Worth Knights this is the eight occasion on which I have had the privilege and very great pleasure of addressing you at our Divisional Meeting. It is wonderful to see so many of you able to attend today.
I congratulate all those who will be appointed to or promoted in Grand Imperial Conclave early next month.
On Promotion
Nil
On first Appointment
Ian Thomas Glister as Grand Standard Bearer (L)
Anthony James Green as Past Grand Warden of Regalia
Mark Robert Parsons as Past Grand Warden of Regalia
Robert Ross Galbraith as Past Grand Vice Chamberlain
Ian Martin Campbell as Past Grand Herald.
These appointments and promotions are all well-deserved and follow many years of dedicated service to the Order and is an indication of what is expected of them in the future.
I look forward to seeing you all in London for your Investiture and also I trust many of you who will no doubt be supporting them.
This year the allocation was for 5 appointments and, for a number of reasons, not the least of which was a slight tweak in the qualification date for consideration for promotion, I decided to use all 5 for first appointments.
There is a rumour that the qualification for grand rank may change from a number of Memberships to a number of members. If the other orders controlled by MMH are anything to go by, some of whom have already had the members system applied to them, this change may result in a reduction of Grand Ranks.
I congratulate all those that have been appointed to office today. It is an honour that is well deserved by you all. I look forward to working with you during the next year. I would remind you all that you are expected to attend as many official visits as you can, that also includes those promoted to a Past Divisional Rank, as we treat you all as active for this year.
There have been a number of long standing divisional officers who have retired at this meeting. , I have already spoken in detail of V Ill Kt Larry so will not include him at this point.
V Ill Kt Peter Wyles has served the division for many years culminating in his appointment as Divisional High Prelate. In which capacity he has led our rededication service which opens our Annual Meeting. Peter the Division owes you a great dept of gratitude for all that you have done in your capacity at High Prelate and Sub Prelate. Your addresses have been inspirational, and always pertinent to our order, not to mention the many talks you have given in your own inimitable way, to many of our Conclaves. All this work was recognised by Grand imperial Conclave with your promotion to Very Illustrious Knight. Peter we shall always be grateful to you –Very many thanks.
V Ill Kt John Murray has been our Divisional Treasurer for 5 years. It is a difficult position to do well, and John has done just that. He was instrumental in our re-organisation of the Divisional Finances and also the creation of the Grand Charity Relief Chest for the Division, sometimes referred to as the I-G’s slush Fund. John despite your own medical difficulties and others you have served the division faithfully and well –Thank you.
The membership figures in the summons reflect the year ending 31st August 2017. They show an increase of 4 memberships, an approximate 2% increase. This is encouraging and I hope that we may have an increase this year as well, albeit a very small one. We still have a reasonably high number of resignations. This is to be expected in some respects due to the age profile of our membership and the reduction in multi memberships. The recruitment as you all know is from the Royal Arch. The Royal Arch membership figures now appear to be levelling, which is always encouraging for us.
We have had about new members this year, three of whom are able to be with us today.
Would you please stand as I call your names
They are
W Kt’s of the Division of Hampshire and Isle of Wight, I introduce to you … of our new Kts. I trust you will give them a hearty welcome whenever you see them, and provide them with help, guidance and companionship in this wonderful Order — They are our future.
Recruitment and retention are our major preoccupation for the coming year. You are all well aware that the best method of recruitment is for each member to make approaches to individuals about joining us. I would remind Sovereigns and Viceroys that they should be bringing in an individual each in their year of office. But this does not mean that the rest of us can stand back and watch. The Division hopes to arrange 2 or possibly 3 open evenings in the coming year in conjunction with Conclave that have requested them. Ill Kt Steven will take on the duties of overseeing recruitment from V Ill Kt Larry, and if he does a well as Larry did we should be in for some expansion. Remember that although our numbers have not increased dramatically while Larry has been in charge, this was the period of reducing multi memberships and financial pressures, not to mention us giving Dorset 22 memberships.
My senior team have made many visits in the Division and to other Divisions. The numbers are in the Divisional recorders report. Firstly I must thank the other Divisions for their kindness and warm welcome on our visits to them. It is one of the Great Privileges of being part of the senior team to be allowed to attend other Divisional Meetings.
All these visits with in the Division have been marked by the warmth of the welcome and hospitality and the sincerity and warmth of the ceremonies we have witnessed. The visits within our own Division are enhanced by the support of the active Officers, the Divisional Guard and the many Grand Officers that attend with us. They all have my grateful thanks; their support has been wonderful.
I now wish to acknowledge the immense amount of work undertaken by my Senior Team. V Ill KT Larry Pear my deputy; Ill Kt Stuart Taynton my Venerable Divisional Eusebius; Ill Kt Kevin Todd the Divisional Marshall; Ill Kt Tony Bargrove the Divisional Recorder. Their advice and guidance continues to be in valuable to me. I also include in these thanks the Deputy Divisional Marshall Ill Kt Graham Brown and the Divisional Assistant recorder P Kt Ian Cambell, both of whom have worked tirelessly for the Division.
The Captain of the Guard – P Kt Chris Davis and Deputy Captain of the Guard W Kt Mark Gannaway, who play such a substantial role with in this Division, not only on Official Visits but on all Appendant Orders Ceremonies, have my grateful thanks for all they and the Guard do.
The Divisional Executive meeting was of great value to me in deciding on whom I would put forward for Grand Rank and Grand Promotions. Likewise we were able to decide on who would be the active officers that we have appointed today.
The Divisional General Purposes Committee meeting was attended by approximately 33. Apart from the information that I am able to make known to those present, the Divisional Marshall, Recorder and Treasurer are able to meet with their counterparts in each of the Conclaves. We also receive reports from each of the Conclaves updating us with their progress and any problems they may have.
The Ladies’ evening at Winchester was an exceptional event. It was commented on by virtually all the Ladies as to how much they enjoyed it. Our keyboard player organised another competition. He will be doing so again at our Ladies evening again in 2019. I strongly advise you to attend when the details are promulgated.
2018 is the year that the KT have their service at Holy Cross. It is our turn in 2019 and I trust you will all join with us, our families and the members and families of the other Christian Orders for the service and afternoon tea. We now also invite a representative of all the other Orders to attend.
You are all aware that the collection today will go to our Divisional Relief Chest.
We are building up the Divisional Relief Chest to be able to make donation to a number of charities in the future. I also would like to thank the Conclaves who have made contributions to the Relief Chest during the last Masonic Year.
The planning for the 150 year celebration continues with our sub-committee with V Ill Kt Larry chairing. The conclaves are working on their Histories, under the guidance of V Ill Kt John Making, who is also working on the Divisional History. It is worthy of note that Naval and Military Conclave No 35, will be celebrating their 150th year about 4 months before the Division does.
Worthy Knights, the last year as your Intendant-General, has been stimulating, encouraging, challenging and above all, most enjoyable. You are all well aware that we are a truly Christian Order and it should be emphasised throughout our sojourn as a member of this Order. In fact we should emphasise it in our recruitment so that no candidate should ever arrive at his installation in any doubt as to the relationship between the Order and his Christian beliefs.
Worthy Knights may I thank you all for attending today. My thanks go to Tony Ian, Kevin and Graham for organising today; and the staff at Botley for the meal to come. I look forward to working with you in the next year and we part with the watchwords of our wonderful Order:
FAITH UNITY and ZEAL
God bless you all
R.Ill.Kt. Roger Charles Bricknell
June 2018.