Letter of the month: September 1999

Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1999 4:28:50 PM -0500
Message-Id: <199909241628.QBL5255@neptune.expertcentral.com>
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Organization: ExpertCentral.com
Subject: Gary, I've been looking for someone with knowledge of Masonry
From: "Geoff Ashman" <geoff.ashman@expertcentral.com>
To: dryfoo@MIT.EDU

Dear Gary Dryfoos,

I've been browsing A Page About Freemasonry and discovered that you are quite knowledgeable about Masonry. I want to invite you to join us at http://www.expertcentral.com/specialinvitation. ExpertCentral.com is a site where users can quickly find the right person to answer their questions on many different topics.

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You'll appreciate that I had to go to some trouble to find you, and we'd like to make it easier for other people, so I hope you'll take the time to visit our site (http://www.expertcentral.com/specialinvitation) to learn more.

Sincerely,

Geoff Ashman
Expert Recruiter

PS We found you through painstakingly combing the Internet for high quality experts to invite to join us. Once again, membership is FREE and there are no hidden costs. If you join now you have a chance to win a Palm V connected organizer from Palm Computing.

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To: "Geoff Ashman" <geoff.ashman@expertcentral.com>
Subject: Re: Gary, I've been looking for someone with knowledge of Masonry 
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 24 Sep 1999 16:28:50 CDT."
             <199909241628.QBL5255@neptune.expertcentral.com>
--------

dear Geoff,

Thanks for the invitation, but I don't know if I have any time to answer even more questions about Masonry than the load I'm already carrying. I do have to fit some actual paying work into my day, too, now and then.

In short, I can't afford to do it for free, and neither could I in good conscience charge people $$ to answer questions about Masonry. That's why I and so many others have put up web-sites about our ancient institution.

Besides which, the truth is you really don't need an expert. You could handle fully 95% of the questions you'll get about Masonry with these three answers:

• No, Masonry is not a Satanic cult. But if you already think it is, you won't believe this answer anyway. For more info, see: http://www.masonicinfo.com/
• I can't tell you about the lodge your great-great-grandfather belonged to. You should contact his lodge. If you don't know the lodge, you can contact his state's grand lodge for information about how to contact a particular lodge or perhaps even information on an individual Mason; write to the office of the Grand Secretary. For more info, see: http://web.mit.edu/dryfoo/Masonry/Questions/grandpa.html
• To join Masonry, you should ask a Mason in person, a member of a lodge somewhere near where you live or work. If you cannot find a lodge in your area, you could write to your state's Grand Lodge and ask about nearby lodges. Fore more info, see: http://web.mit.edu/dryfoo/Masonry/how-to1.html

As I say, that'll handle nearly all of it. For the remaining 5%, you could always point them to my website.

Best of luck,

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Gary L. Dryfoos <dryfoo@mit.edu>| PM: Ocean Lodge AF&AM, Saugus GL Mass.
| P.O.Box 425400, Camb, MA 02142  |   & Mt. Scopus Lodge AF&AM, Malden ""
| http://web.mit.edu/dryfoo/Masonry/  | 32~; MPS; B'hood o/t Blue Forget-Me-Not;
| w: 617.253-0184 f: 617.258-6875 | Internet Lodge #9659, E. Lancs UGLE
|       Rt. Wor. Grand Rep. of the GL of Russia near the GL of Massachusetts
|   "...one sacred band, or society of Friends and Brothers, among
|    whom no contention should ever exist, save that noble contention,
|    or rather emulation, of who best can work and best agree."
+===========================================================================