The Lodge Room is basically as you see above. The Worshipful Master sits in the East (usually is in the East literally). The Junior Warden sits on the center chair on the right. The Junior and Senior Stewards sit on either side of him. The Senior Warden is sitting opposite of the Worshipful Master (can't be seen). The Junior Deacon sits to right of him (You can see the arm of his chair in the lower left hand corner). The Senior Deacon sits in the chair in front of the American flag. The Secretary is on the right side of the platform and the Treasurer on the left side (facing the East). The Altar is in the center of the room with 3 light stands surrounding it in a triangular pattern. There is usually a big "G" hanging in the East, but I don't see it. The wall decorations are peculiar to this Lodge. There are usually 2 to 4 rows of seats on the North and South sides (left and right in the picture) for the non-officers to sit in.

Every Lodge has a Lodge Room (as pictured above), but they also may have a fellowship hall and kitchen in the same building or in an adjoining building. There might also be a sitting room, study rooms, library, and storage rooms for Masonic furnishings, etc.

Inside the Lodge Room there will be either one or two business meetings a month. The meeting is opened by a traditional ritual, which is sort of a reminder of what each officer is supposed to do. It is optional, but to my knowledge most meetings open with the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

The business meetings are for members only. There are two basic kinds of meetings take place in lodge. The most common is a simple business meeting. To open and close the meeting, there is a ceremony whose purpose is to remind us of the virtues by which we are supposed to live. Then there is a reading of the minutes; voting on petitions (applications of men who want to join the fraternity); planning for charitable functions, family events, and other lodge activities; and sharing information about (called "Brothers," as in most fraternities) are ill or have some sort of need.

The other kind of meeting is one in which people join the fraternity-one at which the "degrees" are performed. There are on three degrees that are offered in the "Blue Lodge." Those degrees are the Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason. The Master Mason Degree is technically the highest degree in Freemasonry even though there are higher degrees in other appendant organizations. For instance, there is the 32^nd Degree in the Scottish Rite. The 32^nd may know a lot more about Masonry than the Master Mason, but he does not "out rank" him.

But every lodge serves more than its own members. Frequently, there are meetings open to the public. examples are Lady's Nights, "Brothers Bring a Friend Nights," public installations of officers, cornerstone laying ceremonies, and other special meetings supporting community events and dealing with topic of local interest.

The Tiler guards the avenues approaching the Lodge. A Lodge is said to be "duly tiled" when the necessary precautions have been taken to guard against intrusion by cowans, eavesdroppers or other unauthorized persons. (A cowan is one who tries to masquerade as a Mason. He has not done the work but says he has in order to gain admittance. An eavesdropper is one who tries to steal the secrets of our Society. He would forge a dues card or may find one and try to masquerade as the owner.) If a Brother comes to Lodge late and wants to join the meeting, the Tiler sees that he is properly clothed and then vouches for him as qualified to enter. It is the duty of the Tyler to inform the Junior Deacon when a qualified Brother wishes to enter the Lodge and to let the Brethren know in which Degree the Lodge is working.