We call it "Request for Help" letters. And I do not see why going thru Grand Lodge first is required. The first thing any person or group sees is the local Lodge.
The only way Im thinking in involving a Grand Lodge is if the petition is asking for a considerably amount of money.
Anyway my logistic will be the local Lodge first and then, if necessary, the Grand Lodge.
It would come down to logistics, if they want the Grand Lodge to turn over the contact details or all the Lodge Secretaries or send the communication on their behalf — then, yes, permission is needed.
It comes under privacy and spam laws.
That being said, if the charities wanted to go and build their own database of lodge contacts and email them as they see fit — then, no permission needed.
Yeah, then it’s implied consent to be contacted for marketing purposes by these charities.
They aren’t beginning letters,
because they’re not raising funds for a poor distressed brother who is fairly claiming our assistance, where we need to be reminded of the moment that we were admitted so we can embrace the practice of the virtue we admire.
I would argue that if a lunch puts its contact details online and if I ran a charity and contacted the Lodge marketing to them for donations, then, they have implied consent to receive those communications.
Grand Lodge would have no authority to say that I couldn’t contact those lodges.
The Grand Lodge would be the one that normally circulates the begging letters to the lodges on behalf of the beneficiary of the charity
I tend to agree. Lodges in my Jurisdiction generally have contact information publicly available, and welcome contact. As such we tend to receive communications seeking our support from community groups. It is only the Masonic groups and Masons that are required to go through the Grand Lodge.
To the best of my knowledge the Grand Lodge of Ohio doesn't require the youth groups to ask for permission. It's really quite the opposite, where we get inundated from every level with reminders that we need to support them! Mind you, my children are only of the four legged kind, so I admit my bias.
I agree with Wilson that it should be local lodge first. The Grand Lodge has only ever made requests when directed to large campaigns for relief through the MSA or the specific Ohio charitable projects.
We too get the frequent reminders to support the youth groups. But when they send us a request for funds, it always comes with the approval of the GM attached. That just seems pretty odd to me.
writing. Websters 1828 is a great dictionary because it allows us to see into the past to understand the context at the time.
We call them “begging certificates”
If you think about text the north east charge, and consider the meaning of the term it seems really apparent that the intention of these begging certificates is to alert us to a pour in distress brother who from unforeseen and inevitable calamity is reduced to the lowest steps of poverty and distress, That it is a call for us to remember the poor penniless moment, we were admitted, to then practice that virtue we profess to admire.
We have our Grand charity, Which emails or members of the Grand Lodge on a semi regular basis when there is something that they’re specifically raising funds for. We also have the Grand Masters disaster relief fund as well.
There are also some Masonic charities like the Masonic youth welfare fund, But with the significant decline a membership they rebranded move away from the Masonic references and Call themselves something else. So these charities don’t get an opportunity to reach out to lodges with unless they have an existing relationship.
We need to remember that just because it’s Freemasonry doesn’t mean it’s a business or that the typical business practices we see our day-to-day world still don’t apply.
Effectively these charities are marketing to the members of lodges of that Grand Lodge.
Just like any partnership and marketing campaign they need to get permission for the Grand Lodge to either send the communication out to all their lodges on their behalf or handover a marketing list. I’m sure we want Grand Lodge to do the emails.
This is not to say that they should be classified as begging letters or whatever the local terminology is — rather Grand Lodge should be considering whether they’re marketing communications they actually want to send out to their members or not.
Otherwise, they’re more than welcome to go and, like any other business, through their own means identify the key contacts at Lodge’s and then market to them.
Yes, that will mean they will not have consent to contact, and thus would be unmasonic let alone a possible breach of law around spam & privacy.
It seems to me that Your Grand Lodge has been using begging certificates or letters, incorrectly.
If these charities want to reach out to Lodge’s and then contact the Grand Lodge for assistance, they can deny the request out of good business judgment, so as not to spam their members and shouldn’t be putting it under begging letters.
If a Grand Lodge wants to assist by emailing lodges on their behalf, that’s their way of contributing to charity.
But they should not be begging letters and they should be reserved specifically for poor distress brother who fairly claim our assistance
North East Charge
“…..from unforeseen and inevitable calamity, are reduce to the lowest ebb of poverty and distress. These claim not only our sympathy, but also our assistance….”
“.. are you willing to contribute to the relief of poor and distressed Brethren?”
“.. that should you, in the daily walks of life, meet with a poor and distressed Brother who may fairly claim your assistance, you will remember that peculiar moment when, poor and penniless, you were admitted into Freemasonry..”
Websters 1828
BEG'GING, participle present tense Asking alms; supplicating; assuming without proof.
BEG'GING, noun The act of soliciting alms; the practice of asking alms; as, he lives by begging
'ALMS noun, 'amz. [Eng. almesse; Latin eleemosyna; Gr. to pity.]
Any thing given gratuitously to relieve the poor, as money, food, or clothing, otherwise called charity.
Thanks from this spanish speaking person. Sometimes I get lost in terms. There are some words that in spanish look exactly the same than in english but means something diferent.
Thank you for sharing this perspective RW. The idea of reserving 'begging letters' specifically for poor and distressed brothers makes a great deal of sense to me. I've read over your comment a number of times over the past couple of days, and it seems spot on. So huge thanks for it.
This is an issue that has bugged me for years. As you point out, it's the lodges money, and they should be able to decide where they spend it.
But at what point is it considered a begging letter? We had recently donated to a JROTC group because one of our brothers stood up in lodge and made his case for it. I've invited an organizer of a fund raiser to put wreaths on the gravestones at a local state Veterans cemetery to pitch his needs. What is the difference between a personal request in lodge versus a letter?
I would assume that the difference is whether it is a letter sent to all lodges versus individual asks, but the code needs to be clearer of its intent with this subject. It's confusing.
Not long ago we received (if memory serves) a request for funds from one of our youth groups. It was, as they all are, first approved by the GM. But in that same timeframe, we had two Brothers stand up in Lodge to ask for support of community/charity endeavors they are involved with. And we gave money to both.
We've also (as I'm sure most all Lodges have) received letters asking for support from local charitable endeavors, and we've given.
To my knowledge, we do not have any "begging letter" provisions, and it is up to each Lodge to determine whether the request is a valid and what, if any, assistance they wish to provide.
Larger scale events are handled by the Grand Lodge. In those cases, Lodges and individuals who wish to contribute are encouraged to send their donations to the GL and then, along with their own contribution, is set to the MSA for distribution. There is no requirement to do so.
As for the Youth Organizations, I don't recall ever seeing a letter asking for a donation, it's just something we do here and that support comes from the entire Masonic family. It is not unusual to see a check being presented to those organizations at annual meetings or special events, or even to see one of the Grand bodies sponsor an event for them.
In my Jurisdiction, a given portion of each Mason's yearly dues is directed to each of our youth groups. Beyond that, a couple of my Lodges solicit the help of youth groups for various projects, and that always results in us making a reasonably significant donation to the local Chapter. Finally, our Lodges do receive requests for funds via letter from time to time.
We call it "Request for Help" letters. And I do not see why going thru Grand Lodge first is required. The first thing any person or group sees is the local Lodge.
The only way Im thinking in involving a Grand Lodge is if the petition is asking for a considerably amount of money.
Anyway my logistic will be the local Lodge first and then, if necessary, the Grand Lodge.
It would come down to logistics, if they want the Grand Lodge to turn over the contact details or all the Lodge Secretaries or send the communication on their behalf — then, yes, permission is needed.
It comes under privacy and spam laws.
That being said, if the charities wanted to go and build their own database of lodge contacts and email them as they see fit — then, no permission needed.
Most Lodges has their contact information publicly posted.
But I understand your comment. Each jurisdiction has its own set of rules for this matter.
Yeah, then it’s implied consent to be contacted for marketing purposes by these charities.
They aren’t beginning letters,
because they’re not raising funds for a poor distressed brother who is fairly claiming our assistance, where we need to be reminded of the moment that we were admitted so we can embrace the practice of the virtue we admire.
I would argue that if a lunch puts its contact details online and if I ran a charity and contacted the Lodge marketing to them for donations, then, they have implied consent to receive those communications.
Grand Lodge would have no authority to say that I couldn’t contact those lodges.
The Grand Lodge would be the one that normally circulates the begging letters to the lodges on behalf of the beneficiary of the charity
I tend to agree. Lodges in my Jurisdiction generally have contact information publicly available, and welcome contact. As such we tend to receive communications seeking our support from community groups. It is only the Masonic groups and Masons that are required to go through the Grand Lodge.
To the best of my knowledge the Grand Lodge of Ohio doesn't require the youth groups to ask for permission. It's really quite the opposite, where we get inundated from every level with reminders that we need to support them! Mind you, my children are only of the four legged kind, so I admit my bias.
I agree with Wilson that it should be local lodge first. The Grand Lodge has only ever made requests when directed to large campaigns for relief through the MSA or the specific Ohio charitable projects.
We too get the frequent reminders to support the youth groups. But when they send us a request for funds, it always comes with the approval of the GM attached. That just seems pretty odd to me.
I always look to the language at the time of
writing. Websters 1828 is a great dictionary because it allows us to see into the past to understand the context at the time.
We call them “begging certificates”
If you think about text the north east charge, and consider the meaning of the term it seems really apparent that the intention of these begging certificates is to alert us to a pour in distress brother who from unforeseen and inevitable calamity is reduced to the lowest steps of poverty and distress, That it is a call for us to remember the poor penniless moment, we were admitted, to then practice that virtue we profess to admire.
We have our Grand charity, Which emails or members of the Grand Lodge on a semi regular basis when there is something that they’re specifically raising funds for. We also have the Grand Masters disaster relief fund as well.
There are also some Masonic charities like the Masonic youth welfare fund, But with the significant decline a membership they rebranded move away from the Masonic references and Call themselves something else. So these charities don’t get an opportunity to reach out to lodges with unless they have an existing relationship.
We need to remember that just because it’s Freemasonry doesn’t mean it’s a business or that the typical business practices we see our day-to-day world still don’t apply.
Effectively these charities are marketing to the members of lodges of that Grand Lodge.
Just like any partnership and marketing campaign they need to get permission for the Grand Lodge to either send the communication out to all their lodges on their behalf or handover a marketing list. I’m sure we want Grand Lodge to do the emails.
This is not to say that they should be classified as begging letters or whatever the local terminology is — rather Grand Lodge should be considering whether they’re marketing communications they actually want to send out to their members or not.
Otherwise, they’re more than welcome to go and, like any other business, through their own means identify the key contacts at Lodge’s and then market to them.
Yes, that will mean they will not have consent to contact, and thus would be unmasonic let alone a possible breach of law around spam & privacy.
It seems to me that Your Grand Lodge has been using begging certificates or letters, incorrectly.
If these charities want to reach out to Lodge’s and then contact the Grand Lodge for assistance, they can deny the request out of good business judgment, so as not to spam their members and shouldn’t be putting it under begging letters.
If a Grand Lodge wants to assist by emailing lodges on their behalf, that’s their way of contributing to charity.
But they should not be begging letters and they should be reserved specifically for poor distress brother who fairly claim our assistance
North East Charge
“…..from unforeseen and inevitable calamity, are reduce to the lowest ebb of poverty and distress. These claim not only our sympathy, but also our assistance….”
“.. are you willing to contribute to the relief of poor and distressed Brethren?”
“.. that should you, in the daily walks of life, meet with a poor and distressed Brother who may fairly claim your assistance, you will remember that peculiar moment when, poor and penniless, you were admitted into Freemasonry..”
Websters 1828
BEG'GING, participle present tense Asking alms; supplicating; assuming without proof.
BEG'GING, noun The act of soliciting alms; the practice of asking alms; as, he lives by begging
'ALMS noun, 'amz. [Eng. almesse; Latin eleemosyna; Gr. to pity.]
Any thing given gratuitously to relieve the poor, as money, food, or clothing, otherwise called charity.
Thanks from this spanish speaking person. Sometimes I get lost in terms. There are some words that in spanish look exactly the same than in english but means something diferent.
Thank you for sharing this perspective RW. The idea of reserving 'begging letters' specifically for poor and distressed brothers makes a great deal of sense to me. I've read over your comment a number of times over the past couple of days, and it seems spot on. So huge thanks for it.
This is an issue that has bugged me for years. As you point out, it's the lodges money, and they should be able to decide where they spend it.
But at what point is it considered a begging letter? We had recently donated to a JROTC group because one of our brothers stood up in lodge and made his case for it. I've invited an organizer of a fund raiser to put wreaths on the gravestones at a local state Veterans cemetery to pitch his needs. What is the difference between a personal request in lodge versus a letter?
I would assume that the difference is whether it is a letter sent to all lodges versus individual asks, but the code needs to be clearer of its intent with this subject. It's confusing.
Yeah, you hit it on the head here.
Not long ago we received (if memory serves) a request for funds from one of our youth groups. It was, as they all are, first approved by the GM. But in that same timeframe, we had two Brothers stand up in Lodge to ask for support of community/charity endeavors they are involved with. And we gave money to both.
We've also (as I'm sure most all Lodges have) received letters asking for support from local charitable endeavors, and we've given.
To my knowledge, we do not have any "begging letter" provisions, and it is up to each Lodge to determine whether the request is a valid and what, if any, assistance they wish to provide.
Larger scale events are handled by the Grand Lodge. In those cases, Lodges and individuals who wish to contribute are encouraged to send their donations to the GL and then, along with their own contribution, is set to the MSA for distribution. There is no requirement to do so.
As for the Youth Organizations, I don't recall ever seeing a letter asking for a donation, it's just something we do here and that support comes from the entire Masonic family. It is not unusual to see a check being presented to those organizations at annual meetings or special events, or even to see one of the Grand bodies sponsor an event for them.
In my Jurisdiction, a given portion of each Mason's yearly dues is directed to each of our youth groups. Beyond that, a couple of my Lodges solicit the help of youth groups for various projects, and that always results in us making a reasonably significant donation to the local Chapter. Finally, our Lodges do receive requests for funds via letter from time to time.
The very name Begging Letters guilts you!
Yes. That's my perspective as well.
But, perhaps as Brother Allatt points out above, it is because Freemasonry still utilizes so much old and outdated language.
In keeping with the spirit of the intent, why wouldn't we call them relief letters?
That would certainly seem more in line with modern and now correct usage.