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| Graphic by the MSA |
What
you should know about:
The
Masonic Service Association Short Talk Bulletin
By
Tom Hendrickson P.G.M. Grand Lodge of Minnesota
Lodge Education
Tonight, I’d like to talk about the Masonic Service
Association and the Short Talk Bulletin.
How many of you know what the Masonic Service
Association is?
Did you know…
It was during World War I that various Grand Lodges,
and influential Masons approached the federal government and offered their
support to the American Troops. It was determined that the Masons would be able
to serve a very useful purpose in helping the armed forces, however the government
did not want generals and other officials “pulling their hair out” in dealing
with 48 separate Grand Lodges (the United States only had 48 states then). So, in 1919, at the Conference of Grand
Masters in Cedar Falls, Iowa, the Masonic Service Association was created to
coordinate the U.S. Masonic efforts to provide aid to the American servicemen.
The mission of the MSA, was and is, to provide
services to the Grand Lodges that they would find difficult to provide for
themselves. In 1919, the association developed four functions that are still in
effect today.
Disaster Relief
When a natural disaster or terrorist attack occurs the MSA will make an appeal to all the Grand Lodges and act as the central collection point for funds. All the money received by the MSA is sent to the Grand Lodge in the affected state. No portion of the money is kept by the MSA but is passed thru at 100% of the amount collected. I have personally seen the MSA efforts after the 2008 Iowa Flood and again after the 2011 North Dakota Flood.
VA Hospital Visitation Program
I could talk an entire hour about the good work and
services that this program provides, including visitation and personal services
for disabled or lonely veterans. Last year, in 2020, this program provided
500,000 volunteer hours provided by Masons to 150 VA Hospitals and state
veteran homes across the United States.
Masonic Information Center
The MSA has created a wide variety of pamphlets,
booklets, and brochures that tell the public about Freemasonry. These materials
have been sent to more than three million people in the past twenty years.
Education
The MSA also publishes the Short Talk Bulletins, and
Short Talk Podcasts.
How many of you know what a Short Talk Bulletin
is? Raise your hand-ok
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| Tom Hendrickson-Collection |
Every month the MSA sends via the US Mail the Short
Talk Bulletin to every Grand Lodge as well as every Lodge in the United States
and Canada? They even have subscribers in New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Japan,
Mexico, England, Ireland, and Scotland. A whopping 16,000 are sent every month, making
the Short Talk Bulletins the most widely distributed masonic publication in the
world.
When was the last time you read one?
Did you know…
The Short Talk Bulletin covers sixteen different
subjects or categories? The subjects range from the workings of the lodge,
leadership, Esoteric Symbolism, philosophy, charity and famous Masons, just to
name a few.
Did you know…
The Short Talk are written by some of the most
noteworthy Masonic Scholars of the 20th and 21st Century. Influential thinkers as well as ordinary
masons who have valuable insights to share. The very well-known and admired
Masonic Author, Carl H. Claudy, wrote 350 Short Talk Bulletins and has been
referred to as the “Father of the Short Talks”.
When was the last time that a Short Talk was read, and
discussed in a Lodge Meeting?
Did you know…
They are designed to be read in Lodge during a meeting.
Each Short Talk is designed to be a maximum five-minute read. A short
discussion is encouraged following the reading. This method will produce a fifteen-to-twenty-minute
Lodge Education Session at every lodge meeting for twelve months.
Do you know…
Where the Lodge stores them?
As Grand Master and in the Grand Lodge I had the
opportunity to travel and visit all the Lodges. I still do. One of my favorite
questions I would ask the Lodge Master and Secretary is, “where do you keep
your Short Talk Bulletins”?
One Lodge Secretary proudly said, “I have every Short
Talk Bulletin since I’ve been the Secretary here for the last seven years. I asked,
where are they? He said, “in the safe”. He walked over to the lodge safe and
opened it. Inside I saw a neat stack of
the Short Talk Bulletins kept together with red and yellow rubber bands. I
asked him why he kept them in the safe. He replied, “I don’t want the Masonic
secrets just laying around for anyone to see”.
Another Lodge Secretary said, “oh, I have them right
here”. He then opened a drawer of his desk. I peered into the drawer and saw
this mass of unopened envelopes containing the Short Talk Bulletins. The secretary
said, “I thought they were junk mail; we get a lot of junk mail you know”.
One Worshipful Master replied, “well our Junior Warden
was interested in them, so we had them mailed to him”. The Lodge Secretary
replied that the Junior Warden wasn’t the Junior Warden any longer because he demitted
two years ago.
For my last story, the Lodge Secretary said that every
meeting he announced that he has received the new Short Talk Bulletin and
places it on the corner of his desk for anyone who wants to read it. He said
that “it just disappears, and I never see it again, so I know at least one
person reads it”.
Did you know…
The MSA has published The Short Talk Bulletin continuously
every month since January 1923. Let’s see 12 issues a year for 98 years equals
a total of 1176 bulletins.
I think it’s easy to see why most, if any, Lodges
don’t have a complete set of the Short Talks. I know that there are many Grand
Lodges that possess a complete or near complete collection of The Short Talk
Bulletins. Most of those are under lock and key which greatly restricts
accessibility.
Did you know…
The leadership at the MSA displayed the advance vision
to ensure the entire collection would be available. They embarked on a daunting
task to collect all of the Short Talk Bulletins and they had the wisdom to
select S. Brent Morris, Editor of the Scottish Rite Journal, to get the job
done.
In 2013 the MSA began the colossal undertaking of
collecting all the Short Talk Bulletins and placing them in chronological order
and editing the typeface to give or more modern font. Then the bulletins were bound
into a volume that includes an index in the back of the book for easy reference.
The complete set is six volumes covering the years from 1923 to 2017. Each
volume averages 700 pages.
Initially there was a choice of two different
bindings. The Master Mason Edition sold for $98.00 and the Grand Master Edition
for $158.00. In reviewing the MSA website, the price has dramatically decreased
and there is an extremely limited availability.
How many here know what a Podcast is?
Listening to a podcast is like listening to a radio
program, but the podcast has many advantages. The radio program is usually
live, and you need to tune in at a specific time. The Podcast is a prerecorded
digital audio recording that is made available on the internet. You can
download it to your computer or your phone, and listen to it, anytime,
anyplace, anywhere you wish.
Did you know…
That the MSA has a Short Talk Bulletin Podcast?
The Short Talk Podcast was the brainchild of Brother
Michael A. Smith of Freeport Lodge #23 Grand Lodge of Maine. His inspiration
came to him one night as he was serving as Tyler of his Lodge. As he was out in
the ante room, performing his Tyler duties he discovered a dusty bookshelf
containing many old Masonic books. The book that caught his eye was “Short
Talks on Masonry” by Joseph Fort Newton. He found that the” book was made up of
short, deep yet digestible, independent chunks, disseminating the history,
allegories and meanings to be found within Masonry”
The discovery of the old book took Michael on a new
Masonic adventure for two reasons. Michael was a new Mason and he found the
information contained in the book meaningful in his Masonic Journey.
After some conversations with Brothers, he also discovered
the MSA Short Talk Bulletins. He saw that the almost of a hundred years’ worth
of Short Talk Bulletins had been placed in six massive books. He said that “all
that wonderful information is not accessible to the average smartphone savvy
Brother on the go, and that the majority of the Craft today had little exposure
to its excellent content”.
The second factor that prompted Michael was his day
job is a Producer and Publisher of Audio Books.
He felt the material in the Short Talk Bulletins would be perfectly
suited for a Podcast. He could get those “thousand-plus-faceted jewels of
Masonic light” out to a broader audience from those forgotten lost leaflets and
he could professionally produce them as a spoken audio file. His vision of the
Short Talk Bulletin Online Audio Library was born.
Michael approached the Masonic Service Association and
discovered that “Apparently, no one had seriously considered producing audio
from the publications, so I composed a contract that brought profits back to
the Masonic Service Association of North America to directly support their
worthy campaigns”.
Michael Smith has also engaged many other Masons to
help narrate. You will hear the voices of various Grand Masters, Grand Lodge
Officers, and even notable Masons such as Chris Hodapp Author of Freemasons for
Dummies. Another interesting dimension is that Michael has ask authors who had
written a Short Talk to narrate it for the podcast. Many times, when an author
who reads their work, it can make it more of a personal experience.
The podcast is just another way to help those that are
searching for a pathway to help them towards self-improvement.
Did you know…
In January 2020, the Grand Lodge of Minnesota
presented a donation of $12,000 from the Col. James B. Ladd Fund to the MSA to
continue the production and improvement of its Podcast program. The MSA greatly
appreciated the generosity of the Grand Lodge of Minnesota.
Did you know…
The Short Talk Bulletin Online Audio Library currently
has 282 podcasts that have been produced and are available to download and
listen to. There are another 100 episodes that have been recorded and are being
prepared to be released. There are approx. two to three new releases every
week. Its easy to see that it’s getting a lot of use, for there have been 207,000
downloads. The first podcast was released on November 30, 2018.
You can subscribe to the podcasts for $20.00 and
remember that all profits directly help the MSA. You can subscribe at the
following link.
https://shorttalkbulletin.com/subscribe-to-podcast/
Did you know…
Once
you subscribed you can get those timeless lessons of masonic light and it can
be as easy as shouting, “Hey Alexa” or asking Siri, “find me the Short Talk
Bulletin”.
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