AMD – National Capital Council No. 296, Washington DC

National Capital Council No. 296, AMD

Officers for the year 2005

Bylaws

Article 1. Name and Jurisdiction

The name of this Council shall be National Capital Council, Number 296, Allied Masonic Degrees. Its jurisdiction shall be the Greater National Capital Area.

Article 2. Custody of the Charter

The Secretary shall have custody of the charter, and it shall be stored in a safe and secure location. In addition, the charter must be present at all council meetings.

Article 3. Meetings

There shall be two (2) regular meetings a year. The annual meeting day shall be held during the month of November. The second meeting shall be held during the month of June. Both will be at the call of the Sovereign Master, who may also call Special Meetings. All meetings must have two weeks’ prior written notice.

Article 4. Officers

The elected officers of this council shall be the Sovereign Master, Senior Warden, Junior Warden, and Secretary-Treasurer. The appointed officers shall be the Chaplain, Senior and Junior Deacons, and Tyler. All officers shall be elected and installed at the annual meeting.

Article 5. Membership

The Membership shall consist of not more than twenty-seven (27) duly elected Brethren who shall have accepted an invitation extended by the Secretary on behalf of the Council.

Brethren shall be considered invited and elected by unanimous vote with a secret ballot.

Article 6. Titles

The Sovereign Master and Past Sovereign Masters shall be entitled to the appellation “Venerable.” All members of the Council shall be syled and designated as “Brothers.”

Article 7. Contributions and Fees

The fee for investiture in this Council shall be $25. The dues shall be $10 per year.

Dues area payable by November 1. The Secretary shall send dues notices by September 1. After approval by a majority of Council members present at the annual meeting, delinquents may be dropped for non-payment of dues (NPD).

Article 8. Amendments

These bylaws may be accepted, amended, altered, or repealed by a 2/3 vote of the members present and voting at any meeting of the Council, provided the Secretary has notified each member in advance of such intentions. Amendments or changes will become effective upon approve of Grand Council.

History of National Capital Council No. 296, AMD

 

What is the AMD?

According to the webpage of the AMD, the AMD — at least in the United States — is an invitational organization which requires all members to  first be Royal Arch Masons and be active in their local York Rite programs. The primary aims of the AMD are to encourage research in Masonic subjects and to support local York Rite bodies.

Another description of AMD, presented on some AMD webpages, is:

The allied Masonic Degrees are detached degrees, some of which, many years ago, were conferred under Craft warrants and formed part of the then loosely governed Freemasonry of the period.

Many of these detached degrees became dormant in some places, although in others they were conferred as side degrees. In time the better of these degrees were grouped together in an organized body under the title of Allied Masonic Degrees. The degrees comprising the system in our Jurisdiction in the U.S.A. are the Royal Ark Mariner, Secret Monitor, Knight of Constantinople, Saint Lawrence the Martyr, Architect, Superintendent, Grand Tilers of Solomon, Master of Tyre, Excellent Master, Installed Sovereign Master, Installed Commander Noah, Red Branch of Eri and Ye Ancient Order of Corks. They are conferred in the United States in Councils chartered by the Grand Council. Each Council is limited to 27 members, with two exceptions. One of these Councils is known as the Council of the Nine Muses and is limited to nine members. The other is Grand Masters Council, which has what is known as a roving charter. The purpose of the latter Council is to provide a place of membership in the Allied Masonic Degrees for brethren residing in localities where Councils have not been organized. Membership in every Council of Allied Masonic Degrees is by invitation, and is predicated on membership in a Royal Arch Chapter.

In addition to perpetuating these degrees, there is still another and equally important purpose. It is to bring
together, in small groups, Freemasons who are interested in the advancement of all Masonry, preparing themselves to better serve the Craft through the medium of study and research. By limiting the membership in a Council and securing membership only by invitation, the result is a congenial group able to enjoy full fellowship when meeting together. Wherever there is an active Council of Allied Masonic Degrees it exerts an influence for the betterment of Freemasonry in all the Masonic Bodies.

There is no intention on the part of the Allied Masonic Degrees to detract from any organized and established body of Masonry. On the contrary, you will find our members active, beyond the average, in all local Masonic bodies. The real purpose is to stimulate interest in Masonry in general and bring together in small groups those who are interested in the study of Masonic subjects. Thus they are better enabled to serve the Craft.

 

Link to The Grand Council Allied Masonic Degrees of the United States of America

Link to Information about AMD

Link to excellent information about AMD  http://members.cox.net/sirknight/AMD/info.htm

Link to List of AMD Councils that have webpages

Link to schedule and information about “Masonic Week” in February 2002
http://bessel.org/maswk02.htm

http://members.cox.net/sirknight/AMD/description.htm

http://members.cox.net/sirknight/AMD/unusualcouncil.htm

http://members.cox.net/sirknight/AMD/amdhistory.htm

Contact information for the Grand Secretary of AMD

Franklin C. Boner
10866 Butler Rd
Newark OH 43055
(email) fcb@msmisp.com
(phone) 740-345-0828

From http://members.cox.net/sirknight/AMD/emblem.htm

A cursory glance at the emblem of the Allied Masonic Degrees usually yields the remark “very striking, but what does it mean?” Heretofore, the average member has had to respond “I don’t know.”

This monograph will attempt to answer that perplexing question. As the Allied Masonic Degrees sprang from the fertile mind of J.Ray Shute II, it would be wise to assume that the emblem had its genesis with that worthy Mason also. It was Brother Shute who discovered the various degrees then in existance in foreign countries and decided to bring them to America for the enjoyment and edification of US Masons. He organized the three initial Lodges of Royal Ark Mariner and Councils of the Red Cross, composing them of his friends and acquaintances. He called them together in April of 1932 to found the Grand Council of the Allied Masonic Degrees of the United States of America. It was at that founding meeting that the emblem as we now know it was adopted without debate.

In designing a symbol to represent the AMD, Shute was faced with two choices. He could create something that had representations of a symbol of each degree as is done in England, or he could create an emblem to represent all the degrees simultaneously in one symbol. Shute chose to do the latter. The degrees of the yet to be born Grand Council AMD consisted of; Royal Ark Mariner, Secret Monitor, Knight of Constantinople, Saint Lawrence the Martyr, Grand Tyler of Solomon, and Excellent Master. The degrees of Master of Tyre, Architect, Grand Architect, and Superintendent were added at the Grand Council meeting in 1933, while those of the Red Branch of Erie were added by way of Grand Steward’s Council B which was created in 1937.

The emblem consists of four seperate symbols combined into one; the Triangles, the Compasses, the Crown and the Cross. The four symbols represent the epochs of Masonry covered by the various rituals of the Allied Degrees. The first symbol, the Triangles, stands for Noachite Masonry and the time surrounding the building of the Ark. It encompasses the degree of Royal Ark Mariner in the AMD system. The second symbol, the Compasses, stands for Solomonic Masonry and the time surrounding the building and rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem. It encompasses the degrees of Excellent Master and Grand Tyler of Solomon. The third symbol, the Crown, stands for Royal Masonry and the instances where royalty has had an influence on Masonry or Masonic characters. It encompasses the degrees of Secret Monitor (David/Saul) and Knight of Constantinople (Constantine). The fourth symbol, the Cross, stands for Christian Masonry and the instances where Christianity has had an influence on Masonry or Masonic characters. It encompasses the degree of St.Lawrence the Martyr. The degrees added in 1933 fit neatly into the Solomonic Epoch and thus are also represented by the Compasses. The Red Branch of Erie degrees can be considered a part of the Royal Epoch, even though it has a well known emblem of its own. The “chair” degrees also fit into this emblem; the Installed Sovereign Master degree in the Solomonic Epoch and the Installed Commander Noah degree in the Noachite Epoch.

The only exception to this symbolic representation is Ye Antient and Olde Order of Corks. Inasmuch as the “Order of Corks” started out as a seperate organization which later merged with Grand Master’s Council A and subsequently established its own governing body under the AMD “umbrella” with an emblem of its own, it is not really necessary to include it in the “general” AMD emblem. Each local Council (with a RAM Lodge attached) can confer the degrees represented by the AMD emblem, but cannot (without permission) confer the “Order of Corks”. Therefore it is acceptable to exclude this one degree from the general symbolic emblem without damaging the logical arrangement of the epochs.

While certainty could only be secured by an interview with the late Brother Shute, this seems a plausible explanation of the AMD emblem given his style and knowledge. The Epochs of Masonry covered by the various degrees can be represented by each symbol individually while the Triangles, Compasses, Crown and Cross together represent the Allied Masonic Degrees as a whole. It is a worthy and symbolic emblem indeed.