First, giving honor and glory to the Most High, the Beneficent, the Merciful, our Creator, the Lord God. I cannot express how honored and excited I am for your faith and confidence in electing me as your Illustrious Potentate for the ensuring year 2008 and bestowing your trust in me to lead Arabian Temple #42. I am aware that as Illustrious Potentate I am to be your leader, but I’m also your servant as well.

I assure you that I will do all that I can to represent Arabian Temple #42 to the best of my ability. Our theme for this year is "You Are Important"; because, one Noble can and will make a difference in whether this Temple succeeds or fails in any and all endeavors it under takes.

We must continue to be administratively effective and efficient; "realizing that we are a brotherhood of men; we must never forget that this is a business, and we will govern ourselves as such."

As nobles we must strive to be visible in the community and continue to support our several charitable programs through the strength of our Nobles, by fundraisers and membership efforts.

Furthermore, by working together as a proactive team of dedicated Nobles we can accomplish great things for our Temple. To this end we must Sacrifice, by sacrificing, taking risks and looking ahead to the future, Arabian Temple #42 can continue to be a great success.

We must endeavor to expand and improve our partnership, working relationship, and dialogue with the Daughters of Arabian Court #52, through more group interaction, teambuilding, public and community events.

Nobles, this is not my Temple – this is your Temple! Therefore you cannot take a back seat and say, "there is nothing for you to do" to support your Temple. This is not true! I say, "YOU ARE IMPORTANT".

In closing, I want to say that, I, the elected and appointed officers stand ready to serve should you need any assistance.

Fraternally,

Homer E. "Black Stone" Stephenson

Illustrious Potentate