August/September/October 2007


Feature Articles:


Second Degree Poised For a Resurgence


With a supportive Director General Airey listening, Director of Fraternal Programs Shawn Baile told Moose Legionnaires that their numbers had increased from 61,765 to 67,150 during 2006-07. Later in the session, Baile announced that Airey had been conferred with the honor of Past International President.

> There have rarely been events more enthusiastic at any recent International Convention than the annual Moose Legion Breakfast, but at this year’s Morning with the Moose Legion, held Sunday before thousands of Conventioners trekked north to Moosehaven, there seemed an even greater sense of electricity.

The extra excitement was generated from several facts:

  • For the first time in several years, Moose Legion membership was up for the year, and markedly so--from 61,765 to 67,150.

  • An amendment in the General Laws formalized the Moose Legion as a “Higher Degree”--making Moose Legionnaires eligible for participation along with Fellows and Pilgrims in the Council of Higher Degrees.

  • For the first time in 15 years, announced Director of Fraternal Programs Shawn Baile, there will be criteria that a Moose must meet to be a Moose Legionnaire, as of Oct. 1--one year of membership and one sponsored member, or six months of membership and three sponsored members. And,

  • Moose Legionnaires were told that a planned revamping of the fraternity’s Ritual program will focus on the Moose Legion: By 2010, International Ritual Competition will shift from Lodge enrollments to a new, improved (though yet-to-be-written) enrollment Ritual for the Second Degree.

Director General William B. Airey told 1,000 gathered Moose Legionnaires: “If you have come to consider the Moose Legion as the “Degree of Fun,” please reconsider. This Degree will now come with responsibility ...Do you truly believe?” he asked, invoking the “I Believe” theme? “Or are you just here to party? I hope it’s both--and that’s the key.”


During “A Morning with the Moose Legion, a team of International Moose Legion Councilmen (from left, Mike Roach of Texas, Levis Hughes of Florida, Bob Neff of Illinois, Mark Klein of California) joined with Director Shawn Baile to demonstrate a proper Moose Legion meeting opening.


119th International
Convention

Please click on any photograph below to view a larger image.


The annual Moose Legion Breakfast always seems to generate more smiles per table than any other International Convention gathering--and Sunday’s “Morning with the Moose Legion” was no exception!




Outgoing International Moose Legion President Artie Shaw of Alabama, and his wife Sarah




Incoming International President Robert Maxey from Virginia, and his wife Pat.




Anh-Tuan “Cao Boi” Bui of Virginia--our Survivor-show celebrity--greeted Baile as he participated in a demonstration for newly-installed Moose Legion President Robert Maxey of Virginia.




Baile Highlights Moose Legion’s Increased Numbers --and Legitimacy

> By way of demonstrating how important a viable Moose Legion is to the future of the Loyal Order of Moose, Director of Moose Legion Shawn Baile said efforts are ongoing to both “increase membership quantity and membership quality.”

“Our members and units needed to be the prime examples of fraternal leadership,” Baile said.

In his report delivered Monday at the Joint General Session at the Rosen Centre Hotel Grand Ballroom, Baile outlined a number of those improvements.

Baile reported Moose Legion membership as of Apr. 30 at 67,150--an increase of 5,385 from Apr. 30, 2006.

Starting Oct. 1, a member will have to have completed one year of membership and have sponsored one member into a lodge or have completed six months of membership and sponsored there members into the lodge to be eligible for Moose Legion membership. Baile’s full text can be found at: www.mooseintl.org/ portal/Convention/2007Orlando/2007_Orlando-reports.asp