Has your Lodge received (through your Grand Lodge) inquiries from beafreemason.org?
If so, has your Lodge created a process whereby these inquiries can be followed up on in a systematic way, so that none get lost, and that they are answered quickly?
Does your Grand Lodge provide your Lodge with any preliminary information about the fellow making the inquiry, or is it just his name and contact information?
Has anyone from your Grand Lodge ever followed up with your Lodge to find out what happened with the inquiries your Lodge received?
Let’s chat about it…
Like every Thursday we will have a Live Open Thread for those with a paid subscription to Emeth today. The email opening the thread will go out at 8:00 AM Pacific time, and I’ll remain on it until 6:00 PM. Please join us, we can chat about whatever Masonic subject is on your mind.
We have received 5 inquiries from the internet but not sure they originated from that site or not.
We track them on Grandview and have called and emailed them. Invited them to our Meet and Greet night designed specifically for this inquiries. The only call back is a young man in the Navy that hasn't been able to attend anything due to his duties have placed him out of state for a while.
We'll reach out again and invite for a second Meet and Greet in August.
We have emails and phone numbers along with anything other information he provided.
If you're talking about Chris, it had been really cool over the last year when he had sent holiday greetings to me, your Deputy, and the other inquirers over the latter part of 2020.
I'm glad to hear that he's still engaged with your Lodge.
It's a shame that this chat is so quiet, as we have had well over 300 men inquire into our Fraternity through Beafreemason.org and the Grand Lodge website.
Good news is there are several Districts and Lodges who are processing these inquirers, and I have found a few of them are now indeed Entered Apprentices!
But, while it's great to see new members through these two internet channels, we must always remember to Guard the West Gate. Some of them do not even make it past my desk. Remember, it's Quality, not Quantity.
The beafreemason.org effort is a massive and costly undertaking, provided to us by both US Supreme Councils and the Shrine. These organizations are providing us a tremendous tool, and as you point out, a great number of referrals. We in turn need to do our part to reach out to these men immediately to show them that their inquiry didn't just fall into an empty hole.
Once we've done that, we do, as you rightly remind us, need to carefully vet them to ensure that they are suitable for Freemasonry, and will be an asset to the Craft.
I've now attended two international in scope meetings at which these efforts (and the results thus far) were discussed. If we do our part, the SR's and Shrine will continue doing theirs.
I'd also like to point out that these organizations will provide any Lodge, free of charge, all manner of promotional things, everything from web banners to video, and that all of them (again without cost) can be customized for the Lodge. Information about that can be found at:
I'd like to add that it is a little disheartening when a Lodge talks with me about membership issues, but I don't see any of these social media banners used on their accounts, none of these posters on their buildings, none of the videos on their website.
Again, all of these materials can be customized with specific Lodge contact information, and all of that will be done for our Lodges, so there is no work, no technical knowledge needed, and no cost.
It is simply a matter of utilizing these professionally produced tools.
I'm going to give beafreemason.org an A for effort, but I don't think we've hit the bullseye yet.
In my term as DDGM I received at least a dozen new member inquiries from Grand Lodge. I called them and emailed them. I even charted them on a spreadsheet to keep track of my attempts to reach them. Through my repeated efforts I was able to have maybe three conversations, one of which led to a breakfast meeting. I offered to accompany those I contacted to pre-lodge gatherings so they could meet the various lodges in the District. Not one accepted my invitation. Ultimately the few that I connected with ghosted me. I'm very interested in responding to men who express an interest in Masonry, but they need to show interest in return. It's a fine line between responding to an inquiry and hounding someone to come meet a Mason.
12 leads, 3 initial connections, 0 subsequent connections. My experience may not be consistent with that of other Districts, however my experience suggests that beafreemason.org causes a few men to have a peek but nothing beyond that. Why is this?
Promotions such as beafreemason.org and the radio and TV ads that Grand Lodge started a few years ago are, as I understand it, our Fraternity's first efforts in mass media marketing. Maybe subsequent efforts will be generate better results.
I think that we Masons do an outstanding job of talking to ourselves. It's not clear that we've figured out how to talk to everyone else. I only know a little bit about marketing so it'll take somebody smarter than me to solve this puzzle.
Thank you for sharing this perspective VW John. It is important to hear about actual efforts and results like yours.
The organizations that are paying for the beafreemason.org efforts are extremely open to receiving detailed feedback such as yours, and I will make sure that this is shared with them the next time we sit down as a group. I imagine that will be this coming winter.
Certainly I believe they understand that refinement of the programs will be needed as we learn from experience.
On a personal level, I've never quite gotten a handle on who will ultimately become, and remain, a Freemason. Through the years, like you, I've dealt with a number of inquiries. Some do just disappear. Some aren't suitable to become Masons. Some whom I've taken to Lodge with me seem to be super excited, and seem to enjoy meeting Brothers, but then quickly fade away. Others have stuck, eventually gone through the Degrees, and remain Masons till this day. I never quite get a good indication about where they might end up until quite some time passes though. Except for those who are unsuitable, usually that shows up fairly quickly.
The website beafreemason.org is a good marketing tool. It's akin to the thick "cold-calling" lists that marketing phone callers use to get "leads" for their businesses. Those who respond to the website are passed to our Masonic "salesmen." It's up to the salesmen to close the deal. How to do that? "Meet and Greet" gatherings are a good way to excite interest, or to weed out the thrill seekers. "Are you guys part of the Illuminati?" "Where do you really keep the National Treasure?" "Am I going to have to sell stuff to be in the club?" "Is this some sort of pyramid sales scam?" These questions, all of which I have personally been asked, tell me that the "Seeker" may not be really interested in Freemasonry. Careful question and answer sessions may or may not find the Seeker at the next Meet and Greet. What we get from beafreemason.org are leads. It's up to us to make the sale.
I think it's great we have a tool in place like this. I used to sell cars, and that is a number game. If I had 4 customers show up, 3 would test drive 2 would negotiate, 1 would buy. That's the nature of the game. If they were appointments, 4 would test drive, 3 would negotiate and 2 would buy.
The point is, we knew how many customers we needed to sell to, in order to hit our qouta. As was pointed out, someone had 12 leads, contact with 3 (25% contact rate) and 0% close rate. It would would interesting to see a total number from the sit-down, broken down by district and then grand lodge.
Does the site allow us to update it on the lodge side to track the information?
If 12 gets us a 25% contact rate with 0 return, maybe 24 leads at 25% would get us 6 and result in 1 mason.
Yes, both the DDGM and the Lodge can update the records. Unfortunately, from my perusing of the database, it looks to me like a lot of the DDGM's don't provide information about what happened with the person, and even fewer Lodges do.
We have enlisted the assistance of a number of Brothers who are going to try and ensure that these reports come back. If we can get those, everyone's job will be made easier, because we won't have person A still trying to reach out to a man when person B has already figured out that he isn't truly interested, or is unsuitable.
It will also (if we can get everyone reporting) provide us with good solid facts that we can get back to the people designing the program.
We have received 5 inquiries from the internet but not sure they originated from that site or not.
We track them on Grandview and have called and emailed them. Invited them to our Meet and Greet night designed specifically for this inquiries. The only call back is a young man in the Navy that hasn't been able to attend anything due to his duties have placed him out of state for a while.
We'll reach out again and invite for a second Meet and Greet in August.
We have emails and phone numbers along with anything other information he provided.
DDGM has followed up with our inquiries.
If you're talking about Chris, it had been really cool over the last year when he had sent holiday greetings to me, your Deputy, and the other inquirers over the latter part of 2020.
I'm glad to hear that he's still engaged with your Lodge.
Yep, it's Chris.
It's a shame that this chat is so quiet, as we have had well over 300 men inquire into our Fraternity through Beafreemason.org and the Grand Lodge website.
Good news is there are several Districts and Lodges who are processing these inquirers, and I have found a few of them are now indeed Entered Apprentices!
But, while it's great to see new members through these two internet channels, we must always remember to Guard the West Gate. Some of them do not even make it past my desk. Remember, it's Quality, not Quantity.
The beafreemason.org effort is a massive and costly undertaking, provided to us by both US Supreme Councils and the Shrine. These organizations are providing us a tremendous tool, and as you point out, a great number of referrals. We in turn need to do our part to reach out to these men immediately to show them that their inquiry didn't just fall into an empty hole.
Once we've done that, we do, as you rightly remind us, need to carefully vet them to ensure that they are suitable for Freemasonry, and will be an asset to the Craft.
I've now attended two international in scope meetings at which these efforts (and the results thus far) were discussed. If we do our part, the SR's and Shrine will continue doing theirs.
I'd also like to point out that these organizations will provide any Lodge, free of charge, all manner of promotional things, everything from web banners to video, and that all of them (again without cost) can be customized for the Lodge. Information about that can be found at:
https://scottishritenmj.org/njam
I'd like to add that it is a little disheartening when a Lodge talks with me about membership issues, but I don't see any of these social media banners used on their accounts, none of these posters on their buildings, none of the videos on their website.
Again, all of these materials can be customized with specific Lodge contact information, and all of that will be done for our Lodges, so there is no work, no technical knowledge needed, and no cost.
It is simply a matter of utilizing these professionally produced tools.
I'm going to give beafreemason.org an A for effort, but I don't think we've hit the bullseye yet.
In my term as DDGM I received at least a dozen new member inquiries from Grand Lodge. I called them and emailed them. I even charted them on a spreadsheet to keep track of my attempts to reach them. Through my repeated efforts I was able to have maybe three conversations, one of which led to a breakfast meeting. I offered to accompany those I contacted to pre-lodge gatherings so they could meet the various lodges in the District. Not one accepted my invitation. Ultimately the few that I connected with ghosted me. I'm very interested in responding to men who express an interest in Masonry, but they need to show interest in return. It's a fine line between responding to an inquiry and hounding someone to come meet a Mason.
12 leads, 3 initial connections, 0 subsequent connections. My experience may not be consistent with that of other Districts, however my experience suggests that beafreemason.org causes a few men to have a peek but nothing beyond that. Why is this?
Promotions such as beafreemason.org and the radio and TV ads that Grand Lodge started a few years ago are, as I understand it, our Fraternity's first efforts in mass media marketing. Maybe subsequent efforts will be generate better results.
I think that we Masons do an outstanding job of talking to ourselves. It's not clear that we've figured out how to talk to everyone else. I only know a little bit about marketing so it'll take somebody smarter than me to solve this puzzle.
Thank you for sharing this perspective VW John. It is important to hear about actual efforts and results like yours.
The organizations that are paying for the beafreemason.org efforts are extremely open to receiving detailed feedback such as yours, and I will make sure that this is shared with them the next time we sit down as a group. I imagine that will be this coming winter.
Certainly I believe they understand that refinement of the programs will be needed as we learn from experience.
On a personal level, I've never quite gotten a handle on who will ultimately become, and remain, a Freemason. Through the years, like you, I've dealt with a number of inquiries. Some do just disappear. Some aren't suitable to become Masons. Some whom I've taken to Lodge with me seem to be super excited, and seem to enjoy meeting Brothers, but then quickly fade away. Others have stuck, eventually gone through the Degrees, and remain Masons till this day. I never quite get a good indication about where they might end up until quite some time passes though. Except for those who are unsuitable, usually that shows up fairly quickly.
The website beafreemason.org is a good marketing tool. It's akin to the thick "cold-calling" lists that marketing phone callers use to get "leads" for their businesses. Those who respond to the website are passed to our Masonic "salesmen." It's up to the salesmen to close the deal. How to do that? "Meet and Greet" gatherings are a good way to excite interest, or to weed out the thrill seekers. "Are you guys part of the Illuminati?" "Where do you really keep the National Treasure?" "Am I going to have to sell stuff to be in the club?" "Is this some sort of pyramid sales scam?" These questions, all of which I have personally been asked, tell me that the "Seeker" may not be really interested in Freemasonry. Careful question and answer sessions may or may not find the Seeker at the next Meet and Greet. What we get from beafreemason.org are leads. It's up to us to make the sale.
I think it's great we have a tool in place like this. I used to sell cars, and that is a number game. If I had 4 customers show up, 3 would test drive 2 would negotiate, 1 would buy. That's the nature of the game. If they were appointments, 4 would test drive, 3 would negotiate and 2 would buy.
The point is, we knew how many customers we needed to sell to, in order to hit our qouta. As was pointed out, someone had 12 leads, contact with 3 (25% contact rate) and 0% close rate. It would would interesting to see a total number from the sit-down, broken down by district and then grand lodge.
Does the site allow us to update it on the lodge side to track the information?
If 12 gets us a 25% contact rate with 0 return, maybe 24 leads at 25% would get us 6 and result in 1 mason.
Brother:
Yes, both the DDGM and the Lodge can update the records. Unfortunately, from my perusing of the database, it looks to me like a lot of the DDGM's don't provide information about what happened with the person, and even fewer Lodges do.
We have enlisted the assistance of a number of Brothers who are going to try and ensure that these reports come back. If we can get those, everyone's job will be made easier, because we won't have person A still trying to reach out to a man when person B has already figured out that he isn't truly interested, or is unsuitable.
It will also (if we can get everyone reporting) provide us with good solid facts that we can get back to the people designing the program.