Masons ladies evening speech

[JudgeJudyKicksAss]

Hi
My DH is Master of his masonic lodge this year and Ladies Evening is coming up fast. I need to have a short speech ready in response to his on the evening. Any ideas please? I am dreading this as I have a social phobia and the thought of standing up in front of 70 people isn't helping my state of mind at the moment. I'm not particularly friendly with any of the other wives as they are very cliquey and I don't feel I can ask one of them. Thank you.

I think that if your speech is in response to his, then we need to know a bit about what his speech will contain in order to be able to help you.

Keep it short and sweet, maybe google could help. You don't need to say much.

I went to my first one this year under duress and told my husband I will never stand up and make a speech as I have anxiety too. Told him he would have to take someone else, I don't go to the social things as I don't fit in at all, and also find the other women very cliquey.

Sorry that probably doesn't help, good luck.

Perhaps you could say something about looking forward to the day when women can be perceived as equal members by their influential organisation rather than being invited once a year as a sort of appendage?

Okay, maybe not.

Yes, I agree that would be helpful except he hasn't written it and will probably leave it until the last minute.
In mine will I recap the Ladies year when we have been included? Golf, weekend away, widows lunches etc. I think the general theme previously has been to make out how long suffering the lady has found it all but that hasn't been my experience. I do want to thank one particular wife who has arranged flowers etc for the tables when I've been working and unable to do it. The lodge is very formal and traditional compared to others and I don't want to get it "wrong".
Any guidance would be very welcome.

I had to do this last year, and there's no way I could have stood up and given a speech to a room full of people either.

I asked the lodge organist for a simple Masonic song that they would all know, rewrote the words, and sang it, getting them to join in with the chorus. Obviously this won't work for everyone, but you could write and read out a short poem instead.

The content was very simple - the first verse tongue-in-cheek comments about being the wife of a mason, and the second thanking Master, guests and venue staff.

(Now separated, I am so not going to miss all that Masonic stuff...)

sanityclause I am a member of my local WI if that redresses any imbalance you may think the Freemasons hold - its just a posh club for boys to raise money for charity, but that may be a discussion for another forum?

littlemiss that's exactly what I said to my dh and he missed his "turn" in the chair last year as I wouldn't support him so I relented this year just to get the damn thing over with. It wasn't a big deal at the beginning of the year but I've not been feeling well lately.

orlandosgibbon thank you! I love the idea of a small poem, I'm sure I could do something with that. Great idea.