As more and more people work remotely, many occasionally have need for a meeting or office space.
I have, for example, in the past held meetings with clients in one of our Masonic Temples. These meetings are rare, but when a private space is needed, the Temple has proven to be invaluable.
I’m aware of another of our Masonic Temples, this near Seattle, that makes its beautiful lounge widely available to its members for those purposes.
Our Fraternity owns Temples seemingly everywhere, from the tiniest of towns to the largest of cities. Should we create co-working spaces within them for the use of our members?
I rather see it offered as a benefit for the Masons who hold membership in the Lodge, so all rolled up with the dues. But I also think that in most cases our dues need to be increased significantly.
Most Masonic Buildings in the future are going to need more "stakeholders". That is just people who care whether the building stands or falls. If membership & resources of the actual lodges themselves is decreasing, there always comes a time where the building can't be kept up. Clearly it's a good idea to recruit extra stakeholders who use the building and care about it.
Coworking is a decent idea. Hosting weddings & events is too. Really the specifics of the activity don't even much matter. If the community is using the building for a non-masonic function, and either helping financially support it or logistically support it, that's a big win for the long-term viability of the building.
The complicating factor though is that it tends to turn lodges into landlords. This butts up into all of our standard challenges with things like the progressive line & decision-making. Most lodges are uniquely organized to confer degrees & sustain a social group of men -- not to be good landlords. So some lodges just don't have the capacity to run a side business and that's OK even if their business prospects are more limited.
Doing co-working any really any other business is a good idea *provided that the lodge can sustain it* and understands what it's getting into.
I strongly agree with your thoughts about hosting weddings and other events in our buildings as well. We have Lodges that have turned their buildings into quite successful profit centers by doing just that.
I also recognize what you point out, that we tend to not be very good at this, and that it takes a great deal of work on behalf of Lodge members. It's my view that almost all Lodges that want to pursue event rentals (unless they have someone uniquely qualified to pull it off) should simply hire someone to take care of it. In my area there are people who do this professionally, they handle the advertising, event management, the whole thing. In return, they take 50% of the gross, and the building takes the other half. It has always seemed to me that even after giving up that 50%, most Lodges would come out ahead over doing it themselves.
For those lodges with a fairly big library, I see it as an opportunity for fruitful research. In my home lodge, we have two large bookshelves. One has many old copies of "Morals and Dogma," left or willed to the lodge by deceased Brethren. The other has more contemporary readings, including "Freemasonry for Dummies," which we use to educate "seekers." I see the use of a library or similar room as a benefit for all members. Just my thoughts...
I believe that most Temple are actually ran by a Temple board and not the Lodge themselves. Granted this is a fine point and the Temple Board is actually made up by members of the Lodge. The Temple board of my Lodge has worked and has gotten us tax exempt status where we open the Temple up to private groups which provide additional funding for the Temple operations. Opening the Temples up has an additional benefit in that it makes more of the community aware of the Lodge and has the potential for these individuals to seek to possibly join that Lodge. Another possible benefit if the Lodges were opened up for usage by the brothers is that might get them interested in returning to the Lodge rather than staying away.
As you say, opening up our buildings for public use is a great way of reminding the community that we are there. It is sad to think of our buildings that sit, dark and unused all but a single day each month.
If we hope to attract good men to our Fraternity our buildings need to be filled with light and life!
Yes, it is important to have a space for a small meeting to be held or a private meeting for what ever the reason may be. But this should not take from the space of the lodge building. I know property taxes across the state have increased rather drastically over the the years and they are not going to go down any time soon. Raising the dues of the members is not going to mitigate this issue, it is only going to drive them away. For my lodge, I chose to take the property tax exemption and recategorize building in to a public use space through the Washington State Department of Revenue. Is it an easy process...no, it is not, but it is a rewarding process. We went from paying a little over $11,000 a year to $155.00 in property taxes this year. Some of the bigger buildings would greatly benefit from it as they are paying upwards of over $30,000 a year in property taxes. in District 3 we only have one more lodge that is not property tax exempt, but I am working with them to get to that. I am also working with two other lodges in District 12 which one of them is just got their exemption status. All public use hall means is that we just have to show usage of 50% public and 50% private. it is not hard to do, this year alone I have had 6 different non-profits rent the or are going to rent the lodge for an event and that counts as public use. Any open installation also counts as public usage as outsiders can come to these events. I am willing to help any lodge with this if helps protect our buildings and keeps them open, going to your county's board of equalization is only a band aid that will eventually fall off.
Bro. Caleb, have you written any kind of "procedure" for this process? I think our RE Advisory Committee would love to have a new member to assist in facilitating this process for Temple Boards. We could even have a Saturday morning training for Temple Boards, record the session and make it available via Grandview as a video on the Grand Lodge YouTube channel. What do you think? -David Colbeth 253-778-6423 david@colbeth.com
Bro. David, I do not have anything procedure written down for this but it would not take much. I would be honored to be on the committee and help other temple boards with this process. I will reach out to you later today.
This is a brilliant idea !!!
Do you see the space offered free, or for a fee to help support the Temple?
I rather see it offered as a benefit for the Masons who hold membership in the Lodge, so all rolled up with the dues. But I also think that in most cases our dues need to be increased significantly.
I'd wager almost every Lodge need to increase their dues.
Yes, I think that is correct.
Most Masonic Buildings in the future are going to need more "stakeholders". That is just people who care whether the building stands or falls. If membership & resources of the actual lodges themselves is decreasing, there always comes a time where the building can't be kept up. Clearly it's a good idea to recruit extra stakeholders who use the building and care about it.
Coworking is a decent idea. Hosting weddings & events is too. Really the specifics of the activity don't even much matter. If the community is using the building for a non-masonic function, and either helping financially support it or logistically support it, that's a big win for the long-term viability of the building.
The complicating factor though is that it tends to turn lodges into landlords. This butts up into all of our standard challenges with things like the progressive line & decision-making. Most lodges are uniquely organized to confer degrees & sustain a social group of men -- not to be good landlords. So some lodges just don't have the capacity to run a side business and that's OK even if their business prospects are more limited.
Doing co-working any really any other business is a good idea *provided that the lodge can sustain it* and understands what it's getting into.
I strongly agree with your thoughts about hosting weddings and other events in our buildings as well. We have Lodges that have turned their buildings into quite successful profit centers by doing just that.
I also recognize what you point out, that we tend to not be very good at this, and that it takes a great deal of work on behalf of Lodge members. It's my view that almost all Lodges that want to pursue event rentals (unless they have someone uniquely qualified to pull it off) should simply hire someone to take care of it. In my area there are people who do this professionally, they handle the advertising, event management, the whole thing. In return, they take 50% of the gross, and the building takes the other half. It has always seemed to me that even after giving up that 50%, most Lodges would come out ahead over doing it themselves.
The only thing I possibly see as an issue is the liability insurance issue should something happen during one of these so called non masonic meetings.
For those lodges with a fairly big library, I see it as an opportunity for fruitful research. In my home lodge, we have two large bookshelves. One has many old copies of "Morals and Dogma," left or willed to the lodge by deceased Brethren. The other has more contemporary readings, including "Freemasonry for Dummies," which we use to educate "seekers." I see the use of a library or similar room as a benefit for all members. Just my thoughts...
I agree. Lodges that own a building should have a library, and that space should be open to the members.
I believe that most Temple are actually ran by a Temple board and not the Lodge themselves. Granted this is a fine point and the Temple Board is actually made up by members of the Lodge. The Temple board of my Lodge has worked and has gotten us tax exempt status where we open the Temple up to private groups which provide additional funding for the Temple operations. Opening the Temples up has an additional benefit in that it makes more of the community aware of the Lodge and has the potential for these individuals to seek to possibly join that Lodge. Another possible benefit if the Lodges were opened up for usage by the brothers is that might get them interested in returning to the Lodge rather than staying away.
As you say, opening up our buildings for public use is a great way of reminding the community that we are there. It is sad to think of our buildings that sit, dark and unused all but a single day each month.
If we hope to attract good men to our Fraternity our buildings need to be filled with light and life!
Yes, it is important to have a space for a small meeting to be held or a private meeting for what ever the reason may be. But this should not take from the space of the lodge building. I know property taxes across the state have increased rather drastically over the the years and they are not going to go down any time soon. Raising the dues of the members is not going to mitigate this issue, it is only going to drive them away. For my lodge, I chose to take the property tax exemption and recategorize building in to a public use space through the Washington State Department of Revenue. Is it an easy process...no, it is not, but it is a rewarding process. We went from paying a little over $11,000 a year to $155.00 in property taxes this year. Some of the bigger buildings would greatly benefit from it as they are paying upwards of over $30,000 a year in property taxes. in District 3 we only have one more lodge that is not property tax exempt, but I am working with them to get to that. I am also working with two other lodges in District 12 which one of them is just got their exemption status. All public use hall means is that we just have to show usage of 50% public and 50% private. it is not hard to do, this year alone I have had 6 different non-profits rent the or are going to rent the lodge for an event and that counts as public use. Any open installation also counts as public usage as outsiders can come to these events. I am willing to help any lodge with this if helps protect our buildings and keeps them open, going to your county's board of equalization is only a band aid that will eventually fall off.
Bro. Caleb, have you written any kind of "procedure" for this process? I think our RE Advisory Committee would love to have a new member to assist in facilitating this process for Temple Boards. We could even have a Saturday morning training for Temple Boards, record the session and make it available via Grandview as a video on the Grand Lodge YouTube channel. What do you think? -David Colbeth 253-778-6423 david@colbeth.com
Bro. David, I do not have anything procedure written down for this but it would not take much. I would be honored to be on the committee and help other temple boards with this process. I will reach out to you later today.