NEWS
Latest Lodge News
March 25, 2020
Members – Hope all is well with each of you! We had our first “virtual” Lodge Meeting last night and it was a success!! Thanks to everyone on the Lodge Leadership team for quickly embracing technology and adapting to this new process which is critical to maintain the operations of our Lodge! The Board of Directors and other committees will be meeting virtually over the next couple of weeks to ensure we are sustaining our operations while under the latest Emergency Order from Governor Baker which states that all non-essential organizations (i.e. organizations that do not provide COVID-19 Essential Services) are required to be closed and unoccupied until 12:00PM on April 7th.
As a Leadership team we have discussed the possibility of Governor Baker’s Emergency Order being extended beyond April 7th and have taken appropriate actions to prepare for this. If this Order is extended, we will hold a virtual meeting on Tuesday April, 14th and send an invite to Members who would like to dial-in.
During last night’s meeting Jon Etheridge, PER and Dennis A Smith, PER did an amazing job of virtually installing our new Officers for the upcoming 2020-2021 year. During the Lodge ritual, one of the statements read as follows:
“In the year to come, all may not be plain sailing”
Well, isn’t that the truth!! I am looking forward to working with our Lodge Leadership over the next year to help our Community come together like never before to overcome the obstacles we are currently facing and will face in the future.
Congratulations to the new Leadership team below who were installed last night:
Exalted Ruler: Tommy Lizotte, PER
Leading Knight: Rob Manzella
Lecturing Knight: Kevin Kramich
Loyal Knight: Bob Magee
Secretary: Patti Robichaud, PER
Treasurer: Dan Stanton
Tiler: Richard Higgins
Esquire: Bob Thys, PER
Chaplain: Tom Devine, PER
Inner Guard: Ryan Bugler
Trustee: Mike Mulrenan
I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Renee Wiltshire Kelly who has been completing many projects at the Lodge while we have been closed. The BOD met at the Lodge last week and was amazed by how clean it was and what she has been able to accomplish during the closure. Great work Renee!
As I mentioned in my last communication, please remember to pay your dues by April 1st!!
If you haven’t paid, please understand that our Lodge is required to pay the Grand Lodge our per-capita which is calculated using last year’s membership data. This puts further stress on our cash flow due to us not having revenue coming in as a result of us having to be closed.
To make it easier to pay your dues, we have set up the ability for Members to pay online using “SquareUp” which can be accessed by clicking the following link:
PAY DUES ONLINE – SquareUp
https://squareup.com/store/woburn-stoneham-elks-number-908/
You can still pay the traditional way by mailing a $75 check payable to “Woburn/Stoneham Lodge of Elks” to the following address:
Woburn/Stoneham Lodge #908
Attn: Patti Robichaud
295 Washington Street
Woburn, MA 01801
Finally, in an effort for us to be able to connect, I set up a “virtual” 11:00PM Toast for this Friday, March 27th. We will e-mail the instructions on how to join. Capacity on the call is limited. I hope to see many of you on the call! Please dial in at 10:45PM.
Thanks again to each of you for doing your part in keeping our Members, family, and communities safe! I appreciate receiving all the e-mails from people looking to help. Keep them coming. I look forward to us all getting together at the Lodge when this is all behind us.
Stay Safe!
Tom Lizotte, PER
Exalted Ruler
Woburn/Stoneham Lodge #908
A motion was made and seconded at the June 27th meeting that we proceed with selling the Stoneham Lodge of Elks. We are in the process of cleaning out the Stoneham Lodge and will be looking into a commercial realtor and a real estate lawyer shortly. Our new ASR, Harry See, was at our Board of Directors meeting that same night and has given us the guidelines for going ahead with the sale and what the Grand Lodge’s requirements are. Welcome Harry!
As some of you may have heard, the Stoneham Lodge will be closing its doors soon and they have asked to merge with our Lodge. Through the efforts of the Grand Lodge, the Motion was made and seconded at our regular Lodge Meeting on March 28th to accept the merger after being voted on by Stoneham’s Lodge and then by our Lodge. Our vote will take place at our regular Lodge Meeting on May 9. Our name would then be changed to “Woburn/Stoneham Lodge #908”. Some of their members have already been frequenting our Lodge. Please welcome them as you would any new member. If you have any questions or comments on this, please direct them to the ER or a member of the Board of Directors.
Construction of the new Cigar Bar is nearly complete. The committee heading up the project would like the help of members to add the finishing touches. The theme of the room is “a tribute to the working people of Woburn & our past Elk members.” We are looking for photos of city workers, public servants, shop owners, factory and mill workers and Elk members at Elk events. The cigar bar committee would like to have these photos displayed for the first cigar event at the end of January. If you have any photos that you would like us to use, please reach out to Rob Manzella at rmanzella04@gmail.com or bring them to the next meeting. We can make digital copies of the photos and return them to you.
We are hoping the new Cigar Bar in the old pool room will be enjoyed by our members who indulge in the occasional cigar as well as attracting new members who do not currently have a place to go for a good cigar and drink.