As we enter into the fall months we are still under the mandate of our local government officials. I am writing this on the day I normally would be having a grand council meeting. This has truly been a learning experience for all of us. Who said we could not learn new tricks i.e. “zoom”, conference calls. Many lodges have been using zoom to stay in touch with their members. I have participated on a zoom call every 1st Wednesday of the month with the other State Presidents along with our National President Nancy. We also just completed a Zoom virtual National Plenary meeting in September. This has become a valuable tool for lodges, besides the phone calls, email and text messages.

I will be setting up a conference call for Grand Council in October and like in March, info will be sent to the each filial lodge President’s to participate. I am hoping that by March 2021 we can meet in person for Grand Council. Information has been sent to your Lodge Presidents and Recording Secretaries on how you can have election of officers for the 2020-2022 year, thank you Al and the Judiciary committee for helping review this. If you have not received this information and or have questions please contact either myself or Judge Al.

Being October, unfortunately many Columbus Day

Hope all of you are doing well and staying safe. It seems to be getting harder each month that goes by. I am missing my Sisters and Brothers and all our interaction at meetings and social events.

I was fortunate to sit in on the National Membership Zoom meeting set up for California. I appreciate all of our Lodge Presidents and members that joined us. I think one of the best takeaways for me was being able to get ideas and communicate with Officers and members across the country. Once this time passed, we could see and speak with a National or Grand Lodge President, or hear a speaker from anywhere at our meetings using this tool. It would allow people who are not well or on a business trip or visiting out of state to still be a part of our meetings. How great would that be?

I also sat in on several Lodge meetings and Board meetings on Zoom.

Hello All, I am praying everyone continues to stay healthy and safe. It is hard to believe we are near the end of the 3rd quarter of 2020. Time is certainly flying by! I miss everyone and cannot wait until we can safely meet again.

By now I am sure all the lodges have received a copy of approved Local Lodge Covid-19 Election guidance from the Judiciary Committee sent from the Grand Lodge. Please take the time to read applicable Laws. Also follow the suggested procedures under Covid-19. Those of you members which have never served as a lodge officer, please consider stepping up, your lodge needs you!

Monday, August 31st I participated in the Town Hall Style Zoom Meeting between California Lodge members and OSDIA National Membership Commission. I was much impressed with the information that was presented and pleased on how many members participated in the meeting. The question often asked “What does National do for us” was well answered. For our Lodges. important information is available on the National website.

Greetings from Redding,

It has been a few months since our last article, but like most other lodges we have not had any meetings or social events. We are very fortunate in Redding that we have not had any fires near us, just the smoke. We are also fortunate that as far as we know none of our members has had Covid 19.

In February, Shasta Lodge initiated three new members, Nancy Wright, Mary Vassil, and Telly Vinci. We welcome them to our lodge and hope to get acquainted with them when we are able to meet again.

In April we lost two

Hello to all. This is Italian Heritage Month. I know it’s hard to not be heartbroken by all the division and recent violence in our world right now. Italians immigrating here had a lot of hatred, they were victims of the largest mass lynching in New Orleans. One of the ways America helped ease the tensions was by making Columbus Day a federal holiday. Seeing his statues being torn down are heartbreaking, we all have our own opinions about this great explorer. OSDIA recently sent guidelines dealing with how to address this, should you need to. I emailed the guidelines to our members, if you did not receive them, please contact me, or 1st Vice President Pauline Richmond.

On September 22, our Lodge would have celebrated our 98th Anniversary. We were very sad to have had to cancel our annual fundraiser to celebrate it, but felt it was necessary to keep our friends and family safe.

AND IN THE MEANWHILE....
Folks are hunkering down... keeping invisible and safe... looking strange...with a mask..., and hopefully staying well. (I wonder what affect it will have on young children to see masked parents)

NEWS FROM ON HIGH...
Our President Paul Grant says, “Stay home! Drink a lot of liquids, red or white. If you add ice cubes then that will be more H20.