01C Overview

Lodge Secretary’s HOW TO GUIDE

Melbourne Lodge No. 143, F. & A.M

OVERVIEW

Congratulations upon being installed Secretary of your Lodge. This position in a Masonic Lodge is seldom understood by our members, but is key to the backbone of the business operation of our particular Lodges. As the months pass by you will get into a routine and soon realize that much of the Secretary’s activities are repetitive. In today’s world we have the computer as a tool to assist us in not having to reinvent the wheel every time we repeat a function, such as: dues reminder letters, degree candidate invitation letters, financial reports, filing State Sales Tax, filing IRS 990 forms, providing information to Petitions and Investigation Committees, processing petitions, printing address labels, updating membership records, recording minutes, creating annual budgets, and preparing Annual Returns for Grand Lodge. Of particular note is the mail merge function which can be used with form letters, member information sheets, and much more. That is the advantage of using Excel for your Lodge membership file.

I for one do not like to perform basic data entry activities more than once. Therefore, a Lodge Database (spreadsheet) is of utmost importance. Not only does this provide up to date information used for correspondence, it is the bases upon which the Lodge Secretary can reconcile membership information with that information maintained by Grand Lodge. An accurate Lodge Database can also be used for creating Phone Calling lists, Committee Lists, Masonic Anniversary lists for the Trestleboard, lists of Perpetual Members, lists of all types of membership such as Regular, Dual, Plural, Exempt, and Emeritus. It can also be used to note a members’ dues status, paid or delinquent. All this information and more as maintained by the Secretary can be merged into letters, labels, lists, etc. by using typical software such as Microsoft Word and Excel. There are free online equivalent software tools available such as Open Office that is closely compatible with Microsoft products. This Secretary has elected to use Microsoft products due to their ease of use, familiarity by many users, and availability of assistance. Just think, enter a member’s address once, and never type it again by using mail merge.

Another important responsibility of the Secretary is to receive all monies and invoices for paying bills. In turn, the Secretary provides all receipts to the Treasurer to be deposited in the bank. The Secretary is also required to prepare Warrants to give to the Treasurer to pay all approved expenses. As required by the Digest of Masonic Law, the Secretary must also provide reports to the Lodge on all his financial activity. All these financial duties can be completed by using a program titled Quickbooks. Please note that Quicken is easy to use and costs less, but it does not have the double entry implementation as does Quickbooks for maintaining Liability Accounts, which are important for separating (segregating) pre-paid receipts. All prepaid receipts such as dues, rental deposits, pre-degree receipt of fees, etc. should be separated from the general funds of the Lodge. This topic will be covered in more detail in the financial records section of this guide.

With this said, let the work begin.