The RSM 150 Appeal
District Grand Council of West Yorkshire
Introduction from the R.Ill District Grand Master
Companions, welcome to this new page on our District website.
You will be aware that we are now several months into our 150th Anniversary Festival Appeal, a unique event launched last October at the Sesquicentenary Meeting of Grand Council, to commemorate this significant milestone in the history of our Order.
It now gives me great pleasure to be able to give you all the information you might need, either as individual Companions, collectively within your Council(s), or both, to enable you to donate in support of this very worthwhile cause, which will remain open throughout the remainder of 2024.
This addition to our District website is designed to answer all your questions and highlight the many different ways that Councils and individual Companions can support this Festival Appeal. This is in addition to the on-line guidance handbook, a link to which is provided HERE, or in the useful documents section.
The Festival Appeal is being administered by the Masonic Charitable Foundation, (MCF), both to simplify and to maximise donations through their on-line mechanisms and gift-aid facilities. The Appeal Chairman is none other than R Ill Companion James H Newman, P.G.Chan., our very own RW Provincial Grand Master and Most Excellent Grand Superintendent, a member of both the Districts of West Yorkshire and North and East Yorkshire, amongst several others.
The District Representatives attending Council meetings will be highlighting our Festival during the remainder of 2024 and hopefully answering any questions you might have.
In addition, if after digesting the information on this web page you still have some questions, please feel free to contact either myself or the District Grand Recorder.
Finally, as we reach the end of 2024, we will be asked to nominate a suitable local charity that might benefit from a sesquicentenary grant, so start thinking about this now. Nominations may now therefore be made by your Councils, and will be gratefully received by myself or the District Grand Recorder.
Companions, thank you in anticipation of your support for this unique appeal, which I’m sure you will recognise is a worthwhile endeavour and worthy of our support.
R Ill Comp. Fraser McPherson
District Grand Master
Patronage for Individuals
In all cases of personal donations, a standard MCF donation envelope must be used. These are available from the District Recorder and visiting District Representatives. Alternatively, the form available Here and can be downloaded and used.
If an individual Companion makes a donation, whether on-line, at their own or another Council meeting or at a District meeting, and they add their name to the form or envelope, such donations will be credited to that individual by the MCF and will accumulate towards their personal Patronage.
Should an individual wish a donation to be credited to their Council, they simply replace their name with the name of the Council they wish to support.
In either case, please ensure that the Council Name and Number are entered in the ‘Lodge/Chapter Name’ and ‘Lodge/Chapter Number’ boxes on the form.
Most importantly, the name of the MCF Relief Chest Number for this Festival Appeal is; R S M1 5 0
Patronage is available for individual Companions and Councils, but not for Districts, so it is important that any and all donations that are made are clearly identified either with your name or the name of the Council you wish to support.
Patron - £50.00
Grand Patron - £150.00
Patronage for Councils
In cases of Council donations, the MCF Gift Aid Envelope Form (GAE Form) must be used. The form is available to download Here and can be used for mixtures of both Gift-Aid and non Gift-Aid donations that may have been collected at a meeting or event.
Councils can become Grand Patrons by a per capita donation of £25 per member, (membership numbers being determined as those at 1st Sept 2023). As for individual patronage, donations credited towards a Council, whether from that Council or individuals, will accumulate over the course of the Appeal towards that Councils patronage.
Councils may also wish to donate from existing Council funds. If any assistance is needed about how to do this, please contact either the District Grand Master or the District Grand Recorder.
Ideas to Help fundraise
- Make a charity collection, either during your meetings or at the Festive Board, but not both
- Hold raffles at Festive Boards. If your Council doesn’t currently do this then consider doing so for the remainder of 2024
- Hold charitable events to raise funds
- Hold a quiz, either Masonic or general knowledge, during a meeting or at Festive Boards, for a nominal entry fee, (perhaps 10-20 questions), with the winner gaining the title ‘Council Egg Head’ and being presented with a Certificate, (suggested question & answer sheet and the certificate can be found in the useful documents section)
Councils reaching Grand Patronage will be able to use the Logo below on their Council Summons and correspondence, in recognition of their achievement
On top of which, the District will be holding some on-line fundraising ‘events’, i.e., a Virtual Balloon Race, during the windy earlier part of the year, and a Virtual Duck Race during the warmer Summer months. Details will be circulated when these are launched.
Watch this space!
Links to fundraising sites