Brethren,

At this time I’d like to wish everybody a happy, healthy, safe and
prosperous new year. I hope you and your families all had an enjoyable
holiday season. I would also like to take this time to welcome
all of the Sextant members to Mariners. We have an awesome
group and I’m looking forward to a fun and productive year. Mariners
strength lies in its members, with the merger we can strengthen
that. We have a lot of plans and I encourage the brethren to help
us, manage and encourage this growth. Here are five little things
each of us can do.

1. Come to lodge. Be it for monthly stated meetings, degrees, or
   even just social events. Come spend some time with us and with
   each other.
2. Keep your eyes and ears open for opportunies where we can
   reasonably make an impact for good.
3. Commit to making one phone call a week to another brother, just
   to say hello and check in. Maybe a Past Master who was a mentor?
   Maybe a friend from Lodge you haven’t seen in a while. Whoever it
   is, just one phone call a week can help strengthen all of our bonds.
4. Help out where and when you can. I’m not asking anyone to do
   everything, we all have different strengths and play different roles,
   and that’s perfectly fine. but if you are passionate about something
   that we do, or something you think we should be doing, let us know
   and help out with it, however, you can.
5. Stay connected with the lodge! I cannot stress this one enough.
   Keep us informed, if you get sick, if you want or need help, if you
   have a major lifecycle event, if you have ideas that you think we
   should act on, or even if you just need someone to talk to. No
   matter the reason let us know about it. I and the rest of the lodge
   are here for you. Since the Dec installation we have had breakfast
   with Santa raising $1,000.00 for the food bank. A very successful toy
   drive. Wreaths across America where we along with Sextant placed
   500+ wreaths at the Barnegat Masonic and the New Gretna Miller
   cemeteries.

The battleship New Jersey is due to go to dry dock for maintenance.
If they have a degree on the ship before that happens, I would like
to put together a Bus trip. Thank you all for allowing me the privilege
of WM 2024. I would especially like to thank p.m. Germond and
the other past masters, who have put their faith in me. I wish you all
a happy, healthy, safe and prosperous new year. I look forward to
seeing you in lodge and at our events this year.

Sincerely and Fraternally,
James Hespe, WM 2024