I am familiar with a Masonic Temple that brings in a great deal of income by renting out its dining room, Lodge Room, and the rest, for private events.
I am also extremely familiar with a Masonic Temple that started developing something like this, and found it to be a disaster.
Two very different results.
But by far a bigger category, at least to my limited knowledge, are those Temples that have considered it, and are even trying it, but to not much result.
The thing is, I know that properly done, these event rentals can work. They can bring in very significant income.
I know this because I see our old Temples, and other Fraternal buildings, that had to be sold, turned into event centers that seem to be thriving. There’s an old Elks Lodge a block and a half or so from my house that last I checked rents for $4,400 a day.
If private business people can do it, it seems that we can do it.
But, I think that in most cases, we don’t know how.
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Today’s topic comes to us from RW Lucas.
He asked, in a comment recently, how private, one-off, event rentals are going at my local Masonic Temple.
And I think that’s a really important topic, because a financially struggling Lodge could go a long way towards solving its financial troubles if it had a good system for this sort of rental, and was able to turn that into a solid income generator.
So, let me ask you:
How are private, one-off, event rentals going at your Masonic Temple? Are you able to regularly rent the facility for weddings, retirement parties, graduations, things of that sort?
If you are finding success with this, can you tell us how? What best practices you have found to be important? The secrets of your success?
I know that this is pretty open-ended, but I think in a lot of cases, Temple owners just aren’t certain how best to start. Including me.
If you want to get your property taxes waived as a non profit, you must rent out the building for public use. This alone would save temple associations thousands of dollars a year.
First, you have to have someone designated to respond to rental requests and to keep a calendar, especially for repeat customers. I would suggest establishing a google account for the temple board. This comes with a free online calendar that you can use. Online calendars generally let you establish repeating and one time events however you would want.
Part of the process of getting tax free status is having visible "hall for rent" signs with contact information on the outside of the building.
Shop around and find out what the going rates are for rentals in your area, and be competitively priced.
Keep it clean. Update your kitchen appliances if possible. Hold guests accountable for trash and damages.
Seek out those monthly rentals. One lodge has the local car club renting the space every month. The temple cuts them a deal, but it's steady dependable income.
Cut deals for masons.
That's all I can think of this early in the morning.
Is one of the largest challenges one of my Lodges faces when trying to develop a rental program.
The kitchen is poorly cleaned, stuff doesn't get put away, junk appears seemingly from nowhere, and refrigerators are filled with leftovers that are there to slowly rot.
Changing the mindset that causes all of that is extremely difficult. At least in this particular Lodge. But, I think that part of it is a result of the fact that only the Lodge has ownership, and therefore pride of ownership.
I’m honored I get listened to enough to generate a topic!
Our Scottish Rite temple has been saved by rentals, specifically weddings and quincieras. Making 5000 in one day is like increasing membership by 100 men , a real game changer. This has allowed us to not only pay bills but do a lot of restoration work.
We have found that any temple that wants to do this needs a “public facing” website JUST for rentals. Don’t make people weed through fraternal links give them exactly what they are looking for in an easy format.
A bonus to rentals is that it long term attracts members. We have lots of new members that attended events at the temple and it fueled their curiosity.
I have forwarded this topic’s link to our Orient secretary who is the mastermind of our rental program. He loves our temples and would see them saved but he’s fighting a tough fight of apathy across the country. This is because many jurisdictions believe they “don’t have the expertise” when in reality they just want an outside company to do the work of meeting with prospects and giving tours and using that model there’s not enough profit to matter in the long run unless you have an immaculate building and deep coffers from the start.
>>>We have found that any temple that wants to do this needs a “public facing” website JUST for >>>rentals. Don’t make people weed through fraternal links give them exactly what they are >>>looking for in an easy format.
I hadn't thought about it, but this makes a lot of sense to me. Thank you!
>>>A bonus to rentals is that it long term attracts members. We have lots of new members that >>>attended events at the temple and it fueled their curiosity.
Yes, I can certainly see where this would hold true.
My oldest daughter got married in the spectacular Scottish Rite Temple in Portland, Oregon. Stepping foot in that amazing building would certainly get a guy thinking about membership I imagine. Likewise here in Washington at Kelso Lodge, Nile Shrine, Doric Lodge, Waitsburg Lodge, and some other truly beautiful spaces.
The good news is, at least from my perspective, is that the Grand Lodge of California is really encouraging the creation of new Lodges. That's a key to long term future growth I think.
I hate to say it but the demographics in our city has changed so much over the last 40 years. When I grew up here it was mostly middle class to upper middle class Caucasians. Now it is probably close to 95% percent Hispanic, and they just don’t seem to involve themselves in clubs like the Masons, elks, lions etc.??? We do continue to have a fairly good Elks club.
This points to what I consider to be a fundamental issue.
My little city has a very large Hispanic population, enough so to support what I'd describe as a Hispanic part of our downtown. But, we do not have any of these folks in our Lodge.
That is not due to a cultural difference. Freemasonry is thriving in Mexico and throughout Latin America. Indeed I'm honored to know a great number of Mexican Freemasons, and they have been very supportive of me and my efforts within Freemasonry.
So, some of these folks who have immigrated and call my city home would clearly want to join, if we made it attractive to them.
But, there are two issues I see:
1. None of the written materials in my Jurisdiction are in Spanish, nor does my Jurisdiction allow ritual work to be done in any language other than English. This is a terrible error in my opinion, but a lot of people disagree with me. I don't imagine that these arbitrary restrictions are imposed in California.
2. We don't, and by that I mean the Masons in my little city don't, know how to make effective outreach to this population. We would certainly welcome any interested good man into our Lodge, but we don't know how to reach out and communicate that fact effectively.
Lodges have to have planning and direction. They must understand the financial side of things. They must agree on simple things like hiring janitorial instead of depending on volunteers to clean the Lodge and administrate the rentals. One of my Lodges is always financially challenged. The Temple Building Board only has about 15 months of cash reserves if no repairs are needed. They do not contribute to a maintenance reserve and have very few rentals and is burning through the small reserve cash they do have. An HVAC, plumbing or electrical problem will take half the cash reserve and reduce the time that the Lodge can own or operate the building.
It currently costs about $ 956 per month for utilities, insurance. That is up $ 60 from last year. We anticipate the next's years monthly cost will be $ 1,000 to $ 1,050. With a $ 13,000 cash reserve the math is pretty simple. One years operation and the Temple Building Board is out of money.
They do not want to spend money on janitorial services, and cannot get volunteers to clean, and there are 15 events monthly with up to 12- 30 people each, so the interior is suffering. My goal for the next two years is to try and stabilize this and allow this Lodge to continue to own the building and meet there. It provides meeting space for Blue Lodge, DeMolay, Jobs, and Battle Buddies. We have tried to get these groups to help to clean but none of them seem to be able to figure out how to do it.
Our jurisdiction has developed a Lodge Building Management Handbook that address's a lot of these issues and it will be published soon. Hopefully Lodges will avail themselves of this resource to help them keep Lodge Buildings in good repair and the doors open.
As Treasurer I intend to ask Blue Lodge for an assessment to provide 3 months operational expenses which will no doubt be meet with teeth gnashing and protests.
Lodges need to get real and stop ignoring the inevitable.
This does seem to be the fundamental problem. We bought all this Real Estate and built all these wonderful buildings, without ever making plans for their long term upkeep. At least in most cases. And, we seem, as a group, to like to ignore the fact that the price of everything goes up over time.
>>>They must agree on simple things like hiring janitorial instead of depending on volunteers to >>>clean the Lodge and administrate the rentals.
Yes. Depending on volunteers only works if there are people volunteering!
>>>The Temple Building Board only has about 15 months of cash reserves if no repairs are >>>needed. They do not contribute to a maintenance reserve and have very few rentals and is >>>burning through the small reserve cash they do have. An HVAC, plumbing or electrical >>>problem will take half the cash reserve and reduce the time that the Lodge can own or >>>operate the building.
It's a really scary thing. One of my Lodges has very significant cash reserves, but also massively expensive systems. We are trying to save money, and have taken steps to make that possible, but there are at least two systems that would take everything if one of them was to fail. It is ultimately a race against time.
The other Lodge simply tends to spend too much. It has good income, with reasonably sized reserves, but those reserves aren't growing, because there is too much desire to spend the income.
The good news is that both of these Lodges are taking steps to make things better.
>>>My goal for the next two years is to try and stabilize this and allow this Lodge to continue to >>>own the building and meet there. It provides meeting space for Blue Lodge, DeMolay, Jobs, >>>and Battle Buddies.
As you point out, when we lose a building it is often the case that it isn't only the Lodge that loses its home. It is our Appendant and Concordant bodies as well.
>>>Our jurisdiction has developed a Lodge Building Management Handbook that address's a lot >>>of these issues and it will be published soon.
Excellent!
>>>As Treasurer I intend to ask Blue Lodge for an assessment to provide 3 months operational >>>expenses which will no doubt be meet with teeth gnashing and protests.
I like the idea of assessments. They can help show the reality of a situation.
>>>Lodges need to get real and stop ignoring the inevitable.
If you want to get your property taxes waived as a non profit, you must rent out the building for public use. This alone would save temple associations thousands of dollars a year.
First, you have to have someone designated to respond to rental requests and to keep a calendar, especially for repeat customers. I would suggest establishing a google account for the temple board. This comes with a free online calendar that you can use. Online calendars generally let you establish repeating and one time events however you would want.
Part of the process of getting tax free status is having visible "hall for rent" signs with contact information on the outside of the building.
Shop around and find out what the going rates are for rentals in your area, and be competitively priced.
Keep it clean. Update your kitchen appliances if possible. Hold guests accountable for trash and damages.
Seek out those monthly rentals. One lodge has the local car club renting the space every month. The temple cuts them a deal, but it's steady dependable income.
Cut deals for masons.
That's all I can think of this early in the morning.
It is hard to believe but:
>>>Keep it clean.
Is one of the largest challenges one of my Lodges faces when trying to develop a rental program.
The kitchen is poorly cleaned, stuff doesn't get put away, junk appears seemingly from nowhere, and refrigerators are filled with leftovers that are there to slowly rot.
Changing the mindset that causes all of that is extremely difficult. At least in this particular Lodge. But, I think that part of it is a result of the fact that only the Lodge has ownership, and therefore pride of ownership.
I’m honored I get listened to enough to generate a topic!
Our Scottish Rite temple has been saved by rentals, specifically weddings and quincieras. Making 5000 in one day is like increasing membership by 100 men , a real game changer. This has allowed us to not only pay bills but do a lot of restoration work.
We have found that any temple that wants to do this needs a “public facing” website JUST for rentals. Don’t make people weed through fraternal links give them exactly what they are looking for in an easy format.
A bonus to rentals is that it long term attracts members. We have lots of new members that attended events at the temple and it fueled their curiosity.
I have forwarded this topic’s link to our Orient secretary who is the mastermind of our rental program. He loves our temples and would see them saved but he’s fighting a tough fight of apathy across the country. This is because many jurisdictions believe they “don’t have the expertise” when in reality they just want an outside company to do the work of meeting with prospects and giving tours and using that model there’s not enough profit to matter in the long run unless you have an immaculate building and deep coffers from the start.
>>>We have found that any temple that wants to do this needs a “public facing” website JUST for >>>rentals. Don’t make people weed through fraternal links give them exactly what they are >>>looking for in an easy format.
I hadn't thought about it, but this makes a lot of sense to me. Thank you!
>>>A bonus to rentals is that it long term attracts members. We have lots of new members that >>>attended events at the temple and it fueled their curiosity.
Yes, I can certainly see where this would hold true.
My oldest daughter got married in the spectacular Scottish Rite Temple in Portland, Oregon. Stepping foot in that amazing building would certainly get a guy thinking about membership I imagine. Likewise here in Washington at Kelso Lodge, Nile Shrine, Doric Lodge, Waitsburg Lodge, and some other truly beautiful spaces.
Great idea! I hope it saves many lodges. The three in my hometown have closed over the years 😞
It's really sad to know that you have lost three.
The good news is, at least from my perspective, is that the Grand Lodge of California is really encouraging the creation of new Lodges. That's a key to long term future growth I think.
I hate to say it but the demographics in our city has changed so much over the last 40 years. When I grew up here it was mostly middle class to upper middle class Caucasians. Now it is probably close to 95% percent Hispanic, and they just don’t seem to involve themselves in clubs like the Masons, elks, lions etc.??? We do continue to have a fairly good Elks club.
This points to what I consider to be a fundamental issue.
My little city has a very large Hispanic population, enough so to support what I'd describe as a Hispanic part of our downtown. But, we do not have any of these folks in our Lodge.
That is not due to a cultural difference. Freemasonry is thriving in Mexico and throughout Latin America. Indeed I'm honored to know a great number of Mexican Freemasons, and they have been very supportive of me and my efforts within Freemasonry.
So, some of these folks who have immigrated and call my city home would clearly want to join, if we made it attractive to them.
But, there are two issues I see:
1. None of the written materials in my Jurisdiction are in Spanish, nor does my Jurisdiction allow ritual work to be done in any language other than English. This is a terrible error in my opinion, but a lot of people disagree with me. I don't imagine that these arbitrary restrictions are imposed in California.
2. We don't, and by that I mean the Masons in my little city don't, know how to make effective outreach to this population. We would certainly welcome any interested good man into our Lodge, but we don't know how to reach out and communicate that fact effectively.
Lodges have to have planning and direction. They must understand the financial side of things. They must agree on simple things like hiring janitorial instead of depending on volunteers to clean the Lodge and administrate the rentals. One of my Lodges is always financially challenged. The Temple Building Board only has about 15 months of cash reserves if no repairs are needed. They do not contribute to a maintenance reserve and have very few rentals and is burning through the small reserve cash they do have. An HVAC, plumbing or electrical problem will take half the cash reserve and reduce the time that the Lodge can own or operate the building.
It currently costs about $ 956 per month for utilities, insurance. That is up $ 60 from last year. We anticipate the next's years monthly cost will be $ 1,000 to $ 1,050. With a $ 13,000 cash reserve the math is pretty simple. One years operation and the Temple Building Board is out of money.
They do not want to spend money on janitorial services, and cannot get volunteers to clean, and there are 15 events monthly with up to 12- 30 people each, so the interior is suffering. My goal for the next two years is to try and stabilize this and allow this Lodge to continue to own the building and meet there. It provides meeting space for Blue Lodge, DeMolay, Jobs, and Battle Buddies. We have tried to get these groups to help to clean but none of them seem to be able to figure out how to do it.
Our jurisdiction has developed a Lodge Building Management Handbook that address's a lot of these issues and it will be published soon. Hopefully Lodges will avail themselves of this resource to help them keep Lodge Buildings in good repair and the doors open.
As Treasurer I intend to ask Blue Lodge for an assessment to provide 3 months operational expenses which will no doubt be meet with teeth gnashing and protests.
Lodges need to get real and stop ignoring the inevitable.
>>>Lodges have to have planning and direction.
This does seem to be the fundamental problem. We bought all this Real Estate and built all these wonderful buildings, without ever making plans for their long term upkeep. At least in most cases. And, we seem, as a group, to like to ignore the fact that the price of everything goes up over time.
>>>They must agree on simple things like hiring janitorial instead of depending on volunteers to >>>clean the Lodge and administrate the rentals.
Yes. Depending on volunteers only works if there are people volunteering!
>>>The Temple Building Board only has about 15 months of cash reserves if no repairs are >>>needed. They do not contribute to a maintenance reserve and have very few rentals and is >>>burning through the small reserve cash they do have. An HVAC, plumbing or electrical >>>problem will take half the cash reserve and reduce the time that the Lodge can own or >>>operate the building.
It's a really scary thing. One of my Lodges has very significant cash reserves, but also massively expensive systems. We are trying to save money, and have taken steps to make that possible, but there are at least two systems that would take everything if one of them was to fail. It is ultimately a race against time.
The other Lodge simply tends to spend too much. It has good income, with reasonably sized reserves, but those reserves aren't growing, because there is too much desire to spend the income.
The good news is that both of these Lodges are taking steps to make things better.
>>>My goal for the next two years is to try and stabilize this and allow this Lodge to continue to >>>own the building and meet there. It provides meeting space for Blue Lodge, DeMolay, Jobs, >>>and Battle Buddies.
As you point out, when we lose a building it is often the case that it isn't only the Lodge that loses its home. It is our Appendant and Concordant bodies as well.
>>>Our jurisdiction has developed a Lodge Building Management Handbook that address's a lot >>>of these issues and it will be published soon.
Excellent!
>>>As Treasurer I intend to ask Blue Lodge for an assessment to provide 3 months operational >>>expenses which will no doubt be meet with teeth gnashing and protests.
I like the idea of assessments. They can help show the reality of a situation.
>>>Lodges need to get real and stop ignoring the inevitable.
We certainly must stop ignoring inflation.