Chapter 40
Issuance of Charter for a Subordinate Lodge
All documents provided for in Regulation 39-7.7 covering returns of a lodge under dispensation, with its petition for a charter if one is filed, shall be referred to the Committee on Charters and Dispensations.
1. The Committee on Charters and Dispensations shall carefully examine and consider the petition and all documents and reports submitted thereon and make its report to the Grand Lodge as to whether the provisions of Regulation 39-10 have been met in all respects, whether or not the work and procedure of the lodge under dispensation is regular and conforms to the law and usages of the Craft in this state, whether the lodge is willing and capable to function for the good of Masonry, and whether or not, in view of its findings, it recommends that a charter be granted. [34-9.3; 34-10.2].
2. If the committee does not find that all requirements have been met satisfactorily, or that any mandatory provisions of the law have not been complied with, it may recommend to the Grand Lodge that the petition be denied or that the dispensation be continued.
3. A continuance shall not be granted a second time.
4. The committee for satisfactory reasons may recommend that the Grand Lodge adopt a name for the new lodge different from the one proposed by the petitioners, and also that the Grand Lodge shall name the Master and Wardens of the new lodge stating in its report the names of the brethren it recommends for these offices. [40-7].
A new lodge shall not be given the number of any other lodge of this Grand Jurisdiction whether active or extinct. [34-8; 41-3; 41-5; 41-5.1; 41-5.2; 41-5.3].
A lodge shall not be named for any living person.
REG. 40-4 PREPARATION OF CHARTER.
The Grand Secretary shall prepare the charter for a new lodge on the prescribed form, and he shall, together with the presiding Grand Master at the communication at which the charter was granted, sign it under the seal of the Grand Lodge in the way and manner heretofore observed in this jurisdiction. [Official Form 8]. The Grand Secretary shall cause the duly executed document and the petition therefor to be photographed in such size and style as he may determine for the permanent record of the Grand Lodge, and he shall also cause a facsimile of both documents to be printed in the Annual Proceedings for the year in which the charter was granted. [23-1.9].
The petitioners for a charter for a new lodge shall pay a fee of Three Hundred Dollars before the Charter is issued. [5-1.3]. (This regulation amended, effective 1/1/2006)
REG. 40-6 PRESENTATION OF CHARTER.
The charter shall be delivered to the Master of the newly chartered lodge when he is installed during the ceremony of constituting the lodge. [59-2.22].
If the Grand Lodge does not specifically name the Master and the Wardens of a newly chartered lodge, then those brethren who served in those offices, and also the brethren who served in all other offices of the lodge at the date the petition for the charter was signed, shall be its officers until the next regular election of officers under THE CODE. [40-1.4].
REG. 40-8 INSTALLATION OF OFFICERS.
After the issuance of a charter shall not proceed to work until it shall have been duly constituted and the officers installed under the forms and usages of the Craft by the Grand Master or by some Past Master duly authorized by the Grand Master. [13-2.8; 34-19; 44-10; 34-19.2].