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GRAND CHANCELLORS OFFICIAL MESSAGE
HON.
JERRY SILVER
2005-2006
My Pythian Brothers,
I accept the position as your Grand Chancellor with a great
amount of pride. Thank you for the support you have given me throughout the years. I pledge to help make our order better.
As with all of my predecessors I also consider membership the life blood of our order.
Increasing our membership and
retaining our current members is our highest priority. Friendship is a key factor in bringing in new members. Just the simple
act of showing what true friendship is, will go a long way in helping us to bring in these new members. We have to explain
to them about our many altruistic endeavors and social functions that take place within the order for both the Knights and
Pythian Sisters. If each one of us would do that and then “ASK” a friend, relative, business associate or neighborhood
businessman where we shop to join, imagine how many members we can bring in. We must not just talk about it; we must do it.
Use the Pythian Business Card it is a great tool. At the same time you can tell these potential brothers what the Knights
are. Simply put, it is “A unique fraternity of men who, by their membership, are dedicated to peace and pledge to promote
good will among men – it is giving of themselves to help others less fortunate”. I am sure that there are many
different things that we can do to attract more members in to this great order; but I need your thoughts and ideas as to how
we can go about it. Please feel free to either call me or write to me with them, it is not a one-way street; we should be
there for each other and of course by doing that, we are there for the order. . It’s great to have big dreams, but hard
work is the only way to make them come true. So please work with me to improve our goals. Remember when talking to these potential
members, talk about the Pythian Sisters as well as the Dokies.
The Internet is now one of the finest communication
and marketing tools available to us. We have started to redesign and update our Grand Lodge Website. It will become the place
where Pythians and non-Pythians can go and get information of our upcoming events, and locations of lodge meetings. The Grand
Lodge calendar will be expanded to include all of our events and will also be published on the website. Contact information
and the location and dates of each subordinate lodge meetings will also be available on the website I have set up a new committee
headed up by Chief Deputy Grand Chancellor Marty Nyear to update and improve our website. The address of our website is WWW.NYPYTHIAN.ORG.
Thank you for all of your help Marty, it is greatly appreciated.
We must make better use of our subordinate lodge newsletters,
the Pythian Knight and the Pythian International. Each lodge and district should appoint a brother to keep these papers abreast
of what is newsworthy and about what is going on within their individual Lodges and districts. Any information you would like
published in other Lodge newsletters can be sent to PACDGC Alan Reiman. His E-Mail address is ahreiman@juno.com. He will see
to it that your articles are sent to the other lodge papers. I will ask the editor of the Pythian Knight to incorporate a
new section in the paper; to be entitled “letters to the editor”. Here our Brother Knights can make a suggestion,
make a comment, state a complaint, or even just ask a question that they would like answered. We can all benefit with this
input.
More Communication between the Subordinate Lodges and the Grand Lodge is a necessity. We have to be responsive
to the needs and desires of all of our brothers, not just a select few. I have instructed each member of the council and committee
chairman to attend meetings at all of the Lodges in the domain to discuss the Grand Lodge, Grand Lodge Committees and to answer
any questions you may have on either the Grand Lodge or any of the committees. This is to be done on nights other then homecomings,
messages or honor nights. I have also appointed Sir Marty Seaman of Albany City Lodge to be a special Executive Assistant
to the Grand Chancellor for Upstate New York.
Research should be done as to why we are losing members and what we can
do to keep them involved and to maintain their membership. This will be a goal of the membership retention committee.
Our
order is a great and our programs and events should be publicized always with the idea of increasing membership. A public
relations committee will be set up and headed by PDGC Jack Halsbond and PDGC Sid Wieder. I am requesting that at least one
member of every district be on that committee. Just give Jack or Sid a call if you would like to help.
The altruistic
and community programs that each lodge conducts in their local community should be advertised in your local papers. The Grand
Lodge Public Relations Committee should also be notified of these events and they will assist you in obtaining local publicity
and getting the name Knights of Pythias to one day become a household name.
We all agree that the order has to change
with the times. Hold on to some of the old ways, and try some new ideas, we should think “out of the box”. We
must add new and younger members to all of our Grand Lodge committees. Fresh ideas are needed and these younger members can
provide a wealth of new ideas. We are indebted to those brothers who have been working on these committees for many years
and of course hope that they will continue to work for the order as they have before. The Pythian order would not have gotten
as great as it is today without the many years of dedicated hard work that these brothers have done, however, we must be willing
to work with the younger brothers of the order, welcome them, exchange ideas with them and, this way we help to learn from
each other. Each committee chairmen is being asked to ask at least one new younger member to join their committee. We must
and I repeat must encourage the younger members to join these committees. We as the more senior members know that the younger
members are the lifeblood and the future of our order. We can no longer say, this is the way we have done it for 40 years
and we will continue to do it that way. That is not an acceptable answer. Remember: “Share your knowledge. It’s
a way to achieve immortality”. We have to be willing to try new and different ways to work together so that our order
can grow and not fade away into nonexistence.
Supreme Rep Ed Birnbaum, President of AHF has once again agreed to give
each new member a free one-year membership in AHF with a Silver Card. Thank you Ed.
We will be continuing with all
of our Pythian charities and fundraising committees.
The very successful “Coats for Kids” program to help
both kids and adults who are in need of a coat will be continued.
The Humanitarian Fund will continue to be the fundraising
arm of the Pythian order and I ask that you continue to give generously and support this most worthwhile Pythian committee.
The Humanitarian fund will continue to give of its time and support to the Scholarship Committee, the Pythian Camp, the Doctor
Morris Smoller Social Service Fund, etc.
The Diabetes Research Foundation will also need your support. Each and every
one of us has a family member, friend or loved one somewhere that is afflicted with this dreadful disease. With the help of
the Diabetes Research Foundation we can someday say we helped to cure this dreadful disease. Thank you all.
I have
asked Grand Vice Chancellor the Honorable Marty Fasting to serve as my committee coordinator. He will supervise and attend
as many Grand Lodge Committee Meetings as possible, his presence at a meeting as my representative should be considered the
same as if I was there. I would appreciate your giving him the same courtesy and information you would give me. He will report
on the activities of the committees. I ask for your cooperation.
I will work together side by side with Grand Chief
Barbara Kleinman and her Grand Temple Officers to try to bring more men and women into the order.
Appointments
A
lot of time and effort has been put into choosing my staff. These are all fine Pythians who have worked hard for the order
and will continue to do so for many years to come. I am sure that none of them will let me down. I have asked my longtime
friend Marty Nyear to be my Chief Deputy, Marty brings with him many years of devotion to the order.
My assistants to
the chief are:
PAUL NATHANSON
Brooklyn & Staten Island
CRAIG SHINK
Manhattan
ED WINTERS
Queens
and Long Island
CHARLIE PAKULA
Northern Suburbs
ABE RUDNICK
Upstate
ROBERT MANN
Assistant at
Large
I have also appointed:
PACDGC ARNOLD EDELKIND
Executive Secretary
PACDGC RON DEGAN
Grand
Advocate
PACDGC STEVE KOHN
Executive Assistant
PACDGC SIR MARTIN SEAMAN
Special Executive Assistant for
Upstate NY
I know that these men will form an outstanding team along with the Deputies and the rest of my administration.
In closing I would like to thank you for coming here this evening and taking the time to listen to my thoughts and
ideas and please remember.
“OUR SUCCESS WILL NOT HAPPEN WITHOUT YOU”
Fraternally yours,
Jerry
Silver
Grand Chancellor
2005-2006
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