Rite News

A Publication of the Valley of Bellingham

September 2003 – Page 4

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(Continued from page 3) These two entities are completely separate corporations and their funds do no mix except for a check that is written at the end of each year for excess funds from the Temple Corp. to the Bodies. This check is required by the IRS to maintain a 501c2 corporation. Excess funds are all remaining funds after all bills are paid and reserves for building operation and maintenance are funded by the Temple Corp. Our List of Endowed Life Members Grows The Valley’s newest membership class, the Fully Endowed Life Membership that can not be subjected to assessments is growing. With a new action by the Board of Directors we expect even more growth. The Board, on 8/27/03, passed a new resolution that life members 75 years old and older may upgrade to Endowed Life Member for $200.00. That means that regular members over 75 can become endowed Life Members for only $400.00. An endowed life membership costs regular members $1250.00 and life members $750.00 and we have several payment plans that are explained on this years dues notice Our current Endowed life members are: Steve Cronkhite, Gary Pitcher, James W. Ingram, Alvin F. Goodwin, Randy Carroll, Delbert E. Livermore, Windsor Ancheta, and Gerrit Kuiken.

Being the Valley’s secretary is a lot of work but I feel so lucky to have the position. I’ve been a Mason for about 7 years and a Scottish Rite Mason for about 6 years and Masonry has blessed my life. There is no place in my life were we are all on the level and have the kind of fellowship we have in Masonry. There have been many changes in my short tenure as General Secretary of the Valley. The largest change is membership, we now not only have less than half of the members we had six years ago we also have less than half of the active members coming to Lodge, dinners, and other activities. Now we have been notified by the Supreme Council that our member assessment to them is going to be increased by around 50%. Our costs keep going up and our income keeps going down. It is difficult to maintain member services. We only put out one Rite News last year, it went out like this one with the dues mailing. Notice the new look to this newsletter, it does not look like our previous newsletters (continued on page 5)

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© Copyright 2003 Scottish Rite Valley of Bellingham, all rights reserved

Steve Cronkhite steve@scottish-rite.com editor