Today I am republishing an essay I first posted seven months ago. It’s not my normal practice to republish previous posts here on Emeth, but I think that the message this post tries to get across is vital to the future of our Fraternity, and I think that we still have Masons who need to hear it, and understand it.
If you’ve already read it, sorry to be sending it to your email box once again. If you haven’t, I hope that you will find value in it.
A bit of fiction to start us off:
It has become evident to the members of Magnum Lodge No. 357 that the Lodge no longer has a possible future. Lodge elections are no longer elections, rather they are an exercise in finding the easiest man to guilt into taking the East, using the argument that unless he does so, the Lodge will have to turn in its Charter.
Three to five Masons generally show up for Stated Meetings, but even that can’t be counted upon, and occasionally the Lodge has to rely upon visitors just to open on the Master Mason Degree. After those meetings, at which the Lodge struggles to survive as a shadow of its former self everyone is depressed. Visitors notice that no one even claps anymore when the Master raps the gavel for the final time.
Magnum Lodge No. 357 does however hold some assets. It has a few bucks in the bank, and it still owns its building free and clear, even though that building hasn’t been maintained in many years.
Eventually it’s decided that the building must be sold. The sale goes through, but much of the historical records and artifacts of the Lodge are lost, because no one thinks to get them out of the building before the sale closes. The new owner keeps the ivory gavels for himself, everything else is sold for pennies to a thrift shop.
The Lodge, sale proceeds in hand, now decides what to do with this extra money. It is, after all, their money to do with as they please, or so it seems to their way of thinking.
The first thing the members of Magnum Lodge No. 357 do is vote to use Lodge funds to buy themselves Life Memberships. Life Memberships that they know can be transferred to whatever Lodge they eventually merge or affiliate with.
They then give half of the money to an appendant body, a body that their wives and friends belong to, and a large portion of the remainder to another organization in town, an organization with no connection to Freemasonry, but which shares much overlapping membership with the Lodge.
They leave very little for the Lodge they consolidate with, not intending to actually become active members there, and not wanting to lose control of the funds.
This is all perfectly reasonable in the minds of the members of Magnum Lodge No. 357 because it is afterall, ‘their money.’
The problem with the above story is of course that it is not ‘their money.’ Morally (and first and foremost Freemasonry is a moral society) that money belongs to the men who donated it decades and decades, even centuries ago.
The current members of Magnum Lodge No. 357 haven’t raised more money than was spent each year in all the years that they have been Masons. They have kept the lights on in the building, but no more than that.
Their building, was built, and paid for, by men who have all been dead for one hundred years. The little money left in the Lodge investment accounts was raised by men who have been dead since the 1970’s.
The living members of Magnum Lodge No. 357 were unable to do anything to build the assets held by the Lodge due to a lack of membership, age, and a malaise caused by the sorry state of the Lodge.
They have no moral claim on any of the Lodge’s assets.
Yet they allow those assets to be wasted by not removing them from the building prior to its sale. They vote to use those assets to personally benefit themselves by voting to require the Lodge to pay for their own Life Memberships. They give away most of the rest of the money, not to another Lodge, or a Masonic charity, but to other organizations that they or their family members happen to be members of. They starve the Lodge they merge with, of both funds that should have gone to that Lodge, and of assistance, never planning to be active.
To be clear, when this happens, it is today’s Masons stealing from the Masons who came before them.
The money given in support of Magnum Lodge No. 357 one hundred or fifty years ago was given to support Freemasonry, and its good works in the community. It wasn’t given to be squandered, spent for personal benefit, or given away to other organizations. It was intended for Freemasonry, and morally, the Masons of today have no right to waste it, or divert it away.
Unfortunately, this is happening, far too often in Freemasonry today. In some cases Masons of today seem to have no problem morally stealing money from the Masons of yesteryear.
This must stop. We must recognize that our Lodge building isn’t only our Lodge building. Morally it also belongs to the men who built it and paid for it. We have no right to squander it away. We must always strive to be excellent stewards of the assets that were left to us by the Masons of so long ago.
When we refuse to be such, when we spend Lodge moneys for our own benefits, squander them, or give them to organizations outside of the Fraternity, we are violating a sacred trust, and we must be held accountable.
This makes me think of a local lodge that has a huge warchest, and and $20 annual dues combined with free everything at lodge as their main draw. Their membership is small so they tend to vote themselves free lunch and avoid paying real dues (it's their money) which is effectively a vote by the membership to gradually spend down the inheritance given to them by previous generations.
When a Masonic appeal comes up for example about Puerto Rico, they quibble over whether $100 donation from the lodge is too rich, when in fact they wouldn't miss 5x the amount.
The money problems may be secondary though. In the example in this post and also the lodge I know, we're describing sorta zombie lodges which are dead (but not yet) and have no animating purpose. It's hard for them to expend funds with any real wisdom or purpose if they don't .... have a purpose. This loss seems to predate consolidation by a number of years.
Excellent, MW. This might be worth reposting annually.
I’m working on my first budget. My goals include protecting our capital and being much more deliberate with our operating income.
Motions to spend funds not in the budget will be entertained *after* the Brother has worked with our Finance committee to identify what ought to be cut, to pay for the motion. That or pass the hat.
We’ll see how it goes.