Legacy Lodge UD

Saturday December 8th, 2012

After many months of working hard and planning, we had the great pleasure of having Most Worshipful Grand Master Bryce Hildreth and his Grand Lodge Officers open Grand Lodge and institute our newly formed Lodge.

This outcome was a great result after, first being an idea that Danny Beyer and myself talked about doing jointly, to then finding out that PGM Craig Davis and Jeremy Davis had been working on this idea as well. Danny and I also wanted to involve Charlie Smithson to assist as he has shown to be a great asset Masonicly and a proven leader.

Finding a location to best host the lodge was a more difficult task then we first thought. We wanted to be in the Waukee/West Des Moines area, and we wanted the ability to tie dinner and the ladies to the lodge. We want this lodge to be about education for all Masons, but also for their ladies. The ladies of every mason can make or break the ability to be active in a lodge and we hope that they get an opportunity visit with other brothers and their ladies. This is to make it more of a date night and so the ladies have a chance to get to know each other.

We are planning to have speakers for both Masonic education and for personal education. We hope that those who attend are able to learn and develop as a mason and as a person. We have arranged a private meeting room to conduct our business as the ladies are able to continue to mingle or have a planned event of their own.

Our official meeting place is FireCreek Lounge in West Des Moines, and our first event is a Celebration of St. John the Evangelist on December 29th at 5pm. We are currently accepting RSVP’s. There is a cost to this event, and if you want to join, email me @ matthew.risberg@gmail.com.

Finally, our list of officers:

WM- Charlie Smithson

SW- Mary Lonsdale

JW- Matthew Risberg

Treasurer- PGM Craig Davis

Secretary- Jeremy Davis

Marshal- Danny Beyer

Senior Deacon-Scott Enyart

Junior Deacon- Steve Malicoat

Senior Steward- Andrae Delaney

Junior Steward- Sam Howells

Tyler- Darrell Fremont

Grand Chapter Grand Council

Long time no write…

I have been extremely busy recently and are hoping to keep this going. I will start with what has happened with me in my Masonic life. This past weekend was Grand Chapter and Grand Council of Iowa for York Rite. I have had the honors of being asked to stay in line with Grand Chapter and have moved up to Grand Master of the 1st Veil.

It was an honor over the past year to serve Billy Jo Hildreth and I know look forward to serving Grand High Priest Frank Osdoba. Frank has a lot of plans for the coming year and I hope to serve him the best I can. Frank has provided all of his officers with enough material to help develop and inform our fellow brothers and companions. I hope to eventually expand my knowledge and be able to go to a few Masonic lodges and inform those non York Rite members about the benefits and explanations that we offer.

There are currently over 21,000 Master Masons in the state of Iowa (at least what Deputy Grand Secretary Tim Anderson provided to Grand Chapter on Friday), and only about 2,200 Royal Arch Masons (RAM) in the state. We need to increase these numbers, we have excellent degrees and they provide that new Master Mason with explanation of why Blue Lodge ritual is done. Frank has set forth great plans and with so it needed a bigger budget. With that Grand Chapter has set a goal of 4,207 new RAM’s over the next year. I intend to do my part to help obtain that number and balance our budget.

In the coming months I will be busy with a lot of different Masonic events and I just don’t have enough time. This Saturday is the Des Moines Valley’s one day reunion, as well has Grand High Priest Frank Osdoba’s and Grand Master of the Grand Council Randy Crouch’s reception in Sioux City. I am attending the one day class as I have been committed to participation in a degree. On September 8th (Same day as the Iowa vs Iowa State game) Grand Commander Greg Anderson will be having his reception. I plan to attend that and help represent Grand Chapter at this event, it will be in Des Moines at the Scottish Rite Consistory, I believe Social Hour starts at 5pm. Also I believe the Scottish Rite will be holding a Fall Kick off dinner on September 27th. Then there is Grand Lodge in September and the DM Valley’s Fall Reunion in October/November with practices for the next couple of months.

This is all I have for now, I hope to continue this and develop my “blogging skills”… haha

In the words of Frank…. All aboard the ENTERPRISE this ship is leaving dock!

Matthew Risberg, Grand Master of the 1st Veil of RAM of Iowa

My Masonic Background

Hello World!!!

I have decided to start a blog about Iowa Masonry and myself. I plan to blog about all the different things going on in our state involving Masonry, as well as my personal relationship to this great Fraternity.

This entry will just be my background, from who I am and what I have done Masonically so far! So here I go…

I was just completing middle school and entering into high school when a couple of my friends approached me about joining an organization that all of my friends were joining and it would help me develop as an individual. I asked my parents and they were at first apprehensive about me joining as they believed it to be a religious organization and didn’t think it was a right fit for me. I joined and immediately became intrigued, over the next couple of years I worked my way through the officer positions and eventually became the Master Councilor (the guy in charge.) We did some great things and we were about to bring in a lot of members through the years.

In 2004, I lost my father in a car accident and by this time I had already started to separate myself from DeMolay and its principles. After my father passed I started going back to get the comradery that was ever-present and the continuing education that was always offered. Within the next year I was again elected to be the Master councilor of the Chapter, I helped lead us to develop and to continue to grow.

Once I started college and became a Senior DeMolay (reaching the age of 21) I worked full-time and was a full-time student and didn’t have time to go back and mentor for the great organization, but continued to try to stay connected with what was going on. I tried to keep in touch with a few of my old advisors, knew when I was ready I wanted to try to join the great fraternity that has been there for me as advisors and in 2008 into 2009, I decided to advance and join FREEMASONRY. I emailed a few contacts that I knew to be highly involved in Masonry and was pointed to choose between Gnemeth Lodge in West Des Moines, or Acanthus Lodge in Beaverdale. I joined Acanthus lodge after talking with, who would eventually be my top line signer, Charlie Smithson about what Acanthus had to offer and how friendly their lodge was.

On June 15, 2009 I was raised the sublime degree of a Master Mason, and it was and always be the most important date for me Masonically. As this is the day I was brought to new light and to a greater perspective of my life.  I have been an officer of Acanthus since 2010 and am currently the Senior Steward of our lodge.

This is a general outline of my Masonic career and will hopefully be able to start expanding on this wonderful organization and how it continues to affect me!

Fraternally,

Matthew Risberg