22
PROCEEDINGS OF THE DECISION
1947
9.
(A) Under Section 152 of the Grand Lodge By-laws, a Brother raised since the adoption of said section who has not passed his examination in the proficiency lecture in the Third Degree, cannot object to an initiation of a candidate for the reason that said section provides that such an objection has the effect of a blackball and therefore amounts to voting on a petition for the degrees, for which right the Brother has not yet qualified. (B) Under Section 153 of the Grand Lodge By-laws, a Brother raised since the adoption of Section 152, who has not passed his examination in the proficiency lecture in the Third Degree, has the right to object to the passing or raising of another Brother for the reason that under said section such objection does not have the effect of a blackball, but merely stands as a bar against the candidate for sixty days, unless sooner withdrawn by the objector and the objection shall not be renewed by anyone, but charges may be preferred against the candidate. From this it seems plain that objecting to the advancement or raising of a Brother is not an exercise of the right to vote, but merely the filing of an objection against the Brother. Of this right, such a Brother is not deprived by the provisions of Section 152. DECISION 10. Where a Lodge desires to change the time of election from the first meeting in December to the first meeting in September, it may amend its by-laws, in the manner stated therein, so that the new by-laws shall provide that at the election to be held the first meeting in December, 1947, the officers then elected shall be elected for a term ending with the first meeting in September, 1948, and that, thereafter, officers shall be annually elected at the first meeting in September. DECISION 11. (A) Section 95 of the Grand Lodge By-laws does not require the holding of an election to fill a vacancy in an elective office at the first or any particular stated communication of the Lodge. Said section means that such election shall be held within a reasonable time after the vacancy occurs. (B) Under the authority granted by the provisions of Section 94 of the Grand Lodge By-laws and for the welfare of the Craft, the Worshipful Master of a Lodge has the authority to make certain temporary emergency appointments in elective offices when necessary that the business of the Lodge may be carried on in orderly fashion and the credit of the Lodge protected. In so doing, he must see that the interests and welfare of the Lodge are fully protected. (C) Where the Treasurer of a Lodge died between the second regular meeting in April and the first regular meeting in May, after