Bill Lodge

Masonic Council Nomination

Application for Member of the Masonic Council I wish to apply for a position on the Masonic Council which was advertised recently. I have the required skills and abilities, including senior executive experience in managing and leading within large federal government departments and Freemasonry Victoria. I have a thorough understanding of Freemasons Victoria’s operations, its policy and procedures and the book of Constitutions. I have a keen interest in developing our fraternity to achieve its objectives and meeting the needs of its members. Among my key strengths are leadership and communication, strategic planning in large and complex organisations, working collaboratively with all stakeholders, the management and implementation of major change and achieving organisational objectives. Masonic Skills and Experience I joined freemasonry in 1982 and have twice been Master of my lodge St Andrews in the South Lodge. I was a member of the Board of General Purposes of Freemasons Victoria on two occasions and served as Vice President and also a member of the Executive Council. In 2020 I was the Deputy Grand Superintendent of Membership and shared the responsibility of membership growth, retention and experience with the Grand Superintendent. At a District level I am the District Membership officer and Engagement Officer, a position I have held for 9 years. I am currently the chair of the Board of Directors the Geelong Masonic Centre (GMC) and have served on that Board for 10 years, 7 as its chair. I have served on 3 Grand Lodge Ceremonial Teams, as Steward, Deputy Grand Superintendent of Membership and Grand Sword Bearer. My current rank is Very Worshipful Past Grand Inspector of Workings. Board level and Executive Management Experience. As a Senior Executive in the Australian Public Service (APS), across various government Departments, I was responsible for leading the development and implementation of the strategic direction including communicating the vision and guiding the implementation of significant change. I was also responsible for operational outcomes and financial management of budgets in the hundreds of millions of dollars. At times I had overall responsibility for the outcomes of over 5000 people working in diverse areas such as service delivery, information technology, public relations, finance, human relations, international relationships and stakeholder engagement. My roles included working collaboratively with other government departments in achieving mutually beneficial outcomes for policy development and service delivery to the Australian public. Many of these cross departmental committees operate and have similar responsibilities to boards in the private sector. I operated in an environment of high levels of accountability to both the public, the clients, the staff and directly to the Government. In summary, I believe I have the demonstrated skills and ability required as member of the Masonic Council. Yours fraternally, VWBro. Bill Lodge PGIWkgs