rent somewhere to hold it, the Grand Lodge holds its annual event in its own building, which is located in San Francisco. The lodge room where the official proceedings take place is the great big room, with seats laid out in a BIG U shape on the bottom floor and then a U-shaped balcony tier with even more seats. In the middle of the U is the stage area where they set up all the chairs and such. While much of the weekend session is closed to everyone except Master Masons in good standing, on Sunday is what is called the "public ceremonies" and these are open to others. I've been to these for three years in a row now and it seems to me that what happens on Sunday is that there is a little inspirational message from the Grand Chaplain, then there is a youth group thing where the five youth leaders show up and four of them speak and then they exchange gifts and pleasantries with the Grand Master while we all watch and clap at appropriate moments, then there is a little report on how the Grand Master's project went, then he gives a farewell speech, then they all go out and we take a break and then the install the new officers for the coming year. After the new officers are installed, the new Grand Master gives a speech about his plans and tells everyone what he has chosen for a project and then the guy who just finished his year gets a lot of presents and then the new Grand Master gets a lot of presents while we watch him try to get the stuff open, (all these guys in the room and not one of them can lend the Grand Master a pocket knife, what's up with that?), and then the new officers march out and we all wait in a honking long line to congratulate the new top four guys and then we wander outside starving because we started at 9:30 am and now its after 1:30 and that twenty minute break was great for stretching your legs and using the bathroom, but not long enough to eat anything and I fear by an Eastern Star standard, the reception refreshments are just not up to snuff. Of course it may not be fair to compare their cookies and punch to what gets put out at an event sponsored by the Order of the Eating Siblings. :-) The ceremonial stuff is quite beautiful and moving. They've got three trumpet guys who do fanfares and marches and stuff in addition to the Organist and assistant Organist, so the musical pieces are great. The regalia pieces are all nice and pretty and shiny so that is all nice too. And the ceremony itself is nice and short, even if the whole day is not. Someone made a comment to me that it was not fair that the Grand Lodge guys complained about our four and a half hour installation, but we were in their room for just as long. I admit that I didn't agree with that analysis because their installation didn't start until 11:00 am and it says the time in the program so if you are only coming for installation, you don't have to be there until 11:00 am. We came voluntarily to the youth session and there was a break, so I don't know that the total time from when we got there is a fair complaint. But what is a very fair complaint is that we spent forty minutes watching a grown man struggle to open packages and then we all were supposed to oooohh and aaaahh over the contents for an entire forty minutes. That sort of thing is fun when we were all nine because then, once the presents were open, we could all play with them. For adults it is less amusing. And when you've been sitting for hours, it is way less amusing. I confess that personally, I lean towards having a presentation table and letting people put their gifts there having the receiving line afterwards so those wanting to offer congratulations had their chance to do that also. But even if you want to give some presents, could you limit it to one or two or even three meaningful ones? Or if you must let them all go, couldn't you have a "present caddy" which is someone who opens the next present while the Grand Master is showing the current present to the crowd? That at least would save the opening time. So while there is no doubt in my mind that we need to streamline A LOT, like down to two hours max, there may be a few panes of glass that the stones are striking about Grand Installations. The other thing that struck me, which was a combination of a conversation I had on Friday night at a dinner and being in the BIG room all morning on Sunday, is about the hall ownerships and rents and temple boards. But that will have to be a topic for next Monday. This weekend I am home and will need to start getting ready for Grand Chapter.