 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Ill Sirs, Nobles, Ladies, Distinguished Guests and Family members.
When Ill Sir Dave Sweeney appointed me to the Divan in the summer of 2006; I had no idea what laid ahead of me. Even though I was in the Shrine for 30 years at the time I had absolutely no idea what the divan did, or what was expected of the officers of Karnak Temple. Well it has been quite a journey and I have enjoyed every minute of it. We have visited the other Temples in our association, met our counterparts, and discussed the workings and procedures in effect at their Temples and gained knowledge, and experience. Thank you Ill Sir Dave Sweeney in your condo in Pompano Beach, Florida. Our theme this year is “WE ARE FAMILY.” Not new, but always relevant. In our day to day lives, in our Masonic meetings and gathering in our Shrine clubs and Units we may not all see eye to eye, we may not be on the same side in discussions, but what we need to know is that no matter what happens we are all here as brothers. And when the dust settles we should be able to go up to each other, shake hands call one another brother and remember that we are here for a common goal our Fraternity, our philanthropy and our 22 hospitals to serve our children. It’s quite amazing that we have existed for over 300 years as an organized body, with our diversity, of culture, occupations, different up bringing, social & religious differences…and yet that Mystic tie of our Fraternity binds us all together, WE ARE FAMILY... Our Goal/Priority this year will continue to be MEMBERSHIP. It’s unfortunate that we did not have an increase this year, but we had to contend with 30 deaths. We had increases the past two years and we were hopeful; the trend would continue. Membership is an ongoing thing and we have to be continually aware of our Masonic brothers and ask them “Aren’t You A Shriner”??? No…Why Not??? It’s surprising. The answer might just be... Nobody ever asked me…We will assign quotas to each unit /club and trust you will accept the challenge to meet them in a friendly and receptive way. We hope to stimulate further interest by offering incentives for first line signers, a jacket for every 5 candidates, a free weekend at Queeche, etc, details will follow. Our Cornwall SD&G club has already extended an invitation to all Shriners and Masons to a Free BBQ on Feb 15th in Cornwall, Ontario to attract new members to its club. These are exciting times ahead as we monitor the progress of the building of our new hospital, and the resulting publicity we as Shriners should receive. Let people know that we support 22 Hospitals and finance a yearly budget of 730 million dollars, and that we have helped over a million children. That’s who we are ----: Shriners supporting the world’s greatest philanthropy. I would like to thank the organizers of this special evening, Gilles Lecompte and Lady Joan and the entire Divan that worked along side of them…….a job well done. I would like to thank all of you who came to share this very special day. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve as your Potentate. Lady Helene and I look forward to sharing this year with you. Douglas B Hall
The Elected Divan
The Appointed Divan
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ill. Sir Henry Brisson
Richard Brousseau
Gilles Lecompte
Michael Glezos
Barry Schreindorfer