Chapter 53
Officers of a Lodge, Roster, and Qualifications
The officers of a lodge shall be as follows: Master, Senior Warden, Junior Warden, Treasurer, Secretary, Senior Deacon, Junior Deacon, Two Stewards, and Tyler. [54-1].
1. The Master in his discretion may appoint a Chaplain for the communication whose duties shall correspond to his title, and he shall not be installed. A lodge may provide in its by-laws that the Master, in his discretion, at the time he appoints other officers of the lodge, may appoint a Chaplain for the full Masonic Term, and if so appointed, he shall be installed. [55-1; 56-1.1].
2. With the approval of the Master duly recorded in the minutes of a stated communication of the lodge, the Treasurer or the Secretary of a lodge may appoint an Assistant, who shall have the qualifications required for his respective principal and who shall perform such duties as may be assigned to him by his respective principal.
A. When the Treasurer or the Secretary is disabled or is unable to perform the duties of his office for any reason, or if such office shall become vacant, his Assistant may perform them as Acting Treasurer or Acting Secretary, as the case may be, during the period of such disability, but within the term of his appointment. The lodge shall determine by resolution if and when a Treasurer or a Secretary is disabled under this subdivision. The lodge may by election fill any vacancy in the office of Treasurer or Secretary for the unexpired term or the Master may name a qualified brother to serve as Treasurer or Secretary for either the unexpired term or pro tempore. [57-2].
B. An Assistant shall not be installed, his appointment shall expire at the next annual election of officers of the lodge but he may be reappointed as herein provided or he may be removed by the officers making the appointment in the same manner in which the appointment was first made.
C. For the official acts and for the proper performance of the duties of such Assistant, his principal shall be responsible.
The qualifications of the officers of a lodge shall be as follows: [11-6].
1. All lodge officers shall be Master Masons and, except the Tyler, shall be and remain members of the lodge of which they are officers.
2. No brother shall be elected Master of a lodge unless he shall have previously been elected and installed as Master or Warden of a regularly constituted chartered lodge and shall have served a full term as such. When no such brother who is thus qualified and who consents to serve as Master can be found among the members, and also except at the formation of a new lodge, the Grand Master after such investigation as he may deem necessary may issue his dispensation for the election and installation as Master of a member not thus qualified. The election shall be held at a stated communication to be designated in the dispensation. [13-3.8.B; 39-2.3; 39-7.3; 55-2].
3. Acting as Warden of a lodge under dispensation does not make a brother eligible to the office of Master in a chartered lodge, but a brother nominated in the charter of a lodge and regularly installed, who serves from the date of the charter to the annual communication of the lodge, and who has also served as Warden while the lodge was under dispensation, thereby becomes eligible to the office of Master. (this section amended, effective 1/1/2010)
4. Any member of a lodge is qualified to vote in the election of officers and if qualified as required by law, shall be eligible to any office in the lodge. No member shall hold more than one office in the lodge at the same time. [53-2.2; 55-5; 57-1.3; 57-6; 60-8; 55-2; 74-5.2, 74-5.3]
5. A member of a lodge in this State who is a Past Master of a lodge in another recognized grand jurisdiction, who has not served as a Master or a Warden in a lodge in this State, is eligible to be elected Master, he has the same status in all respects in his lodge as any Past Master thereof.
6. Each lodge is the judge of the qualifications of the members it elects for its officers subject to the law of the Grand Lodge.
7. No lodge shall elect any brother, either as Master or as Warden, unless he manifests such care and zeal for Masonry as to induce the belief that he can and will qualify himself to preside and discharge the duties of his office according to the laws and usages of the Craft and with credit to the lodge and to Masonry.
8. Each officer of a lodge shall wear the jewel and apron of his respective office to be properly clothed. [89-4; 89-10; 89-10.2].
9. The fact that a Brother lives outside the state shall not prevent him from serving his lodge as either an appointive or elective officer, provided that the appointment or election of a member shall be subject to the power of the Grand Master to remove the officer under Regulation 57-1.7, 57-5, or 57-5.2. (This section amended, effective 1/1/2006)
10. A member who is otherwise qualified by law cannot serve as Worshiful Master in more than one lodge at the same timeexcept by dispensation of the Grand Master. (This section amended, effective 1/1/2015)