MINUTES OF THE
CEREMONIAL SESSION
JUNE 4 - 6, 2009
The
following Association Officers, Past Presidents, Divan Members and visitors
were present:
Association Officers
Sam
Khoury Potentate - El Mina President
Steven
P. O’Neal Chief Rabban - Moslah 1st Vice President
James
Hughes P.P. -
Potentates
James
Strayer Alzafar
Ken Aldridge
James
R. “Jim” Smith Ben Hur
Ronald
Smith El Maida
Sam
J. Khoury El
Mina
Roger
Fuller Hella
J. A.
“Jay” Baker Karem
Horace
Melton Khiva
Mark
R. Elgin Maskat
Allen
Miller Moslah
Mark
Douglas
Ben
Brewer
Past Presidents
J.
Steve Dryden, P.P. 1993 Maskat
Ted
Hennis, P.P. 1994 Khiva
Larry
Jewell, P.P. 1998
Roger
Nelson, P.P. 2001 Hella
Greg “Snake”
McEwen, P.P. 2004 Karem
Michael
J. Hartzer, P.P. 2005 Al Amin
T.
Dan Tompkins, P.P. 2006 Maskat
Imperial Officers
Douglas
E. Maxwell Imperial
Potentate Moolah
Jerry
G. Gantt Imperial
2nd Cer. Master
Raoul
Frevel, Sr. Past
Imperial Potentate Boumi
Distinguished Visitors
Wayne
Lachut Imp. OG
Candidate
Steve
Reiter Administrator -
David
Herndon COS – Burns
–
Jeff
Sowder Imp. OG
Candidate Midian
Joe
B. Jones, P.P. SHC –
Don
Holt SHC -
Robert
Beeler SHC –
Rick Townsend SHC
–
Divans and Others
Al Amin
Eduardo
“Ed” Aguilar, CR; James L. “Jim” Caughman, AR; Max D. Maughan, HP&P; James
Woods, OG; Vincent Ares, P.P., Treas.; Ed Hanshaw, P.P.; Michael J. Hartzer,
P.P.; William R. Sandell, P.P.; Quince Mitchell, P.P.
Alzafar
Rick
Reyes, CR; G. I. Flores, AR; Robert Jones, HP&P; Thomas G. Young, OG; Stuart
H. Simms, P.P., Treas.; Don Starnes, Rec.
Michael
E. Ellis, CR; John McDonald, AR; Robert
E. Sharpe, OG; David Ashley, Treas.; Harry M. Pressman, Rec.; Joseph
Zettlemoyer, P.P.; Thomas Mallyn, P.P.; William “Bill’ Walker, Chief Admin.;
Paul Weber, Colonel; Steven Reiter, Administrator, SHC-Houston; Bryan Corey,
Donor Rel. Dir.; Ronnie Odell; Chief Amb.; John McGaughy; Photographer
Ben Hur
Walter
E. “Gene” Sanders, CR; Michael Ford, AR; Ed Whitmore, HP&P; Richard H.
McNabb, OG; Billy J. “Bill” James, Treas.; Boyce Freitag, P.P., Recorder; Ronnie
Lee, P.P.; Charles Farnham, P.P.; Fred Park, P.P.
El Maida
David
Peck, CR; Nickie Keene, AR; Steven G. Miller, HP&P; Jim Davis, P.P., Rec.
El Mina
Raymond
Rubio, CR; Brad Corley, AR; Fred Easley, HP&P; Lester Smith, Treas.; Ken F.
Tenhet, Rec.; David Dunn, P.P.; Frank W. Schurwon, P.P.; Kenneth Wheeler, 2nd
Cer. Master; David Herndon,
Hella
Robert
D. Sparks, CR; Jerry R. Garey, AR; Roger Carney, HP&P; Morgan Robnett, OG; Roger
Nelson, P.P., Treas.; Ron Anderson, Rec.; H. Don Moore, P.P.; Lawrence A. Winkle, P.P.; Jerry Norvell, P.P.;
Jim L. Alford, P.P.; John Rodriguez. P.P. Larry V. Hall, SHC – Houston Bd. Mem.
Karem
James
W. Koehler, CR; David Buckles, AR; Larry J. Taylor, HP&P; Sam Moore, OG; Glen
Dale Boyd, P.P.; Greg “Snake” McEwen, P.P.; Ralph Reynolds, P.P., SHC –
Houston, Bd. Chair.
Khiva
Ben
Watson, CR; Glenn Pate, AR; Mike Grafton, HP&P; Rodney Weaver, OG; Ted. D.
Hennis, P.P.; James W. Downs, P.P.
Maskat
Robert
“Bob” Hamblin, CR; Poney Thompson, HP&P; Mark Reed, OG; Jimmie Holland,
P.P., Treas.; John L. Tunnell, P.P.; Rec.; T. Dan Tompkins, P.P.
Moslah
Steve
O’Neal, CR; Richard P. Evans, AR; Steve Jones, OG; George Chaggaris, Treas.; Don
R. Russell, P.P., Rec.; Richard Baker, P.P.; James King, P.P.; Gary E. Reynolds, P.P.; Tom
Smith, Imp. Donor Relations
Sharon
James
F. Booker, CR; Carl Auvil, AR; David Hamm, HP&P; Joe Youngblood, OG; Melvin
Ruyle, Treas.; Leroyce Jones, P.P.
Suez
Jimmy
Sharp, CR; Manuel Olivas, Jr., AR; Patrick Fenner, OG; John Fredrick Simpson,
P.P., Treas.; Sam Worbington, P.P., Rec.; David Martin, P.P.; Larry Jewell,
P.P.; James Hughes, P.P.; David Smelser, P.P.; Bernard R. Johnson, P.P.; J. D.
Smelser, Jr.. Dir.; John R. Fowler
(123 Nobles Present)
The TSA Ceremonial Session was
called to order at 12:30 p.m., Thursday, June 4, 2009, by TSA President Sam
Khoury, Potentate, El Mina Shrine Center, at the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel,
401 Broad Street, Wichita Falls, TX. After
the opening prayer by Ill. Sir Bob Hampton, P.P., Maskat Temple, and
presentation of colors by Maskat Shrine Center’s Legion of Honor, accompanied
by the Texas Bagpipe Association, the Shriners’ Pledge of Allegiance was led by
1st Vice President Steven P. O’Neal, Chief Rabban, Moslah Shrine
Center, and the pledge to the Texas flag by 2nd Vice President James
Hughes, Past Potentate, Suez Shrine Center.
President Khoury welcomed all of the
divans of the Texas temples to the Ceremonial session and thanked Maskat Shrine
Center for being willing and able to host the 2009 Ceremonial session on such
short notice after the devastating hurricane on Galveston Island. He reported that there is still much damage
in Galveston that has not yet been addressed, but that the city will fully
recover in the near future. He then introduced the Imperial officers present,
including Imp. Sir Douglas Maxwell, Imperial Potentate, Moolah Shrine Center;
Imp. Sir Jerry Gantt, Imperial 2nd Ceremonial Master, Arabia Shrine
Center; and Imp. Sir Raoul Frevel, Sr., Past Imperial Potentate, Boumi Shrine
Center.
Welcoming remarks were given at the
TSA brunch by Noble Woody Gossom, Maskat Shrine Center, who currently serves as
County Judge of Wichita County. His
humorous remarks were well received by the assembly. He made Imp. Sir Douglas Maxwell an honorary
citizen of Wichita Falls and presented Lady Patricia Maxwell with a yellow
rose. In addition, he appointed Ill. Sir
Bob Hampton (Maskat) as chairman of the bail bond committee in the event any
Shriner came in too close contact with law enforcement while in their stay in
Wichita Falls.
Secretary-Treasurer Lawrence A.
Winkle presented the minutes of the previous Mid-Winter session, and moved
approval. The motion was seconded and
passed without discussion. A financial
report of the TSA was given and the report was also approved. The following Tribute was then unanimously authorized
by the assembly with a statement that it be made a part of the minutes of the
meeting:
TRIBUTE
In addition to the loss of Imp. Sir Terry McGuire,
Deputy Imperial Potentate, Alzafar Shriners, Shrinedom also lost Imp. Sir
Richard L. “Tony” Bukey, Past Imperial Potentate (1993-1994), Sabbar Shriners;
John W. “Jack” Dean III, Past Imperial Potentate (2001-2002), Lulu Shriners and
Imp. Sir Webber C. “Webb” Harrington, Past Imperial Treasurer (1981-1997) Al
Kader Shriners. The accomplishments of
each of these dedicated men, and their dedication to Shrinedom and Shrine
hospitals will be long remembered and they will be missed.
TSA 1st VP Steve O’Neal
introduced the living past presidents of the Texas Shrine Association that were
present.
President Khoury then recessed the
meeting for the purpose of committee meetings by the Purposes and Policies
Committee and the Time and Place Committee.
Ill Sir Larry Jewell, P.P., Suez Shrine
Center, chaired the Time and Place Committee, and reported that the years,
dates and locations of the TSA meetings are as follow, which were approved by a
vote of the assembly:
TIME AND PLACE
YEAR AND DATE TYPE SESSION LOCATION TSA
PRESIDENT HOST
TEMPLE
2010
Feb. 4 - 5 Mid-Winter Waco Moslah Karem
June 3 - 5 Ceremonial Fort Worth Moslah Moslah
2011
February 3 - 5 Mid-Winter Midland Suez Suez
June 2 - 4 Ceremonial Houston Suez Arabia
2012
February (TBD) Mid-Winter Dallas Sharon Hella
May 30 – June 3 Ceremonial Tyler Sharon Sharon
Ill. Sir Roger Nelson, P.P., Hella Shrine Center,
chaired the Purposes and Policies Committee.
Ill. Sir Nelson discussed a proposed amendment to the bylaws of the
Texas Shrine Association which will be formally presented and discussed at the
2010 TSA Mid-Winter meeting in Waco. Due
to the decline of unit competition at the TSA Ceremonial session Ill. Sir
Nelson proposed that competiting units of the Central States Shrine Association
be allowed to compete at the TSA Ceremonial session under the following
guidelines: (1) The CSSA units would be required to join
their respective Texas State Associations; (2) CSSA units will pay all
necessary dues and fees associated with the TSA Ceremonial Session; and (3) No
CSSA unit would have any vote in legislation of the TSA rules and regulations.
The committee considered a request of the Texas Shrine
Motor Patrol Association to amend its bylaws to allow for an increase in
dues. The committee was advised that all
TSMPA units were in favor of the amendment.
After discussion, the committee recommended approval of the by-law
amendment. The recommendation was
subsequently voted on and approved by the general assembly of TSA.
Noble Rick Reyes, Chief Rabban, Alzafar Shrine Center,
presented for discussion the possibility of obtaining personalized Texas Shrine
license plates. The costs of obtaining
the plates was presented and, after discussion, it was decided that each Shrine
Center would be responsible for collection of $600.00 toward the amount
necessary to permit the authorizing and printing of a personalized license
plate.
In light of the many major decisions
regarding the direction and future of Shriners Hospitals for Children that will
be considered at the Imperial Shrine Session to be held in San Antonio, TX from
July 5-9 the business session of the TSA Ceremonial session was conducted in a
different format. Imp. Sir Doug Maxwell
presided over the remainder of the business meeting and conducted a
question-and-answer session regarding the future of the existing hospital
system. A proposal is on the Imperial
call to close six of the Shrine hospitals, including the continued closing of
the Galveston Burns Hospital. Galveston
was denied the ability to re-open even though the structure suffered only minor
damage in the hurricane. In addition to
the resolution to close the six hospitals, three other resolutions will be
presented to (i) immediately reopen the Galveston hospital in light of the
action of the Imperial Board of Trustees to indefinitely suspend hospital
operations. (ii) establish guidelines that will allow the Joint Boards to
temporarily “suspend” operations when defined circumstances require such a
suspension; and (iii) establish a Commission to review and evaluate the status
of the entire Shrine hospital system, including its economic support structure. Previously, at the TSA brunch, Ill. Sir Raoul
Frevel had strongly advocated the reopening of the Galveston hospital and
delaying the closing of any hospital for a period of one year to allow more
study of the entire system.
The question and answer discussion
was spirited, but respectful. The
emotions of the delegates regarding the closing of any hospital, and more
particularly a Texas hospital, is both understandable and worthy of debate.
Imp. Sir Maxwell first advised the assembly that current
hospitals operations are going in the hole at over $200,000,000.00 per year and
the Shrine must do something to correct the situation. He visited the Galveston hospital to see the
extent of damage even though he know what the damage was before going. He advised that when he was elected Imperial
Potentate the Dow was about 13,000, the endowment fund was about 8 billion
dollars, but gas prices had started to go up.
By July, the Dow was down to about 11,500, and our endowment was around 7
billion dollars. In light of the trend Imp.
Sir Maxwell sent out a letter concerning hospital restructuring and, as the
economy continued to tank, he felt that the Shrine must consider ways to cut
hospital costs. In January 2009, the endowment
fund went below 5 billion dollars and the Dow was in the 6,000 range. Therefore, the question becomes, “how do we
save 200 billion per year”?
In 2000, the Shrine had to consider that Al Gore might
be elected President and that universal
health coverage would become a reality. Because of this possibility, a
moratorium on all new Shrine building was put in place until the outcome of the
election. In 2002, the Shrine paid over $1,000,000
for a McMasters report saying that the Minneapolis-St. Paul hospital needed to
be closed. At the 2003 session, the
representatives voted not to close the hospital in spite of the report and the
Joint Board’s position. In Baltimore in
2005 the Shrine was going to move the Canadian hospital from Montreal to
Ontario because the Montreal building site was supposedly polluted. It was developed that the location of the
Imperial session in Baltimore was also built on a contaminated site, so the
vote went down.
In the past two years the hospital budget has gone up $100,000,000
per year. Soon we will have a budget of
over one billion dollars per year unless a decision is made to cut costs. We have 998 beds in our hospital system, but
are only staffed for 550 beds.
The Imperial Potentate asked, “How do we save money?” There
is an item on the call about ambulatory
surgery. Some propose to go to more day
surgeries where the hospitals will only be open for five days a week. Ambulatory surgery is projected to save the
hospital system $121,000,000.00.
Third party pay will has been considered before and will
be an item on the call at this session. This
resolution will state that the hospital can potentially receive $121,000,000 if
the Shrine determines to accept third-party pay . Ill. Sir Mike Hartzer, P.P., Al Amin
Shriners, is in the business of billing hospitals and spoke to the assembly as
to how and what is included in third-party pay billing. It can amount to a tremendous amount of
money.
Members of the Boards of Governors
of both the Houston and Galveston hospital were in attendance and presented reports
and slide presentations concerning their positions.
President Khoury called for the election of officers
for the 2009-20010 Shrine year. The
following nobles were elected:
President Steven
P. O’Neal Moslah
1st Vice President James Hughes Suez
2nd Vice President David C. Hamm Sharon
Secretary-Treasurer Lawrence
A. Winkle Hella
Texas
Breakfast tickets were distributed, Imperial lady’s names were selected for the
Texas Breakfast presentations, and attendance cards were collected. There being no further business, the business
meeting concluded at 4:45 p.m. Peace and
harmony prevailed.
.
Respectfully
submitted,
Lawrence
A. Winkle
Lawrence
A. Winkle
Secretary/Treasurer