This is an idea that came up in this week’s ‘Apple Tree Tavern’ discussion. It was raised by a Worshipful Brother who has moved across the country, and struggled to find a suitable new Lodge. His experiences mirrored my own, when I moved across the State many years ago. And, I’ve seen at least one other Mason struggle to find a new Masonic home after a move.
Given that, the question arises.
Should our Lodges appoint a small number of people to serve on a Welcoming Committee?
A small number of people who would be responsible for greeting and talking with visitors and potential members of our Lodge? To show them around, sit with them at dinner and in Lodge? In general, to make certain that they feel welcome?
In my jurisdiction, the SD is responsible for accommodating visiting brethren, and the JD is responsible for candidates. Taken together, those two would (or at least should) be able to perform the welcoming committee duties as suggested.
Ideally, it is the natural duty of the Senior Deacon. He should not only vet visitors, but have their information (a fillable card is helpful) to hand off to the Master for introductions.
The committee is made up of every single brother in the lodge. Assigning a couple of brothers to this task alleviates responsibility for everyone else to be gracious hosts.
Ideally, a lodge should establish a culture that a welcoming attitude is exhibited by all brothers. Research has shown that highly successful groups use the word "family" to describe their relationship with one another. They demonstrate this by high levels of interaction with intense active listening, humor, laughter, and physical clues that show the visitor they are in a caring enviornment. A good friend and brother once commented to me that accepting a man into your lodge is not a transaction but welcoming them to your family. If I visited a lodge and left with the feeling I was truly welcomed, I would return.
I come out of the East in two weeks time when I came into the chair 💺 I asked for a Brother to be on the door to welcome Brethren as they came in into the hall. Now I was told that would be unfair to be on the door for some 45 minutes. My view is that we should welcome Brethren as they come in at every meeting.
If we do not make people feel Welcome then we have let ourselves down and anyone else who comes to the lodge
My mother Lodge had a welcoming committee, it was the SD and the Tyler. Anyone who came in who wasn’t a member of the Lodge was greeted by one of those two Brothers, who would chat with the newcomer long enough to get some basics and then would take him to a group of Brothers, introduce them all tell them a little about the guest and settle them in for dinner.
The key to this working was we had at least annual reminders of our duties to guests, we always left at least one open chair at any table for guests to be slotted into, if the guest was eligible to sit in Lodge the SD would make sure that a Brother or two sat with the guest if they were alone (almost never happened, usually a brother or two from dinner would already be sitting with the guest).
Now, we had some members who were insular and didn’t like new people and we all knew who they were and we just avoided them with new people in favor of the vast majority of people who were very welcoming.
Part of the reason we used the Tyler for this was it gave the office something to do above and beyond its normal duties and we could always fill it with an amiable Brother who was dedicated to being friendly. It had the added benefit of if the guest was not eligible to sit in Lodge for some reason the Tyler could visit with them and keep them company until we reached the point they could enter.
You have to set the cultural expectation in the Lodge, with at least a plurality of regularly attending Brothers supporting it, to be welcoming. If 75% of your regular attendees are insular sticks in the mud it’s going to be hard on the other 25% to make the place feel welcoming, but it can be done. Unfortunately for a lot of Lodges this is hard work, and it’s work that many won’t see the value in doing, but the future relies on it being done.
When I was installed as SD for my lodge I took it upon myself after dinner to stand at the tyler's register and shake each and every hand that came up to sign in. I'd make small talk with everyone. It was mainly to find any first time visitors so that I can get them to fill out our visitor card for the secretary, but also to make everyone feel welcome, regardless of who they were.
From my perspective as someone who has been recently doing exactly this - searching for a welcoming lodge in a new place:
If you need to appoint a committee to make visitors welcome, you've already lost the battle if not the war of recruiting new masons and new members (plural or demit).
I have over the last 9 months visited several lodges within a reasonable distance of my residence. In doing so, I have discovered MUCH MORE variation in the character of individual lodges than I would have expected. My many experiences ranged from having to go up and introduce myself as a visiting mason (having gotten that long over the top of the glasses look as I approached) from another jurisdiction, to barely getting through the door before more than one brother had extended a welcoming hand and introduced themselves. I was accepted after, some due examination, in both cases. In the later case I may have been offered a beverage appropriate to the time of day or a tour of the facility as well as an invitation to sit with them for what ever refreshments were being served. Some of this second group of lodges went so far as to present me with a lodge lapel pin.
It should be no surprise which lodges I chose visit a second or Nth time, and am still visiting and engaging with. I have discovered that even within the more welcoming lodges there are one or more which seem well suited to my view of masonry and where I feel that I may be able to make a contribution. After several visits, assisting with degrees and kitchen chores one lodge even elected me an honorary member.
So I'll repeat myself: If you need to appoint a committee to welcome visitors, you've already lost them as potential members and associates. It's your lodges loss not theirs - they will find another lodge...
While I agree that this is fundamentally the Senior Deacon's responsibility, I think our Lodges do a disservice to themselves if they simply rely upon him to handle it.
What if he can't attend the meeting? What if his personality is unsuitable to doing it (we do elect and appoint men unsuited to their office from time to time)? What if there are more visitors than one man can properly welcome (my Seattle Lodge often has a lot of visitors, and a lot of men considering Freemasonry)?
In my jurisdiction, the SD is responsible for accommodating visiting brethren, and the JD is responsible for candidates. Taken together, those two would (or at least should) be able to perform the welcoming committee duties as suggested.
Ideally, it is the natural duty of the Senior Deacon. He should not only vet visitors, but have their information (a fillable card is helpful) to hand off to the Master for introductions.
The committee is made up of every single brother in the lodge. Assigning a couple of brothers to this task alleviates responsibility for everyone else to be gracious hosts.
Ideally, a lodge should establish a culture that a welcoming attitude is exhibited by all brothers. Research has shown that highly successful groups use the word "family" to describe their relationship with one another. They demonstrate this by high levels of interaction with intense active listening, humor, laughter, and physical clues that show the visitor they are in a caring enviornment. A good friend and brother once commented to me that accepting a man into your lodge is not a transaction but welcoming them to your family. If I visited a lodge and left with the feeling I was truly welcomed, I would return.
I come out of the East in two weeks time when I came into the chair 💺 I asked for a Brother to be on the door to welcome Brethren as they came in into the hall. Now I was told that would be unfair to be on the door for some 45 minutes. My view is that we should welcome Brethren as they come in at every meeting.
If we do not make people feel Welcome then we have let ourselves down and anyone else who comes to the lodge
My mother Lodge had a welcoming committee, it was the SD and the Tyler. Anyone who came in who wasn’t a member of the Lodge was greeted by one of those two Brothers, who would chat with the newcomer long enough to get some basics and then would take him to a group of Brothers, introduce them all tell them a little about the guest and settle them in for dinner.
The key to this working was we had at least annual reminders of our duties to guests, we always left at least one open chair at any table for guests to be slotted into, if the guest was eligible to sit in Lodge the SD would make sure that a Brother or two sat with the guest if they were alone (almost never happened, usually a brother or two from dinner would already be sitting with the guest).
Now, we had some members who were insular and didn’t like new people and we all knew who they were and we just avoided them with new people in favor of the vast majority of people who were very welcoming.
Part of the reason we used the Tyler for this was it gave the office something to do above and beyond its normal duties and we could always fill it with an amiable Brother who was dedicated to being friendly. It had the added benefit of if the guest was not eligible to sit in Lodge for some reason the Tyler could visit with them and keep them company until we reached the point they could enter.
You have to set the cultural expectation in the Lodge, with at least a plurality of regularly attending Brothers supporting it, to be welcoming. If 75% of your regular attendees are insular sticks in the mud it’s going to be hard on the other 25% to make the place feel welcoming, but it can be done. Unfortunately for a lot of Lodges this is hard work, and it’s work that many won’t see the value in doing, but the future relies on it being done.
When I was installed as SD for my lodge I took it upon myself after dinner to stand at the tyler's register and shake each and every hand that came up to sign in. I'd make small talk with everyone. It was mainly to find any first time visitors so that I can get them to fill out our visitor card for the secretary, but also to make everyone feel welcome, regardless of who they were.
I'm writing without reading the thread.
From my perspective as someone who has been recently doing exactly this - searching for a welcoming lodge in a new place:
If you need to appoint a committee to make visitors welcome, you've already lost the battle if not the war of recruiting new masons and new members (plural or demit).
I have over the last 9 months visited several lodges within a reasonable distance of my residence. In doing so, I have discovered MUCH MORE variation in the character of individual lodges than I would have expected. My many experiences ranged from having to go up and introduce myself as a visiting mason (having gotten that long over the top of the glasses look as I approached) from another jurisdiction, to barely getting through the door before more than one brother had extended a welcoming hand and introduced themselves. I was accepted after, some due examination, in both cases. In the later case I may have been offered a beverage appropriate to the time of day or a tour of the facility as well as an invitation to sit with them for what ever refreshments were being served. Some of this second group of lodges went so far as to present me with a lodge lapel pin.
It should be no surprise which lodges I chose visit a second or Nth time, and am still visiting and engaging with. I have discovered that even within the more welcoming lodges there are one or more which seem well suited to my view of masonry and where I feel that I may be able to make a contribution. After several visits, assisting with degrees and kitchen chores one lodge even elected me an honorary member.
So I'll repeat myself: If you need to appoint a committee to welcome visitors, you've already lost them as potential members and associates. It's your lodges loss not theirs - they will find another lodge...
While I agree that this is fundamentally the Senior Deacon's responsibility, I think our Lodges do a disservice to themselves if they simply rely upon him to handle it.
What if he can't attend the meeting? What if his personality is unsuitable to doing it (we do elect and appoint men unsuited to their office from time to time)? What if there are more visitors than one man can properly welcome (my Seattle Lodge often has a lot of visitors, and a lot of men considering Freemasonry)?