To the Worshipful Masters, Secretaries, and all Master Masons of Mississippi:
I am pleased to announce that the Grand Lodge Office is upgrading our member management database from an old DOS based program to a solution called Grand View. This is an upgrade from a nearly 40 year old
system. As such, please forgive this excessively long letter. Here are the details:
Over six months ago, then Senior Grand Warden Jason Jefcoat asked if I, as the Internet Committee Chairman and Webmaster, would attend the conference of Grand Masters of North America for the sole purpose of
speaking with Member Management Software Vendors and providing a recommendation to him. I did so, and also ensured that I took the opportunity to speak with Grand Masters and Grand Secretaries from other
jurisdictions regarding their experiences and satisfaction with their current products. Since that time, I have been investigating further on those vendors, as well as others that I had learned about while in attendance. In all, the following software vendors were researched:
- Unnamed upgrade by our current vendor, Quality PC of Meridian
- Masonic.ly
- Member Management Services
- Circumscribe
- MORI
- Grand View
After a thorough review of costs, features, and capabilities, I recommended Grand View to Bro. Jefcoat. When Bro. Tom Jones decided to retire as Grand Secretary, and I was appointed to fulfill his term, Grand Master Jefcoat directed me to move forward with the upgrade to Grand View. Over the first three weeks of June our database was exported, converted, checked for conversion accuracy, and more. Now, as of July 1st, 2019, all updates made to your Blue Lodge records are being done in Grand View.
Perhaps even more important than the mere update of our database is the significant increase in features all of us will gain. This letter is not sufficient for me to describe all of the features, but here are some highlights:
- Our Lodge Locator and Event Listings will be rolled into Grand View, saving money
- Lodge Secretaries can fix their Lodge Locator listing on their own with GPS coordinates
- Individual members can access their own records; update their address/phone, and more
- Grand View is accessible from any device with an Internet browser and a connection to the Internet, such as a smart phone, tablet, or PC
- Lodge Secretaries will be able to record members from their petition forward, as it happens
- Special Returns, Annual Returns, and more, will be able to be submitted electronically
- Electronic registration at our Annual Communication
- Email your members vs. sending out numerous letters, saving your lodge and the Grand Lodge money
- Instantly verify a Member’s current status, and much, much more
I expect that you have a lot of questions. In the months that follow I will be attending every Congressional School. At those events I will be prepared to demonstrate Grand View to anyone present and answer all of your questions that time will allow. This will also be the main topic of the Secretaries Meeting at our Annual Communication.
While it is my sincere desire that every lodge look for a way to leverage this software for their benefit, we will of course still accept your paper forms as we already do. In time, lodges will either opt to elect a Secretary who is comfortable with technology, or to appoint an assistant who can help the Secretary make entries through this system. Whatever the case, in time, we will eliminate a large portion of expenses currently caught up in printing and mailing.
You can access this system immediately. However, you should be advised that fine-tuning is still occurring. Normally these small adjustments would be made quietly in the Grand Lodge Office, but with the Craft having access you will necessarily see our “dust” as we clean up the data and better integrate it into all the features of Grand View.
To access Grand View: The direct link to register your login and pair it with your membership record is: https://ms.grandview.systems/membership_registration.
However, you can also navigate to that link in this method: Head to our website, msgrandlodge.org, and open the “Members” menu. At the bottom of that menu is “Member Portal”, click/tap that link. This will take you to the Grand View Sign In Page. Find the link that says “Sign up”, just below the login area, and click/tap it.
Here you will be required to provide 3 pieces of information: 1) Your HOME lodge number, 2) Your MEMBER NUMBER, excluding leading zeros, and 3) Your LAST name. You can locate your Member Number on your dues card. However, due to our old method of receiving information from subordinate lodges, if you have been made a Master Mason since 9/1/2018 you are likely not yet in our computer database. This can be corrected by your Lodge Secretary, but he has not yet been trained in how to do this! I request the patience of such members as we make this extensive transition.
I look forward to seeing you at an upcoming Congressional School where I will be readily available to answer your questions and help show you around this new tool for all of our members.
Sincerely & Fraternally Submitted,
Jared F. Stanley, Grand Secretary
Grand Lodge of Mississippi
