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Looking at Progress...
Our Internet History
River Forest-Austin
Lodge (RFA850)
Leaders of Internet Technology
Two River
Forest brethren have played
a large part in bringing the Internet to Masonry.
The first Illinois Lodge
website was published by Oriental Lodge #33 in 1996. It was authored by Brother Martin
Starr P.M. Shortly afterwards, Brother Fred Broecker, the Senior Deacon of River
Forest Austin Lodge, and our Worshipful Master this year, created the second Illinois
Masonic website. Brother Carl Davenport, then a member of Argo-Summit Lodge, and soon to
be a plural member of River Forest-Austin Lodge and Grove Lodges, created the third Illinois website on a unix
based server at idt.net to represent Argo-Summit Lodge.
In October of 1996, brothers Broecker and Davenport met and began discussing ideas for
their websites. The discussion generated more ideas and both websites began improving.
Several Illinois brethren noticed the improvements
of the websites and contacted Brothers
Broecker and Davenport to help them develop a website for their lodges. In May 1997, a
fourth website was created on IDT's unix server for Grove Lodge by Brother Davenport.
In June 1997, after several month's work, Brothers Broecker and Davenport introduced the
Mastermason Com website. It had a unique appearance, used state of the art technology and
began generating requests for assistance from brethren around the world in getting their
lodge online. Brothers Broecker and Davenport began assisting lodges from around the
world. Several were to be hosted on the Mastermason Com site. The River Forest-Austin and
Grove Lodge websites were then moved to Mastermason Com and a few days later the
Argo-Summit site moved to Mastermason Com. Masonic sites began to appear on
the Mastermason Com website one by one.
In July 1997, Mastermason Com began offering free webspace to
host Masonic Lodge websites . The
goal of bringing the internet to Masonry had now been established and would
soon become a reality. Mastermason Com
continued to grow.
In July 1997, Brothers Broecker and Davenport introduced an E-Mail list-serve called
"ilmasons@mastermason.com" to open a solid line of communication among Illinois
Masons. The idea was to provide a vehicle to instantly transmit communication of
lodge news, announcements and brotherly love among Illinois brethren. Today, the
Ilmason list-serv has several hundred Illinois Masons as members, as
well as guests of the Listmaster,
Randy Poyser, from around the world.
Ilmason has become the official mail
list of the Scottish Rite Valley of
Chicago, River Forest Austin Lodge,
Argo-Summit Lodge, The Masonic
Relations Committee of Illinois
Masonic Hospital, and several other
prominent Illinois Masonic
organizations.
Shortly thereafter, a second e-mail list-serv, the
Webmason-List, was introduced. The intent of this list was to assist brethren in
understanding computers and related issues, disscussion of problems and to share
ideas for lodge website designs among brethren around the world.
In December 1999, Brothers Broecker and Davenport saw a need for a Guild to serve Masonic
Webmasters and assist them in building and improving their websites. There were presently
two Masonic Guilds online at the time.
The first, the O.W.M.G (Operative WebMason Guild), was the oldest and was
the most reputable in that its founders were the first pioneers of E-Masonry. However, its
owners, one of which was a Grand Master, were too busy to maintain it, so it
went into darkness for over a year.
When becoming aware that Mastermason
Com was going to build a WebGuild, the owners of the O.W.M.G, Freemasonry's oldest and most respected Guild for Masonic
Webmasters, asked Brother Broecker, to redevelop the O.W.M.G Guild. With
the assistance of Brother Davenport, brethren from around the world were assembled into a
team to rebuild the site. The O.W.M.G soon become highly active again, and
once again is the most respected
MAsonic Webguild. The O.W.M.G can be
viewed at: http://owmg.org
Brother Davenport continued
creating new internet projects. The
Widows
Sons, an International Motorcycle
organization, was created on the
Mastermason Com website in 1999. The
purpose of the Association is to
promote Masonry among motorcyclists
and promote motorcycles among Masonry,
and to aid and assist the widows of
Master Masons. There are now chapters
forming accross the U.S. and
internationally. Anyone who is a
Master Mason and rides a 500cc or
larger motorcycle is welcome to join.
Soon when a
Widows
Son travels, he will be able to
find a
Widows
Sons Chapter where ever his
travels may take him.
River Forest-Austin Lodge takes pride in our Internet brethren. In addition to Brothers
Broecker and Davenport, Brother Bob Dill is also active on the Internet, having
published a homepage for Arcadia Lodge in Lansing Illinois, which he still maintains.
Several brothers of River
Forest-Austin Lodge use e-mail
regularly to communicate among one
another and to enjoy the wealth of Masonic information on the Internet. A
private lodge e-mail list was also created so brethren who have moved out of
state are able to keep in touch with the brethren at lodge.
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