FVNews Daily. 
No 36. Tuesday, June 2, 2020
From the Communications and Marketing Volunteer Action TeamFVNews Daily is also available at www.FVNews.com.au
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Vale Allan Burt
• ., a long time member of Lodge Killara No 256 and former member of 456, has died. He had been recently admitted to Royal Melbourne Hospital following a fall. He was 91 years of age and Sunday (May 31) would have been his 68th Wedding Anniversary. David Webb says he lived respected and died regretted.

Essential maintenance only, approval needed
• Deputy Grand Master Anthony Bucca says that timelines for the re-opening of Masonic Centres and Lodges around Victoria are the subject of continuing detailed discussion by members of the Freemasons Future Recovery Team, which met again on Thursday, May 28: “The Board of General Purposes has already decreed that all Masonic Centres are closed and strictly quarantined until at least June 30, 2020. There is to be absolutely no use of Masonic Centres, including that by tenants until advised in writing by the Board. The June 30date may be extended, and is subject to many considerations includingState and Federal Government guidelines, health and safety audits, insurance, food and beverage issues, deep cleaning, medical issues, etc. • “Only essential maintenance assignments are to be embarked upon at any Masonic Centre. Maintenance requests are to be forwarded to the Grand Secretary and approval must be obtained by the Grand Superintendent of Works. Non-essential maintenance is not allowed at this time.”

Board to make final decisions
• “Five expert sub-committees are being formed to conduct thorough investigations with the health and safety of our members being of paramount importance,” says RWor. Bro. Bucca “There is a particular emphasis in considering the needs of country-based Lodges, as well as health factors relating to the demographic of our membership. Those committees are:
• Medical Advisory Panel
• Risk and Finance
• Membership
• Lodge Meetings
• Ritual and Ceremonial 
“The Board of General Purposes will make all decisions on resumption of Masonic activities. The next Board meeting, due to discuss the interim recommendations of the FFRT, is due to be held on Thursday, June 11. The Board will examine if there is any financial assistance that might be available to Masonic Centres facing financial hardship during this hiatus.”

Advice from around the globe
• RWor. Bro. Bucca says that advice is being sought from other jurisdictions around the world. “Advice is being actively sought from other jurisdictions, such as New Zealand and Tasmania, where the community recovery is more advanced than that of Victoria. We are grateful to those jurisdictions for freely sharing their knowledge and experiences. The FFRT acknowledges there is a great appetite for Freemasons to resume meeting in person as soon as possible. We want that too. However, the Team is committed to not compromising the health of all our stakeholders and will take all prudent steps in the cautious conduct of dealing with this potentially life-threatening situation.”

Blueprint for re-opening
• UK Freemasons are preparing a blueprint for re-opening Lodges and Masonic Centres. The Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons has issued this communication: LINK. A similar letter is expected soon from the United Lodge of England.

Order of the Scarlet Cord
• Freemasons Without Borders is presenting a talk on The Ancient and Masonic Order of the Scarlet Cord at 2am Melbourne time on Wednesday (Jun. 3). Zoom. 

Meeting ID 986-118-5386. Password: 19842001. The session will be recorded and posted on their Facebook Page.

MAP2 online
• Brendan Kyne advises that a MAP2 Online course will be held at 7pm Wednesday. LINK Brendan comments: “The trial of the hosted on-line MAP 1 on May 21 was an outstanding success and the feedback from the younger members, and the more experienced members, was overwhelmingly positive.   If all 3 on-line MAPs are a success, then the concept will have to be considered as a valid future option (option being the important word).”

VIDEO: Order of Free Gardeners
• Harry Adlerstein shares this LINK for a video about the Order of Free Gardeners.

Tony will be guest speaker
• Deputy Grand Master-Elect Anthony Bucca will be guest speaker at  the next meeting of the Melton Lodge (by Zoom) at 7.30pm on Thursday, June 18, advises Michael J. Halls. Topic: “Returning to Lodge”. LINK

Jacques DeMolay Vic Chapter Meeting
• Archie Alvarez tells us that the  next meeting (Zoom) of Jacques Demolay Victoria Chapter is at 8pm on Saturday (June 6). A link will be sent out upon request. Supreme Grand Master Bro. Trevor Green and Executive Director Bro Bob Jenkinson, Supreme Grand Council DeMolay Australia, will be joining the meeting. Archie says that Grand Master Keith Murray has advised of his attendance. EMAIL

Sunday lunch … on us

• “Freemasons have helped residents in Devon enjoy a Sunday lunch with a £15,000 donation,” reports Devon Live. “A request was made to theBenevolent Masonic Lodge, Teignmouth eight weeks ago by Cr David Matthews who was looking for premises with a kitchen large enough to cook Sunday lunches for more than 100 people. When David Purdy, Managing Director of Allsop & Pitts, and a Freemason became aware of the situation he contacted the lodge building committee. When they heard the request was being made to supply meals for the most vulnerable people in the Teignbridgearea they immediately agreed.” LINK

What’s On: online meetings

• Go to www.masonsconnect.com

Please advise us of online meetings, so we can publicise in FVNews.

World News
• “Bloodbikers have ridden away with a £1,000 donation from the Freemasons. At a meeting the Devonshire Freemasons donated £1000 to the Devon Freewheelers also known as the Devon Blood Bikes to enable them to continue the work they are doing in transporting COVID-19 samples from test centres and hospitals to laboratories in addition to their other duties. Two Assistant Provincial Grand Masters, Peter Keaty and Craig Cox, met Dave Cookand Mick Scaife to present them with the grant, making a total of £3000 donated to the charity from different branches of Freemasonry this week alone.”LINK

Masonic Mailbag
• Thanks to Russell King (Lodge of Commerce) who made contact to volunteer his services to the Communications and Marketing Volunteer Action Team. His work history includes Radio 3UZ, Leader Newspapers and Daily Commercial News. Russell has also worked in public relations.
• Messages of encouragement were gratefully received yesterday (Mon.) from Bernard Henry, John Bell, Stephen Carpenter and Merv Hallam.

Masonic Trivia
• The Mason’s Lady says: “When Freemasonry first began, the majority of the members were Entered Apprentices, because only the Grand Lodge could raise them, and few got that privilege. They had only one sign, one token and one word; these were referred to as the honours. A Mason who was raised by the Grand Lodge had three signs, three tokens and three words, these were referred to as the Grand Honours. Many Grand Lodges still use the termGrand Honours to describe the highest honorary greeting that shows appreciation for someone who has gone above and beyond in their service for theGrand Lodge.”

Masonic Wisdom
• “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” – Bro. Henry Ford

INFORMATION TO KNOW
FVNews is published by Bro. Ash Long, Chair of the Communications and Marketing Volunteer Action Team of Freemasons Victoria. 
Phone: 0450 399 932.
Web: www.FVNews.com.au Email: editor@FVNews.com.au
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