In most Lodges I’ve seen, the Worshipful Master & Secretary do pretty much everything. The wardens & deacons play their parts in Lodge but not out of it.
Many members show up to enjoy Masonry, but not to create that enjoyment. It’s someone else’s job.
In the best Lodge I’ve seen, every event is carried out by a cheerful, efficient team. That Lodge - the members not just a couple of leaders - puts a lot of work into development outside the Lodge.
All of them are leaders in some fashion. They have a shared vision spanning years.
All of them are there to create enjoyment for others, and so have greater enjoyment for themselves.
Are "Robert's Rules of Order" part of this training? During my Freshman year of College, my "Speech 101" Professor taught this. And my NY Army Nat'l Guard Officer Candidate School in Empire State Military Academy at West Point put on the finishing touch points. Please look into such training packages.
This Grand Lodges does use portions of Robert's Rules, but not all. For example, Calling for the Question is considered inappropriate in the GL of Washington.
I guess location is going to be part of it. Living in a military town, we have a lot of folks that are either active duty or veterans in our lodges, and leadership training and experience comes along with that. The other side of the coin with that is that some find it difficult to transition from ordering people around, to managing a volunteer organization. They may have wonderful organizational and leadership skills, but lack people skills. In the military you can get away with it, but not in lodge.
Since I haven't been around lodges that lack that advantage, it's hard for me to say how leadership is groomed in those places. Some men are just naturally leadership material, some aren't, yet I assume that there are more than a few WMs out there that both lack the skills and the mentorship to become a good leader. The LLR does have leadership courses, but it's only a start, you can't make a leader in an hour. In the Air Force they have whole academies dedicated to teaching hundreds of hours of instruction, I'm sure other branches are similar.
Brother Glenn, I believe location is part of it, as I have seen many Veterans in my home Lodge as well as in Bremerton Valley where we met. I wholeheartedly agree with you that as with any label, the label of 'leadership material' must be applied judiciously.
Through my now 2 years serving as a Military Counselor in the Greater Seattle area, I have learned that:
1) Neither all (military) leaders are created with an equal capacity for distinguishing between leading vs. managing personnel, and
2.) The quality of service rendered by our brethren isn't uniform in any way.
When I say 'quality', this says nothing regarding the brother's intent or enthusiasm for serving the Craft, however, especially as newer Brothers, I find that often events are planned on an ad hoc basis ather than through thoughtful and deliberate deploying of the right men for the job.
This points again to the necessity of knowing our brethren well through fellowship and earnest inquiry of their passions and strong suits in order to 'work best together'. We have access to this information (in our Petitions) and often use it to lesser effect due to the problem that this article attempts to address: a lack of training our brethren how to go about the business of making good men better men, AND better leaders of men.
A difficult feature of Freemasonry to accept and integrate into a unified vision for our Lodges is that we oftentimes lead how we want to be led, and we also serve others in ways we imagine they would 'best' be served. It seems to me the missing ingredient in this 'sauce' is ensuring that the culture of a particular Lodge includes an explicit - and frequently reinforced - agreement on what *we* prioritize when we serve each other.
I have seen this dynamic play out in civilian, military, and fraternal systems ranging from couples to families, divisions to departments, and from districts to regions.
So why should an individual Lodge be so different in identifying, prioritizing, and meeting its needs efficiently and with minimal fuss?
I’ve been associated with the Lodge Leadership Retreat in Washington for more than a decade. The instructors that make up the committee want the classes to be relevant and offer attendees the tools and ideas to bring back to their respective lodges.
In other words, we can teach on the subject, but leaders are made in the lodge they labor in.
For me, one of the biggest opportunities for a lodge is to move beyond thinking in terms of single years. Lodges that can envision what they could look like over a longer term are the ones that are going to create a culture and see success. I like that we rotate our lodge leaders each year, but the risk is:
1) the lodge puts everything into the hands of the WM, and
2) each new WM sways the direction of the lodge in ‘their own’ vision.
When this happens, there is no traction on any long term plan and worse, once the term is done the WM may feel burnt out and dial back their involvement.
Leadership comes through serving. Serving the long term goals of the lodge.
Were lucky here in NC. We have the Wilkerson College program for lodge leadership. In it it teaches, leadership, Communications, IRS tax law, Business operations, Masonic history, Esoterism etc. Senior Deacons are eligible for the 3 day course. NC hosts it at the Grand lodge and at our 2 homes over the weekend. http://www.wilkersoncollege.com/ its a paid course and usually our lodge sends our senior deacon.
I can't share a link, as the information is within our grandview portal and you'd have to be a member to see it.
Our Lodge Leadership Retreat is a weekend of classes coupled with great fellowship. Saturday is the main day of classes, where we offer an ala carte spread of around 30 classes that the attendees can pick and choose which classes to take. The classes range from duties for the various elected officers, leadership, temple board, improving the lodge experience, etc. Your curriculum seems similar to what we also offer.
It is an event, including meals, lodging, keynote speakers and open to any master mason, but geared towards more the pillared officers and secretaries.
In most Lodges I’ve seen, the Worshipful Master & Secretary do pretty much everything. The wardens & deacons play their parts in Lodge but not out of it.
Many members show up to enjoy Masonry, but not to create that enjoyment. It’s someone else’s job.
In the best Lodge I’ve seen, every event is carried out by a cheerful, efficient team. That Lodge - the members not just a couple of leaders - puts a lot of work into development outside the Lodge.
All of them are leaders in some fashion. They have a shared vision spanning years.
All of them are there to create enjoyment for others, and so have greater enjoyment for themselves.
Are "Robert's Rules of Order" part of this training? During my Freshman year of College, my "Speech 101" Professor taught this. And my NY Army Nat'l Guard Officer Candidate School in Empire State Military Academy at West Point put on the finishing touch points. Please look into such training packages.
This Grand Lodges does use portions of Robert's Rules, but not all. For example, Calling for the Question is considered inappropriate in the GL of Washington.
I guess location is going to be part of it. Living in a military town, we have a lot of folks that are either active duty or veterans in our lodges, and leadership training and experience comes along with that. The other side of the coin with that is that some find it difficult to transition from ordering people around, to managing a volunteer organization. They may have wonderful organizational and leadership skills, but lack people skills. In the military you can get away with it, but not in lodge.
Since I haven't been around lodges that lack that advantage, it's hard for me to say how leadership is groomed in those places. Some men are just naturally leadership material, some aren't, yet I assume that there are more than a few WMs out there that both lack the skills and the mentorship to become a good leader. The LLR does have leadership courses, but it's only a start, you can't make a leader in an hour. In the Air Force they have whole academies dedicated to teaching hundreds of hours of instruction, I'm sure other branches are similar.
Brother Glenn, I believe location is part of it, as I have seen many Veterans in my home Lodge as well as in Bremerton Valley where we met. I wholeheartedly agree with you that as with any label, the label of 'leadership material' must be applied judiciously.
Through my now 2 years serving as a Military Counselor in the Greater Seattle area, I have learned that:
1) Neither all (military) leaders are created with an equal capacity for distinguishing between leading vs. managing personnel, and
2.) The quality of service rendered by our brethren isn't uniform in any way.
When I say 'quality', this says nothing regarding the brother's intent or enthusiasm for serving the Craft, however, especially as newer Brothers, I find that often events are planned on an ad hoc basis ather than through thoughtful and deliberate deploying of the right men for the job.
This points again to the necessity of knowing our brethren well through fellowship and earnest inquiry of their passions and strong suits in order to 'work best together'. We have access to this information (in our Petitions) and often use it to lesser effect due to the problem that this article attempts to address: a lack of training our brethren how to go about the business of making good men better men, AND better leaders of men.
A difficult feature of Freemasonry to accept and integrate into a unified vision for our Lodges is that we oftentimes lead how we want to be led, and we also serve others in ways we imagine they would 'best' be served. It seems to me the missing ingredient in this 'sauce' is ensuring that the culture of a particular Lodge includes an explicit - and frequently reinforced - agreement on what *we* prioritize when we serve each other.
I have seen this dynamic play out in civilian, military, and fraternal systems ranging from couples to families, divisions to departments, and from districts to regions.
So why should an individual Lodge be so different in identifying, prioritizing, and meeting its needs efficiently and with minimal fuss?
What a great topic!
I’ve been associated with the Lodge Leadership Retreat in Washington for more than a decade. The instructors that make up the committee want the classes to be relevant and offer attendees the tools and ideas to bring back to their respective lodges.
In other words, we can teach on the subject, but leaders are made in the lodge they labor in.
For me, one of the biggest opportunities for a lodge is to move beyond thinking in terms of single years. Lodges that can envision what they could look like over a longer term are the ones that are going to create a culture and see success. I like that we rotate our lodge leaders each year, but the risk is:
1) the lodge puts everything into the hands of the WM, and
2) each new WM sways the direction of the lodge in ‘their own’ vision.
When this happens, there is no traction on any long term plan and worse, once the term is done the WM may feel burnt out and dial back their involvement.
Leadership comes through serving. Serving the long term goals of the lodge.
Were lucky here in NC. We have the Wilkerson College program for lodge leadership. In it it teaches, leadership, Communications, IRS tax law, Business operations, Masonic history, Esoterism etc. Senior Deacons are eligible for the 3 day course. NC hosts it at the Grand lodge and at our 2 homes over the weekend. http://www.wilkersoncollege.com/ its a paid course and usually our lodge sends our senior deacon.
That appears to be an amazing program, similar to our own LLR.
do you have any info or a link you can share?
I can't share a link, as the information is within our grandview portal and you'd have to be a member to see it.
Our Lodge Leadership Retreat is a weekend of classes coupled with great fellowship. Saturday is the main day of classes, where we offer an ala carte spread of around 30 classes that the attendees can pick and choose which classes to take. The classes range from duties for the various elected officers, leadership, temple board, improving the lodge experience, etc. Your curriculum seems similar to what we also offer.
It is an event, including meals, lodging, keynote speakers and open to any master mason, but geared towards more the pillared officers and secretaries.
I would argue the LLR teaches Administration skills more than actual Leadership. Not that that is a bad thing!