Your Lodge has an important role to play in the run up to the Festival, up to now you have been supporting the CPMBF, gaining the honorifics of the fund in the shape of mauls. The maul scheme has ended and your Lodge is now requested to concentrate its efforts on gaining the MBF honorifics shown in the table below. If every Mark and RAM Lodge were to achieve Grand Patron Gold Award Status, then the Province would become a Grand Patron Gold Award Province, currently there are only two such Provinces in the Constitution.
| Honorific | Mark or RAM Lodge | Province |
| Vice Patron | £25.00 per member | £50.00 per member |
| Patron | £50.00 per member | £100.00 per member |
| Grand Patron | Patron + £1,000.00 | Patron + £2,000.00 |
| Grand Patron Gold Award | Grand Patron + £2,500.00 | Grand Patron + £5,000 |
Apart from two Mark Lodges (who were not in existence at the time of our last Festival) all of our Lodges are Patrons therefore if all our Lodges can raise £3,500.00 each during the fund raising period they would all become Grand Patron Gold Award Lodges. Currently there are only four Grand Patron Lodges in Cheshire and one Grand Patron Gold Award Lodge.
Ten of our RAM Lodges have no MBF Honorific to date, three are Vice Patrons and eleven are Patrons so we can still achieve great things in the seven years that we have. Those Mark Lodges that are strong and have a RAM Lodge moored to them can switch their attention to the RAM Lodge once they have achieved their goal Let’s try to make Cheshire a Grand Patron Gold Award Province.
Festive board raffles, auctions and the like are good ways to make additional funds or Lodge events such as talent contests, sponsored car washes, car boot sales, organised walks and garden parties can all be ways of enjoying the journey to 2024.
Brethren make the most of this opportunity to support the MBF, for most of us, it will not happen again in our lifetime!