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May9Written by:The Freemason Academy
Sunday, May 09, 2010 
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Last night I attended the annual discussion on pending legislation and the presentation of the incoming budget. It was fun, entertaining, and sad, all at the same time. It was fun to see the Grand Lodge marshal its’ forces to deal with unnecessary and threatening legislation. The presentation of the 2010-2011 budget however, was sad.
The new budget coming on the heels of last year’s $6 per capita increase was increased by another $60,000 and will require another $8 increase. The justification was the declining membership is now only 9,000 down 60% in the past 10 years! Unfortunately, not one of those pennies will be used be used to help the Membership of the Grand Lodge. You dear Brothers, will vote for it because you have a history of trusting in the Grand Master to do the right thing. What is interesting is the budget could be brought in line without a lot of work and leave a lot of the new expenditures in place.
So what is the 800pound gorilla which everyone keeps ignoring in the Grand Lodge?
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In 1950, the average Freemason remained active in the Lodge for over 20 years. Today they stay for less than 4 years. In the business world the shareholders would demand either a solution or the resignation from the corporate President. However, after 60 years of seeing the number of candidates fall and the turnover rate quadruple we have no established program geared up to solve either of these two crucial problems.
Eight years ago when I first looked at the membership numbers it was very clear to me unless something was done, Freemasonry in this state as we now know it, was in dire trouble. I wrote a tongue-in-cheek article based 25 years in the future and published it in the Lodge Trestle Board. Last night listening to the Junior Grand Steward predict a similar tragedy if we did not approve this largest pro capita raise, I had to bite my tongue.
So if we have known about this problem for decades who is responsible for nothing being done about it?
I am! You are! Every Master Mason in this jurisdiction is!
We have all failed miserably in taking personal responsibility for our inability. The problem is just too overwhelming. We are too busy. We do not understand. What’s good for the Grand Lodge is good for the USA! Last year General Motors filed bankruptcy solely because they ignored their customers in search of corporate greed. Millions of shareholders were wiped out because they took no personal responsibility for their own welfare. I should know, for the first time in my life I thought the professionals knew best right up to that time woke up Broke. Whose fault was that? – Mine!
Like you, I have seen good Arizonan Freemasons unjustly treated by “Brothers” who are not worthy of the name. Like you, I have watched men be browbeaten into dropping Masonic Charges by people who are supposed to be Servant Leaders, and like you, I have failed to take responsibility.
Yep Brothers we are the villains in this mess, but we can also be the solution. This is not rocket science if you are willing to help we can solve it in very short order.
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Let me tell you a short story about the Philalethes Society. Eighteen months ago I was asked to join the Board as 1st Vice President. Suddenly, I got clobbered with complaints and predictions that we would be out of business in a year. We were losing 30% of our membership and we would be broke in two years. We were disliked by every Grand Lodge, York Rite and Scottish Rite. My predecessor along with several key members of the Society had founded The Masonic Society and they were already approaching 800 members. You can imagine the mood in that first board meeting was grim.
Fortunately Terry Tilton and I realized we needed to admit we had a serious problem and we began to take a hatchet to our budget, we fired the publisher and hired a new editor. We asked our members what we could do to keep them. The result is we became more involved with giving our members what they wanted. This included making our society management more transparent and giving our members more for their membership dues. We avoided politics and concentrated on education and research. By the end of the year we had stopped the bleeding. Members were renewing and new members were joining. The next step was to bring in people to strengthen the board and be willing to be hands-on board members. I called up my close friend Ron Martin who is well thought of by both AASR and York Rite. Ron had been one of the three prime builders of The Masonic Society and I convinced him he could do more good for the fraternity. Ron in turn approached John L. Cooper from the GL of California. Terry convinced Ed Halpaus to take on the position of Executive Secretary.
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By the end of March we had gained back almost all the members we had lost and we are back in the black. It’s amazing what you can accomplish by helping your customers get what they want and when you don’t care who gets the credit.
When the Junior PGM asked me to offer the Freemason Academy courses (including a 20 lesson lodge leadership, member retention, and recruiting course) to the chair of our own Grand Lodge educational committee, I managed to get in about three sentences before having to listen to a 50 minute lecture on how Masonic Education is left in the hands of PhD’s and not someone like me. When the lecture was finally over and I put the phone down my wife handed me a cup of tea. “Didn’t he understand you were offering the Grand Lodge the entire curriculum for free?”
“I never got that far” I replied savoring that first sip, “and after the first five minutes of being insulted I lost interest.”
Whose fault is it we are not taking on the 800 pound gorilla? - Mine and yours because sometimes what is being said is nowhere nearly important as what we do not hear.
The question we all must ask ourselves as Arizona Masons is; what are we going to do about it?
Call me, send me an instant message on Skype or shoot me an email, if you are ready to take on your responsibility. |
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Tags:2 comment(s) so far...
Re: THE 800 POUND GORILLA IN THE ROOM By Jack Buta P.M. I have to agree with you in regards to educating our members and our future members seemingly being left to the Phd's. I am a 28 year old Teacher who studies Freemasonry, particularly the Anti-Freemason period, who sees the biggest problem being the extremely large generation gap between our lodge members. I think this is a problem that all lodges see. The question is how can we take advantage of the recent Freemasonry excitement in films and books and bring new recruits in to our lodges. How can we get our foot in the door as recent Alumni to our Universities to open these doors. Change is hard but even those who helped bring Freemasonry to America understood, you either evolve or you are left behind. I am always willing to do what I can for any Lodge or brother I can. Feel free to contact me at johncurry8@gmail.com
By jccurry28 on
Sunday, May 09, 2010
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Re: THE 800 POUND GORILLA IN THE ROOM By Jack Buta P.M. I am a recent FC Mason (6 days since passing) and I am regularily being invited to join MM Brethren at various Lodges within my local district and without ever since my initiation on Feb 24th '10. I love the Craft for the caliber of men I am coming to know and for the opportunity to grow among like minded Brethren. But almost as important is the sanctuary it provides from the machiavelian sand box politics of the non Masonic world.
I witness on a regular basis the fine line between the need for quantity and quality of membership. By far, without a doubt, the caliber of men I have come to know are among the highest I've ever had the privilege of knowing. Every time I attend any Masoic activity I meet more. But on the flip side of that coin there are also the not so good. Rarely do I meet them but I often hear of them. People that would never have become Masons had their names been made public within the District prior to their initiation. Such things are inevitable in any period but the more needful the Craft is for membership, the more suceptable it is (as in any organization) to the lowering of standards for entry. Conciously or otherwise.
It is my hope that as a new Mason myself I can be a part of the solution. and it is my continued hope that the work that is required will be sufficient to weed out most of those whose motives are not suited to the Craft. Further, I hope and pray that I can continue to learn from learned Brethren, examples of how to co exist, in a Masonic spirit, with the machiavelian politics of the world outside of our Craft. Anythng I can do to strengthen the Craft I will instinctively do to the best of my abilities as opportunities arise.
Ian Casey FC - Oakville, Ontario By Bro. Ian Casey FC on
Monday, May 10, 2010
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