I just wish to hell more, ANY past masters would voice their opinions at lodge! You can't get any of them to ever speak up and take part in the discussions. I just don't understand why they seem so shy.
Plus they never have any input about the food, or how money is spent. You'd think after all these years they would have some kind of view formed on that sort of thing.
It would also be comforting if the past masters would from time to time disagree with each other on something, anything. They all seem to be in lockstep. So annoying. It means that only the young guys are the only ones that ever argue about anything, and that gets so boring.
One other thing - it would be so helpful if once in a while they would look for something that the line officers are doing wrong. Scour the minutes of the meetings they aren't attending if they have to, but give the young guys some good, critical feedback - and do it during a stated meeting in granular detail, at length. I know I'm not the only one who would prefer more lengthy meetings focused on minutae.
:thumbup:
As Bro. Stewart stated , I would be more than happy to send you a few of ours (and a few from a few sister lodges) .
I wish some , most , sometimes all Past Masters would shut the hell up and allow the Master and his officers run their lodge . I wish they would quit sitting on the sidelines saying "That is not how we did it !" , " We want something else for dinner !" , "Dinner was started two minutes late !" , "You left the word THE out that lecture !" , "I don't care what the constitution says , IT'S WRONG !" , or The constitution says this or that when it does not but will argue with you anyway even after you directly read it to them .
I wish Past Masters would stop thinking they run the lodge from the sidelines . If they disagree with the Master , then go off to the side away from the Craft and talk about it , Do not yell out in the middle of a lodge meeting unless it is a decision that would be a by-laws/constitution violation , then do it in a respectful manner .
I wish Past Masters would stop holding their private conversations on the sidelines during degree work . I wish Past Masters would stop correcting the officers in the middle of degree work in front of a candidate . If the officers make a mistake , LET IT GO and correct them in private after the degree . The candidate will more than likely never know .
I hate it when you lose your place during degree work and instead of your prompter , you have 3 or more Past Masters yelling out the next word , and none of them are correct .
If a Past Master sees things that may be incorrect , then by all means , bring it to the Master's attention . But when a new Master is trying new things to make lodge interesting and get it out of a rut and correcting years of mistakes because "it has always been done this way" then Past Masters need to keep their comments to themselves .
As a Past Master myself , I do things in private . I correct the sitting Master in private . I do not correct officers or the Master in the middle of degree work . I do not think I run the lodge (I had my time in the Oriental Chair and I am more than happy to let go of the reins) . I keep my mouth shut unless I see something that needs to be corrected or if I am asked for my input . And it is according to the degree of the mistake as to when and where I will correct the Master / officer / members .
As far as correcting mistakes , as others have stated , in a stated meeting except the correction and move on . But there is a time and place to be correcting the officers/lecturer . In the middle of a degree is not the time and place (unless they bring a candidate in for a FC/MM degree without his apron or the such) and if one MUST correct a ritualist , DO IT QUIETLY by whispering it in his ear , not from across the lodge room (unless you are the designated prompter) . As I stated above , the candidate will more than likely never know . I have one person prompting me , and he is to only prompt me when I give him a nod . If I lose my place or draw a blank , I am very good at improvising until I get the train back on the tracks . During my EA degree , it was the sitting Master's first time conferring the degree , he was nervous and made many mistakes . I could tell he was nervous but I would have never known he was making mistakes if not for the gaggle of Past Masters in the corner constantly correcting him . It really took away from the experience for me .