Now that Lodges have been back to meeting in person, and have been for some time, is your Lodge still utilizing Zoom for virtual meetings, or incorporating it into regular meetings for those who can’t attend?
If your Lodge is, how are you doing it, and is it working well?
If your Lodge isn’t, did you find that people just weren’t interested, or is there some other reason?
Do you think that virtual platforms will have a role within Freemasonry into the future?
We never transitioned to zoom. We kept meeting with masks and gloves. Albeit just the wardens and deacons, but we assembled.
Upon joining another lodge the beginning of this year, we doubled our meetings for the spring. Masks and gloves, along with a strong and kind request from the WM, to get vaccinated. (Because I call both my WMs once a week; it's hard to remember them from the perspective of the sideline).
While I am in no way suggesting this was the best choice, we did practice some ageism, by "woke" standards. Asking our more seasoned and experienced brethren to put their health risks FIRST.
Without such faithful brothers of the craft I think this pandemic would have really effected me. But looking back, regularly attending lodge meetings, made things seem normal. If only while the lodge was tyled.
Zoom meetings are important to facilitate fraternity and connect the brothers. However, it is not a Lodge meeting. Brothers have to be assembled, and a Lodge tyled, to meet on the level.
It is my sincere hope, that the only digital platform to have a future in masonry is digital payment of dues(PayPal, venmo etc.)
Everything we automate, is something we lose internally. All the good and the bad. Facing egos and insecurities, all of it is necessary to make a good man better.
During the Pandemic we did utilize Zoom for socially checking in with our Brothers especially those at a higher risk than others. In the beginning, we focused on health, welfare and social interaction and included non esoteric masonic education but over time the meetings became lazy and if im honest, became a “chore” rather than something I was excited about. Our lodge being known as a more esoteric lodge cannot labor the way we like to in a virtual world. We enjoy being together and we enjoy the freedom and closeness we experience when our Masonic Labors can be done in a Tyled Lodge setting.
We have decided as a Lodge that we will not provide a “hybrid” option because the miracle of Lodge happens when brothers are together in proximity to each other even while social distancing.
My lodge stopped using zoom, but sadly the lodge is terrible with social media in general. The last post on fb was six months ago. You can lead a horse to water...
We're still using Zoom for our hybrid meetings. The number of brothers attending via Zoom is low, but the effort involved is worth it to see those brothers give their greetings.
We brought it in for the first meeting as a hybrid. It was more out of necessity with some Brothers due to the type of work we're not allowed to meet in person. It was good, but not great.
We were able to reconnect with a few Brothers that hadn't attended in person in recent years. And one showed up in person to Lodge and Scottish Rite since restrictions were lifted. Good deal there!
The one thing I miss from Zoom, is seeing who just pops in. Had a lot of out of area visitors including our Brothers from B.C.
The issue is multi-layered. Many of our more "seasoned" brethren are afflicted with technophobia. Many have computers, but use them only for checking emails from their children or looking up recipes for dinner. Same with cellular phones. Zoom would be a great way to get stay-at-homes to be part of the gathering, but it's just not the same. I much prefer to actually see my Brother, shake his hand, feel his presence, and Zoom is a poor second choice. As Brother Glenn pointed out, too many of our Brethren just don't want to be all that connected, and the pandemic has made hermits of them. We have now become so accustomed to isolation that it seems "normal" to interact with a sterile electronic image, and more's the pity for that.
Great question, Most Worshipful Sir, it's just a little early to ask it. We need more experience now in our partial pandemic recovery stage, and we need to continue to experiment and learn when the pandemic is fully behind us.
Starting in March of 2020 we learned a lot very quickly and of necessity. It was an abrupt reaction and the only reaction that was available. It's a mistake to now make another abrupt move and declare, as some have, that Masonry must be in person.
I miss a lot of the way it was. My monthly Lodge meetings were my favorite night of the month. But they weren't perfect and my experiences with online meetings over the last 18 months makes me wonder how to optimize both online and in person gatherings. We're not there yet.
Esoteric discussions online have been prohibited based on the position that online platforms are not secure. Here's the only problem with that: neither are Lodge rooms, except of course the Lodge rooms that have steel plate doors with double deadbolts accessible only by retinal scans. We need to accept that online meetings, if structured properly, are actually more secure than Lodge rooms. This is not to advocate online in favor of in person. Rather, it is a plea to think openly about how to optimize our gatherings with all that we've learned in the past 18 months.
It's interesting to wonder what our good brother Ben Franklin would have done with online meetings had they been available in his day, and where we'd be now. Too late for that. But not too soon to wonder where our Fraternity will be going forward.
This is more of a review of what I’ve mentioned in earlier Comment Boards, but this time, it’s the focus.
In Centralia, just before the shutdown in March of 2020, Centralia Lodge gained a Plural member who lives in Rochester, Minnesota. His Grandfather was a member of Centralia Lodge in the early-mid 20th Century. For the Shutdown, the Lodge went to Zoom meetings, and this Brother in Minnesota attended every one of them. Around the same time, the Lodge initiated a Brother who is a native of the African Country of Mali. This last summer, after receiving his FC and MM degrees, he returned to his native land.
Thanks to the hybrid meetings, both of these Brothers have attended from their areas. The Brother in Africa is willing to attend, despite the start time being 2:30 AM in his time zone.
In addition, Bro. Maynard Edwards was a guest at Centralia’s latest educational Hybrid on their stated Communication night, teleconferencing in from Maryland. The Worshipful Master had to sheepishly shut the hybrid down, since we indeed have business that needed to be covered.
Needless to say, it’s pretty much a universal opinion among the members of Centralia Lodge, No. 63 that we need to continue the hybrid meetings. In fact, the Lodge is looking into purchasing additional technology to improve the interactions of the Brethren present in-person and those who are teleconferencing.
Unfortunately, my home Lodge in Tenino doesn’t have wi-fi capability, and cannot enjoy such advantages.
And, as mentioned by others, we cannot fall into the trap of being lazy and not attending our Lodge meetings in person if we are able to do so. A balance must be struck between in-person only meetings and meetings where there is no in-person interaction. As has been mentioned on this thread, this is a work in progress.
We never transitioned to zoom. We kept meeting with masks and gloves. Albeit just the wardens and deacons, but we assembled.
Upon joining another lodge the beginning of this year, we doubled our meetings for the spring. Masks and gloves, along with a strong and kind request from the WM, to get vaccinated. (Because I call both my WMs once a week; it's hard to remember them from the perspective of the sideline).
While I am in no way suggesting this was the best choice, we did practice some ageism, by "woke" standards. Asking our more seasoned and experienced brethren to put their health risks FIRST.
Without such faithful brothers of the craft I think this pandemic would have really effected me. But looking back, regularly attending lodge meetings, made things seem normal. If only while the lodge was tyled.
Warm fraternal greetings from Maryland!
Stay safe!
Zoom meetings are important to facilitate fraternity and connect the brothers. However, it is not a Lodge meeting. Brothers have to be assembled, and a Lodge tyled, to meet on the level.
It is my sincere hope, that the only digital platform to have a future in masonry is digital payment of dues(PayPal, venmo etc.)
Everything we automate, is something we lose internally. All the good and the bad. Facing egos and insecurities, all of it is necessary to make a good man better.
During the Pandemic we did utilize Zoom for socially checking in with our Brothers especially those at a higher risk than others. In the beginning, we focused on health, welfare and social interaction and included non esoteric masonic education but over time the meetings became lazy and if im honest, became a “chore” rather than something I was excited about. Our lodge being known as a more esoteric lodge cannot labor the way we like to in a virtual world. We enjoy being together and we enjoy the freedom and closeness we experience when our Masonic Labors can be done in a Tyled Lodge setting.
We have decided as a Lodge that we will not provide a “hybrid” option because the miracle of Lodge happens when brothers are together in proximity to each other even while social distancing.
My lodge stopped using zoom, but sadly the lodge is terrible with social media in general. The last post on fb was six months ago. You can lead a horse to water...
We're still using Zoom for our hybrid meetings. The number of brothers attending via Zoom is low, but the effort involved is worth it to see those brothers give their greetings.
We brought it in for the first meeting as a hybrid. It was more out of necessity with some Brothers due to the type of work we're not allowed to meet in person. It was good, but not great.
We were able to reconnect with a few Brothers that hadn't attended in person in recent years. And one showed up in person to Lodge and Scottish Rite since restrictions were lifted. Good deal there!
The one thing I miss from Zoom, is seeing who just pops in. Had a lot of out of area visitors including our Brothers from B.C.
The issue is multi-layered. Many of our more "seasoned" brethren are afflicted with technophobia. Many have computers, but use them only for checking emails from their children or looking up recipes for dinner. Same with cellular phones. Zoom would be a great way to get stay-at-homes to be part of the gathering, but it's just not the same. I much prefer to actually see my Brother, shake his hand, feel his presence, and Zoom is a poor second choice. As Brother Glenn pointed out, too many of our Brethren just don't want to be all that connected, and the pandemic has made hermits of them. We have now become so accustomed to isolation that it seems "normal" to interact with a sterile electronic image, and more's the pity for that.
Great question, Most Worshipful Sir, it's just a little early to ask it. We need more experience now in our partial pandemic recovery stage, and we need to continue to experiment and learn when the pandemic is fully behind us.
Starting in March of 2020 we learned a lot very quickly and of necessity. It was an abrupt reaction and the only reaction that was available. It's a mistake to now make another abrupt move and declare, as some have, that Masonry must be in person.
I miss a lot of the way it was. My monthly Lodge meetings were my favorite night of the month. But they weren't perfect and my experiences with online meetings over the last 18 months makes me wonder how to optimize both online and in person gatherings. We're not there yet.
Esoteric discussions online have been prohibited based on the position that online platforms are not secure. Here's the only problem with that: neither are Lodge rooms, except of course the Lodge rooms that have steel plate doors with double deadbolts accessible only by retinal scans. We need to accept that online meetings, if structured properly, are actually more secure than Lodge rooms. This is not to advocate online in favor of in person. Rather, it is a plea to think openly about how to optimize our gatherings with all that we've learned in the past 18 months.
It's interesting to wonder what our good brother Ben Franklin would have done with online meetings had they been available in his day, and where we'd be now. Too late for that. But not too soon to wonder where our Fraternity will be going forward.
This is more of a review of what I’ve mentioned in earlier Comment Boards, but this time, it’s the focus.
In Centralia, just before the shutdown in March of 2020, Centralia Lodge gained a Plural member who lives in Rochester, Minnesota. His Grandfather was a member of Centralia Lodge in the early-mid 20th Century. For the Shutdown, the Lodge went to Zoom meetings, and this Brother in Minnesota attended every one of them. Around the same time, the Lodge initiated a Brother who is a native of the African Country of Mali. This last summer, after receiving his FC and MM degrees, he returned to his native land.
Thanks to the hybrid meetings, both of these Brothers have attended from their areas. The Brother in Africa is willing to attend, despite the start time being 2:30 AM in his time zone.
In addition, Bro. Maynard Edwards was a guest at Centralia’s latest educational Hybrid on their stated Communication night, teleconferencing in from Maryland. The Worshipful Master had to sheepishly shut the hybrid down, since we indeed have business that needed to be covered.
Needless to say, it’s pretty much a universal opinion among the members of Centralia Lodge, No. 63 that we need to continue the hybrid meetings. In fact, the Lodge is looking into purchasing additional technology to improve the interactions of the Brethren present in-person and those who are teleconferencing.
Unfortunately, my home Lodge in Tenino doesn’t have wi-fi capability, and cannot enjoy such advantages.
And, as mentioned by others, we cannot fall into the trap of being lazy and not attending our Lodge meetings in person if we are able to do so. A balance must be struck between in-person only meetings and meetings where there is no in-person interaction. As has been mentioned on this thread, this is a work in progress.