Page 43 - EssexMason (Issue 89)online_version

Online Lodge of Enlightenment

IN
ESSEX
HERMES IN ESSEX
HERMES
Authored by W Bro Tony Hales
t the annual meeting for Deputy Provincial Grand Masters in 2019,
held at Freemasons’ Hall in London, the DepPGM, VW.Bro Paul
AReeves heard a presentation on Project Hermes from W.Bro Nigel
Codron, PSGD, PAPGM (Middx) and he invited Nigel to speak to Essex
Masons. The chosen occasion was the Installation Meeting of the Lodge
of Enlightenment No 9550 on Monday 27th January 2020 at Upminster
Masonic Hall. Following the Installation of W.Bro David Fage PPJGW by
W.Bro Maurice Court PGStB, the meeting was closed and the brethren
received a talk by W Bro Nigel on the new IT system.
UGLE uses an Oracle database called ADelphi (the Greek word for brother)
which maintains the records at member, Lodge/Chapter and Provincial level
but access is only available to the PGM, ProvGSec and other members of
the Provincial Executive, Provincial Office and VOs. ADelphi generates the Annual Return (which forms the basis for the
collection of dues) to each Lodge Secretary and Chapter Scribe E who must also attend to all the other forms including
those for new candidates, Installation Returns and summonses, where he has to ensure that each Agenda item is in
accordance with the Book of Constitutions. If not compliant, they will receive an email from the Provincial Office asking
them to make the necessary amendments. Preparing applications for new members can also be time consuming for
Lodge Secretaries, who have to obtain Clearance Certificates to show that a brother is not in arrears and for an Initiate,
under Rule 158, to write to another Province or Metropolitan Grand Lodge if the member lives and works outside Essex.
In late 2018, the Grand Secretary proposed to the Board of General Purposes that procedures such as these and others
could be made more efficient and less time consuming if Secretaries and Scribes E could also take advantage of the
ADelphi system.
A Project Steering Group was set up, chaired by the GSec and containing 3 Provincial Rulers and selected members of
UGLE staff. They appointed a Project Manager, Tony Keating, and Nigel, a Business Analyst, in January 2019 to establish
a new web-based front-end portal, codenamed Project Hermes, with the aim of delivering an online platform to manage
the vast majority of the administrative functions for Lodge Secretaries and Chapter Scribes E. This would replace the
endless form filling, paper based existing processes with the ability to prepare these mandatory forms online with most of
the data being prepopulated, so that turnaround times are significantly reduced. The actual process will be intuitive with
online training provided but it is expected to be as simple as using Amazon or online banking. The two systems, Hermes
and ADelphi, will talk to each other so that updates by Lodge Secretaries and Scribes E will be on ADelphi as soon as
they are submitted.

The Provinces of Bristol, Cheshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Metropolitan Grand Lodge together with the Districts
of Cyprus and Eastern Archipelago (Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand) were asked to be part of the process and are
providing valuable feedback on what Hermes should look like. Changes required for Hermes will also have an impact on
the Book of Constitutions for which a separate committee has been set up to consider. However, the final decisions rest
with the Board of General Purposes and ultimately Grand Lodge.
After the meeting, our Provincial Grand Secretary, W.Bro Phillip Lovelock, said that he would be looking at how Hermes
will be successfully implemented when it is launched in Essex. Meanwhile as Covid-19 restrictions are gradually lifted,
there will be more presentations for Secretaries and Scribes E together with full training before Hermes goes live in 2021
and “making Clearance Certificates” as W.Bro Nigel said in his excellent presentation, “a thing of the past”.