The Archbishop William Thomas Porter Chapter of Chevaliers of the Noble Order of Knights of St. John International (KSJI) has held its annual general meeting with the retention of all the officers for another three-year term. Two committees, which were made up of the President’s committee and members’ committee all nominated the officers unopposed with no counter nominations from the floor, an indication that the house lauded the performance of the officers in the last three years when they were elected to serve the chapter in 2007. The nine-member Board of Trustees includes Lieutenant Colonel Bekoe Palmer-Buckle-Grand Master, Colonel William Adjei-first vice Grand Master, Captain Emmanuel Mensah-second vice Grand Master, Lieutenant Lawrence Lartei Lartey-Scribe and Lieutenant Emmanuel Hodo-Assistant Scribe. Brigadier-General Bob Foli, Accra Grand Commandery President, supported by Brigadier-General Harry Gadzekpo, Past President of the Accra Grand Commandery, inducted the officers into office. The rest are Lieutenant Emmanuel Warmann-Treasurer, Sir Knight Louis Equagoo-Financial Secretary, Captain Kingsley Arthur-First Inspector and Captain John Aniglo-Second Inspector. Giving an account of his stewardship for his first term of office, the Grand Master said “we assumed office on the backdrop of a rejuvenated Chapter of Chevaliers with the aim of consolidating the gains of the previous administration and forging ahead and charting new grounds to sustain and project the image of the Chapter.” He noted that these were undertaken through educational talks and with the greater part in the syllabus of the Chapter, which they had been working on all this while. Lieutenant Colonel Palmer-Buckle mentioned that a syllabus had been developed and will require inputs by way of write-ups from knowledgeable Chevaliers for final codification into a standard syllabus, which will be adopted by the Chapter. “We, therefore, recommend the formation of a special team of experts to pick up aspects of the general outline of the syllabus and task them to make the needed inputs, which will finally be codified into the syllabus of the Chapter,” he stressed. On the code of the KSJI uniform, he said “we sought to institute strong adherence to the code of uniform as enshrined in the Supreme Constitution. In our screening exercises for applicants to the Chapter for exemplification, brothers in the wrong uniforms were rejected.” Touching on decentralization policy, the Grand Master noted that they proposed to re-activate the sub-chapters created under the previous administration, and that they visited some of the District Commanderies but others could not organize themselves to facilitate the visit. “The exemplification process for the three Grands in Ghana begun in 2009. Invitations were sent to all three Grands for submission of their list of qualified applicants. Within the Accra Grand, only the 3rd District has undergone the first phase, which is the screening exercise. Districts two and 12 are yet to agree to a date for the exercise. However, it is pertinent to note that some applicants failed to turn up for the exercise on the grounds of not being in the correct uniform commensurate to their locus in the Order,” he maintained. He, however, recommended the decentralization of exemplification of members, saying that this would ensure that qualified members from afar are accorded the same opportunity to be exemplified, and for that matter, they were evolving a policy where the exemplifications would be decentralized primarily based on Grands. During the period under review, he hinted that they had the rare opportunity to be invited to Liberia to re-activate their Chapter and to exemplify 46 members, whilst that of Sierra Leone had to be shelved due to inconclusive organization. He opined that for financial and effective performance, this could further be broken-down along Districts with the proviso that the number of members to be exemplified is more than 30 but less than 50. Lieutenant Colonel Palmer-Buckle stated that full Chapter status will be granted in collaboration with the Supreme Sub-ordinate Commandery on Grand Commandary basis. However, he said, steps should be initiated to create an umbrella Chapter, which is fashioned alone the Supreme Sub-ordinate Commandery to control, monitor and co-ordinate the activities of the Chapters when they come into being. This, he said, would ensure uniformity in all aspects of their organization. He recommended the need for District Commanders to be ex-officio Status of the Chapter, emphasizing that these officers are also “custodians” of the military protocols of the Order and that, with the Chapter as the highest military degree of the Order, “we must be in sync with them to ensure that decisions taken concerning our military performance at the Chapter level are effected at the grass-root level.” “We wish to place it on record that the Chapter is the highest military degree to be accorded any member of the Knights of St. John International. However, despite being “custodians” of our military protocols, there is no Commission of any office holder. Grand Masters have exemplified Generals who were their “students” so to speak but remained Lieutenants etc. Appropriate recommendation must be sent to the Supreme Military Committee to review the situation and amend the necessary issues to pave way for commissioning of Chapter Officers,” Lieutenant Colonel Palmer-Buckle advocated. With regards to recognition of Chapter officers at functions the Grand Master lamented that it is unfortunate that while the Chapter makes every effort to accord the hierarchy of the Order due recognition at their meetings, this is not reciprocated by the Supreme Sub-ordinate Commandery, Grand Board at Grand Commandery and District functions and meetings. Credit: Innocent Samuel Appiah/The Heritage