The American System
In the United States, a national Grand Council charters local councils, which confer their degrees on selected Royal Arch Masons. Most councils are limited to twenty-seven members, but the Council of the Nine Muses is limited to nine authors (the new Sovereign Master must read a new essay), and the Grand Master's Council has no limit, either numerically or geographically.
The officers of a council have mostly the same titles as the officers of a Masonic lodge, with the president being the Sovereign Master. The councils also study Freemasonry with a view to improving service in it. The Grand Council has created some internal honours, the most notable being "Knight Grand Cross".
Read more about this topic: Allied Masonic Degrees
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—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
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—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)