1.7.19 Waiting periods and proficiency

No subordinate lodge shall ballot upon a petition for initiation or confer the degree of Entered Apprentice upon any person within four weeks from the time his petition is received by said lodge and shall not confer the degree of Entered Apprentice upon any person at the same meeting of said ballot, without a dispensation from the Grand Master for that purpose, first had and obtained, nor shall any candidate be advanced to a higher degree, unless he has made suitable proficiency in the degrees already received, and has repeated in open lodge the first section of the lecture of the degree he has last received; nor shall any brother be allowed to sign the by-laws and become a member of the lodge until he has in the same manner repeated the first section of the lecture of the third degree. The qualification of a brother to be advanced shall be decided by the Master.

No subordinate lodge shall take a ballot for initiation or membership unless there be at least seven members thereof present.
Amended November 21, 1987.
See Decision No. 27.

Related Decisions

No. 27. Minimum Required To Confer Degrees

Decision: Upon the question as to whether the second degree could be conferred when only six brethren were present? I replied that while I should think it advisable under such circumstances to postpone work, yet I was not aware of any regulation of this Grand Lodge or in the General Regulations of Freemasonry that would forbid it. That while it required seven members of a lodge to ballot for initiation or membership, yet according to the old rituals three Master Masons could open a Lodge of Master Masons, for work, provided they possessed the necessary constitutional qualifications.

Constitution, Article VII, Sec. 1.7.19. May 15, 1882. (Freeman, GM)