Essex Mark AGM Virtual Business Meeting
5th June 2021
On Saturday the 5th of June 2021, the Annual Meeting of the Mark Province of Essex was unable to hold a physical meeting at Felsted School, due to current Government restrictions and for the second successive year held a Virtual Business Meeting in its place, chaired by the Provincial Grand Master R. W. Bro. Terence D. Sheern.
This should have been the 19th year in which the business of the Province was conducted at Felsted School making this one year short of the record held by the Lion and Lamb Hotel in Chelmsford, which was host to the Province for 20 years from 1963 to 1982.
From 1899 to 1962 the Annual Provincial meeting and its festive board was organised and hosted by a different Mark Lodge each year. It was decided by R. W. Bro. Percy Faning, the PGM in 1962 that this practice should stop and the Provincial Secretary was gifted with the responsibility for the meeting and it has remained the case ever since.
This year’s Virtual Business Meeting was held on the Zoom conferencing platform. The meeting was officially opened by the PGM at 11am in the virtual presence of 189 Mark Men and honoured with the attendance of PGM’s from across the Country, their executive and the Grand Secretary, R. W. Bro. Ryan Williams.
The Provincial Grand Secretary, W. Bro. Paul Busby read out the dispensation allowing the meeting to go ahead which was followed by a scrolling list of all those distinguished Brethren in attendance. The business of the Province continued with the names of all those Essex Mark Brethren honoured with Grand and Provincial Grand Rank and all were congratulated by the PGM, tempered with the words, ‘That with office comes great responsibility’.
With much grace and decorum were the names of all those that had passed to the Grand Lodge above, presented to those assembled and followed by the words of the Provincial Chaplain, W. Bro. Roger Smith. Their service complete, they will be remembered by those that worked with them closely in their respective Lodges and in their various Provincial roles.
With the Provincial business concluded, the Grand Secretary gave an address on the work of Grand Lodge and the challenges that had been faced over the preceding 15 months. He praised the efforts of the Mark Brethren of Essex for their continued charitable support and the President of the MBF echoed those congratulations.
The PGM then gave his personal address, a transcript of which follows;
This should have been the 19th year in which the business of the Province was conducted at Felsted School making this one year short of the record held by the Lion and Lamb Hotel in Chelmsford, which was host to the Province for 20 years from 1963 to 1982.
From 1899 to 1962 the Annual Provincial meeting and its festive board was organised and hosted by a different Mark Lodge each year. It was decided by R. W. Bro. Percy Faning, the PGM in 1962 that this practice should stop and the Provincial Secretary was gifted with the responsibility for the meeting and it has remained the case ever since.
This year’s Virtual Business Meeting was held on the Zoom conferencing platform. The meeting was officially opened by the PGM at 11am in the virtual presence of 189 Mark Men and honoured with the attendance of PGM’s from across the Country, their executive and the Grand Secretary, R. W. Bro. Ryan Williams.
The Provincial Grand Secretary, W. Bro. Paul Busby read out the dispensation allowing the meeting to go ahead which was followed by a scrolling list of all those distinguished Brethren in attendance. The business of the Province continued with the names of all those Essex Mark Brethren honoured with Grand and Provincial Grand Rank and all were congratulated by the PGM, tempered with the words, ‘That with office comes great responsibility’.
With much grace and decorum were the names of all those that had passed to the Grand Lodge above, presented to those assembled and followed by the words of the Provincial Chaplain, W. Bro. Roger Smith. Their service complete, they will be remembered by those that worked with them closely in their respective Lodges and in their various Provincial roles.
With the Provincial business concluded, the Grand Secretary gave an address on the work of Grand Lodge and the challenges that had been faced over the preceding 15 months. He praised the efforts of the Mark Brethren of Essex for their continued charitable support and the President of the MBF echoed those congratulations.
The PGM then gave his personal address, a transcript of which follows;
Provincial Grand Masters Address
"Brethren,
May I start by thanking you all for joining us today, especially our visitors from other Provinces at home and Districts overseas, Grand Lodge and the Heads of the other Orders in Essex. Your presence always adds much to our meetings and I know the members of this Province are grateful to you for making the time to help enhance our meeting.
Whilst it’s unfortunate we have had to hold this our second Provincial meeting via this zoom platform, God willing it will be the last time.
I would like to start my address by thanking my deputy W. Bro John and my two assistants V.W. Bro Mark and W. Bro Richard for their continued support, advice and hard work on behalf of you all behind the scenes, in particular their individual leadership of their respective 3 R’s group know locally as the Provincial Membership Group.
For those of you present at W. Bro Johns Installation would have heard me say that he had a hard act to follow in V.W. Bro Richard Bowyer, who incidentally brethren still assists me behind the scenes for which I am always grateful. Well W. Bro John has certainly stepped up to the plate and has brought with him a new set of skills, which has added new breath and dimension to the team.
To the members of the Province can I thank you all for your continued support and perseverance during this unprecedented time. And in particular how you have continued to support the province with your generosity, your giving always amazes me and because of this we have been able to support those in need during the lockdown periods for which you should all be very proud.
The sales of regalia, merchandise, bonus ball, face masks , cook books, and other fund raising prizes etc have all paid a really important part of our charitable income and once again I thank all those who have given up their time to support the Province with these endeavours.
Whilst talking about charity and giving, we in Essex are aware that our Craft Province has a festival next year and as loyal proud members of the Craft we have over the past four years done our best to support their festival. This is even more important this year because they have been unable to continue with many of their planned money raising activities.
I therefore say to Bro Paul Reeves the Deputy Provincial Grand Master in Charge, Paul I have in my possession a voucher for a further £11,000, which is made up of £1,000 from the Essex Mark Installed Masters Lodge and £10,000 from Mark Men of Essex. This brings our total to date to over £45,000 not including any interest. I hope we can make a final donation next year before the festival closing date.
Whilst I have your attention Paul may I also thank and congratulate you for the hard work and contribution you have made over the years to the Craft in Essex in the many offices you have held. I would also like to say that even though you would not have wished to take on the role of Deputy in Charge under the circumstance you did, we think you have carried those duties with dignity and to a very high standard for which we thank you. We also hope that now you will soon have more time on your hands you can dedicate it to the Mark Degree!
Brethren I am sure you will have seen on the website the names of those who will be receiving or promoted within Grand Rank this year but it is only right and proper that we congratulate them today.
To be re appointed to Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies is W. Bro Chris Hicks
To be re appointed to Grand Steward is W. Bro Peter Steele
W. Bro Chris Race is promoted to Past Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies
W. Bro Ray McKerron to Past Assistant Grand Sword Bearer
W. Bro Ranjit Bhogal Past Grand Standard Bearer
W. Bro William Becker to Past Assistant Grand Standard Bearer
W. Bro Clive Dunnico promoted to Past Grand Senior Deacon and
W. Bro Roy Kaye promoted to Past Grand Junior Deacon.
On behalf of all those present today we give you our hearty congratulations and hope as many as possible will be able to support you on the day you receive your ranks.
I also offer my, and your, congratulations to all those who have been appointed and promoted as of today’s date. I am sorry I am unable to greet and congratulate you all in person but hope todays proceedings will go some one to mark this special day for you. To those who have been re appointed or promoted to active rank I do hope you will be able to join me in the very near future on my visits around the Province, I can guarantee you will receive a warm welcome wherever you go.
Brethren a Provincial honour is an important one so wear your regalia with pride but always remember with rank comes responsibilities.
I would normally at this point introduce to you the grand father of the Province but unfortunately W. Bro Dickie Caldwell is unable to join us. Dickie is now in his 100th year and not in the best of health but we wish him well and hope he can join us next year. Could I ask a member of his lodge to take the best wishes and regards from all us back to him please.
Brethren I would like to take a few moments to give some well-earned thank you’s.
I thank the Provincial secretary and the administration team for all their hard work and commitment behind the scenes. It is always appreciated.
The full media team and web-shop team for a fantastic job in promoting the Province on all our social media sights, for keeping us all up to date and for running our online shop.
To Roy Kaye and his small team of helpers for looking after our well being and welfare through a difficult time over the past year or so and for submitting two very successful MBF bids one for the meals on wheels and the other for clowns in the sky. Thank you
To the Provincial DC and ceremonial team for producing the ceremonial handbooks and running the virtual LoI’s
And to all that made generous donations to the Essex welfare fund, by way of prizes, merchandise and gifts
Thank you all
Brethren as I said at the start of this address we are now on route back to some form of normality and we have a very busy schedule ahead of us all. At the Provincial level there are plans to consecrate the new Southern Star lodge, and to repone the Isthmian Lodge, we also have at least three banner dedications to carry out and Constantine lodge being our oldest lodge is planning a celebration meeting for their 125th birthday. Our Officers Mess and Northern Lodges cluster meetings will also resume in the very near future.
More importantly however brethren is the resumption of lodges at a local level and in particular the advancement and elevation of our new members in waiting. I ask each of you to please ensure you are match fit for these meetings, its vital that after a long wait to join us we make sure it is a ceremony they will not forget. And at the end of their ceremony we want them to say it was worth the wait and thereby recruit others for us.
The Province will give as much help as it can and the Provincial DC can give guidance or ritual support if required, please ask for it, we would much rather help than for your candidates to be disappointed.
The return to meetings is also in my view a time to celebrate and so you may wish to give some thought on how you could do this, from holding a special festive board after the meeting to commissioning a banner or new tracing board etc for your lodge. Having said that brethren I think its also important for me to say you should only return to meetings when you as an individual thinks its safe to do so, no one should feel pressurised to do so.
There are exciting times ahead; the Provincial membership groups have plans to assist with your recruitment, re-invigoration and retention activities. We have taken note of the recent survey results and will be planning how to incorporate some of the comments and suggestions.
We have candidates lined up to join us, we will be able to meet each other in the flesh not only to enjoy our Mark Masonry but also each others company, and with a “can do” positive attitude the Province can only become stronger and better than before.
Brethren I thank you all once again for your attendance today and for your attention. Before I close the meeting I have asked the Grand Secretary to say a few words on behalf of Grand Lodge and so will now ask that R.W. Bro Ryan un-mutes himself
Thank you brethren"
The Virtual meeting was concluded by the PGM at Midday and the assembled Brethren remained together to see friends and part ways in the hope that next year, we can again enjoy the company of the Essex Mark Men of the friendly Degree. It has often been remarked that we leave a Mark meeting feeling better than when we arrived and such is the close knit bond between the men of Essex, that even virtually this holds true.
