All of this content is sought after, and found, by men considering Masonry, most often before they ever make contact with a Lodge.
They do research, maybe a little or maybe a lot, before deciding to reach out.
And all of that content creates an image of Masonry. It communicates to these potential candidates what they might encounter. It sets up expectations about what the Masonic experience is in their minds.
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Do our Lodges meet these expectations?
If not, can our Lodges thrive?
Most importantly, if not, can we change our Lodges so that they do meet the expectations of the men that reach out to us?
Interesting note: Nearly all the people who reach out to me about Freemasonry are from Africa either looking to find a Lodge or join the Illuminati. It's a literal flood that at this point I just ignore.
Yeah, I get a lot of those too. I generally ask very specifically about the city that they live in. Some respond most don't. For those that do, I can usually find a Lodge through either UGLE's list of foreign Jurisdictions, or through their District GL system.
Yes, there seem to be a bunch of UGLE Grand Districts, but also huge swaths of the continent have no Lodges at all that I can find, particularly East Africa.
The sheer number of lodges makes for the different types of experiences. I think that makes it interesting, but also it can be confusing to prospects.
MW is you know we are still contracting. I think that the lodges that make a more memorable Masonic experience will be the lodges that, long-term, will thrive.
W. Ken Lane, whom I believe you know, has done a spectacular job for us in North Seattle over the past year or two.
He does his best to ensure that every potential candidate in the area visits every Lodge in the area to get a feel for each before deciding which one is the best fit. This seems a really good system, as we have so many Lodges in such a small geographical area. A little sad when a fellow you think would be excellent in your Lodge Petitions a different Lodge, but it does help ensure that they will like where they end up I think.
I imagine that in the future we will have a very small number of Lodges compared to now, but that those Lodges will all offer a truly great experience. For the reason you mention, only those Lodges that are willing to do that will survive. But, I think that's OK. We have cars now, we can drive to Lodge. I think that sometimes, some Brothers forget that the reason so many Lodges were started so long ago is because it was really, really hard to travel.
In one Washington city we have a really spectacular, and huge Masonic Temple, with another big one a mile or so away. Probably less than a mile. Folks wonder about that. What they don't know is that when those two buildings were built, there wasn't any way to get from the area one is in from the area the other is in without a boat as there was no bridge.
I think we need to analyze that content, first, and decide if we should meet expectations. There is a lot of content out there ranging from authentic, to nonsensical, to dangerous. I think we also need a plan to address the fact that content on the internet is mercurial. What is mainstream thought today may well be consider antiquated tomorrow, so meeting expectations could end up being impossible. I would suggest that we use the response to content as a way of learning what people are interested in, and how we are viewed, and then developing our own content driving our image to a reasonably accurate portrayal.
You are right of course. Far too much of the stuff posted on Social Media is utter nonsense.
And, I think what you suggest is right. We need to create good content to counter that nonsense. Doing so is rough however, it often feels as if the good stuff gets lost in an overwhelming flood of crazy.
I completely agree. There have been times and places where Freemasonry had to go underground to survive. usually this has been due to politics or religious persecution. Maybe this is something we should at least periodically consider, as the flood of stupid coming from cyberspace could kill us, as what is best about our fraternity might drown in what is worst in our society. I'm not saying we should, but I am suggesting we periodically consider it. Go silent, go deep. Replace petitions with invitations and wait for the world to come to its senses? Our best efforts to get our message out often seems to just stimulate a new wave of paranoia. To be clear, I'm just thinking out loud, I'm not proposing it, just thinking about it.
I think discussions like that are good to have. Not recently, but some years ago I had those exact discussions with a Mason I'm close too. We did assume that someday Freemasonry might be forced back underground, and we tried to imagine what that would look like.
We are in the profane world because we must be if we want to have investment accounts, real estate, and all the rest. But, 'is it worth it?' is I think a fair question. Someday it might not be worth it any longer.
But, no matter what happens, the Craft will survive, in one form or another.
Interesting note: Nearly all the people who reach out to me about Freemasonry are from Africa either looking to find a Lodge or join the Illuminati. It's a literal flood that at this point I just ignore.
Yeah, I get a lot of those too. I generally ask very specifically about the city that they live in. Some respond most don't. For those that do, I can usually find a Lodge through either UGLE's list of foreign Jurisdictions, or through their District GL system.
Yes, there seem to be a bunch of UGLE Grand Districts, but also huge swaths of the continent have no Lodges at all that I can find, particularly East Africa.
The sheer number of lodges makes for the different types of experiences. I think that makes it interesting, but also it can be confusing to prospects.
MW is you know we are still contracting. I think that the lodges that make a more memorable Masonic experience will be the lodges that, long-term, will thrive.
W. Ken Lane, whom I believe you know, has done a spectacular job for us in North Seattle over the past year or two.
He does his best to ensure that every potential candidate in the area visits every Lodge in the area to get a feel for each before deciding which one is the best fit. This seems a really good system, as we have so many Lodges in such a small geographical area. A little sad when a fellow you think would be excellent in your Lodge Petitions a different Lodge, but it does help ensure that they will like where they end up I think.
I imagine that in the future we will have a very small number of Lodges compared to now, but that those Lodges will all offer a truly great experience. For the reason you mention, only those Lodges that are willing to do that will survive. But, I think that's OK. We have cars now, we can drive to Lodge. I think that sometimes, some Brothers forget that the reason so many Lodges were started so long ago is because it was really, really hard to travel.
In one Washington city we have a really spectacular, and huge Masonic Temple, with another big one a mile or so away. Probably less than a mile. Folks wonder about that. What they don't know is that when those two buildings were built, there wasn't any way to get from the area one is in from the area the other is in without a boat as there was no bridge.
I think we need to analyze that content, first, and decide if we should meet expectations. There is a lot of content out there ranging from authentic, to nonsensical, to dangerous. I think we also need a plan to address the fact that content on the internet is mercurial. What is mainstream thought today may well be consider antiquated tomorrow, so meeting expectations could end up being impossible. I would suggest that we use the response to content as a way of learning what people are interested in, and how we are viewed, and then developing our own content driving our image to a reasonably accurate portrayal.
You are right of course. Far too much of the stuff posted on Social Media is utter nonsense.
And, I think what you suggest is right. We need to create good content to counter that nonsense. Doing so is rough however, it often feels as if the good stuff gets lost in an overwhelming flood of crazy.
I completely agree. There have been times and places where Freemasonry had to go underground to survive. usually this has been due to politics or religious persecution. Maybe this is something we should at least periodically consider, as the flood of stupid coming from cyberspace could kill us, as what is best about our fraternity might drown in what is worst in our society. I'm not saying we should, but I am suggesting we periodically consider it. Go silent, go deep. Replace petitions with invitations and wait for the world to come to its senses? Our best efforts to get our message out often seems to just stimulate a new wave of paranoia. To be clear, I'm just thinking out loud, I'm not proposing it, just thinking about it.
I think discussions like that are good to have. Not recently, but some years ago I had those exact discussions with a Mason I'm close too. We did assume that someday Freemasonry might be forced back underground, and we tried to imagine what that would look like.
We are in the profane world because we must be if we want to have investment accounts, real estate, and all the rest. But, 'is it worth it?' is I think a fair question. Someday it might not be worth it any longer.
But, no matter what happens, the Craft will survive, in one form or another.