This evening was the Bishop Wilkins College SRIA meeting.

We had a full evening planned, including electing our next Celebrant, a double Grade II° ceremony, and our current Celebrant was going to finally give his paper from going into the chair. What could go wrong?

Well in the run up to cut off for booking a meal, more and more people sent their apologies, some for valid reasons, but the majority were going to visit a craft lodge to see an installation. Personally I am of the belief that your own meeting should always come first, especially if you are in office. But, nether the less we had enough people to do the evening since we had spare people who could fill in roles so all was well.

Then the night before the meeting, our treasurer happened to message some people about the meeting only to be told they were not attending. This included the Celebrant who was doing the ceremony and the talk. But never fear we had the exact number of people (thanks to a visitor) to do the ceremony for the one candidate still coming. And I decided to write a paper on the day of the meeting for “just in case”. We were OK.

Then the day of the meeting came, and as the treasurer checked if a member needed a lift to the meeting, he was informed that he was going to the same installation as the others and not attending the college meeting. We were now officially one person short.

Luckily Bishop Wilkins College has both the Chief Adept, and the Provincial Secretary in it, and they managed to sort it out so we could do the Grade II° for the candidate who turned up, and we had time for two papers, one from myself and another from our Visitor who was also a past member of the college. In the festive board after as we were all chatting away, everyone was saying how enjoyable the evening ended up being. 

So while up to the start of the meeting everything was going wrong, the end result was a great night for all. So let this be a lesson to you all, never give up when things are going wrong because sometimes what comes after is worth it!