Brothers! I am happy to share that we have agreed to make our Secretary and Treasurer’s lives easier by moving towards a more robust online banking system. Our current cash accounts have been transferred from Wells Fargo Bank to Umpqua Bank as of this month. Investment accounts, of course, remain with Edward Jones.
The primary rationale for this change is that Umpqua Bank offers a more sophisticated online banking system than Wells Fargo. The new capabilities will allow us to effectuate a secure online warrant system between our Secretary and Treasurer.
Through the configuration capabilities of Umpqua’s online bill payment system, the Secretary will be able to configure new payees, and configure specific payments to be made to them, but will not be able to approve these payments to be issued. The software will not allow it. In turn, the Treasurer will be able to review and approve payments configured by the Secretary, but will not be able to configure new payees or payments. Again, the software will not allow it. And, we will be able to easily generate reports of all payees and payments, in addition to many other transactional reports, as we may need.
The result is the online equivalent of a standard lodge warrant system. But, one enforced with the full security of an encrypted online banking system, which keeps a historical log of every action taken by every person using it.
This plan was reviewed with Grand Secretary Ed Bousquet, who saw no Masonic Code conflicts in the plan. The plan was approved by a unanimous vote of the lodge at our January stated meeting. The Grand Lodge has expressed great interest, and has asked that – once we have our new system up and tested – we write up a description of our experience to share with other lodges, who may wish to follow our example.
Transparent, responsive, and responsible management of our assets is one of the highest priorities of our lodge. I would be happy to answer any Brother’s questions about these changes. Feel free to give me a call, anytime.