Message From the State President

What a wonderful time First Gent, Ken, and I had at the 40 Anniversary Dinner Dance for Vincenzo Bellini Lodge #2519. President Tony George was kind enough to put us up for the night. I can’t thank him enough for the wonderful accommodations.

The members of this Lodge have had me as a guest all through the pandemic. They are an amazing group of members that continued to meet via Zoom each month. Tony also created the “Bellini Dining Experience”. This was a Zoom meeting, twice a month, with a twist. They decided on an ingredient (fish, pasta, something green, and more) each time. Then everyone would make something that fit in the description. We would then eat together on Zoom and talk about our meals and whatever else. It was a wonderful dinner party.

Because of the continued contact with our members the Lodge has come out of this pandemic stronger than before. I hope other Lodges also have success stories to share. Please let me know.

We had an excellent Zoom call with our National President, Bob Bianchi. The meeting was recorded, and I passed the link on to all our Lodge Presidents.  I hope you passed it on to your members. I was sorry that more of my Council didn’t attend but I want to thank Immediate Past President, John Costa, First Vice President, Pauline Richmond, Treasurer, Lynn Lawrence Murph, and our Trustee from Central, Pam Buldo. Thank you for taking the time to attend this informative meeting. Our National President specifically made a second meeting for those of us on Mountain and Pacific time.

I will be in Chicago for a National Plenary Session in August. I am looking forward to hearing from all the other Grand Lodge Presidents about what is going on in their Grand Lodges. I know some of you might feel there is to much social time during these events. I have found that most of our sharing of information is during the time when we are sharing a cup of coffee or some food. I look forward to sharing with you the results of this Plenary.

It is so important to share information. It is what I hope we are doing with our Lodge Presidents Zoom call each month. I’m afraid we will have to cancel our June call because of our Convention. I hope we will have spent time over a glass of wine or a cup of coffee and talked about what is happening in our Lodges.

Till next month
Fraternally
Barbara