Arizona District, John H. Reddin Province

Knights of Columbus 4th Degree

Sir Knight Michael Kingman, Master of the Fourth Degree

From The District Master

To: Worthy Faithful Navigators and Sir Knights all

From: Sir Knight Michael Kingman, Master of the Fourth Degree

Worthy Faithful Navigators and Sir Knights all:

I wanted to address a major concern that I have about membership. I heard someone say that membership is only for the councils to worry about. This is farther from the truth, how can we feed our assemblies with new blood and ideas if we do not constantly seek to improve and grow so we can do more for our Church, Community and Country. We must constantly be on the look out for men who are eager to serve with us. But we cannot keep ourselves in a vacuum, we must go out and advertise about who we are and what we do so that new members in our councils know that there are other programs they can get involved in as a Sir Knight in the Patriotic Degree of our Order. We are rapidly approaching the end of this fraternal year and we are only at 32% of our membership goal of 386 new members. For the last couple of years our State Council has brought in at least 1000 new members each fraternal year. Have you looked to your councils and requested a list of potential candidates that can enhance our assembly? Each year the Arizona District has grown at a 30% rate so this should equate to about 300 new members just from the new members alone. So the membership is there ready to be asked to join us in the Patriotic Degree. It is our responsibility to ask them to join us.

At the District Meeting on February 19, 2011 I stated that we needed 260 new members to meet our membership goal and I that I was going to scribe a welcome letter for all new 2nd and 3rd Degree members that could be used by the Councils and Assemblies. This letter was sent out to all Faithful Navigators on February 21, 2011. Have you shared this letter with your councils? I also shared the order numbers of 4th Degree pamphlets that could assist you in recruiting new members. They do us no good sitting at Supreme Fraternal Services.

Now is the time for all good men to join the Patriotic Degree.

June Exemplification

The 4th Degree Exemplification will be on June 11, 2011 and will be held at the Sheraton Crescent Hotel in Phoenix Arizona and will be hosted by San Xavier del Bac Assembly 14. The Honoree for this exemplification will be the Former Distict Master Armand Brooks. Armand has contributed much to the success of the Knights of Columbus in Arizona and we are honored to have him accept our invitation to be our Class Honoree. Registration packets have already been sent out and registration information can be obtained from the 4th Degree website. The URL is http://www.azfourthdegree.org/.

In response to my email dated May 1, 2011 we have 10 Assemblies that have responded that they have candidates for the June Exemplification. The total number of candidates for the 10 Assemblies is 42. This is far short of the 200 plus we were hoping to get. In June 2009 we had 218 and in June 2010 we had 140 candidates. If I cannot get at least 140 candidates to the June Exemplification I will not be able to meet my financial obligations to the hotel for rooms and meals. Again I am asking each of the Faithful Navigators to get with the Councils that make up your assembly and with your Comptrollers and make sure you get the Form 4’s submitted by May 27, 2011. I am also asking all our Sir Knights and their families to make this a weekend in which you come and meet your Brother Sir Knights and share ideas and get to know each other, after all one of the principles of Our Order is Fraternity and what better way is there than to socialize with one another and family. If you can I ask you to please stay at the hotel on Friday and Saturday as they have given us some great rates and sign up for the Saturday night dinner. I would love for you to socialize with our Class Honoree FDM Armand Brooks.

Last year at the June Exemplification we brought in 140 new Sir Knights and this year I am challenging the Arizona District to bring in 260 new Sir Knights. This may seem like a large number but if we work with the 130 plus active councils and have each council provide us with just 3 candidates each we can easily meet this goal. I am asking each Faithful Navigator and or his representative to attend each of your councils, business meetings and start the recruiting process over the next 3 weeks. I know that this is a surmountable amount but let’s do our best and see what we can do. There is still time to get it done.

Last year we had 558 attend the Saturday Night Banquet and hopefully we will have just as many if not more. So make your room and meal reservations soon. Don’t be left behind.

Assembly Programs

I am asking every assembly to submit an Assembly Activities Report for all of the programs and activities your assembly participated in this Fraternal year of 2010-2011. I am also requesting that every Assembly submit a SK of the Year report as well. I would like to have both of these reports by May 20, 2010. These reports will be reviewed individually by the Marshals and my self. Each of us will separately review and rate on a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest rating. From these results an Assembly and SK of Year will be selected. So please get involved and let’s recognize one another for all the great works you perform throughout the year.

New Assemblies

I am glad to report that we have formed 2 new assemblies this fraternal year

Father Emil J. Kapaun Assembly 3262, Faithful Navigator John Brown. Vail AZ

Devine Word Assembly 3280, Faithful Navigator George Florentine Carefree AZ

For the coming fraternal year we have an opportunity in Anthem and in Queen Creek.

I would like to welcome our newest assemblies and we look forward to welcoming these 2 new assemblies in the very near future.

Reports due

The following reports will be due soon so please review with your Program Chairmen and Comptroller to get these reports submitted in a timely fashion. Remember if you submit electronically you still need to submit a hard copy as some reports are not getting to Supreme.

TBP-1 To be a Patriot Award Entry Form To District Master by May 10, 2011 and to VSM by May 15, 2011

2863A RSVP/Plaque Application June 30, 2010

2321 Civic Award Application June 30, 2010

186 Report of New Officers July 1, 2010

Lastly I want to report that we will have a new VSM for the John H. Reddin Province. His name is Charles Dover and he is currently the District Master for the Utah District. I have had the opportunity to work with Charles Dover and he is a fine man and will do well so let’s pitch in and give him our support.

Once again I am extremely honored to be able to serve as the Arizona District Master for the John H. Reddin Province and I hope to work with each of you in some capacity in the near future. Yours in Christ