District Annual meeting of the Allied Masonic Degrees in Yorkshire 2021

Saturday 27th April 2021 saw the first, and hopefully the last, AGM to take place via Zoom.  Our District Grand Prefect, VW Bro Graham Bailey welcomed a total of 108 participants to the meeting, including the Grand Master and visitors from 14 other Districts.

Annual Meetings, irrespective of the Order, tend to follow a familiar pattern so, allowing for having to operate in a virtual setting, everything seemed to work reasonably well.  All the Officers were confirmed in post for a second year with it being necessary to confirm the appointment of Worshipful Brother Brian Butterfield (Ebor C), who moved from District Senior Warden, as our Deputy District Grand Prefect.  W Bro David Jennings (Stokesley 247) was confirmed as District Senior Warden and due to the sad passing of W Bro John English (Tapton 153), W Bro Kay Raper (ParagonE 217) was appointed to District Grand Junior Warden.

In this world things rarely run smoothly so, knowing that it does not take much to turn a success into a disaster, I organised a rehearsal for all those with speaking parts and we did very well.  The disaster was that I rehearsed using a laptop but did the live meeting using a PC with twin screens.  Almost from the start my plan for a slick performance slipped.  I managed to confuse various items on the twin screens that had worked perfectly well when using the laptop.  Lesson learned – do not change equipment between rehearsal and performance.  I can just hear Captain Mainwaring saying, “Stupid boy!” even though I managed to eventually sort myself out.

As with all meetings not everyone can attend.  We had a few going for their second Covid-19 jab plus the odd last-minute problem at home for some preventing their attendance.  It happens.  The best example of the last-minute problem was that while one of our members had responded to the invitation to be there on the day, he neglected to remember it was also the day of his wedding anniversary.  I understand that he has survived but the bank balance took a hit.

I would like to thank all who attended the AGM for their support, and I hope that they enjoyed the experience as much as I.

Tom Spinks

District Grand Secretary