Thinking Outside the Box

I am sure for many of us who write articles for our own lodge newsletters or those appearing in the Il Leone we will call up our last year article and type in the new information and save it under this year’s filename. The pandemic has changed all of that. The April 2020 edition of the Roma Lodge article had a complete listing of over 75 members who would be presented their “milestone” membership certificates for every 5 years of successful Roma Lodge membership. It included pictures of new members and their families and information about our 90th year anniversary celebration. Which of course never happened because of the pandemic. We have not met since March of 2020.

On March 20th I decided to participate in the Grand Council zoom meeting to learn about what is going on at the state level. I must thank and congratulate President John Costa and all the Grand Council officers

Around & About With Safety in Place
Our Answer to Covid-19)

C. Colombo Lodge President Carol Esposito has been working from home following Covid-19 restrictions. She also uses her tech skills to keep the members informed and connected. In-personmeetings may have stopped, but Carol does her best to reach out to lodge members via email and Zoom. Carol has created cards to be sent to members on their special occasions; labels for the monthly greeting cards given to the local VA Hospital patients; formalzing

Being a human means we are not perfect, but that is perfectly fine.

There is a huge race going on now between those that refuse to wear masks and those that are getting vaccinations to keep them, their family, and their neighbors safe from the COVID-19 virus.

At the time of this writing, a bit of good news: some of our lodge members are getting their COVID-19 shots, and the rate of seasonal flu cases has dramatically dropped (only 165 confirmed cases to February 6). Of course, our state of California will not yet allow large gatherings,

For the first time I have had a Roma Lodge member ask if he could pay his $75 dues and have it all go to the Roma Lodge instead of the 25 cents the lodge gets. He no longer wanted to be a member of the state or national organizations. The strength of the Grand Lodge and National organizations comes from the local lodges. It is difficult to justify a member continue their membership when we have not had a meeting since last February- 2020 and it looks as though we may not have another meeting until May or June-2021 and that may be difficult with the COVID pandemic still with us.

When I read the IL Leone our leadership continues to discuss the importance of membership and getting new members into the organization. It is documented that the primary reason anyone joins a particular nonprofit organization is belief in the organization’s mission. If you read the OSDIA Constitution