The AGM of Ashton & Mossley District always takes place in the Autumn Term. (Do you notice, your DCO still thinks like a teacher even years after he stopped being one.) As you would expect, it is usually quite a staid and serious affair with all of the Area and District Officers reporting back to Lodge & Chapter Representatives on what has been happening, and what they hope will happen in the coming months.
On this occasion the usual Agenda was rather shaken up by the attendance of the exuberant personality that is WBro Mo Afsa, the Provincial Membership Officer. He came along to talk about Recruitment, and included some thoughts on how we Freemasons need to be addressing the challenges of membership in the 21st Century.

WBro Mo Afsa – the Provincial Membership Officer

Two of our Lodges, Union No 268, based in Ashton and part of our District, as well as Iron Road Lodge No 4964 based at Audenshaw, have been chosen to take part in the Pathway Scheme which WBro Afsa also oversees, and they have been working on the development of different approaches to the interviewing process.  The ideas gained from this participation will be fed, via WBro Afsa, to United Grand Lodge and will, in due course, lead to some guidance on what we can do to help ourselves.
We were also addressed by our District Chairman, WBro Douthwaite, our APGM WBro John Pearson and our APGP EComp Eddie Barlow. To brighten the evening yet further we had our traditional raffle, which is used to support our Charitable Giving and the 200 Club was drawn for November. By the way, the 200 Club is an excellent way of raising funds, a subscription of just £20 a year gives you several chances of winning your money back. So if you are interested, just contact WBro Alan Jones of Waverley Lodge.

The audience having a chat whilst the Raffle tickets were being sold