This is the funniest video about the Eagles I've ever seen.
Last month Aerie 3004 in Okanagon County Washington was burglarized - by the second time yet - by a genius who was at the time wearing an ankle bracelet awaiting trial on another charge.
In case you didn't know, ankle bracelets are equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) so the police can track you wherever you go.
The police wasted no time picking up a "suspect".
You can watch the video here.
The Ontario Provincial Aerie and Auxiliary are the umbrella organizations for Ontario aeries (lodges) and auxiliaries of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Ontario's Aeries are in Toronto (Aerie 2311), Sault Ste Marie (Aerie 3991), London (Aerie 4060), Heyden-Goulais River (Aerie 4061) and Webbwood (Aerie 4269). This blog is intended to support membership growth.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Report of aerie physician? What’s that?
You’ll see it in the FOE Ritual book, the eighth item on the Order of Business for general meetings: “Report of aerie physician”. No President in Ontario reads that item, and I’m not aware of any aerie anywhere that does. But there was a time when it was a very big deal indeed.
You’ll see it in the Statutes FOE as well. Section 80.1 lists Local Aerie Officers, including an aerie physician “when so provided by an Aerie in its By-Laws”. Section 90.1 goes on to say those By-Laws should have provisions “regulating his or their duties and compensation, the manner of selection by election or appointment, and the term of office, which shall not exceed three (3) years.”
At the dawn of the 20th century some fraternal organizations contracted with physicians to provide medical care for their members in return for an annual fee paid by the fraternal from dues revenue. It was called the Lodge Doctor system, a wonderful free-market system that provided house calls, treatment, and even minor surgery for an annual cost to the lodge brother or sister for a dollar or two per year, about the cost of a single doctor’s visit on a fee-for-service basis. The big exception usually was denial of treatment for conditions caused by alcohol or whatever the lodge defined as “immoral behavior”.
The best and best-known account of the system is in David Beito’s book From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890-1967. You can also read about it in Puck Smith’s blog Things I’ve Found.
Beito in particular tells the story to make his case that a completely free market medical system would work best because the Lodge Doctor system was the free market: easy access, low cost and voluntary participation.
The Lodge Doctor patient had a good deal of power in the doctor-patient relationship: if they weren’t treated well and respectfully, they would be reported to the lodge, where there could be sanctions against the physician, who might even lose his contract.
It was first popular among small urban lodges, especially among eastern European Jews in New York’s Lower East Side and black women’s’ lodges in New Orleans – groups with low incomes and a tough time getting respect from society doctors.
Some 500 physicians catered to these New York Jewish societies by 1915 and among blacks in New Orleans there were more than 600 fraternal societies with Lodge Doctors in the 1920s.
And while the system was small-time, local and mainly for the poor who wouldn’t pay regular doctors’ fees anyway, it worked very well indeed. The low cost and guaranteed service encouraged early treatment (preventive medicine), less reliance on cure-worse-than-the-disease folk remedies and the patent medicines readily available, like morphine, laudanum, heroin and cocaine (if there was anything useful in them at all). A young doctor new in town could pick up an entire practice immediately with this bulk contracting of his services. There was nothing then (nor is there today) to match it for people of modest means needing regular care for their families.
Then it went big time. The Lodge Doctor system was adopted by the two fastest-growing fraternal organizations ever, the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the Independent Order of Foresters (where I worked before I retired). Many thousands of people opted for a Lodge Doctor instead of paying fees per visit. In Beito’s book he says that by 1906 in Seattle (where the Eagles was founded) some 20 per cent of adult males were covered by a Lodge Doctor.
Two things happened.
First, some doctors got greedy, contracting with as many as 10 different lodges to be their doctor and seeing as many as 100 patients per day. Then all doctors, through their powerful new closed-shop union, the American Medical Association, launched an all-out assault on this growing threat to their fee-based incomes. As early as 1913 the AMA founded a “Propaganda Department” to spread information about health fraud including the evils of the Lodge Doctor. They also campaigned stridently that there were too many physicians in the marketplace because there were too many medical schools.
Its Code of Ethics prohibited the solicitation of patients by physicians in 1922, and by 1934 made it unethical for any physician to dispose of his or her services to any lay body, organization, group, or individual under the conditions that would permit any of them to receive a profit on the doctor's services.
Throughout this campaign, those Lodge Doctors were sometimes expelled from the AMA or denied hospital facilities. In some cases individuals who used a doctor who had worked even in the past for a lodge would be denied medical treatment, even sometimes emergency hospital treatment.
The campaign worked wonderfully for the AMA in protecting doctors’ fees. From 1916 to 1919 alone it is estimated that physician income soared by 41 per cent. As the AMA tightened the noose, the number of medical schools also plummeted, from 166 in 1904 to 81 in 1922.
By the late 1930s the Lodge Doctor system all but disappeared – except, apparently, in the Eagles’ ritual.
You’ll see it in the Statutes FOE as well. Section 80.1 lists Local Aerie Officers, including an aerie physician “when so provided by an Aerie in its By-Laws”. Section 90.1 goes on to say those By-Laws should have provisions “regulating his or their duties and compensation, the manner of selection by election or appointment, and the term of office, which shall not exceed three (3) years.”
At the dawn of the 20th century some fraternal organizations contracted with physicians to provide medical care for their members in return for an annual fee paid by the fraternal from dues revenue. It was called the Lodge Doctor system, a wonderful free-market system that provided house calls, treatment, and even minor surgery for an annual cost to the lodge brother or sister for a dollar or two per year, about the cost of a single doctor’s visit on a fee-for-service basis. The big exception usually was denial of treatment for conditions caused by alcohol or whatever the lodge defined as “immoral behavior”.
The best and best-known account of the system is in David Beito’s book From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890-1967. You can also read about it in Puck Smith’s blog Things I’ve Found.
Beito in particular tells the story to make his case that a completely free market medical system would work best because the Lodge Doctor system was the free market: easy access, low cost and voluntary participation.
The Lodge Doctor patient had a good deal of power in the doctor-patient relationship: if they weren’t treated well and respectfully, they would be reported to the lodge, where there could be sanctions against the physician, who might even lose his contract.
It was first popular among small urban lodges, especially among eastern European Jews in New York’s Lower East Side and black women’s’ lodges in New Orleans – groups with low incomes and a tough time getting respect from society doctors.
Some 500 physicians catered to these New York Jewish societies by 1915 and among blacks in New Orleans there were more than 600 fraternal societies with Lodge Doctors in the 1920s.
And while the system was small-time, local and mainly for the poor who wouldn’t pay regular doctors’ fees anyway, it worked very well indeed. The low cost and guaranteed service encouraged early treatment (preventive medicine), less reliance on cure-worse-than-the-disease folk remedies and the patent medicines readily available, like morphine, laudanum, heroin and cocaine (if there was anything useful in them at all). A young doctor new in town could pick up an entire practice immediately with this bulk contracting of his services. There was nothing then (nor is there today) to match it for people of modest means needing regular care for their families.
Then it went big time. The Lodge Doctor system was adopted by the two fastest-growing fraternal organizations ever, the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the Independent Order of Foresters (where I worked before I retired). Many thousands of people opted for a Lodge Doctor instead of paying fees per visit. In Beito’s book he says that by 1906 in Seattle (where the Eagles was founded) some 20 per cent of adult males were covered by a Lodge Doctor.
Two things happened.
First, some doctors got greedy, contracting with as many as 10 different lodges to be their doctor and seeing as many as 100 patients per day. Then all doctors, through their powerful new closed-shop union, the American Medical Association, launched an all-out assault on this growing threat to their fee-based incomes. As early as 1913 the AMA founded a “Propaganda Department” to spread information about health fraud including the evils of the Lodge Doctor. They also campaigned stridently that there were too many physicians in the marketplace because there were too many medical schools.
Its Code of Ethics prohibited the solicitation of patients by physicians in 1922, and by 1934 made it unethical for any physician to dispose of his or her services to any lay body, organization, group, or individual under the conditions that would permit any of them to receive a profit on the doctor's services.
Throughout this campaign, those Lodge Doctors were sometimes expelled from the AMA or denied hospital facilities. In some cases individuals who used a doctor who had worked even in the past for a lodge would be denied medical treatment, even sometimes emergency hospital treatment.
The campaign worked wonderfully for the AMA in protecting doctors’ fees. From 1916 to 1919 alone it is estimated that physician income soared by 41 per cent. As the AMA tightened the noose, the number of medical schools also plummeted, from 166 in 1904 to 81 in 1922.
By the late 1930s the Lodge Doctor system all but disappeared – except, apparently, in the Eagles’ ritual.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Tammey Artuso Eastern Canada Auxiliary President
Incoming 2014-2015 Ontario Provincial Madam President Tammey Artuso has also been named Eastern Canada Regional Auxiliary President for the same term.
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A charter member (1981) of the Sault Ste Marie Auxiliary 3991, Tammey has held every office except Secretary in her Local Auxiliary, Mother and Grandmother.
During the years of Sault Ste Marie 3991’s association with Michigan State she was a District Chairman, Zone Chairman and Auxiliary Adviser for the Junior Eagle Thunderbirds. During the Sault’s years with the Ontario Provincial Aerie she has been Zone 1 Vice Chairman and Chairman, Provincial President, Vice President and Past President as well as Ontario Provincial Mother.
She is a past charity chair for the Diabetes Research Center, Art Ehrmann Cancer Fund, Robert Hansen Diabetes Fund, Jimmy Durante Children’s Fund, Lew Reed Spinal Cord Injury Fund and Alzheimer’s Fund.
She was also Co-chair of the Christmas Box Charity for Grand Madam President Katie Ziebol.
The Eastern Canada Region is composed of the Ontario Provincial Auxiliary and the Quebec Provincial Auxiliary.
A charter member (1981) of the Sault Ste Marie Auxiliary 3991, Tammey has held every office except Secretary in her Local Auxiliary, Mother and Grandmother.
During the years of Sault Ste Marie 3991’s association with Michigan State she was a District Chairman, Zone Chairman and Auxiliary Adviser for the Junior Eagle Thunderbirds. During the Sault’s years with the Ontario Provincial Aerie she has been Zone 1 Vice Chairman and Chairman, Provincial President, Vice President and Past President as well as Ontario Provincial Mother.
She is a past charity chair for the Diabetes Research Center, Art Ehrmann Cancer Fund, Robert Hansen Diabetes Fund, Jimmy Durante Children’s Fund, Lew Reed Spinal Cord Injury Fund and Alzheimer’s Fund.
She was also Co-chair of the Christmas Box Charity for Grand Madam President Katie Ziebol.
The Eastern Canada Region is composed of the Ontario Provincial Auxiliary and the Quebec Provincial Auxiliary.
Toronto 2311 to elect 3 officers May 14
Toronto’s Maple Leaf Aerie 2311 will hold elections May 14 for the offices of Vice President, Secretary and Trustee, while the positions of Chaplain and Inside Guard remain vacant following nominations April 23.
Candidates for Vice President are incumbent Tom Robson and previous officer Roger Hubbard. Candidates for Secretary are incumbent Jacquie Smith and Brad Fortner. Candidates for Trustee are incumbent Dan O’Reilly and Ron Rankine.
At the same meeting Ken Cooper was acclaimed for a fourth term as Aerie President and Vicki Reid was acclaimed for a fourth term as Conductor.
Treasurer Art Richard and Trustees Bob Boag and Mike Wolfe are serving multi-year terms and continue in office.
In accordance with Aerie 2311 Bylaws, polls will be open from noon to 7:30 p.m. Election will be by printed ballot. Under the FOE Model Election Rules, each nominee may have an observer at the polls and/or at the counting of the ballots.
Members voting must have their current official dues receipt with them – the Secretary cannot vouch for a member who does not have his or her receipt. Members do not have to vote for all positions. Tellers ignore blanks and count only ballots cast. Election tellers present their report at the meeting that evening, with the President announcing the results.
The new executive, including candidates elected May 14, will be installed at a ceremony May 28, scheduled to be conducted by Grand Worthy President David Tice. They take office officially at the first general meeting in June.
Candidates for Vice President are incumbent Tom Robson and previous officer Roger Hubbard. Candidates for Secretary are incumbent Jacquie Smith and Brad Fortner. Candidates for Trustee are incumbent Dan O’Reilly and Ron Rankine.
At the same meeting Ken Cooper was acclaimed for a fourth term as Aerie President and Vicki Reid was acclaimed for a fourth term as Conductor.
Treasurer Art Richard and Trustees Bob Boag and Mike Wolfe are serving multi-year terms and continue in office.
In accordance with Aerie 2311 Bylaws, polls will be open from noon to 7:30 p.m. Election will be by printed ballot. Under the FOE Model Election Rules, each nominee may have an observer at the polls and/or at the counting of the ballots.
Members voting must have their current official dues receipt with them – the Secretary cannot vouch for a member who does not have his or her receipt. Members do not have to vote for all positions. Tellers ignore blanks and count only ballots cast. Election tellers present their report at the meeting that evening, with the President announcing the results.
The new executive, including candidates elected May 14, will be installed at a ceremony May 28, scheduled to be conducted by Grand Worthy President David Tice. They take office officially at the first general meeting in June.
Sunday, April 20, 2014
The Eagles' yellow card story
During the last half of the nineteenth century hundreds of fraternal organizations were formed in Canada and the United States, and most of them failed or were merged into other fraternals fairly quickly. So how did the Fraternal Order of Eagles do so well?
Founded in 1898, new lodges called aeries and new memberships soared: by 1911 there more than 1,000 aeries, more than a million members at a time when it had, as most fraternals did, men-only memberships. It was the fastest-growing fraternal organization in history.
Sure, the feel-good accounts about a commitment to equality, more open membership requirements and an early commitment to charity all contributed.
But the short answer is that the Eagles came along at the right time, in the right place, and was founded by the right people; the show business industry was in the midst of unprecedented upheaval; and a great many jobs were at stake.
The FOE was one of the last attempts to form a fraternal organization, in 1898 Seattle Washington, by a group of theatre owners. They included two of the greatest show business pioneers: John Cort, who would become the owner of more independent legitimate theatres (assigned seating, no liquor) than anyone in history; and John Considine, co-founder of one of the largest vaudeville circuits in America, the Sullivan-Considine circuit, the first to offer top-level entertainers contracts for 26 weeks of continuous work from one town to the next.
The founders first called it The Order of Good Things. They wanted a place where theatre people could socialize among themselves, resolve constant labour disputes and business rivalries, and do some good for their community.
The railway had just come to Seattle, transforming the city from a sleepy lumber town that had shipped most of its output by sea to San Francisco. The railway also made possible the choice of Seattle as the departure and return point for the many dreamers and schemers who joined the Yukon Gold Rush, the biggest and longest-lasting scramble for gold in history.
Seattle boomed, equipping would-be gold miners heading north and buying their gold when they returned. Most importantly for the Eagles founders, they also entertained legions of single men with get-rich-quick dreams, (sometimes) lots of money and no family responsibilities.
Crews of railway navvies were laying new track everywhere, transforming a continent used to travel only by ship, stagecoach, by wagon or on horseback. One of the biggest changes came to the entertainment industry.
All entertainment then, of course, was live entertainment. The talent would travel from town to town, find a local producer to put on a show and hire local people as stage hands, to build props and sets, to make costumes and whatever else was required for the show. The railway changed all that. Now entire shows – sets, props, costumes and instruments, along with the entire talent and support staffs could show up good to go.
So who got the work – the local people who made their living supporting shows when they came to town or the out-of-town crews down at the railway station? The conflict prompted formation of a new union, the National Association of Theatrical and Stage Employes (that’s how they spelled it), soon to be renamed the International Association of Theatrical and Stage Employes, or IATSE, when Canadian locals were admitted. Early Locals in New York and Chicago at first tried a local-hire-only approach, a losing battle when so much was to be gained shipping everything by rail.
The new Northwest District of the union, based in Seattle, had a better idea. There was this new fraternal organization where the producers mingled with show business people and support staff. They approached men like Cort and Considine with a proposal: we’ll do all the hiring here at the aerie, whether local or out of town, and guarantee fully-staffed shows for their entire runs, saving you labour strife and critical staff shortages.
By using the local aerie as a hiring hall (something the union couldn’t afford to set up itself), the union had a ready pool of members while the producers as Eagles leaders got a powerful incentive for show people to join the FOE to get those jobs.
Named after the FOE’s yellow membership cards, it was called the yellow card system, and the shows so organized were called yellow card shows (as they are to this day).
The union-fraternity partnership caused membership in the FOE to soar. New aeries were launched throughout the American northwest and in southern British Columbia, and then followed the railways. Aeries were numbered in order of their charter dates. Aerie 1 was (and is) in downtown Seattle, Aerie 6 in Vancouver BC. Aerie 10 in Rossland BC and Aerie 23 at Winnipeg’s railhead (both still operating) followed. Even Ontario chartered two aeries in 1904, in Sault Ste Marie and Toronto, though both failed the first time.
By 1911 the Fraternal Order of Eagles had its million members in 1,000 aeries. The yellow card system worked well for all concerned. IATSE became (and remains) one of the most successful unions in history. By 1913 IATSE members voted in international convention in Ottawa to adopt the yellow card system everywhere. And IATSE was now successful enough to have its own hiring halls, bypassing the Eagles altogether.
But the Fraternal Order of Eagles was now firmly established even without IATSE.
Founded in 1898, new lodges called aeries and new memberships soared: by 1911 there more than 1,000 aeries, more than a million members at a time when it had, as most fraternals did, men-only memberships. It was the fastest-growing fraternal organization in history.
Sure, the feel-good accounts about a commitment to equality, more open membership requirements and an early commitment to charity all contributed.
 |
| John Considine, left, and John Cort, right were among theatrical pioneers who founded the FOE. |
The FOE was one of the last attempts to form a fraternal organization, in 1898 Seattle Washington, by a group of theatre owners. They included two of the greatest show business pioneers: John Cort, who would become the owner of more independent legitimate theatres (assigned seating, no liquor) than anyone in history; and John Considine, co-founder of one of the largest vaudeville circuits in America, the Sullivan-Considine circuit, the first to offer top-level entertainers contracts for 26 weeks of continuous work from one town to the next.
The founders first called it The Order of Good Things. They wanted a place where theatre people could socialize among themselves, resolve constant labour disputes and business rivalries, and do some good for their community.
 |
| The Eagles founders started the fraternity in 1898 for theatre people to socialize among themselves, to settle labour disputes and business rivalries, and to do some good for the community. |
The railway had just come to Seattle, transforming the city from a sleepy lumber town that had shipped most of its output by sea to San Francisco. The railway also made possible the choice of Seattle as the departure and return point for the many dreamers and schemers who joined the Yukon Gold Rush, the biggest and longest-lasting scramble for gold in history.
Seattle boomed, equipping would-be gold miners heading north and buying their gold when they returned. Most importantly for the Eagles founders, they also entertained legions of single men with get-rich-quick dreams, (sometimes) lots of money and no family responsibilities.
Crews of railway navvies were laying new track everywhere, transforming a continent used to travel only by ship, stagecoach, by wagon or on horseback. One of the biggest changes came to the entertainment industry.
All entertainment then, of course, was live entertainment. The talent would travel from town to town, find a local producer to put on a show and hire local people as stage hands, to build props and sets, to make costumes and whatever else was required for the show. The railway changed all that. Now entire shows – sets, props, costumes and instruments, along with the entire talent and support staffs could show up good to go.
So who got the work – the local people who made their living supporting shows when they came to town or the out-of-town crews down at the railway station? The conflict prompted formation of a new union, the National Association of Theatrical and Stage Employes (that’s how they spelled it), soon to be renamed the International Association of Theatrical and Stage Employes, or IATSE, when Canadian locals were admitted. Early Locals in New York and Chicago at first tried a local-hire-only approach, a losing battle when so much was to be gained shipping everything by rail.
The new Northwest District of the union, based in Seattle, had a better idea. There was this new fraternal organization where the producers mingled with show business people and support staff. They approached men like Cort and Considine with a proposal: we’ll do all the hiring here at the aerie, whether local or out of town, and guarantee fully-staffed shows for their entire runs, saving you labour strife and critical staff shortages.
 |
| There's a history behind the Eagles membership card being yellow in colour. |
Named after the FOE’s yellow membership cards, it was called the yellow card system, and the shows so organized were called yellow card shows (as they are to this day).
The union-fraternity partnership caused membership in the FOE to soar. New aeries were launched throughout the American northwest and in southern British Columbia, and then followed the railways. Aeries were numbered in order of their charter dates. Aerie 1 was (and is) in downtown Seattle, Aerie 6 in Vancouver BC. Aerie 10 in Rossland BC and Aerie 23 at Winnipeg’s railhead (both still operating) followed. Even Ontario chartered two aeries in 1904, in Sault Ste Marie and Toronto, though both failed the first time.
By 1911 the Fraternal Order of Eagles had its million members in 1,000 aeries. The yellow card system worked well for all concerned. IATSE became (and remains) one of the most successful unions in history. By 1913 IATSE members voted in international convention in Ottawa to adopt the yellow card system everywhere. And IATSE was now successful enough to have its own hiring halls, bypassing the Eagles altogether.
But the Fraternal Order of Eagles was now firmly established even without IATSE.
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