There is the story of the sales manager who told his team: don’t tell me how good you are at selling – show me! Similarly, there is a golden opportunity for Freemasons in 2002 not only to talk about what good Masons they are – but actually prove it.
    There is to be a National Week of action from 26 June to 2 July 2002 on the subject of Freemasonry in the Community (details on page 7). A briefing has gone out to Provinces from Grand Lodge setting out the details in general on how to proceed.
    Basically, each Province will set up a committee to co-ordinate local action. The aim is to bring to the week in question activities they were planning anyway – but to ensure they all take place within that week.
    Everyone knows that it is easy to snap a single twig: try breaking a bunch of twigs. Similarly, while individually we may not have a strong voice, with 350,000 of us we have an opportunity to be heard nationally.
    Forward planning is essential in business; any marketing manager will tell you that good planning is as important as the product being marketed. We must market ourselves in every way possible. For example, don’t forget to mention the week of action on your web sites.
    Here is an opportunity for positive thinking, rather than much of the negative comments that often arise in conversations between Freemasons. If we do not publicise our positive side, no one else will.
    Freemasonry Today is planning to take part, and indeed, we will be inviting Provinces (and London) to send us their best ideas. We will publish them to encourage others. We intend to keep the event in front of our readers by publicising the event as much as possible.
    It is a golden opportunity to underline how much a part of our local communities we all are, and maybe even bring about recruits to the Craft. But it means all of us pulling together as a team to ensure the success of this "big bang" week.
    We have one big advantage – time. It is some 18 months before the week in question, so Provincial executives, Information Officers and individual Lodges can ensure they have the right ideas in place in good time.
    The need to improve the public relations of Freemasonry has never been more important. Already considerable headway has been achieved. But we are "bottom up" and not a "top down" organisation; the lead must come from individual Freemasons, through Lodges, up through the chain, not from Grand Lodge downwards.
    And time has a nasty habit of melting away quickly. So everybody needs to get into full gear now. Complacency is potentially our biggest enemy. So let us get our shoulders to the wheel on this one and make it a huge success. And don't’ forget to let Freemasonry Today know what you are up to.
   
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    Everyone in the Craft will want to congratulate Lord Northampton on his forthcoming appointment as Pro Grand Master from April 2001. In his role as Assistant Grand Master, he has been a tower of strength as Chairman of London Management, and he is indefatigable in his work for Freemasonry.
    He will be a hard act to follow in London, but his enthusiasm and resolve will ensure that, as one of the High Rulers, he will continue to set an example to us all.
    The current Pro Grand Master, Lord Farnham, has given long and distinguished service to Freemasonry, having held this office since 1991. The Craft owes him an enormous debt of gratitude. Freemasonry has indeed been fortunate in its most senior office holders down the years.
   
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    Forgive my ending on a sour note, but as readers will recall from my Comment in the last issue, I tend to watch television programmes (by accident) that have snide anti-Masonic lines scripted into them.
    This issue’s raspberry goes to the scriptwriter on A Touch of Frost, the series about a crusty, old fashioned copper, Detective Inspector Jack Frost, played by actor David Jason.
    Here is our erstwhile DI interviewing a well-heeled woman suspect in "the nick". Well, he tells her, if she can afford a good lawyer "he is probably in the same Lodge as the judge."
    On the other hand he may not be in the same Lodge as the judge.
    Indeed, the odds are overwhelmingly that neither of them are Freemasons.
    By why let the facts stand in the way of a snide throwaway line?
    John Jackson – Editor