Grand High Poobah!

Today, I'm going to share a resource that is used with our Elected State Officers. One of their main jobs is to know and understand the Masonic fraternity so that they can accurately and succinctly represent DeMolay to other fraternal bodies. To do that, they often have to remember names and titles of the adult leaders of these organizations. We all know that titles can be very complex, so I devised a system to help our guys understand and aid them in matching names to faces. 

I recommend break a title down. Generally, they come in five parts. 

Part 1: The Salutation - This is the part of the title that describes the office and is usually the strangest sounding to us.  Examples: Right Worshipful, Most Puissant, Right Eminent

 

Part 2: Rank - This part of the title distinguishes the person from local or regional bodies.  

•Remember the head of a local Lodge is a Master, so to distinguish the state level official we increase the rank.  Example: Grand, Supreme

Part 3: Office - This is the actual name of the office being held Examples: Master, Matron, Active 

Part 4: Organization - This tells us from what Masonic Body the dignitary is from. Example: Grand Chapter, Grand Lodge, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite - Northern Masonic Jurisdiction 

Part 5: Jurisdiction - The area of Jurisdiction tells us who he or she has authority over, and where. Example: Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, North America 

When I'm teaching this to our guys, I usually color code each part of the title to make it easier. I also provide a complete list, with pictures, of each important person here in PA, so that the Elected State Officers can be better prepared. You can see the current (as of 2/18/2013) version of the presentation here.

So, next time you have to do some Marshaling in your Chapter, break those titles down - it'll be easy easier!

Frat! ~ "Dad" Seth Anthony