CANADIAN ELK ÉLAN CANADIEN - Elks of Canada

GRAND EXALTED RULER’S
MESSAGE
Brother and Sister Elks:
Members of the Royal Purple:
As this year draws to a close, I wish to say Thank You
on behalf of myself and my family for a most rewarding
year. Your kindness, caring, sharing and friendships
have been wonderful and will remain with us for the rest
of our lives. As your Grand Exalted Ruler, it was an
unbelievable journey and serving you has been an honour
and a privilege.
In Canada, the month of May
is Speech and Hearing
month. As an Order our primary
focus for our National
Charity is Speech and
Hearing which needs to be in
the forefront in promoting our
efforts this month. We support
our National Charity and
our Provincial and Territorial
Foundations with on-going
projects in each of our
provinces/territories. I have
had the opportunity of touring
and meeting individuals who
administer these programs
and have witnessed the dedication,
drive and passion
each of them brings to the
table each day. We are
indeed fortunate to be
involved with such programs
and should take every opportunity to promote the use of
their programs and services and to support them in
every way possible.
My travels amounted to approximately 200 days in various
parts of the country. I travelled from coast to coast
where I visited Lodges, attended Anniversaries and
Provincial Conferences and saw firsthand the many
projects our Lodges and Associations are involved in
around this country. The most important aspect of my
visits included visiting Lodges and meeting with not only
the host Lodge, but also the various Elks and Royal
Purple Lodges who also visited the Lodge where I was
in attendance. It was great to see the support of the visiting
Lodges for the host Lodge which surely could see
and feel the support of these visitors.
4
In my travels, I witnessed the downs and ups of each
Lodge. I witnessed the pride of members in what they
have done, are presently doing and would like to do in
the future. I also witnessed the concern of Lodges that
are in membership trouble and their concern about not
being able to continue to serve the communities they
live in. Many of these Lodges
have a long history of supporting
their communities and if they
can’t continue, the real loser will
be the communities they serve.
Some of these Lodges are fighting
back and working on getting
new members, but unfortunately
some seem to have given up.
We must work with them to
move forward and to get new
members. Most importantly we
must show our support and commitment
to assist them in any
way possible.
It was gratifying to see many
Lodges operating openly in a
manner that is best suited for
them and concentrating on community
issues and activities
instead of getting caught up in
administrative issues. These
Lodges will move forward, will
attract new members and will make a difference in their
communities. These Lodges accepted that change is
happening and inevitable. Society as we know it is
changing, the demographics of many of our Lodges is
changing, we will initiate new and younger members
with different ideas - change will happen. The important
factor though is how we deal with change. There is
nothing wrong with change so long as we are not scared
of it, ignore it or plan for it.
As we move towards our 100th Anniversary and
beyond, it is my belief that one of the most important
items where we need to focus which is the key to our
future is Leadership. The key to a healthy organization
is having good leaders who nurture the development of
other leaders at all levels of the organization.
Continued on page 6