51 Newsletters

July 2008 Newsletter

Meetings 3rd Monday of each month at 7:30 PM

Bellevue Lodge #51
AF & AM
206 North Riverview
Bellevue, Iowa 52031
563-872-3337

Email: bellevue51@iowatelecom.net
Website: iowamasons.com/51.html

Meetings 3rd Monday of each month at 7:30 PM
NEXT MEETING July 21st 2008

SPECIAL STARTING TIME FOR THE FISH FRY 6:00 PM
Greetings Brothers,
I hope you all had a great 4th of July. The July meeting will be the “Annual” John Pitlo fish fry. John needs to know how many fish to fix. Make your reservations by the 18th of July by calling me at 563-872-5032 or Arnie at 563-682-7198 leave a message if we don’t answer. Don’t miss this one.

At our last meeting we discussed the need to help some of our brothers in the flooded areas of Iowa. The Grand Master has set up an emergency fund for that purpose and he will be in touch with the lodges that need help. I don’t have anything more important to say than the Grand Master so here is his letter.

Fraternally,

Charles Struckman, WM

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June 2008 Newsletter

Meetings 3rd Monday of each month at 7:30 PM

Bellevue Lodge #51
AF & AM
206 North Riverview
Bellevue, Iowa 52031
563-872-3337

Email: bellevue51@iowatelecom.net
Website: iowamasons.com/51.html

Meetings 3rd Monday of each month at 7:30 PM
NEXT MEETING JUNE 16TH 2008

Greetings Brothers,
I am happy to be able to inform all of you that the Grand Lodge of Iowa has matched our donation to Logan Cram. Arnie Jackson and I presented Logan with another check for $1000.00 last week. He said he would put the check in the bank for future expenses, which I’m sure there will be many. Logan is improving very slowly but surely. He is now able to walk without a cane and he is able to get out and mow a few lawns in town. He still has a feeding tube and is not able to swallow normally. His balance is coming back but he said he kind of drifts to the right, which he said makes it hard for his wife to walk beside him. I wish all of you could meet him, I’m not sure my attitude would be as good as his in his shoes. Thanks to the Brothers who brought his difficulty to our attention, this is what Charity is all about and what Masons are all about. Thank You All.

More good news. We will be voting on the petition of a new member for the degrees after the visitation committees report. Hopefully we will have more this year but this is a start. If you have someone in mind I think we still have time to get them into the one day class on August 23 in Iowa City.

The scholarship program for members has gone to committee and they will report to the lodge when they have finished their review.

At this meeting I would like to bring up two items for your consideration. The first would be the purchase of a flag pole and flag for our courtyard. The second, moving the oyster supper night to November 17th when the weather might be better for traveling and the oysters are bigger. This would also benefit our members who go south for the winter. Think about these things before the meeting and bring your comments, for or against. See you there June 16th .

For those of you who don’t receive the Bellevue paper check out the backside. Again thanks to those who helped with the breakfast.

Thanks to John Pitlo for taking care of the memorial flags at the cemetery in Bellevue.

Fraternally,

Charles Struckman, WM

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April 21, 2008

Greetings Brothers,
The members of the Bellevue Lodge have approved the new By-Laws and they are now in effect. A copy of the new by-laws is printed on the reverse side of this letter. We do have a nicer copy of the by-laws, but you will have to come to a stated meeting to get it.

We will be discussing our plans for the teachers breakfast and teacher of the year award at our April 21st meeting. I hope all of you will participate in serving the teachers, this is our chance to show our support of our local teachers and school systems. This is a project to be proud of.

I will also be offering two suggestions at the meeting. I would like you to have time to consider before then. Number one, in addition to the teacher of the year award certificate that we also give the teacher a monetary reward to be used for his/her classroom. Number two, that the Lodge create one and maybe two new scholarships. These new scholarships would be named the P.L. Lake and/or Dr. Moulton Scholarships. These are the guidelines used by Mt Hermon Lodge #263 Cedar Rapids, IA for their scholarship program.
Eligibility
1. The children of members of Bellevue Lodge #51 in good standing.
2. The grandchildren of members of Bellevue Lodge #51 who are in good standing.
3. The children/grandchildren of deceased members of Bellevue Lodge #51, who were in good standing at the time of their death.
Re-application
A student who has previously received a Bellevue Lodge #51 scholarship may reapply.

I will have a copy of the Mt Hermon application at the meeting for you to review. For those of you with internet access go to iowamasons.com and scroll down to Mt Hermon Lodge. They have everything online.

Arnie Jackson, Don Felderman, Bob Baugh and I went to Cammanche IA for a neighborhood meeting on March 31st . There is a lot going on in some of the lodges. Some seem to be making better use of their lodges for things other than just stated meetings. Any ideas bring them to the meeting Aril 21st.

Fraternally,

Charles Struckman, WM

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March, 2008 Newsletter

Greetings Brothers,

Well where were You last month? Eight of us, including our two newest members, Darren Berthel and Bob Baugh, had a lot of oysters to eat. Once again the weather stopped us from having a full house. I am glad that no one tried to come from any distance to the meeting it was just too dangerous on the roads. Even Calvin Keil missed the oysters; he called in from Whitewater WI. to let us know he wouldn’t be coming. It was mentioned that we might want to change the date of the oyster supper to the November meeting. The oysters are bigger in November and the weather might be better.

We did work on the by-laws and we will be voting on them this meeting. We came up with following changes: 1. Delete the reference to Holiday scheduling and keep the 7:30 PM starting time. 2. The Lodge shall place $_______ in the Charity Fund each year until a maximum of $_________ is reached. 3. Change the Secretary and Treasurer’s wages. 4. Addition of the heading Committees: A minimum of two members of any and all committees must be present in order to transact any business of that committee. 5. Under Maintenance: The addition of the words: including all rental properties, after grounds. These changes and any others will be voted on at this meeting and if approved will take effect immediately.

As many of you know Mike Blitgen’s daughter has been diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL). Mike wrote us a letter and I would like to quote a part of it here. Mike wrote, “I would like to ask you all for your prayers that Melissa has a complete recovery from all this and she can get back to a normal 22 year old’s routine of finishing school and enjoying life again!”. I would ask that you include Melissa in your prayers. Please let us know if you know of any Brother or family member who is not in good health so that we can include them.

This month I hope to have a Junior Warden, Richard Rossmann, sworn in. If the weather permits.

I have a little space here so I’m going to give you something to think about. From Christopher Hodapp’s book Freemason’s for Dummies. The Number Three: “Everywhere you look in a lodge and among its rituals, you come across the number three. There are three degrees, three principle officers, three candles, three primary orders of architecture, three knocks on the door, three steps leading to the Worshipful Master’s chair, three principle tenets, three stages of life- the list goes on and on. In non-English-speaking countries, the universal symbol for the Great Architect of the Universe is an equilateral triangle, often with the all-seeing eye in it.”

With that I hope you all can make it to the stated meeting Monday March 17, at 7:30 PM
Fraternally,

Charlie Struckman, WM

February 18th
Greetings Brothers,
Well we did manage to have our January meeting. Delbert Jackson did have to get on the phone in order get a quorum, but we made it. For those of you who are lying around in the sun, Don Felderman, Jack Jacobs just to name a couple, we had a snow storm that day and even our secretary could not get into Bellevue from Miles. This was really put me on the spot, because he was to be the installing officer. But we did have the installation of Officers and the election of our Junior Warden. Richard Rossman will be the Junior Warden for the coming year and John Pitlo will serve as Senior Decon. Thanks to everyone who made the meeting, it wasn’t easy and I hope we can get through the rest of this winter without another day like that. In case you were wondering why the meeting wasn’t just canceled, it was because of the special election for Junior Warden and the installation of officers. In order to reschedule we would have had to get permission from Grand Lodge and notify all members of the election within seven days. Which we had already done once before. So it was just easier to get it done. By the way we didn’t even get a meal; the ladies from OES couldn’t make it to the lodge.

Arnie Jackson, Delbert Jackson, and I attended a secretaries conference held in Colesburg, January 10th . At the meeting it was suggested that we update our bylaws. We were given a guide to use. I have written a revised version and we will be discussing it at our February meeting. Some of the items to be discussed are: MEETING TIMES, HOLIDAY SCHEDULE, COMPENSATION OF OFFICERS, and OTHER
It takes two stated communications to change the bylaws, so the sooner we get to it, the sooner we can start our meetings at an earlier hour, if that is approved, as suggested.

Now for the rest of the story. Arnie drove to the conference and Delbert and I rode along. Just as we were leaving Colesburg it started to snow and the closer we got to home the worse it got. Arnie let Delbert and me off and he headed for home. He almost made it! He went into a ditch and totaled out his van. Could be the reason he didn’t want to drive in another snow storm two weeks later.

Remember, this is our ANNUAL OYSTER STEW & CHILI SUPPER NIGHT, February 18.
We will eat at 6:00 PM the stated meeting will begin at the regular time. Everyone is invited to share in the fellowship.

Fraternally,

Charlie Struckman, WM