Alaska Masonic Family Meets

Yesterday evening (May 9) the leadership of the Alaska Masonic Family met for a wonderful dinner and good fellowship for the first annual meeting of this group. The meeting was held at the Suite 100 Restaurant in Anchorage, Alaska. Those in attendance included:

Bette and Norm Gutcher, Royal Grand Matron and Patron of the Grand Court of Amaranth in Alaska
Joan Morgan, representing Claudianne Jones, Deputy to the Most Worthy Grand Matron of the General Chapter, Order of Eastern Star
Robin Hasty, High Priestess, Waheed Court No. 81, Ladies Oriental Shrine of North America
Gabrielle Hazelton, Supreme Deputy, International Order of the Rainbow for Girls in Alaska
Shawn Lopez, representing Dale Gillilan, Executive Officer of the International Order of DeMolay in Alaska
Johnnie L. Wallace, Most Excellent Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of Alaska
Leonard C. Bibler, Most Illustrious Grand Master of the Grand Council Cryptic Masons of Alaska
Littleton F. (Buck) Buxton, Right Eminent Grand Commander of the Grand Commandery Knights Templar of Alaska
J.B. Carnahan, personal representative for William R. Miller, Sovereign Grand Inspector General in Washington and Alaska, Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction
David Worel, Chief Rabban representing Ken Krasselt, Potentate Al Aska Shrine
Bo Cline, Grand Master, Masons in Alaska

In addition to those mentioned above, there were several other officers of the represented organizations present.

Following dinner, I led the group is a short business meeting. I explained that the purpose of the Alaska Masonic Family Group (AMFG) was:

1. To provide a forum for leaders of the Alaskan Concordant Bodies to meet with the leaders of the Grand Lodge of Alaska and exchange ideas on topics which are of common interest to them.

2. To provide an opportunity for the leaders of the represented organizations to become acquainted with one another.

3. To promote an open line of communications between the leaders so that when communications of a formal nature are required they will occur in a pleasant and productive manner.

Each of those present was asked to present any issues or concerns that they were aware of, to support a shared calendar of events for all organizations to help prevent conflicting activities, and to decide whether continuation of this forum met their organization’s needs. There was unanimous consensus among those present that the AMFG was a concept which was a long time in coming. Further, they agreed that this activity needed to be an annual occurrence, scheduled for the first Saturday in October each year, and that the hosting responsibility be rotated among the membership organizations. It was explained that the reason to meet the first Saturday of October each year was for the coordination of each organization’s calendars for the following year. The next meeting of the AMFG was scheduled for Saturday, October 3, 2009. This meeting will be hosted by the Alaska Scottish Rite and the venue, time, and agenda will be proposed by them.

As the promoter of this initiative, I was excited at the response and have very positive expectations about the future relationship among the AMFG.