PRUNING THE LION’S MAILING LIST
Over the last five years since the Grand Lodge Website was introduced in the pages of the Internet, the lion periodically wrote articles for general readership. This opportunity can well be considered similar to the message contained in a juvenile poetic verse that says:
“I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth I knew not where.”
But what started it all was an entry that he made in the Guestbook of then fledgling Website that elicited from the organizers an offer that he join the core group of the Computer Resource Committee (or CRC)..
That group comprised VW Gene V. Sicat as Grand Webmaster who is based in Toronto, Canada; RW Rosauro “Boy” Rosales as GLP List Administrator who resides in New Jersey; Bro. Aquilino “Pong” Javier as US/Canada Web Editor based in Chicago; Bro. Rommel Cardinoza, GLP Asst. List Administrator based in Pangasinan; VW Benny Ty- Coordinator, Liason Officer based in Manila; and the lion as Contributing Editor for the Philippines at nearby Quezon City. Still much later, Bro. Nic Valmoria was added as Asst. Grand Webmaster whose residence was not, however, mentioned. Except for VW Benny, the lion has not had the opportunity of personally meeting the other members of this body.
In fine, the lion started submitting articles, among them, the Brief History of Freemasonry in the Philippines; A Filipino’s Commentary of the Known Origins of Freemasonry and its Impact in the Philippines; Charity, the Loftiest Virtue of All; Famous Filipino Masons and several others. At the suggestion of VW Gene, it also led to the creation of the “Inside the Lodge” and “Special Features” pages. And to add prestige to the Website, the assistance of MW Reynold S. Fajardo, PGM, was solicited, the lion’s mentor and the country’s foremost Masonic historian who gladly lent the lion the draft of an unpublished book that served as a veritable cache of articles that ultimately found its pages in this wonderful world we all call Internet.
Meanwhile the Glphils@yahoogroups.com was also established by RW “Boy” Rosales offering wider circulation and exposure of the materials that were being posted. The target subscribers involved those who do not have time to regularly surf the Net and so communications are achieved through direct mails. It also served as venue for dissemination of articles, queries of brethren and exchange of ideas and thus assured faster communications and wider coverage. The only trouble is, its impact can not effectively be gauged because reactions to articles are hardly, if ever, received.
The readers of the lion’s articles can be grouped in two- those who receive theirs through his personal address book that he has managed to keep through the years, and those that are listed at the Glphils@yahoogroups.com the number of which keep on increasing but whether what were received are being read is pretty hard to tell.
Lately, the management of the Internet Committee was transferred from the core group to the Grand Lodge under care and watchful eye of Bro. Edward See of Dalisay Lodge No. 14 While the Computer Resource Committee was not officially disbanded, it became apparent that for all intents and purposes, it has become inactive.
Unsure of his status in the Committee and not wanting to stir a hornet’s nest, the lion resolved to continue writing but this time, with the end view of having limited but more or less determinable readership. For what good is sending articles to brethren if it only serves as SPAM mails only to be deleted?! This, he reckoned should ideally be done during the ensuing year.
And so the obvious move was to request confirmation from brethren who periodically receive articles from the Internet. Clearly stated, non-receipt of confirmation will be interpreted as lack of interest and therefore will no longer be included in the revised mailing list after the previous year has ended.
The resultant confirmations of the request are revealing: Of those listed in his personal address book, 27 have signified interest and from the Glphils@yahoogroups.com 18 said they would want to periodically receive these mails. From this number, three more were added to accommodate the three lights of a lodge where the lion holds honorary membership totaling the interested readers to 48. A few are still trickling in.
But what the lion considers of special interest are the places of abodes of those who signified. Of the total number, six are based in the United States while eight were scattered over various places in the entire globe reaching as far as Canada, Diego Garcia, Guam and the American Samoa. Six are Senior DeMolays and those that can be traced to local sources are scattered all over the archipelago, making the recipients of these mails as truly scattered all over the country. One is a Grand Light, two are members of the Grand Lodge of Hawaii, and another is a non-Mason whose late father and still-living father-in-law are both members of the Craft. He has also already signified to attend the one-day-conferral in the States but was dissuaded to do so by the lion as the latter felt it would not be for his best interests that he join the Craft that way.
The resultant trimming of the list has chopped off several important names. Some of the brethren whom the lion thought (translate in local parlance to “akala”) were close to him, were erased. Ever heard of that local word to mean “you’re right?!” Lahat ng akala, mali’. (In England, it means “all thoughts are wrong!”) Well, except for one, and that is when you say: “Ay, akala ko, mali”. But that is only because the phrase now involves a double negative, because as mathematicians would tell us, negative multiplied by another negative, will definitely result in a positive.
To all of you out there who are recipients of the articles that the lion periodically sends therefore, the lion has but one request. Your valuable comments, adverse or otherwise, are being encouraged as it will prod the lion to write meaty articles for your special reading interest.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU OUT THERE!
Over the last five years since the Grand Lodge Website was introduced in the pages of the Internet, the lion periodically wrote articles for general readership. This opportunity can well be considered similar to the message contained in a juvenile poetic verse that says:
“I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth I knew not where.”
But what started it all was an entry that he made in the Guestbook of then fledgling Website that elicited from the organizers an offer that he join the core group of the Computer Resource Committee (or CRC)..
That group comprised VW Gene V. Sicat as Grand Webmaster who is based in Toronto, Canada; RW Rosauro “Boy” Rosales as GLP List Administrator who resides in New Jersey; Bro. Aquilino “Pong” Javier as US/Canada Web Editor based in Chicago; Bro. Rommel Cardinoza, GLP Asst. List Administrator based in Pangasinan; VW Benny Ty- Coordinator, Liason Officer based in Manila; and the lion as Contributing Editor for the Philippines at nearby Quezon City. Still much later, Bro. Nic Valmoria was added as Asst. Grand Webmaster whose residence was not, however, mentioned. Except for VW Benny, the lion has not had the opportunity of personally meeting the other members of this body.
In fine, the lion started submitting articles, among them, the Brief History of Freemasonry in the Philippines; A Filipino’s Commentary of the Known Origins of Freemasonry and its Impact in the Philippines; Charity, the Loftiest Virtue of All; Famous Filipino Masons and several others. At the suggestion of VW Gene, it also led to the creation of the “Inside the Lodge” and “Special Features” pages. And to add prestige to the Website, the assistance of MW Reynold S. Fajardo, PGM, was solicited, the lion’s mentor and the country’s foremost Masonic historian who gladly lent the lion the draft of an unpublished book that served as a veritable cache of articles that ultimately found its pages in this wonderful world we all call Internet.
Meanwhile the Glphils@yahoogroups.com was also established by RW “Boy” Rosales offering wider circulation and exposure of the materials that were being posted. The target subscribers involved those who do not have time to regularly surf the Net and so communications are achieved through direct mails. It also served as venue for dissemination of articles, queries of brethren and exchange of ideas and thus assured faster communications and wider coverage. The only trouble is, its impact can not effectively be gauged because reactions to articles are hardly, if ever, received.
The readers of the lion’s articles can be grouped in two- those who receive theirs through his personal address book that he has managed to keep through the years, and those that are listed at the Glphils@yahoogroups.com the number of which keep on increasing but whether what were received are being read is pretty hard to tell.
Lately, the management of the Internet Committee was transferred from the core group to the Grand Lodge under care and watchful eye of Bro. Edward See of Dalisay Lodge No. 14 While the Computer Resource Committee was not officially disbanded, it became apparent that for all intents and purposes, it has become inactive.
Unsure of his status in the Committee and not wanting to stir a hornet’s nest, the lion resolved to continue writing but this time, with the end view of having limited but more or less determinable readership. For what good is sending articles to brethren if it only serves as SPAM mails only to be deleted?! This, he reckoned should ideally be done during the ensuing year.
And so the obvious move was to request confirmation from brethren who periodically receive articles from the Internet. Clearly stated, non-receipt of confirmation will be interpreted as lack of interest and therefore will no longer be included in the revised mailing list after the previous year has ended.
The resultant confirmations of the request are revealing: Of those listed in his personal address book, 27 have signified interest and from the Glphils@yahoogroups.com 18 said they would want to periodically receive these mails. From this number, three more were added to accommodate the three lights of a lodge where the lion holds honorary membership totaling the interested readers to 48. A few are still trickling in.
But what the lion considers of special interest are the places of abodes of those who signified. Of the total number, six are based in the United States while eight were scattered over various places in the entire globe reaching as far as Canada, Diego Garcia, Guam and the American Samoa. Six are Senior DeMolays and those that can be traced to local sources are scattered all over the archipelago, making the recipients of these mails as truly scattered all over the country. One is a Grand Light, two are members of the Grand Lodge of Hawaii, and another is a non-Mason whose late father and still-living father-in-law are both members of the Craft. He has also already signified to attend the one-day-conferral in the States but was dissuaded to do so by the lion as the latter felt it would not be for his best interests that he join the Craft that way.
The resultant trimming of the list has chopped off several important names. Some of the brethren whom the lion thought (translate in local parlance to “akala”) were close to him, were erased. Ever heard of that local word to mean “you’re right?!” Lahat ng akala, mali’. (In England, it means “all thoughts are wrong!”) Well, except for one, and that is when you say: “Ay, akala ko, mali”. But that is only because the phrase now involves a double negative, because as mathematicians would tell us, negative multiplied by another negative, will definitely result in a positive.
To all of you out there who are recipients of the articles that the lion periodically sends therefore, the lion has but one request. Your valuable comments, adverse or otherwise, are being encouraged as it will prod the lion to write meaty articles for your special reading interest.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU OUT THERE!
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