Brother Knights,
I am happy to report that Brother Michael Chau and I attended the 3 day State Convention in Salem and were impressed by what we saw and learned. Foremost in my mind is the obvious dedication to our faith exhibited by Brother Knights - through their tireless effort in serving the Church. It was humbling to see the great works so many have accomplished. There were many great speakers - including Archbishop Sample, and lots of ideas presented for member involvement.
One interesting detail - the 1st degree, 2nd degree and 3rd degree are going to be renamed to "Initiation degree", "Formation degree" and "Knighthood degree" respectfully to better describe those degrees.
On my part, I think my focus on fundraising should be tempered, with more attention to how we put those funds to charitable use. Granted, we must be responsible, but a big nest egg isn't the goal. I will mention several charitable causes supported by our State Council at our next meeting.
I better understand the structure of our fraternity too. The state council is comprised of officers pretty much like our own council - but the state "Grand Knight" is called the "State Deputy". The District Deputies (about 23 in our state) answer to the state council. I suppose the national council ("Supreme") is pretty much the same. The organization is well structured and functions like a well oiled machine. Seems to work...
As is true with any large group of people, some people talk more than they should. Granted, every subject is important, but some subjects are more important than others. One Brother, who was an expert on procedures (Robert's Rules of Order) made a point of correcting minor mistakes in procedure. He was called the "State Agitator" - a title well deserved. He may have thought this was funny, but like an old joke, it got stale after the 3rd or 4th interruption.
All in all, it was a good experience and I would recommend that every Knight attend a State Convention once in their lifetime. Once. (HA!) Seriously, it was worthwhile and eye opening.
Ken
G.K.
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The State Agitator is well known by that name- it's a very old joke indeed. He's a former State Deputy who goes to state meetings mainly to make trouble, but because he's a former SD, they can't keep him out. It is all in good fun though, but I agree with you, the joke got old after the 400th repetition....
ReplyDeleteI guess I was particularly annoyed because I requested a minute to speak about Eucharistic Miracle Posters - but the State Deputy could not find one minute for me while nonsense seemed to have plenty of time.
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