Letter from the Editor

From the Editor

It’s almost summertime in DC, which means that even though the weather remains a stochastic mess, the masses of tourists tell us that life is inevitably returning to the Nation’s Capital for the year. And so it is with e Voice of Freemasonry – dormant for a while, and now ready to return in full bloom.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. My name is Jason Van Dyke. I’m a Past Master of e Colonial Lodge, No. 1821 (a Lodge I helped found) and a member of Benjamin B. French Lodge, No. 15 (my Mother Lodge), and recently, I came to work here in the Oce of the Grand Secretary as the Director of Communications.

Previously, I was the Assistant Director of Communications and the Assistant Director of Education for the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite. While there, I ran the Scottish Rite’s Masonic education eort (the Master Crasman Program), acted as the media relations contact, and wrote and edited for their magazine, e Scottish Rite Journal, among a myriad of other small duties.

Here in the oce of the Grand Secretary, I bring 11 years of experience working for the Cra on a national level. As was the case with the Scottish Rite, I’ll have a lot of sundry duties, but mainly I will be involved in the planning and execution of our events and, when necessary, liaising with the media on behalf of the Grand Lodge. Most importantly, though, I will be working to improve all of our communications eorts both internal and external; the most noticeable of which is this very magazine.

Bringing together a magazine like this can be a Sisyphean challenge. Publications are insatiable in their need for content, and content can be hard to come by – especially in an organization like Freemasonry, where almost everything is accomplished through the charitable work of volunteers. And that’s where you come in, dear reader. (Come on, you knew I’d be asking you for something at some point, right?)

We need your help. Specically, we need you to submit your best ideas and stories about Freemasonry in the District of Columbia for publication on these pages, because other readers really want to hear about them. And more importantly, I want to help you reach them.

So, let me give you some ideas to get you started:

1. What’s going on in your Lodge? Did you have a great speaker that delivered a particularly important or inspiring lecture to your Lodge recently?

2. What does your Lodge have planned for the future that this magazine might help you promote?

3. Do you have a cool story about the history of your Lodge or an important/famous member that you’d like to share with a wider audience?

4. Have you done some Masonic research that begs to be shared with the larger community?

And that’s just a quick start. We want anything you can give us, because as I said, the magazine is ALWAYS hungry for content (especially when it comes with graphics and pictures!).

So as we look forward to the sweltering heat of DC in the summertime, I hope you’ll burn with equal intensity to help us deliver the best and most engaging version of e Voice of Freemasonry that we can. anks for your help in advance, and I’m looking forward to continuing the tradition of delivering you one of the best Masonic magazines in the world.

Sincerely and Fraternally,

Jason Van Dyke, PM Jason Van Dyke, PM Managing Editor 