Message From Your State First Vice President

As everyone reads this, the State Officers and Delegates are getting ready to go to our convention. I hope to see many of you there. Not only is it convention, but we will also be celebrating our 100th Anniversary for the Grand Lodge of California.

The Hotel has worked very hard to give us a good rate and what looks to be a great menu for our events. For those who aren’t delegates, you are welcome to come and sit in the convention hall with the guests for the meeting and see what we do.

It was great to see how many of you showed up for your Grand Lodge Open House at our new Grand Lodge building in Orangevale.

It has been a true pleasure serving as your State First Vice President and National Delegate for the last 2 years. Many Zoom meetings and a trip to Florida for our National Convention in 2023 was a great learning experience. I am termed out as your State Vice President and I will be running for President at our convention and hopefully, will have the support to be the next Grand Lodge President.

I am working on putting together some videos for our members on how to tell when Emails they receive are scams and how to double-check where they came from. Also, maybe a seminar at our 2026 convention about malware scams and how to protect yourself. I have been getting a number of calls throughout the State about some of these scams and how to get rid of the offending software.

Also, with the advances in AI, they are getting very sophisticated at duplicating our loved ones’ voices to try and get us to send money. If anyone needs more information before the videos or seminars are available, feel free to email me or call me, and I will be glad to help where I can.

Sincerely,

Mark Vaona

State First Vice President