Brethren, welcome to you all to this our Annual Meeting, held again this year at Maesgwyn Hall in Wrexham. It is wonderful to see you all and to thank you for your support today, as previously stated we have no clash with the Provincial Grand Chapter of Cheshire this year and I must thank the members of the Provincial Grand Stewards Mark Lodge of North Wales for changing the date of their meeting so that we will no longer clash with them, nice to work together.

I have welcomed our guests and I now thank them for the warmth of the welcome that I and the Representatives of Cheshire and North Wales receive when we visit their Districts. I am grateful to all of the brethren who accompany me to these meetings, at the District of East Lancashire we had 12 members of Cheshire and North Wales attend with me, a magnificent effort.

We again visited Grand Council last October and four of our members received first appointments or promotions, W. Bro. John Aslatt was promoted to PGJD, as a first Appointment, W. Bro. Graham Kirby was appointed to the Active Rank of Grand Standard Bearer, a great honour for him personally and for the District in general. Also given first appointments to the Rank of Past Grand Standard Bearer were W. Bro. Allan E Powell and our District Chaplain, W. Bro. Steven Tilston, congratulations to you all and it is lovely to see that you have been able to be with us today.

We had 14 members dining at the Connaght Rooms, the support is increasing year on year and I thank those who attend to support the recipients.

Within the District our District Team made three Official visits, to Hugh Lupus, Great Orme and Deiniol, all well supported and I am certain that the Councils welcomed the extra numbers that Team visits generate. We had our annual Team Dinner at Rowton Hall in Chester on 16 th February with 14 members attending and this year we also had the company of 8 wives, our own wives brethren no one else’s, very enjoyable and organised by our Senior Warden of the year W. Bro. Peter Wilson.

Whilst mentioning District Officers I am pleased to say how delighted I am with the work of our new Deputy DGP and our new District Secretary both of whom have settled in well to their new roles.

Our Finances remain in good hands, W. Bro. John Aslatt does a tremendous amount of work in keeping a check on our income and expenditure, I am most grateful to him. We have Admitted a number of new members and our member numbers are steady but we are suffering some significant losses, I mention in particular my great friends, Thomas Gareth Williams, PGJD and Michael Pugh, PGJD and W. Bro. Geoff Roberts, PGJD who are among seven members of this District who have passed to higher service this past twelve months.

On the plus side we had new members at the following Councils during the year, Great Orme, Deiniol, Stayley, Wirral Emeritus and Condate. However 4 of our Councils had no Candidates this year, are we really saying that there are no members of the Mark and Chapter in these areas that would like to join us, or are we just not asking them. I was at an Advancement Ceremony in the Mark just a short while ago and I asked the Advancee why he had not joined earlier, he said he had never been asked – a killer isn’t it.

I would like all of you, every member of the District, to go back to your Councils and look critically as to where you are, especially if you are not getting candidates, are you meeting in the right place and at the right time of day, do you have a strong base of Mark Lodges and Chapters meeting in your locality. I know that I am preaching to the converted, you are here today so you are giving your support to the Order but, just think about your own Councils, times are changing and we need to change with them.

I will continue to visit your Councils as and when I can and I have agreed three Team visits this coming year, we shall visit Salem on 11 th May, John Wellings on 13 th June and Commemoration on 16 th September, these three meetings are Installation Meetings and therefore there will be work to be done, please however note that if you do not have a Ceremony at a particular meeting then look to get a Talk or Lecture, it really is not acceptable just to open and close the Lodge.

I am always ready to help, as is my Deputy and the District Secretary but we must have input from you, let us know what you want and we will try our best to come up with some help. Last year I asked you to seek out new members, I repeat that request again this year, we have had a great year in most of our Councils but some need to ask the question of prospective candidates.

So brethren, let’s look forward to another year in this wonderful Order of ours, keep working hard, keep the Ritual of the highest standard, plan ahead, get your Admin right and we can all enjoy our Allied Masonry.

We need brethren to want to come to our meetings and we can only do that by making the meetings interesting, with top class Ritual and perfect Admin.

There is a new initiative to help you with respect to your Ceremonies, we have or maybe I should say we are, preparing a database of brethren who are able to assist at short notice if you need help with Ritual, W. Bro. Peter Steele is your contact.

I thank my District Secretary and my District DC and their teams for all of their hard work, not only in preparing for this meeting but also for the work they do throughout the year. A new initiative from our Deputy DGP: he has prepared a District Directory which is in booklet form, he has printed out a few hard copies for the Council Secretaries, I also get one, and he is sending out a PDF copy to your Council Secretaries which, they should send out to their members, lots of information in about the Councils in the District.

This year we have the greatest number of attenders at our District AGM, fantastic support, I don’t know about you but I could do with a drink !!! I hope Colin Sansom is at the door !!! I look forward to your company at our Festive Board, enjoy the rest of the day and may the Great Disposer of all have you in his safe keeping, always.