V.M.M.A. Inc. Installation Team with W. Bro. Andrew Fleming, W.M. of Seymour Lodge.
The V.M.M.A. was invited by member W. Bro. Andrew Fleming, PGStdB (Master Elect of Seymour Lodge) to Install him into the Chair of King Solomon, Seymour Lodge was granted dispensation to change the day of Installation to a Saturday so that the V.M.M.A. Installation Team members that reside throughout Victoria could accept this invitation to Install another one of its members.
This particular Installation proved testing for both "The Baron" & Pedro due to the number of Installation Team members that were unable at the last minute to participate due to illness and injury.
But alas the depth of the V.M.M.A. membership and their willingness at very sort notice to learn ritual and assist the Installation Team was second to none, their were 4 brethren who had not participated in an Installation Team previously and their performance at both rehearsal and the Installation was exemplarily, well done.
Installation Team members arriving at Seymour Masonic Centre for lunch & rehearsal.
There is no need for names of these brethren or all the other brethren in the Installation Team who shuffled tasks around, great job to all.
Eighteen members of the V.M.M.A. attended the evening and W. Bro. Andrew Fleming, M.E. made the number up to nineteen, three members of the V.M.M.A who currently are not in the Installation Team attended they were Matt, Colin & Rick.
Members of the Team started arriving from all round Victoria around 12.00 p.m. for a light lunch provided by the Seymour Lodge prior to commencing the rehearsal, whilst having lunch a Bus arrived from N.S.W. containing brethren from Seymour Lodge N.S.W. Constitution, both Seymour Lodge Victoria and N.S.W. have had an affiliation with each other for some 40 years and travel regularly to each others Lodge.
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More arrivals for lunch, including Seymour Lodge N.S.W.
On concluding lunch our non-Masonic members booked into the Motel whilst the rehearsal took place.
The final rehearsal was well attended and well performed, it carried through to 4.00 p.m., it was then time to join with our non-Masonic members at the Motel for something to eat and drink and then return to the Masonic Centre for a 6.15 p.m. tyle.
This period of time between conclusion of rehearsal and tyling was a very social one in both the car park and garden of the motel, including a short committee meeting of which the TALKING STICK was once again in use.
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Social time at the Motel prior to tyling, Pedro has the talking STICK how did he get it off Matt?
At 5.45 p.m. it was time for the Installation team to get changed into their approved Lodge Room attire and head off to the Seymour Masonic Centre, once again that buzz of enthusiasm which has been associated with the other Installations was in the air again prior to tyling.
The V.M.M.A. Installation Team and members entered the room in the 3 degree, the Installing Master was introduced and the Ceremony of Installation took place.
There was some excitement during the ceremony for there was an Alarm, a true Alarm the electrical switch board had developed a problem that required urgent attention, on commencement of the ceremony "The Baron" Proclaiming Officer took a moment to establish where we were up to before the Alarm, we felt so sorry for him!!!!
Four V.M.M.A members volunteered to be Stewards for the evening and retired, a little late for a smoke prior to assisting in the south (was this planned that way?), thank you Matt, Colin, Rick and Pedro for volunteering to assist as Stewards.
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Installing Master W. Bro. Erwin Schweitzer proposing toast to W. Bro. Andrew Fleming, W.M.
Once again the South was kept moving along by the Proclaiming Officer, the usual toasts were carried out with W. Bro. Erwin Schweitzer proposing the Toast to W. Bro. Andrew Fleming, W.M. who responded to Erwin's comments.
W. Bro. Andrew Fleming, W.M. we send you off into year.
The V.M.M.A. members were well represented in the exchange of Masonic property, Pedro well fed with extra desert of which he requested from Matt.
Matt spoon feeding Pedro with his requested extra desert.
Concluding in the South around 11.45 p.m. three members of the V.M.M.A. headed back to Melbourne, whilst the others joined with their partners back at the motel for some more social time, of which Pedro or Drew will supply the report.
Reported by CW
Having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at the Lodge rooms it was time to move on to our next social engagement, back at the motel.
Looks like the Godfather and his Chauffer, only Red and Murray.
It was always our intention to kick on back at the ‘rooms’ for a while. Originally we were going to congregate in the large family room we boys had taken, but our ladies had already settled into two rooms with a walk through door.
When we arrived the ladies were in fine form, and told us in graphic terms all about their escapades that night. As the Bledisloe Cup rugby was being televised there were a couple of us in Drew’s room watching the Aussies get creamed by the Kiwi’s.
At games end we were naturally depressed by the result and proceeded to drown our sorrows in some alcoholic beverages. The party kicked on for a while, and we all finally dispersed to separate rooms.
On arriving back at the boys room it became apparent that we were not going to get much sleep as The Red Baron, Big Ben, Taxi, and Red were deep in conversation trying to solve the political, religious, and financial problems of Victoria, Australia, and the rest of the world.
"The Baron" job well done, lets now relax!!!!!
I piked out at 0230 and left the others still going strong. I later found out that The Baron hit the sack at 0430.
Fortunately I was nice and warm in my bunk below him and sleeping soundly, so didn’t get woken by him.
The Baron complained of being cold, and couldn’t locate an extra blanket so had to sleep in his ‘long johns’. In the morning the guys admitted that they were feeling a bit peckish around 0300 and fancied a pizza. They would have had no chance of pizza at that time in Seymour.
Breakfast consisted of numerous cups of coffee, and we packed up around 0930 and headed back to the Lodge rooms for brunch.
A great BBQ followed and more socialising, before most of us drifted away between 1230 -1330.
Reported by Pedro.
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