VW Bro Willie E. Shackell, CBE

MW Pro Grand Master and Brethren it gives me great pleasure to Present to you the work of the RMBI, which is your Charity for helping older Freemasons and their dependants in need suffering or distress. I will first outline what we have achieved in the last year and then cover current plans for the future, I will then hand over to Peter Gray the Chief Executive who will explain the help we need from you. Now as I have done a mere 7 weeks as President, I cannot, nor would I, take credit for the splendid work done by the 1300 staff of the RMBI who have been so ably led by our CE under the direction of John Moore my predecessor. John did over 30 years as Trustee, Treasurer, Chairman and then President and as he was both a businessman and an Accountant it is no surprise that I can report, with some confidence that both the financial state of the Charity and the business side of running the Homes appear to be in a very good state. Indeed I have been most impressed with the Homes I have visited and having been involved with Homes in other Charities I can tell you that the Charitable support we give ours is modest in comparison, by which I do not mean that we are ungenerous, far from it, ours is just well and prudently controlled by the Home Managers and HQ Staff.

During my visits I have been slightly surprised by the high dependency care needs and the frailty of many of those in our Homes, I suppose I shouldn’t have been, as around half our 1100 residents are over 90 and we have 19 centenarians, add to this the fact that the average age of those entering our Homes is 89¾ and you will appreciate that we have a need to provide high quality, high dependence care services. As a little aside at the recent birthday celebrations of one of our centenarians he said to the Home Manager “if I had known I was going to live to be a 100 I would have taken a lot better care of myself”

Our occupancy levels at over 95% are 4% above the national average, this is a tremendous achievement but it needs to be higher firstly so that more people can benefit and secondly because every empty bed represents a loss of revenue which we have to subsidise, this is not good business practice and after all we are running a business for the benefit of our beneficiaries and that we must always remember.                                                                     

 Our Care Home Staff are impressive, they are well motivated and both retention and recruiting are good with minimum reliance on Agency Staff always a good indicator of morale. A key requirement these days for our staff is training and having attended a session for Home Managers and seen the records of NVQ successes in the Homes I know that we are more than fulfilling our obligations to the Staff and the requirements of the Inspectors. I must admit that the staff were not too keen on Bugle calls for reveille or on boxing blankets for kit inspections but mess tins seem to be going down well; I think it is the Handle and the sides.

So much for the Homes except to pay tribute to the numerous Friends of the RMBI who work so tirelessly for the Homes to give the residents that extra care either by driving minibuses, providing Hairdressing facilities, giving comfort, running fundraising events and so on, all so important, you are the unsung heroes and we greatly value your support.

We do provide other Services which you need to be aware of for the benefits they give. Our Regionally based Care advice visiting team will assess peoples’ care needs and help them with the various complex Benefits claims. They also assist The Grand Charity by visiting those recipients of Masonic Relief Grants. It is not well enough known that we also offer a freephone information service   and send out the Age Concern leaflets on a variety of issues. Both of these can be a great help to Almoners so please remind them of this service.

We will fund Home improvements using our Capital Release Scheme thus enabling Freemasons and their dependants to remain in their own home for longer. Finally if you are in need, we do arrange holidays at 4 centres in UK as well as one in Malta

It is quite a catalogue or care and service but you can never sit back, particularly with the Homes and here our Strategy is to upgrade, extend or where necessary replace our Homes using surplus assets to re-invest in these projects thus saving the need to raise new funds for these ventures and this is all spelt out and programmed into our rolling 10year plan which was started 4years ago.

As part of the plan we have completed the upgrading and modernization of Ecclesholme near Manchester so that all rooms are en suite and a second lift has been installed.

At Harwood Court in Hove a total refurbishment has produced 120 self contained apartments, 68 have been sold, 7 are under offer, 35 house original RMBI tenants and 10 are for sale.

Lord Harris Court Reading, Cadogan Court Exeter and Devonshire Court Leicester have each been extended to provide additional en suite rooms to meet a growing demand.

Planning permission was granted last year for a 55 bed environmentally friendly Care Home with Nursing at Cramlington Northumberland to replace the existing home and the Foundation Stone was laid earlier this Month by representatives from the 3 local Provinces. On top of this planning applications are in to replace 3 of our current Homes to meet the ever strict Governmental requirements and the increasing needs of our beneficiaries.

It has been an interesting 7 weeks, I still wonder if it was wise to put a trained killer in charge of Care Homes, anyway my immediate attention will be to the Governance of the Charity firstly to ensure that I do not do 30years and secondly to satisfy the demands of the Charity Commission. I then feel we must increase the occupancy levels particularly in 3 of our Homes and the Trustees have a agreed a course of action which we believe will improve the situation, then I am sure that there is more we should be doing for the older people either to help them in their own Homes or to access Care Homes where ours are either inappropriate or inaccessible, exactly what I have yet to put to the Trustees.

 I shall now hand over to Peter Gray the CE who will explain how you can help us.

W Bro Peter Gray

MW Pro Grand Master and Brethren.  This is the fifth occasion that I have had to honour to address Grand Lodge about the RMBI.

But today:

I am not going to tell you about our Homes
I am not going to talk about our improved management
I am not going to give you details about staff training
I am not going to discuss budgets
I am not going to mention Homes’ upgrades, nor extensions not even replacements, and
I am not even going to discuss our other services.

BUT, what I am going to do is to ask for your help.

However, before so doing I would like to illustrate the care that the RMBI provides to older Freemasons and their dependants by reading from 2 letters:

The first is from a daughter about her father’s life at an RMBI Home; 

Dear Mr Gray

Many thanks for your letter of condolence after my father’s passing.

Dad always enjoyed his life as a Mason and always fulfilled his duties to the best of his ability.  So it was with gratitude, both from him and all my family, that he could spend the last chapter his life at Connaught Court.

 My daughter and I visited many nursing homes but Connaught Court stood out as more like an hotel than a residential or nursing Home.

Without exception the staff treated Dad with respect and so much care, he became very fond of many of them.

If all your Homes are as good as this one it is much to your great credit as an organisation to give so much care to your Members in their last years.

With regards,

Mrs. Pat Smith

The second is a letter from a son and describes …. Well, perhaps I’ll let the words speak for themselves…

Dear Bro. Gray

The hardest thing that I have ever done in my life was to convince my Father to leave his home and become a resident of the RMBI.

I could see that he was not able to fully look after himself and that if nothing was done then something would happen to him though I felt that all he needed was day care. 

I found him one day on the floor.  He had fallen and was unable to lift himself up, he had been there for over five hours. 

Even with these events it was hard to look into his eyes and tell him that he must leave his home.  He argued at first, he said he could manage, I argued back and then one day he looked at me and his look had changed and he said “you know best”.

I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders at that moment.  He was my Dad, it was his job to tell me what to do, it was for him to tell me what was best for the family as he had always done.  Now we had changed places, he handed me the reins and my first decision was to “put my Father into a home”.

I visited Ecclesholme and was shown all the facilities.  My first feeling was this was a “Home” not an Institution, it was comfortable and spacious.  There was privacy if you wanted it, but company in the social areas when you needed it.  I left feeling that if I had to make this decision then Ecclesholme was a home‑from-home.

Over the last seven years my family and I have watched the care that you gave to David.  Every wish he had was granted and I know he was happy.  He was grateful for the friendship that the residents and staff gave him.  He felt part of the family.  It was sad to watch him slip away slowly over the last two years.  Sometimes he did not recognise anyone, and there were some days when he refused to talk.  I prefer to remember him in his kilts, standing in front of a crowded room and singing, with the smile of confidence and a passion in his voice.

I cannot thank the staff at Ecclesholme enough for the care and consideration they gave to my Father.  We talked many times about the things they did for him that were not part of the job.  He always asked me to get some sweets for his carers, his friends, and I always did. 

Thank you for looking after my Father the way you did and for giving him the care he needed over the last seven years. 

Inside, I feel that I should have taken him into my home and looked after him but now, with hindsight, I know I could never have given him the care you all have.

On behalf of my family and myself, thank you.

These two examples are typical of hundreds of letters received each year and really describe what the RMBI is all about.

Our President said I would explain how you can help us.  Well, there are two things I would ask you to do:

Firstly, remember that we do have vacancies referred to earlier in the President’s address and to undertake to remind Members of your Lodges, their wives and especially their widows, about what is available at our Homes.  So that even more older people can benefit from the care provided and all of our accommodation is being used.

And, secondly, to make a resolution now to ask 5 or more Members of your Lodges to start to give regularly to the RMBI through standing order and gift aided.  This will ensure that we can continue to provide the ultimate care that you heard about in those 2 letters and expand our services.

MW Pro Grand Master and Brethren, thank you.

VW Bro Willie E. Shackell, CBE

Peter thank you. Brethren it is an impressive record of achievement and where you can help please do. As I hope you have picked up I am thoroughly enjoying myself and I hope I can make a difference as my predecessors have all done. I have attended a number of Provincial meetings, I had a marvelous evening at the Somerset Festival which raised a magnificent overall total in excess of 3.5m and then 12 days ago we had the Foundation Stone laying ceremony in Northumberland. You have made me very welcome where ever I have been, thank you so much. Next year I hope to be a little more specific in certain areas but I thought I ought to wait until after this afternoon’s Forum with PGMs where I am sure I will find out what I ought to be doing.