What were the Odd Fellows Thinking?

Brother Peter Sellars, a Past Grand Master of California and one of the two Grand Representatives from the Jurisdiction of California, recently returned from Sovereign Grand Lodge Sessions, and has attached a print-out of the Proceedings of the important Day Four at the 2023 Sovereign Grand Lodge.

Please pay particular attention of the effort to eliminate the clause found in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Sovereign Grand Lodge Code, and many other provisions of Odd Fellows Law that “The rules and regulations set forth in the Constitution of General Laws shall be liberally construed. The chief concern shall be following the spirit of the law and the good of Odd Fellowship rather than harshly enforcing rules to the letter of the law.” You will see the discussion of this at the bottom of the fourth page of the print-out under Report No. 27. The vote was 61 in favor of eliminating the provision and 40 against. Fortunately this proposed constitutional change required a two-thirds vote to pass. A simple majority supported it, but it failed (by a handful of votes) because it did not achieve the 2/3 threshold to pass.

Even though it did not pass, one must wonder why so many members of this Order would vote to remove this “liberal” interpretation provision from our laws. Does it indicate that they prefer “harshly enforcing rules to the letter of the law”?

Day Four Sovereign Grand Lodge Proceedings – PDF

F – L – T

Dave Rosenberg
Past Grand Master
Jurisdiction of California
Independent Order of Odd Fellows