A Royal Gift - Our Challenge

In the last post, I covered a brief history of the Royal Arcanum and our founding objective to care for those in need. Our long history that's nearly a century and a half old is important, but there's a danger of assuming its time has past, that we are no longer relevant. Nothing could be further from the truth! The world has changed dramatically in the intervening years, but the need for us to watch out for each other is a foundational rock that has withstood the test of time.

A Royal Gift - Our History

I mentioned a few posts ago that I'm traveling to our Grand Councils throughout North America and introducing my program, A Royal Gift. While I can't replicate a presentation here, I can share the essence of my message in a series here, to serve as a reminder to those I've been lucky enough to meet, and as an overview to those who have not been able to attend my visits. For members and friends of members who may see these posts shared (and please do share this if you find it interesting), reading this series is an excellent way to learn about the Royal Arcanum.

So what is the Royal Arcanum? We are a family fraternal organization, founded in 1877 to provide for widows and orphans of our members. That's a long time ago, just a dozen years after the end of the American Civil War. The war killed over 2% of the population, and created an estimated 200,000 widows and 500,000 orphans. The Royal Arcanum was founded to help guard against the financial ruin of its members, and we continue today to strive to fulfill that same goal. Our constitution outlines six major objectives in our founding: to form a fraternal union of people with good moral character, provide moral and material aid to its members, educate members and assist widows and orphans, provide a benefits fund for the old in age or disabled or beneficiaries of the deceased, support charitable institutions, and provide for the protection of junior members.

Now, more than 137 years later, we continue to honor those objectives. With over a quarter of a billion dollars of in-force insurance - billion with a "B" - we are a very established, financially strong insurance choice for you and your family. And as a non-profit fraternal organization, we take our charitable giving very seriously. We have a growing list of Royal Arcanum members named as winners or runners up to the American Fraternal Alliance Fraternalist of the Year winners, including the 2014 winner, and a constant stream of reports of our members giving their time and resources to those in need, as is constantly chronicled in our seasonal Bulletin. We strongly believe in giving to those in need and in caring for our members; and our insurance and annuity offerings help us to continue to meet our founding objective. It truly is A Royal Gift the Royal Arcanum has become!

Happy Easter / Happy Passover / Joyeuses Pâques!

Happy Easter and Happy Passover, everyone! I hope that everyone is having an enjoyable, blessed holiday weekend. These celebrations couldn't come at a better time, when the grips of a harsh winter, especially in the northeast, are beginning to loosen. Spring is really, finally here, and even though there are still lingering threats of winter weather, we're ready for the new beginnings that the season heralds. And if we're lucky, a change in weather may come, too, to the west coast and bring some much needed rain to the parched land.

For those of us who have been cooped up for the winter months, it's time to move, get out, and get active. I'm excited to know that I'll be visiting our members soon outside of my home jurisdiction. Don't forget to check my calendar, posted here to show what weekends I have available through the end of the year. If I haven't been to your jurisdiction yet, know I can't wait to get out there! And if I've already been there, I'd love to return and help out in your charitable events.

What else is new? I'm excited about our new 15/15/15/15 Program! This program is designed to help us grow the Royal Arcanum by bringing in the next generation. We've listed 15 reasons to sign up 15 juniors in your council over the next 15 months. If you do, you'll earn 15 hundred dollars for your council! Everybody wins! Time to start talking up our great protection products and increase your membership.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Welcome from the Supreme Regent

Hello, everyone! My name is Carl Krzystofczyk, and I was elected as Supreme Regent in August 2014 to lead our organization through our next election in the summer of 2016. I'm excited to begin my first blog entry as a new way to directly interact with our members and prospective members. You'll be hearing a lot from me over the next 18 months, and I hope that this is a way we can stay in contact with each other.

My first seven months as Supreme Regent have been been a wonderful experience of visiting some of our jurisdictions throughout North America. I've been able to present my program to Québec, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Illinois, Ontario, Florida, Ohio, and New York. That's only about half of our active jurisdictions, and I'm looking forward to getting to visit everywhere else. It is a humbling and inspirational experience to travel to new places and be greeted as a welcome friend in every instance.

At each place I've been, the message of the Royal Arcanum is strong: our founding principles of Virtue, Mercy, and Charity are strong in our members. I've been traveling and introducing my program, A Royal Gift, which highlights the gift our members offer in becoming members and in giving back to the community we live in. I'll be explaining more about our wonderful society as time goes on, but I thought some of you might want to know my background.

I joined the Royal Arcanum in 1988 as I married into a 100% Royal Arcanum family. As I approached my marriage, I asked my soon to be in-laws, Nick and Ann Shargo, if I could call them "Dad" and "Mom". Nick said, "Not until you first call me brother," and he began to share with me the wonderful world of the Royal Arcanum. I happily joined and became active right away.

The story is important for a few reasons. First, it highlights the best way we can grow our society: through earnest, personal recommendations. The Shargo family was very involved, and urged me to not only become a member but to become active in my council and move up in the organization. This is a great model for us all, to invite our families and friends to be part of the great fraternal family that provides protection in our need and incredible caring and charitable acts in our communities.

The second part of my story is another ringing endorsement of the Royal Arcanum. Sadly, my marriage to Nick and Ann's daughter Jan did not last long: one warm summer night after an enjoyable family party, she experienced a brain aneurysm. She was in rehab a few weeks later, and while her parents were on their way to a Royal Arcanum mini vacation, she suddenly passed away, just shy of our our 3rd anniversary. It was the family of the Royal Arcanum who were there to comfort Nick and Ann as they arrived to the news of Jan's passing, providing support while they were away from home. And it was the Royal Arcanum policies that were the only insurance Jan had in force, as she had just started a new job and did not have any other coverage.

This is what the Royal Arcanum is about: caring people, and an organization to provide for those in need. They were there in my time of need, and I want to make sure that we are there for all our members, now and for years to come. My first three years of membership introduced me to all that our society offers, and helped me to weather the storm as my life moved on. I've grown and flourished since then, and I've always remained an active part of the Royal Arcanum. My wife, Christine, and our son Geoff are both proud members of the Royal Arcanum.

I share my story so you know my involvement with our great society is very sincere, and very real. I've experienced the true gifts we offer, the welcoming of our fraternal family, the protection against painful loss, and the joyous giving of our charitable acts. I'm proud to be able to help lead us all toward a reawakening of the importance the Royal Arcanum has in our lives, and in the lives of those who will soon join us. Thank you for letting me be a small part of your proud history!

Quick Facts about Colonial Williamsburg

Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation representing the historic district of the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. The 301-acre (122 ha) Historic Area includes buildings dating from 1699 to 1780 (during which the city was the capital of Colonial Virginia), as well as Colonial Revival and more recent reconstructions. The Historic Area is an interpretation of a Colonial American city, with exhibits including dozens of authentic or re-created buildings related to colonial and American Revolutionary Warhistory.


Photo by: "Colonial Williamsburg (3205781804)" by Humberto Moreno - Colonial WilliamsburgUploaded by AlbertHerring. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colonial_Williamsburg_(3205781804).jpg#/media/File:Colonial_Williamsburg_(3205781804).jpg

Things to do in Colonial Williamsburg

Click here for Tourism Information

REGISTER NOW FOR THE 2015 MINI-VACATION IN COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG!

JUNE 1ST IS THE REGISTRATION DEADLINE FOR THIS TRIP!

NO EXCEPTIONS!

The registration form can be found either by clicking here

or in the Winter 2015 Bulletin on page 34.