If you suddenly became the ALL POWERFUL SUPREME DICTATOR of Freemasonry, what one thing would you do to improve it?
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Require at a minimum quarterly attendance of meetings, and one of them has to be the election night of officers. If you belong to multiple lodges, you're required to make quarterly meetings at each lodge. If you've moved away from your home lodge, demit from that and join another that you can attend. There would, of course, need to be some sort of allowances given for sickness and infirmity.
If it was just for our jurisdiction, I would ban assessments from GL to the blue lodges. GL needs to live within it's means. If that requires cutting staff, selling property, reducing salaries, etc then so be it.
If, by some odd circumstance I *did* become the ALL POWERFUL SUPREME DICTATOR, I would resign at once! I will stand up to be a temporary leader, but never a dictator. As for "all-powerful," I'm not certain I could stand the pressure to be all-wise, as well. I am most certainly NOT God, nor would I wish to be.
Answering the more practical side of the question, when it comes to the direct representatives of the Grand Master--the District Deputies, I would commission them with the authority and responsibility to ACT for the Grand Master, as well, in addition to being the "eyes and ears" for him. I have seen Lodges which have lost their sense of direction and are "doing things their way." There is but *one* way, and that is according to the Masonic Code. Anything outside of that is not allowable, nor should it be tolerated.
Give the District Deputies some teeth. After all the "suggestions" and polite discussions have failed to get the Lodges' attention, authorize the Deputy to suspend the Lodge's Charter for up to six months, accompanied by a printed plan for improvement. This would, of course be done by prior coordination with the Grand Master, but would be nonetheless binding.
If the Lodge shows improvement after the period of suspension, they would be allowed to resume active meetings. If no improvement is demonstrated, the Deputy recommends to the Grand Master that the Charter be permanently removed, and the Lodge no longer exists. So be it.
keep the secret
Require at a minimum quarterly attendance of meetings, and one of them has to be the election night of officers. If you belong to multiple lodges, you're required to make quarterly meetings at each lodge. If you've moved away from your home lodge, demit from that and join another that you can attend. There would, of course, need to be some sort of allowances given for sickness and infirmity.
If it was just for our jurisdiction, I would ban assessments from GL to the blue lodges. GL needs to live within it's means. If that requires cutting staff, selling property, reducing salaries, etc then so be it.
If, by some odd circumstance I *did* become the ALL POWERFUL SUPREME DICTATOR, I would resign at once! I will stand up to be a temporary leader, but never a dictator. As for "all-powerful," I'm not certain I could stand the pressure to be all-wise, as well. I am most certainly NOT God, nor would I wish to be.
Answering the more practical side of the question, when it comes to the direct representatives of the Grand Master--the District Deputies, I would commission them with the authority and responsibility to ACT for the Grand Master, as well, in addition to being the "eyes and ears" for him. I have seen Lodges which have lost their sense of direction and are "doing things their way." There is but *one* way, and that is according to the Masonic Code. Anything outside of that is not allowable, nor should it be tolerated.
Give the District Deputies some teeth. After all the "suggestions" and polite discussions have failed to get the Lodges' attention, authorize the Deputy to suspend the Lodge's Charter for up to six months, accompanied by a printed plan for improvement. This would, of course be done by prior coordination with the Grand Master, but would be nonetheless binding.
If the Lodge shows improvement after the period of suspension, they would be allowed to resume active meetings. If no improvement is demonstrated, the Deputy recommends to the Grand Master that the Charter be permanently removed, and the Lodge no longer exists. So be it.
That's what *I* would do.
I've seen some WM's who thought they were and it did not end well.