Those of you who have the pleasure of knowing me well, know that I am not a man of few words, but I will try to be brief. It’s just part of my personality, unfortunately.
It's with a very humble heart that I stand here today before you as your Commander-in-Chief. You have given me a great honor and I will do my utmost to be faithful in my duties and to be worth the confidence that you have placed in me. Rest assured that our great Order’s promotion and success will be my primary concern and number one priority.
We are the inheritors of a mission. The mission that we inherited was to preserve and to inculcate the history of our forefathers and that is our primary goal. Earlier today, my friend, Jeff, spoke very eloquently to that very point in his Patriotic Instructor’s message. If we will not take up the cause and if we will not be the ones who will go forth and inculcate, teach, and ensure that the things this country stands for are preserved, then we should look at ourselves in the mirror with shame.
I will seek to move the SUVCW forward. We've talked often about this being the 21st century. We need to work hard to bring ourselves into this 21st century without forgetting the traditions, as Brother Wolz has so eloquently over this weekend, pointed out. I hope that we will continue to use this format (Masonic Arrangement) for our encampment. This is the way our ancestors met, and I think it's appropriate that we will meet the same.
As for my hopes and beliefs and dreams for this Organization, I hope that we will be able to become more visible to society in general. But to become more visible it will mean that we each of us in this room and all of the Brothers across this country, which I hope you will pass on to them, have to become active in promoting our visibility. We have to go out and get people to notice us. People are not going to notice us if we just hope and wish for it. We must step out and be proactive in that goal.
I sincerely hope that we will be able to improve the internal communications of our organization, how we talk to each other, how we communicate with each other, and to that end I'm going to look to possibly create or investigate through Brother Jamie, the use of Skype in order that we might be able to have communications between the CinC and the Department Commanders. Coming up with some sort of regular way of doing that and I would hope that anyone who would succeed me would continue with that same goal. We must work on telling each other what’s going on all over this country. As I went around to Department Encampments, what I heard was, ”Nobody tells us what's going on. We’re just supposed to figure it out.” We need to, from the top down, and from the Department to the Camps, communicate effectively what it is were doing. So, one of my other things that I'm looking to do, is to talk with the Council of Administration on our use of communications. Right now what we are good at is sending out general orders, but we are not good at communicating what it is we want you to do when we tell you something to do. So what, I think that we will try to look at is having a system of notices; so that when we have a new document, such as the Patriotic Instructors form, we can issue a notice that will actually tell you what it is we want you to do and why we are asking you to do it. I also really want to try to work on, as a separate part of communications a CinC Newsletter or Memo.
I'm a firm believer in fraternity, charity, and loyalty. I am encouraged by what has gone on here this weekend because I've been to many Encampments, and this was without a doubt one of the most civil. We treated each other like Brothers. And we had no arguments. And look what we did. We were done two hours before we had to be.
I will also try to work to develop stronger ties and relationships with the other Allied Orders. While I know that there are significant problems, that exist between us and the other Allied Orders over issues old and new, I feel that it is imperative that if we are going to live up to fraternity, charity, and loyalty, that we need to be open to trying to improve our relationships amongst all of the people who have the same goal, to honor, inculcate, and protect our ancestors’ history, so that is going to be another aspect of it.
I want to thank a couple of people in particular before closing, I told you I’m wordy. I'm sorry. I would like Steve Hammond to stand up for a second. Brothers, I would not be here today, standing here, if it were not for the Brotherly love and the selfless commitment made by Steve Hammond to take a young, you know figuratively a young man, who showed up at his first National Encampment in Harrisburg and to take that young man by the hand and show him the ropes; to show him that there was a sense of that Brotherly loyalty. He ensured that I knew what to do.
Let me explain what took place, I walked into the National Encampment a neophyte. You must understand, my Camp was formed the previous March. I had gotten a phone call from my Camp Commander, “Will you go to the Department Encampment? I can’t go.” Of course, I'll go. And when I went there, I had the privilege of meeting Brother Darby. And his first impression was very favorable. But while I'm at that Department Encampment, I still don't know what I'm doing. I’m just following the motions. At the end of that Encampment, somebody walks up, he says, “You’re a delegate at the National convention?” And I'm like, “What?” So I went to Harrisburg. I walked in the door of that hotel. I was lost. Steve found me. He made it work for me and it became real. I thought on it and I said, you know, this Organization really is something I want to be involved in. I had been a member for some time but now I was, at that point, fully engaged. I thank Steve Hammond for doing that for me.
I'd like Gene Mortorff to stand up for a second. Gene once told me that when my Camp was forming down in Lynchburg, Virginia, that the Department of the Chesapeake, the Department of Maryland at that time, wasn't really sure that this was going to be a good idea. They were kind of tentative about the idea of having a bunch of guys that live that far below the Mason-Dixon Line be involved in this Organization and they were…so they were a little bit tentative but, you know, Gene is the reason why I moved up. If Gene had not seen something in me and appointed me Patriotic Instructor at the Department level, I wouldn't be here today. I owe a great deal to Gene, for putting me on the path to the place I am standing right now. So, thank you, Gene.
Of course, I need to thank one other person for their patience, perseverance, and I will warn them now that there will probably be some times that we will not be able to be together because I will be doing the business, and she will suffer through that. Because my wife, when I go away, my wife locks the house up and she goes upstairs, and she leaves the lights on. I'll be doing a lot of that going away, so I wanted you to know that I don't mind if the electric bill is very high. You do what you need to, honey. Thank you. Thank you for everything that you allow me to do because of you, without you and your support, I could not do this.
As far as schedule, I want to make myself available to attend things. I'm retired. I have two cars. I will alternate them to keep the mileage down…
…or I will take some of the money that you graciously provide and get a rental car, whatever. But I want to attend things. Faron Taylor, will you stand up? Faron Taylor is the Chief of Staff. I would like you to work through Faron Taylor. Faron is a “dot the I,” “cross the t” guy. I am a rather pragmatic and sometimes slightly scatterbrained and need somebody like Faron. I want you to work through Faron, but I want you to send me invitations. I want to be aware of what you're doing. I've already been invited to Chicago. I had an invitation to go to London, and I wasn't even a Commander-in-Chief yet, but I need you to work through Faron. Everybody sees him. You know what he looks like.
All right? So, we’re gonna work through Faron. We’re gonna have a good year. We’re gonna have a great year. When the year is over, we’re gonna have a better, bigger, stronger SUVCW but remember what I said, no one man standing right here, makes that happen. It takes you. and you, and him. It takes Freshley. It takes Danny. It even takes Larry back there. Larry and I are friends, so he doesn’t mind I picked on him, but we need to be proactive. We passed several resolutions here. We need to go out and be committed to the things that we've said and done here. With that, I thank you. Once again, I cannot think of a greater honor in my entire life than what you have bestowed upon me today and I appreciate it more than you will ever know.
Written and presented by Mark R. Day 8/12/2018. Copywrite by Mark R. Day 3/4/2020, all rights reserved.
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