MINUTES OF THE TEXAS SHRINE ASSOCIATION
MID-WINTER SESSION
FEBRUARY 5 – 6, 2010
WACO, TEXAS
The
following Association Officers, Past Presidents, Divan Members and visitors
were present:
Association Officers
Steven
P. O’Neal Potentate - Moslah President
James
Hughes P.P. - Suez 1st
Vice President
David
Hamm Asst. Rabban
- Sharon 2nd
Vice President
Lawrence
A. Winkle P.P. -
Hella Sec-Treas.
Potentates
Eduardo
G. Aguilar Al
Amin
Richard
A. Reyes, II Alzafar
Michael E. Ellis Arabia
Walter
E. Sanders Ben Hur
David
B. Peck El Maida
Raymond
Rubio El
Mina
Robert
Sparks Hella
James
W. Koehler Karem
Benny
A. Watson Khiva
Robert
L. Hamblin Maskat
Steven
P. O’Neal Moslah
James
F. Booker Sharon
Jimmy
W. Sharp Suez
Past Presidents
Lawrence
A. Winkle, P.P. 1988 Hella
W.
Vernon Burke, Jr., P.P. 1996 El Mina
Larry
Jewell, P.P. 1998 Suez
Roger
Nelson, P.P. 2001 Hella
Greg “Snake”
McEwen, P.P. 2004 Karem
Imperial Officers
Dale
W. Stauss Imperial
Oriental Guide Zem
Jerry
G. Gantt Imperial
1st Cer. Master Arabia
Douglas
E. Maxwell Past Imperial
Potentate Moolah
Robert
B. Bailey Past
Imperial Potentate Orak
Distinguished Visitors
Wayne
Lachut , P.P. Imp. OG Candidate Ismailia
William
S. Bailey, P.P. Imp. OG
Candidate Orak
Divans and Others
Al Amin
James
L. “Jim” Caughman, CR; Max D. Maughan, AR; James Woods, HP&P; Gilbert
Medina, OG; Jimmie Goodman, P.P., Treas.; James Bixler, Rec.
Alzafar
Gregorio
I. Flores, CR; Robert Jones, AR; Thomas G. Young, HP&P; Mario G. Vargas, OG;
Stuart H. Simms, P.P., Treas.; Donald D. Starnes, Rec.; James Strayer, P.P.;
Phil Knightsheen, P.P.; Frank Hunter, P.P.
Arabia
John
McDonald, CR; Robert E. Sharpe, AR; Jim Spalding, HP&P; James N. McKinney,
OG; David Ashley, Treas.; Don Slayton, Rec; Thomas Mallyn, P.P.; Jerry M.
Glenn, Chief of Staff; Dale DeFoor, Asst. Chief of Staff; Paul Weber
Ben Hur
Michael
Ford, CR; Ed Whitmore, Sr., AR; Richard H. McNabb, HP&P; Thomas H. Hauss,
Jr., OG; Billy J. “Bill” James, Treas.; Boyce Freitag, P.P., Recorder; Eddie
Daffern, P.P.; Charles Farnham, P.P.
El Maida
Nickie
H. Keene, CR; Steven G. Miller, AR; Victor G. Pastrana, HP&P; David Millis,
OG; Ronald Smith, Rec.
El Mina
Bradley
W. Corley, CR; Fred Easley, AR; Mark R. Kordie, HP&P; William Howell, III,
OG; Lester Smith, Treas.; Ken F. Tenhet, Rec.; W. Vernon Burke, Jr., P.P.
Hella
Jerry
R. Garey, CR; Roger Carney, AR; Morgan Robnett, HP&P; Donald R. Young, OG;
Robert Caldwell, Jr., Treas.; Roger Nelson, P.P, Rec.; H. Don Moore, P.P.; Lawrence A. Winkle, P.P.; David Simm, Ex. Aide
Karem
David
L. Buckles, CR; Larry J. Taylor, AR; Sam Moore, HP&P; Kenneth W. Bryant,
OG; Michael W. Burney, Rec.; Ronnie Earl Ewing, Capt. Of the Guard; Glen Dale
Boyd, P.P.; Greg “Snake” McEwen, P.P.; Larry Cantwell, P.P.; J. A. “Jay” Baker,
P.P.; Orborn “Salty” Brown, P.P.; Lane Dollins, Leg. Of Honor
Khiva
Glenn
Pate, CR; Mike Grafton, AR; Rodney Weaver, HP&P; Scott T. Wollery, OG; Jim
Osborne, Treas.; Wilton E. Manley, Rec.; Rit Christian, P.P.; Don Ellison, TSA
Webmaster
Maskat
Terry
Martin, CR; Poney Thompson, AR; Mark Reed, HP&P; William Dru Landrum, OG; John L. Tunnell, P.P.; Rec.; Terry Huff, P.P.;
Mark Terry, P.P.
Moslah
Richard
P. Evans, CR; Stephen C. Jones, AR; Robert L. Lee, OG; Richard V. Hall, Jr.,
P.P., Treas.; Gary D. Hawkins, P.P., Rec.
Sharon
Carl
Auvil, CR; David Hamm, AR; James Hanshaw, OG; Scott Kelly, P.P., Rec.; Mark
Douglas, P.P.
Suez
Manuel
Olivas, Jr, CR; Charles F. Miller, AR; Patrick Fenner, HP&P; John D.
Smelser, Jr., OG; Sam Worbington, P.P.,
Rec.; Larry Jewell, P.P.; Harvey Kaase, lst Cer. Master; Carl Smith, Chief
Aide; Larry J. Hewell, P.P.
(113 Nobles Present)
The TSA Mid-Winter Session was
called to order at 9:00 a.m., Friday, February 5, 2010, by TSA President Steven
P. O’Neal, Potentate, Moslah Shriners, at the Lee Lockwood Masonic Building,
Waco, Texas After the opening prayer by Ill.
Sir Gary D. Hawkins, P.P., Moslah Temple, and presentation of colors by Karem Shriners’s
Legion of Honor, accompanied by the Texas Bagpipe Association, the Shriners’
Pledge of Allegiance was led by 1st Vice President James Hughes, Past
Potentate, Suez Shriners, and the pledge to the Texas flag by 2nd
Vice President David Hamm, Assistant Rabban, Sharon Shriners.
President O’Neal welcomed all of the
divans of the Texas temples to the Mid-Winter session and thanked Karem Shriners
agreeing to host. Ill. Sir James
Koehler, Potentate, Karem Shriners, brought greetings from Waco, TX, home of
the Grand Lodge of Texas, Scottish Rite Foundation of Texas and Karem Shrine.
Ill. Sir Greg McEwen, Director General of the TSA
Mid-Winter session, also brought greetings.
He then introduced Councilman
Randy Riggs, who is a Mason and current Venerable Master of the Lodge of
Perfection of the Waco Valley. Councilman
Riggs encouraged all to visit the city of Waco and a new mammoth site newly
discovered in the city. He proclaimed,
on behalf of the Mayor of Waco, February 5, 2010 as Shrine Association
Appreciation Day.
President O’Neal then introduced the Imperial officers
present, including Imp. Sir Dale W. Stauss, Imperial Oriental Guide, Zem
Shriners; Imp. Sir Jerry Gantt, Imperial 1st Ceremonial Master, Arabia Shriners;
Imp. Sir Douglas Maxwell, Past Imperial Potentate, Moolah Shriners and Chairman
of the Board of Trustees of Shriners Hospitals for Children; and Imp. Sir Robert
B. Bailey, Past Imperial Potentate, Orak Shriners.
TSA 1st VP James Hughes
introduced the living past presidents of the Texas Shrine Association that were
present. President O’Neal then had a
representative from each Shrine Center introduce the divans and attendees from
their respective temples.
President O’Neal advised that the session would
deviate from the usual order of business to accommodate the travel requirements
of Imp. Sir Maxwell and Ill. Sir Wayne Lachut.
The Dixie Shrine Association is also being held on this weekend and both
need to make presentations at that association meeting. President O’Neal
introduced the two candidates for Imperial Outer Guard – Ill. Sir Bill Bailey
and Ill. Sir Wayne Lachut. Ill. Sir
Bailey, Past Potentate, Orak Shriners, addressed the assembly first and recognized his father, Imp. Sir Bob Bailey,
Past Imperial Potentate. He said it was
very rare to be able to formally recognize his father for all the services
provided and sacrifices made. Ill. Sir
Bailey explained his family connections with the Shrine, his past services and
his qualifications to serve on the Imperial divan.
Ill. Sir Wayne Lachut, Ismailia Shriners, stated that
this is his second year to run for the Imperial office. His motto is “Working Together to Insure our
Future”. Ill. Sir Lachut has been on the
Erie hospital board for 10 years – the last three as chairman.
Imp. Sir Douglas Maxwell took up the remainder of the
morning with a report on hospital system and a question-and-answer
session. He thanked Alzafar Shriners for
a great Imperial session in 2009. He complimented
the members of the Texas Shrine Association because we are one of the few
association that meets in coat and tie.
He discussed the past attempts to close some of our hospitals but stated
that “telling Shiners that we need to close six hospitals is like telling a
family with seven children that they will have to get rid of a few because the
family can’t afford them all”. Haiti
suffered a disastrous earthquake about 3 weeks before the Mid-Winter
meeting. As a result, many children have
had arms and legs amputated and the Shrine hospital system has been asked to
help. A real problem exists because if
these children are brought over and treated, where, or to whom do we send them
back to? Many have no homes or families
left.
The Galveston Burns hospital is
back open again and operating at about 95% capacity. What is the goal of a business? Is it to make a product, employ people or
make a profit? The goal of the hospital
is to serve and help children with the least amount of personnel and not at a
loss. The hospital sytem employee staff
has been reduced and the job is being done with fewer people and less
overhead. This proves that it can be
done. Shriners are now realizing a 12%
return on their investments.
A question was asked, “We have a lot of fixed assets
such as lettuce farms and oil and gas interests. How often do we review those assets to insure
that we are getting the best return for our money?’ Imp. Sir Maxwell replied that the investment committee is responsible for
this and makes regular trips to review our assets and make the determinations
which are the subject of the question.
With the other questions pertaining to the proper use of our fixed
assets, we were encouraged to contact the Chairman of the Investment Committee
to determine what actions are taken to by the committee to insure that the
assets are utilized and protected to the fullest extent. The Shrine has been overspending for the past
16 years but we have been able to offset it with gains from investments. Imp. Sir Maxwell asked if the assembly had heard
the term “regional hospitals”. One
proposal is to combine some facilities and move children to other regional
locations for treatment. As to whether
this will work, the answer is not presently known. Tests on such hospitals are
being run in some areas. Ill. Sir Wayne
Lachut then spoke as to what the Erie hospital is doing. This hospital performs about 300 operations
per year, 100 of which require at least an overnight stay. This costs an extra $2,000,000 to keep the
hospital open. They have talked to a
hospital close by that will do the operations which would eliminate overnight
stays for a potential savings of about 1.5 million dollars.
One
of the best things that passed at the Imperial session in 2009, was the approval
of third-party pay. We are getting the
job done and by the start of the 2010 session in Toronto we should be getting
money from third-party pay.
Ill. Sir Stuart Simms, P.P., Alzafar Shriners, spoke
about the problems in getting the Galveston facility back on line. In spite of a concerted effort by the
Imperial Shrine, and the various boards, it took a great amount of time to get
the proper permits, get restaffed, and get going again.
Imp. Sir Maxwell then presented a report from
Price-Waterhouse that has studied all of the hospitals to determine the giving
effect of third-party pay on the profitability of the hospitals.
Noble John Smelser, Suez Shriners, asked why the
Shrine doesn’t use its hospitals (who have a lot of empty space a lot of the
time) for rehab hospitals for senior citizens who normally have medicare and
supplement insurance. Imp. Sir Maxwell
discussed the proposal and stated that the Imperial bylaws would probably have
to be amended and a separate corporation formed.
Another question was asked as to why
we don’t advertise on TV like the programs that say for $19.00 per month you
can feed a child. For example, what is
wrong for a TV fundraiser that says, “for $_____ a month you can help treat a
child at a Shriners hospital.”
Imp. Sir Maxwell then presented a video of the Galveston
hospital and Galveston Island that he will show to other Associations to let
them know that Galveston is in good shape.
Imp. Sir Maxwell then called on Imp. Sir Jerry Gantt
who said that the two pieces of legislation passed enabled the Shrine hospitals
to get new revenue streams and to permit the Board of Trustees to redesign the
hospital system. In order to save money,
Houston and Galveston are beginning to share in certain accounting procedures
and expenses which are realizing some savings in overhead. Imp. Sir Gantt told in detail how the
Galveston hospital got reopened and what was found structurally before
reopening. All of the smoke dampers
needed replacing, much of which was not caused by the hurricane. Replacing these has cost a lot of money. The hospital is now operating with 28%
less in its budget from its approved in the 2009
budget.
In closing, Imp. Sir Maxwell stated that three hospitals
have been selected for possible new models of operations: Erie, Galveston, and Twin
Cities. Two others, including
Shreveport, are on the planning board.
These hospitals’ facilities and procedures are being examined to
determine how we can continue to provide service and, at the same time, cut
expenses.
President O’Neal 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 Shriners,
chaired the Time and Place Committee, and stated that three temples has
expressed an interest in hosting the 2011 Ceremonial session in lieu of Arabia
Shriners’ statement that it could not host in light of recent
developments. After a discussion and
vote the Time and Place Committee recommended that Khiva Shriners be authorized
to host the Ceremonial session. Chairman
Jewell 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
2011
February 3 - 5 Mid-Winter Midland Suez Suez
June 2 - 4 Ceremonial Amarillo Suez Khiva
2012
February 2 -4 Mid-Winter Dallas Sharon Hella
May 30 – June 3 Ceremonial Tyler Sharon Sharon
2013
Mid-Winter Ben Hur
Ceremonial Ben Hur
Ill. Sir W. Vernon Burke, P.P., El Mina Shriners,
chaired the Purposes and Policies Committee.
Ill. Sir Roger Nelson, P.P., Hella Shriners presented a proposed
amendment to the bylaws of the Texas Shrine Association which, if passed, would
permit temples of other associations to join TSA as associate members under the
following guidelines: (1) The associate temple units would be required
to join their respective Texas State Associations; (2) associate temple units
will pay all necessary dues and fees associated with the TSA Ceremonial
Session; and (3) no associate temple would have any vote in legislation of the
TSA rules and regulations. Further, the
associate temple could not host a Mid-Winter or Ceremonial session of TSA and
no member of the associate temple could hold office in the Texas Shrine
Association. After discussion, the
proposed bylaw amendment was passed and the Secretary/Treasurer was directed to
prepare the necessary application to present to the Imperial Council for
approval or rejection thereof.
Imp. Sir Dale Stauss addressed the assembly concerning
membership. The Imperial Potentate’s
motto this year is “Unity Wins”. In 9
years we have lost over 137,000 members because of suspensions. With 958,000 Shriners in 1978 it cost $54 per
Shriner per child for hospital treatment.
Now, the cost is over $2,000 per Shriner per child. He encouraged all temples to appoint a virtual
mentor who will receive requests and questions from the internet. Ill. Sir Boyce Freitag, Recorder of Ben Hur Shriner,
spoke in favor of the program. Ben Hur
has a virtual mentor and they have received 5 requests, three of which are now
members. This caused Ben Hur to have a
positive membership year in 2009. Restorations
are a great opportunity that we have to tap back into. A restored Shriner is just as important as a
newly created noble.
Noble Tom Smith, Moslah Shriners, gave a Donor Relations
report. Each year we average between
350-400 million dollars in wills and bequests.
This has been fairly level in the past years. None of the Texas temples have a speaker’s
bureau. This is a group of men that go
out to clubs and groups and present talks on the hospitals. This can raise a large amount and all temples are encouraged to form a
speaker’s bureau.
The IHOP hospital fundraiser is coming up soon. Each of our locations averaged $1,950 per
location in 2009. This year we have a
number of additional locations that have become part of the national program.
Another vehicle for fundraising has to be done at the
local level. Shrine centers need to
contact convenience stores and other retail outlets with a request to put out
wall tags in their facilities for thirty days as a fundraiser for the
hospitals. Many country clubs are
closed on Mondays for private golf tournaments.
Temples should consider approaching them to see if they want to be a
fund raiser for the hospitals. We are
also going to have a third-party fundraiser at Hooter’s and, perhaps, Cracker
Barrel.
Ill. Sir Rick Reyes, Potentate Alzafar Shriners, discussed
his temple’s ambassador program. Alzafar
has ambassadors in each Lodge. The
temple will send a registered letter to an individual saying that Noble John
Doe has nominated him to become a member of Alzafar Shriners. In three weeks Alzafar has gained over 30
Nobles due to this program.
Ill. Claud Ervin, Karem Shriners and Chairman of the
Waco Scotrtish Rite bodies, spoke on Masonic Family Unity. We need to go back to the roots of who we
are. Henry Wadsworth said “All your
strength is in your union - All your danger is in your discord”. We should always remember three points: Masons are brothers -. Masons cooperate - Masons
respect each other. He emphasized the TEAM
concept - Together Everyone Accomplishes
More.
TSA collected $5,000.00 for the hospitals which will
be presented at the Imperial Shrine session in Toronto. Imp. Sir Jerry Gantt advised that if an
individual has had a DUI within the past year and it shows up at immigration, that
person will not be permitted into Canada for the Imperial session.
Imp. Sir Dale Stauss stated that third party pay is
not the cure but it will help us maintain the number of hospitals and the level
of service that has been provided in the past.
The Shrine Sports Programs were discussed. Shriners
are involved with the East-West Shrine game, Justin Timberlake Golf Tournament
and NASCAR Racing with David Ragan. We
are starting to market the Shrine.
There being no further business to conduct, the Texas
Shrine Association Mid-Winter meeting was adjourned Saturday, February 6, 2010
at 115 a.m.
Respectfully
submitted,
Lawrence
A. Winkle
Lawrence
A. Winkle
Secretary/Treasurer