 2301 Jefferson Hwy, Apt. 1521, Arlington, Virginia 22202–3855 What are some of the typical problems you might face in your Scottish Rite Valley, or your Lodge, or anywhere else? 1. You might have to contact a lot of Brethren quickly to tell them about or cancel a meeting, to tell them about a Brother's death, or to tell them about something else that is happening very soon. How can you do this? Make hundreds of telephone calls or send hundreds of letters or postcards, with all the expense and all the time that would take? 2. You might have to send a document to someone else for him to review and revise, and then return it to you soon. It might be very long or have important color coding. How can you do this? Would you fax a document that might be 50 or more pages long? If color coding is important, your faxed document will only appear in black and white. If you mail the document, it might not be received and returned in time. What can you do? 3. You might want to publicize your Valley's or Lodge's activities to encourage attendance by visiting Brethren or local Masons who are not members of your Lodge. How can you do this? Should you print hundreds of flyers and then try to get mailing lists of all Masons in your area, or in other areas, and then mail the flyers to all of them? Would this be practical, or even possible? 4. You might need to write a document, revising it frequently, and add colors and pictures as the text develops. If you type it, you'll have to retype and cut and paste, and it will still not look very good. Plus, you might not be a good speller, so you'll have to look up many words. Is there any easier way? 5. You might need to research something quickly, such as one of the lesser-known Masonic organizations, or a Masonic book. How can you do this? You can go to a Masonic library and look for what you need, but this takes time, and you might not find what you need at that library. Don't you wish there were a way to find out some information about every topic in the world? 6. You might need a better way to keep track of data, such as the names, addresses, and other information about all your members or all your candidates. You can do this with index cards or on paper, but then you'll have to do a lot of typing and retyping, and when you want to make a list, you'll have to type it all over again. Is there another way to accomplish this? 7. You need to prepare a budget for your Valley, Lodge, or just to keep track of checks coming in and expenses for a Masonic project. How can you do this easily? 8. You need to keep track of events on a calendar, including details about where and when each event will take place, but the dates change often. If you do this with pencil or pen, you'll be writing and erasing things on your calendar all the time. Also, you would like to be able to publicize your calendar easily. Pencil and paper won't be very effective. What can you do? 9. You have some Masonic items you would like to sell or buy, but you don't know or have the time to find people who might be interested in buying what you want to sell, or selling what you want to buy. You wish there were some way to advertise and sell through a large clearinghouse. How can you manage these exchanges? There is a way to handle all the above and the many other tasks that might be facing you, and it's easy, quick, fun, and inexpensive. It's by using a computer. Some people say, "I'll never use a computer," or "I'm too old to learn how to use one," or "It's too complicated," or "I just don't want to be bothered." But what would you think of people who in 1877 actually said of the telephone, "What's this? We don't want it. Take it away!" Would you say they were silly to say this about the telephone? Computers, just like telephones or typewriters, are simply tools to help us get our work done. The computer can be the greatest telephone system you've ever imagined. It can be the best combination of newspaper, magazine, and television advertising. It can be the largest encyclopedia in the history of the world. And it can be a combination of all these things, allowing you to do much more work, in much less time, more easily, and less expensively than ever before. Here are some of the uses of a computer that anyone can utilize in his Scottish Rite Valley, Lodge, or anywhere else. Email: This is a way to send messages and receive responses quickly. Egroups, listbots, listservs, newsgroups: These are methods to send announcements or to ask questions to hundreds or thousands of people and to engage in conversations with all of them. Webpages: These are tools to present information about your
Valley, Lodge, or yourself, so it can be viewed by millions of
people, or you can limit who can view it. On a webpage, you can
present your message in interesting ways, including color or
animated words and pictures so that people who are interested
in your message will receive it quickly and attractively. To send a message or question to the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite, S.J., or any of the Council's offices, such as the Scottish Rite Journal, use council@srmason-sj.org To contact Listservs & newsgroups use freemasonry-list@masonic.org and http://www.bestweb.net/~sfitz/sof.html Some webpages that tell you where to find lots of information about Masonic topics are: http://freemasonry.org and http://bessel.org The webpage of the Scottish Rite, S.J., is http://www.srmason-sj.org Webpage of eBay, the largest auction system is the world is
http://www.ebay.com How many Masons have there been in the U.S. each year, and how many are now in each State? http://bessel.org/masstats.htm What are the leaders of the Shrine saying about the possibility of taking in non-Masons as members? http://www.shrinershq.org Where can you find information about Masonic libraries and the Masonic Library & Museum Association? http://bessel.org/mlma.htm Do you want to create a map showing you the location of any address in the U.S.? http://www.mapquest.com How can you find thousands of Masonic clipart, graphics, pictures? http://bessel.org/maspix.htm Where can you find thousands of book reviews of Masonic books? http://bessel.org/bkrevs.htm Complete details about recognitions of Prince Hall Masonry? http://bessel.org/pha.htm Details about the United States and world population? http://www.census.gov You can also find the complete Encyclopedia Britannica, several complete versions of the Bible, and many other basic reference books on your computer, each free and easily searched. That means you can type a word or phrase, and your computer will instantly take you to each time that word or phrase appears in the document. What will you need? (1) a computer, which can cost as little as a few hundred dollars—be sure it includes a modem so you can connect to the Internet; (2) software, meaning programs that you buy and install on your computer to allow you do accomplish specific tasks; and (3) an Internet service provider, meaning a company that for a fee (about $20 per month) allows you to connect to the Internet, which then allows you to send and receive email, subscribe to listservs, and view or even create webpages. It may sound complicated, but it isn't, and there are lots of Brethren who are happy to help answer your questions. Everyone was a novice at first, so there are many Brethren who can help new converts to "Computer Freemasonry." You will be amazed at how easy it is to get started. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact me (Paul M. Bessel) by email at bessel@erols.com The above text, prepared in article format, is the presentation, assisted by video display, offered by Brother Bessel to the Brethren attending each of the year 2000 Scottish Rite Leadership Conferences.
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