Hi, Member, Welcome to the first regular newsletter from the Royal Arcanum. Each edition, we'll offer a few pieces of information to keep you informed on the doings at the Home Office, individual councils, and what your Supreme Council Officers are doing for you. We'll keep it short and interesting. Let us know if you have any feedback to make things better.
Here are the highlights of today's newsletter: |
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The Acting Supreme RegentWelcome to our Royal Arcanum newsletter! I hope you are all staying safe, caring for yourselves and others, and still finding ways to have fun with family and friends.
I am happy to be able to stay connected with all of you via our new newsletter. Hope you all have a great beginning of Fall!
Sincerely yours in V.M.C.,
Maria Bettina DiBartolo |
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It's time to apply for the Royal Arcanum competitive scholarships and non-competitive grants.
Our Competitive Scholarships are awarded to graduating high school seniors
(Two) $10,000
(Two) $8,000
(Two) $5,000
(Ten) $1,500
Based on Membership and Merit Distributed over 4 years
Our Non-Competitive Grants are chosen at random for all qualifying applications
(Four) $750 (Continuing Education)
(Five) $600 (High School Seniors)
(Ten) $250 (College Students, Years 2,3, and 4)
To apply, call us today at 1-888-ARCANUM or visit http://www.royalarcanum.com/forms.html. - Applications are due by December 31, 2020. Please include a photograph of yourself in your application that we can use for advertising winners.
- All components of the application must be submitted and completed by March 31, 2021.
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While we're all working through the restrictions that COVID-19 has placed on us, let's not forget those with greater needs. Our councils have always been generous, and we thank you for that. But how can we keep our charitable work when our councils aren't even meeting?
First, read the section on having Virtual Council Meetings below. While it's important that the council get its members' approval for charitable gifts, that can be done as easily as with a few phone calls and your secretary documenting the approval.
It may not be as easy to give non-cash donations right now. Some organizations have temporarily stopped or limited what donations they will accept, so that they can keep the needy safe and healthy. But all locations are gratefully accepting financial donations. Please consider what your council can do that fits with charities that you normally support.
And don't forget to take what pictures you can, and write an article for the Bulletin. We always want to know about our members and their generous activities.
Remember that each council can receive up to $1,000 in reimbursement for donations given during the year that fall within the International Fraternal Service guidelines. Check out our updated brochure and if you qualify, fill out and submit for a reimbursement for your project using our IFS Submission Form. |
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 Bulletin article deadline
The deadline for submitting articles for the Royal Arcanum Bulletin is October 9. Please share how your council has been managing during these unusual times and submit an article for consideration for our member Bulletin. Space permitting, you'll be able to share your council's activities with members throughout the USA and Canada. The sooner your submit your article, the better chance your article will be able to be included (and it will give our busy editors the time to handle all the publishing details). Submit your article today! |
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We're excited to report that some of our councils have been staying connected through virtual meetings. What's a virtual meeting? It's any way of bringing people together for a meeting without meeting face-to-face.
Versatility Council #2501 has kept their activities going through emails and telephone calls. They were able, among other matters, to approve an IFS Project for the Felician Sisters Haiti Mission. Medora Council #1648 help a Virtual Meeting through email, telephone, and their private Facebook group. Their meeting boasted attendance of 20 members.
In the upcoming newsletters, we'll provide some pointers on how to hold a successful virtual meeting in different ways. Let's start with the basics and explore how to make meetings happen.
The Basics
First, a proper meeting needs to allow for three important things for attending members: - Members need to be able to participate in discussions
- Members need to be able to make (and second) motions
- Members need to be able to vote
For face-to-face meetings, these are easily done, but how can you do them when we're socially distanced? It's not so hard: it's just that your meeting may not take the same amount of time as it did before.
When you're not all together
For many councils, we don't have the fancy tools or the experience to be able to electronically connect with all our members at the same time. Thanks okay, it just means you may need to make several calls to each member. Here's a good approach to start with: - Create an agenda. Put together a meeting agenda of the topics to discuss. Usually this is done by the regent and secretary, but use whatever members that can help.
- Send out the agenda and get feedback. Next, get that agenda out to your members -- by mail, by telephone, by email, or by whatever method makes sense for your council. Give your members a deadline to respond. If you're calling them, you can get the response right away, but if you're email or mailing them, give them a chance to get the message and to write back.
- Ask for motions. While some parts of a meeting are usually sharing information, some items are likely to require motions. Ideally, you can ask when you send the agenda for members to make a motion based on the agenda items. This works well if the motion is standard business and isn't likely to require a lot of discussion. If it does, you'll just spend some time getting and sharing the feedback from everyone until you're ready for a motion to be made. It's useful to consider the first responder to make a motion as the member that made the motion, and the second person who responds to be the person that seconds the motion.
- Time for voting. Now that your members know what your agenda is and you've gotten motions, you can contact them again, asking for votes for the motions that have been made. This is usually the secretary that will gather and record the voting, but again, other members can assist if that will make things easier (say, by using a calling tree).
Depending on how many members you have and how you contact them, this type of meeting can take a few weeks from start to finish. But it's a great way to keep in contact and keep the business of the council going.
What about a teleconference or video conference?
Meetings sure are easier when everybody is together, even if that "together" is by teleconference or video conference instead of in person. We're here to help with that, too, and will cover that topic in our next newsletter.
Has your council held any virtual meetings? Let us know how it goes, and what we can do to help them be successful. |
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These newsletters are going out to all members who have given us their email addresses at a Supreme Council Session or provided it to the Home Office or one of our Supreme Council Officers. We know that most people on this list have been to some Supreme Council event in the past, such as a Session or a Mini-Vacation. We also know that there are many active members who have never been at an event outside their jurisdiction. We'd love to keep them updated, too!
We particularly would like to have email addresses of your council's key officers so that we can contact them quickly with any important news. Please share this newsletter with your council and have them sign up for the newsletters.
Members and those interested in membership can sign up by sending an email to info@royalarcanum.com. We look forward to reaching more of our members! |
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