Using Arts Events to Connect to Your Community – by Toby Hanson

There are many different kinds of arts events that lodges can participate in. They can host concerts, lectures, dance recitals, art shows, plays, and many others. If your town has an Art Walk near your lodge hall, you can become a host and bring artists into your lodge to display their work on Art Walk nights. This also gives an opportunity to have members on hand to answer questions about Odd Fellowship.

Coronavirus and Odd Fellowship -by Toby Hanson PGM WA

The best and most complete answer to this situation is found within the walls of our lodges. Odd Fellowship has its roots in the need of for self-preservation for the most vulnerable in society. The only means by
which early working families had of blunting the cruel torrents of life was by contributing to mutual aid groups like the Odd Fellows. In our lodges, they found stability in an unfeeling, unstable world. We provided a measure of comfort when difficult times arrived.

“Oddball” Polar Plunge in Victoria, BC – by Billy Sanderson

And then one day, the shared Odd Fellowship took hold of them. How can we make this a way to give back to our community? Brother Drew jumped right into the topic, “I’m thinking we should get serious about a Boxing Day swim and a pledge drive… When the topic hit the Facebook group, each one of these “sticks” jumped up to form a unified “bundle” to bring life to the idea.

What I Learned as Grand Master By Toby Hanson, PGM

I have just finished my term as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of
Washington, IOOF. We had an excellent session of the Grand Lodge at
which we conducted a lot of very important business and then I turned
the gavel over to my successor. The whole process of proceeding through
the chairs of the Grand Lodge felt like a whirlwind but now that it’s
complete I have the opportunity to reflect and share what I’ve learned.