Can We Stop Being Stupid?
Why do we insist upon shooting ourselves in the foot? Repeatedly?
When I first moved to the area in which I now live, one of my very first acts was to join the Masonic Lodge in my new city.
And, the very first task that the new to me Lodge assigned to me was an appointment to the Audit Committee.
That would have been all well and good, if I knew the first thing about accounting or had any skills whatsoever in that area. Alas, I do not.
I use an accountant to take care of my personal finances, and have done so my entire adult life. Interestingly, the same accountant my father used before me, and my grandfather used as well. I guess that he is never going to retire!
So, that wasn’t good. Here I was on the Audit Committee, with absolutely no idea how to perform an audit or review the financial records.
It got worse when we actually went to perform the audit, and I realized that the other two men appointed to the Committee had no more idea as to how to do the work than I did. The Treasurer and Secretary could have told us any darn thing and we would have believed them.
The problem of course was that the Treasurer and Secretary can’t audit their own books, the Lodge was small, so there just weren’t any qualified men to choose from.
I’m pleased to say that in the years since, the Lodge has solved this problem.
It has hired a professional accountant to review our financial records. Most recently it has hired that accountant to not only review our books once a year, but to do so quarterly, just to make sure that we are on track. The Lodge has fairly substantial financial assets, so feels that it makes sense to keep a close eye on things.
That’s all to the good. And vastly better practice than what was done here all those years ago.
Today I ran across this article by Chris Hodapp:
Former Grand Rapids Shrine Secretary Accused In $1.39 Million Embezzlement
Apparently this dirtbag started stealing from the Shrine, from the Children’s Trust Fund for fuck’s sake, way back in 2019. Stealing money designated to help children, for years.
Clearly any reasonable review of the financial records during those years would have revealed the ongoing theft.
But, let’s call it like it is. Those Brothers who were in charge were too damn dumb to actually have the financial records competently reviewed.
Why do we allow this insanity to continue? It happens over and over again. It has happened in my own Jurisdiction, time and again, vast sums of money.
In fact, the very first task I was ever given by my Grand Lodge was to oversee and report back on the civil prosecution of a man who stole vast sums of money from his Lodge, leaving it with nothing.
Why, in almost all cases are we not hiring a real, genuine, accountant, with no connection to our Lodge to review our financial records on a regular basis? Shouldn’t every Lodge, and every appendant/concordant body be doing this? Wouldn’t it be far cheaper for our Fraternity as a whole to do so instead of suffering these repeated massive losses?
Why do we insist upon making embezzlement easy, by refusing to hire competent assistance?
Why does our Craft as a whole seemingly refuse to learn?
Why do we collectively insist upon shooting ourselves in the foot?
OK, enough ranting.
This is, after all, Christmas Eve!
What’s wrong with me? There’s great news too!
I’ve got a good gift idea, something we should all buy for ourselves!
Our great Brother from New York, Ken Stuczynski, who contributes frequently to our discussions here, and even joins us on Rummer & Grapes from time to time despite the time difference has had a new book published. Coming out next week.
The Magpie Mason wrote about it here:
Book On Research Lodges Due Next Week
Check it out!
And pre-order it here:
Masonic Research Lodges, Bodies, and Societies
Please join me in supporting our Brother’s tireless efforts for our Craft.
Finally, as long as we are all buying books, don’t forget about our very own Book Club:
In December we’ve been reading, and discussing Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
In January we are going to tackle Frankenstein!
By Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.
I chose this book because despite being published in 1818, I think that it speaks to our current zeitgeist.
It was written in a time when new technologies were strongly impacting society. Workers were displaced, scientific progress seemed unchecked by morality, and there was a growing opposition to the widespread changes being wrought by technological innovation.
This is quite similar to today, particularly with the advent of artificial intelligence, and a widespread view that the creators of this new technology are driven only by a desire to implement it, and greed, not caring about what or whom they break in the process.
Frankenstein was a warning, relevant to today.
I've read a good deal about the book through the years, but have never actually read the book itself, so I look forward to diving into it.
I hope that you'll join me in reading and discussing it in the new year.
It is widely available anywhere and in any format, I'll be reading this copy, it is a truly beautiful edition, at an extremely reasonable price:
Just as a quick reminder, our Book Club is virtual and text based, with our ongoing discussion taking place on Substack’s Chat feature. You do have to be a subscriber to my personal Substack in order to participate, but that is super easy and without any cost.
10 years ago, I was the Secretary for 3 Masonic bodies – two Concordant and one Lodge. Two different directions.
For the two York Rite bodies, I was both the Secretary and the Treasurer. This is because we didn’t have enough active members to have both a Secretary and a Treasurer. I’ll save my opinion on that for later, but the primary problem was that nobody was paying attention to what I was doing, much less doing an annual audit. And I was asking for Companions to look at my books and help me. Crickets. “You’re dong fine!” Perhaps so, but I was also uncomfortable with how comfortable they were, especially with the scandals that were going on at that time. Eventually I successfully caught the ear of a couple of members, and it turned out the books weren’t nearly as bad as I feared they were.
Likely because of what I was doing at Tenino Lodge as their Secretary. The Worshipful Master had a system down, and it worked really well – if everyone cooperated. I was adding the income I was receiving in the Lodge minutes, including the method of payment and the check numbers, etc. The Treasurer was telling me I didn’t need to do all that, and I asked him if what I was doing in these minutes were negatively affecting him, and if not, then I suggested that he pay more attention to his Treasurer work than my minutes. He never really did, and when audit time came, the Treasurer’s books ended up being the atrocious ones; the records I kept in the minutes were the records he didn’t bother to record. He got in trouble for other things, which led to his replacement – who also didn’t do things in conjunction with the Secretary and the Lodge. He had his own way of doing things, and those methods were difficult to audit, which led him to resign as Treasurer. By this time, I stopped being the Lodge Secretary, but I know first-hand the method we used worked well, and I see Lodges that use the method succeed.
Back to what I mentioned earlier – a Lodge or Concordant Body that has a combination Secretary-Treasurer is pure foolishness. I know of many that have that, primarily because they don’t have the manpower to have people in each position. A Secretary-Treasurer is just asking for trouble, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be criminal in nature. A Lodge that is to that point needs to take a hard look at what they are doing as a Lodge, and if they really have enough members to keep going, or to consolidate or turn in their Charter. It’s true - Not everyone is cut out to be a Secretary or a Treasurer. I definitely know that. And a Lodge should not force a member out of his element into one of those positions – that’s not a way to teach a Brother those skills. But if you’re down to only a half-dozen or less active members, your Lodge might need to make some hard decisions.
I was Treasurer if our Homeowners Association years ago. The President talked me into it. I am like you car I have an accountant for all of my money matters. Anyway he wanted me to sign away some papers saying I had reviewed and approved some money matters. I wasn’t going to do it unless I knew I was signing. So I did some investigating and found out he was stealing from our association. 🥺😳😠😥 he probably would have gotten away with it and I not questioned what I was signing.