To make my way in a Lodge I had to move lodges. No one should have to do that. A Lodge should always help a brother work his way around the lodge not keep holding him back.
I've not actually dropped my membership from a Lodge, but I too have moved from one Lodge to another in search of a better Masonic Experience for myself, and I've encouraged other folks who weren't enjoying their Lodge Experience to do so as well. We are all unique, and in some ways, our Lodges are quite unique as well.
It is, I think, much better that a man find a Lodge he can enjoy than Masonry losing the man, and that is what would eventually happen if he felt somehow locked in to a Lodge that didn't meet his needs.
It was more of two people who did not like me held me back. I had enough after three years of this and moved four of us on the same day. I am the only one still in and went in as master three weeks ago.
Harmony. Harmony is a roadblock. Sounds weird, I know.
We place fairly great emphasis on harmony, on consensus, on unanimity (look how we do our balloting for candidates, elections for leaders). And we are a conservative organization. Not politically, but in the sense that I think the fraternity is fundamentally suspicious of change: something important & vital might be lost! It is not in the power of any man to make innovations in the body of masonry. Plot twist: there's no definition of what is the body of masonry, so what you're *not* allowed to touch has no real bounds.
You are asking what we want ourselves & lodges to "become". That implies change.
The roadblock in my opinion is how do you change that which actively resists change? By slow, grinding consensus building. Which is a careful skill to develop over time, but not one everyone has. Does that mean they are not permitted to change? Well, no not really - but also practically - yes.
Apr 14, 2023·edited Apr 14, 2023Liked by Cameron M. Bailey
The other side of this perspective is that PARTICULAR BROTHERS ARE THE ROADBLOCK. We placate and coddle them because we are desperate for their membership, or worse yet, they command or influence a cabal of older Brothers who never attend Lodge accept to sabotage a vote. Tell me anyone here hasn't seen such a thing.
Placing too much value on harmony removes necessary admonition and discipline. Some of us need to be gaveled down, or even not given permission to enter Lodge.
“they command or influence a cabal of older Brothers who never attend Lodge accept to sabotage a vote. Tell me anyone here hasn't seen such a thing.”
Which reminds me of a story back when I was Worshipful Master of my Lodge the first time, back in 1999. A rumor had gone around that I planned to cover changing the By-laws to adversely affect our Scholarship fund, which was strongly guarded by the “old guard” of the Lodge. In this case, that’s fine; I wasn’t even considering the scholarship fund, I was thinking about something else. Nevertheless, a whole slew of “old-timers” showed up at the next meeting. I greeted them, some of whom I had never met before, and I asked one of those who I did know how come the great turnout? That Brother told me the supposed reason, and I assured them I wasn’t even thinking about the Scholarship fund, but a light bulb went off and I promptly turned that meeting into a Past Master’s night.
No surprise, the meeting ended well. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to retain all of those who showed up, but I gained a few. 😉
Who said a 25-year-old can’t have a few tricks up his sleeve?
I would say most have the following roadblocks: A lodge who has slipped from the memory of the community it resides in due to 50 years of apathy and burned out Masters/secretaries. Due to 70 years of poor financial planning, a lodge stuck with an ageing membership on a fixed income with no funds to keep the buildings and grounds up for the next 30 years and a building built for 3X the membership that currently exists. Finally, a lack of clear dedicated and well educated leadership enabled by well kept and freely available Grand lodge Metadata to make the best decisions and lead to any sort of prosperity. There, I said it. The decisions necessary to turn that around are difficult. But drastic change requires, sacrifice and hard work.
I can't disagree with any of the things you mention. I've certainly seen Lodges challenged by each of those things. Luckily though, each of them are things we can address. If we can find the will to do so.
Since I joined Masonry I hear a lot of “we gotta change, we gotta do better, we need to be growing” talk and that all comes with a lot of handwringing. The thing that always seem to be lacking are good ideas, not that there are no ideas; just not great ones. I have also taken my turn on this particular torture rack many times. I often get asked as one of the youngest members of the lodge what brought me in? How can we reach more people like you? And so on and so forth. I honestly didn’t have any good answers either. I think the real roadblock is not knowing what to do or having any good ideas about where to start.
So I’m gonna plug an article for a second time because I really think it’s a great place to begin thinking. Despite the title I guarantee you it’s a worthy read. You could sum it up with, “well times they’ve changed”, but that isn’t really the take away. The take away is that technological society has changed so drastically and quickly that old modes of being are now simply no longer relevant. We need to start thinking about this from a different angle and I believe this article will get you thinking in the right direction.
Read the article because we need a paradigm shift.
I appreciate the link, and hope no one will take it as a political rather than sociological argument.
I have put it plainly in one of my first article for Empire State Mason magazine: We want things to be different, as long as we don't have to change anything.
You’re welcome, yes it is a completely sociological argument and I find it put something’s into words that I had struggled with. One small technology changed so much, and created such a disruption for society and we tend towards looking for societal change instead of understanding that technology made a fundamental shift under our feet. I actually think it explains a tremendous amount of the current friction points and arguments that people are stuck with these days.
Another example might be all this “wokeism” that some people feel, yet fail to realize that technology has made it so that you are no longer speaking to a small group of close friends and family where you can rely upon their charity to know you well enough to know that you didn’t mean anything harmful by it, but are now speaking to the entire world. I don’t think a lot of people have yet realized that. Everything you say, whether you mean to or not, is now basically global.
Your simple comment can be screenshotted and shared globally in seconds.
Now where this really hits for me is that I hear from Masons very often lamenting that the younger generations feel we are irrelevant, and I personally feel what Masonry has to offer is even more relevant than ever. Some people believe young men are being chastised for being men but not given any better examples. That’s somewhat true since you can’t easily teach something as complex as being a strong and healthy individual in 40 characters or less.
Once again a fundamental shift in technology has rendered an entire way of being to the dust bin for a large segment of the world. Many young men have very few interactions that are positive or sustained long enough to allow them to really develop a sense of connection, understanding, or personal growth guided by a personal mentor. So what do they have? Some garbage YouTube channel that feeds their darkest desires for profit?
Anyway I could write a book. This is only meant to get people thinking.
I have written and spoken on this many times. Social media is as fundamental a shift in the human condition as was the invention of writing. And I mean this with no exaggeration whatsoever. It will take generations for us to sort it out, as we always do. In the meantime, the newer generations got no advice from us -- as it didn't exist in our younger days -- and it's an understandable mess.
Thank you for sharing the article, and your perspective on its applicability to Masonry. I read it when first posted, and it certainly gives much to consider.
Ultimately I have to agree that technology has radically changed our world, and I think that we have very little understanding of what its impacts are, and even less understanding about how to respond to those impacts.
That said, I remain optimistic. Over the long march of time humanity shows a great propensity towards improvement.
I had to move lodges to hopefully find the experience I was needing, and what I felt was best for the fraternity. There were more than a few brothers in the lodge that didn't agree with my assessment of what was wrong, yet when I pointed out to them just what the problems were, they acknowledged it, but refused to change to fix them. Instead, they fell back into the old comfortable "we've always done it that way" mentality, and merrily continued to ignore what was really going on.
I do want to point out that over the years, the Lodge Leadership Retreat has morphed into something quite valuable. Beyond the basic classes like secretary duties, financial planning, installation planning, temple board governance (all valuable classes) they have expanded into subjects like leadership, retention, beyond the six steps, and other classes that point out problems and potential solutions facing the fraternity today. I urge all lodges to send brothers to the LLR, as you are investing in your future. It's no coincidence that one indication that a lodge is failing is that they haven't ever sent anyone to attend these classes.
>>>It's no coincidence that one indication that a lodge is failing is that they haven't ever sent anyone >>>to attend these classes.
This is exactly correct. When I was traveling to Lodges as a part of the Grand Line when I would see an obviously failing Lodge, I'd often check to see how long it had been since they had sent anyone to the Lodge Leadership Retreat. Seemingly without fail those dying Lodges either hadn't ever sent anyone, or hadn't sent anyone for many years.
But of course if the Jurisdiction works so hard to put on a program designed to teach Lodge leaders how to create thriving Lodges, and those leaders refuse to attend, it is no wonder that they fail.
To make my way in a Lodge I had to move lodges. No one should have to do that. A Lodge should always help a brother work his way around the lodge not keep holding him back.
To enjoy my lodge experience I had to move lodges. Lodge culture can be a inhibitor.
I've not actually dropped my membership from a Lodge, but I too have moved from one Lodge to another in search of a better Masonic Experience for myself, and I've encouraged other folks who weren't enjoying their Lodge Experience to do so as well. We are all unique, and in some ways, our Lodges are quite unique as well.
It is, I think, much better that a man find a Lodge he can enjoy than Masonry losing the man, and that is what would eventually happen if he felt somehow locked in to a Lodge that didn't meet his needs.
It was more of two people who did not like me held me back. I had enough after three years of this and moved four of us on the same day. I am the only one still in and went in as master three weeks ago.
Harmony. Harmony is a roadblock. Sounds weird, I know.
We place fairly great emphasis on harmony, on consensus, on unanimity (look how we do our balloting for candidates, elections for leaders). And we are a conservative organization. Not politically, but in the sense that I think the fraternity is fundamentally suspicious of change: something important & vital might be lost! It is not in the power of any man to make innovations in the body of masonry. Plot twist: there's no definition of what is the body of masonry, so what you're *not* allowed to touch has no real bounds.
You are asking what we want ourselves & lodges to "become". That implies change.
The roadblock in my opinion is how do you change that which actively resists change? By slow, grinding consensus building. Which is a careful skill to develop over time, but not one everyone has. Does that mean they are not permitted to change? Well, no not really - but also practically - yes.
The other side of this perspective is that PARTICULAR BROTHERS ARE THE ROADBLOCK. We placate and coddle them because we are desperate for their membership, or worse yet, they command or influence a cabal of older Brothers who never attend Lodge accept to sabotage a vote. Tell me anyone here hasn't seen such a thing.
Placing too much value on harmony removes necessary admonition and discipline. Some of us need to be gaveled down, or even not given permission to enter Lodge.
Yes this too. Notice the difference in these two constructions:
"We place great emphasis on harmony and consensus" (people nod, they like this)
"Every brother, even the most argumentative, gets a veto vote on everything" (people get mad, disagree)
Notice how, so frequently, they are the same thing though.
“they command or influence a cabal of older Brothers who never attend Lodge accept to sabotage a vote. Tell me anyone here hasn't seen such a thing.”
Which reminds me of a story back when I was Worshipful Master of my Lodge the first time, back in 1999. A rumor had gone around that I planned to cover changing the By-laws to adversely affect our Scholarship fund, which was strongly guarded by the “old guard” of the Lodge. In this case, that’s fine; I wasn’t even considering the scholarship fund, I was thinking about something else. Nevertheless, a whole slew of “old-timers” showed up at the next meeting. I greeted them, some of whom I had never met before, and I asked one of those who I did know how come the great turnout? That Brother told me the supposed reason, and I assured them I wasn’t even thinking about the Scholarship fund, but a light bulb went off and I promptly turned that meeting into a Past Master’s night.
No surprise, the meeting ended well. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to retain all of those who showed up, but I gained a few. 😉
Who said a 25-year-old can’t have a few tricks up his sleeve?
I may have to steal that idea, lol
>>>a cabal of older Brothers who never attend Lodge accept to sabotage a vote.
Yep, as someone here mentioned not too long ago, if you want to have great attendance at a meeting, schedule a vote on a dues increase!
This is a very interesting perspective. Thank you for sharing it, I've been pondering it since your post a couple of days ago.
I would say most have the following roadblocks: A lodge who has slipped from the memory of the community it resides in due to 50 years of apathy and burned out Masters/secretaries. Due to 70 years of poor financial planning, a lodge stuck with an ageing membership on a fixed income with no funds to keep the buildings and grounds up for the next 30 years and a building built for 3X the membership that currently exists. Finally, a lack of clear dedicated and well educated leadership enabled by well kept and freely available Grand lodge Metadata to make the best decisions and lead to any sort of prosperity. There, I said it. The decisions necessary to turn that around are difficult. But drastic change requires, sacrifice and hard work.
I can't disagree with any of the things you mention. I've certainly seen Lodges challenged by each of those things. Luckily though, each of them are things we can address. If we can find the will to do so.
My point exactly.
Since I joined Masonry I hear a lot of “we gotta change, we gotta do better, we need to be growing” talk and that all comes with a lot of handwringing. The thing that always seem to be lacking are good ideas, not that there are no ideas; just not great ones. I have also taken my turn on this particular torture rack many times. I often get asked as one of the youngest members of the lodge what brought me in? How can we reach more people like you? And so on and so forth. I honestly didn’t have any good answers either. I think the real roadblock is not knowing what to do or having any good ideas about where to start.
So I’m gonna plug an article for a second time because I really think it’s a great place to begin thinking. Despite the title I guarantee you it’s a worthy read. You could sum it up with, “well times they’ve changed”, but that isn’t really the take away. The take away is that technological society has changed so drastically and quickly that old modes of being are now simply no longer relevant. We need to start thinking about this from a different angle and I believe this article will get you thinking in the right direction.
Read the article because we need a paradigm shift.
https://www.compactmag.com/article/why-conservatism-failed
I appreciate the link, and hope no one will take it as a political rather than sociological argument.
I have put it plainly in one of my first article for Empire State Mason magazine: We want things to be different, as long as we don't have to change anything.
You’re welcome, yes it is a completely sociological argument and I find it put something’s into words that I had struggled with. One small technology changed so much, and created such a disruption for society and we tend towards looking for societal change instead of understanding that technology made a fundamental shift under our feet. I actually think it explains a tremendous amount of the current friction points and arguments that people are stuck with these days.
Another example might be all this “wokeism” that some people feel, yet fail to realize that technology has made it so that you are no longer speaking to a small group of close friends and family where you can rely upon their charity to know you well enough to know that you didn’t mean anything harmful by it, but are now speaking to the entire world. I don’t think a lot of people have yet realized that. Everything you say, whether you mean to or not, is now basically global.
Your simple comment can be screenshotted and shared globally in seconds.
Now where this really hits for me is that I hear from Masons very often lamenting that the younger generations feel we are irrelevant, and I personally feel what Masonry has to offer is even more relevant than ever. Some people believe young men are being chastised for being men but not given any better examples. That’s somewhat true since you can’t easily teach something as complex as being a strong and healthy individual in 40 characters or less.
Once again a fundamental shift in technology has rendered an entire way of being to the dust bin for a large segment of the world. Many young men have very few interactions that are positive or sustained long enough to allow them to really develop a sense of connection, understanding, or personal growth guided by a personal mentor. So what do they have? Some garbage YouTube channel that feeds their darkest desires for profit?
Anyway I could write a book. This is only meant to get people thinking.
I have written and spoken on this many times. Social media is as fundamental a shift in the human condition as was the invention of writing. And I mean this with no exaggeration whatsoever. It will take generations for us to sort it out, as we always do. In the meantime, the newer generations got no advice from us -- as it didn't exist in our younger days -- and it's an understandable mess.
Thank you for sharing the article, and your perspective on its applicability to Masonry. I read it when first posted, and it certainly gives much to consider.
Ultimately I have to agree that technology has radically changed our world, and I think that we have very little understanding of what its impacts are, and even less understanding about how to respond to those impacts.
That said, I remain optimistic. Over the long march of time humanity shows a great propensity towards improvement.
I see many road blocks in Mansonic lodges, and most of the time the road blocks are us.
We do very often seem to be our own worst enemies.
I had to move lodges to hopefully find the experience I was needing, and what I felt was best for the fraternity. There were more than a few brothers in the lodge that didn't agree with my assessment of what was wrong, yet when I pointed out to them just what the problems were, they acknowledged it, but refused to change to fix them. Instead, they fell back into the old comfortable "we've always done it that way" mentality, and merrily continued to ignore what was really going on.
I do want to point out that over the years, the Lodge Leadership Retreat has morphed into something quite valuable. Beyond the basic classes like secretary duties, financial planning, installation planning, temple board governance (all valuable classes) they have expanded into subjects like leadership, retention, beyond the six steps, and other classes that point out problems and potential solutions facing the fraternity today. I urge all lodges to send brothers to the LLR, as you are investing in your future. It's no coincidence that one indication that a lodge is failing is that they haven't ever sent anyone to attend these classes.
>>>It's no coincidence that one indication that a lodge is failing is that they haven't ever sent anyone >>>to attend these classes.
This is exactly correct. When I was traveling to Lodges as a part of the Grand Line when I would see an obviously failing Lodge, I'd often check to see how long it had been since they had sent anyone to the Lodge Leadership Retreat. Seemingly without fail those dying Lodges either hadn't ever sent anyone, or hadn't sent anyone for many years.
But of course if the Jurisdiction works so hard to put on a program designed to teach Lodge leaders how to create thriving Lodges, and those leaders refuse to attend, it is no wonder that they fail.