The more time I spend in Masonry, the more this resonates with me. One of the things that attracted me to my lodge was the fact that it /didn't/ meet frequently (I'm a busy guy, after all) but as I've come to love all my brothers and the time we spend together I find myself wishing our meetings were more frequent.
It is interesting to me that your perspective on this changed over time. I've been trying to think back in my memory to discover if mine has as well. Alas, I just can't remember what my feelings about it were in my early days as a Mason.
My lodge in Albuquerque NM was like that. They had a stated meeting the 1st Thursday of every month. They had specials the 2nd 3rd and 4th Thursday. Each was reserved for an EA, FC and MC respectively. This allowed for long term planning and scheduling. If we didn't have a degree, we still met. It might turn to a fellowship meeting or an educational meeting.
We would be hard pressed to add another meeting as a tenant. With 3 WA Blue Lodges, OES, Amaranth, Rainbow, Scottish Rite and Prince Hall Blue Lodge with OES and PH Scottish Rite, there isn't much tike left to schedule regularly.
Most of our Brothers are in at least 3 of these organizations that meet in the same Temple. And may even be on GL committees, Temple Boards, Shriners, York, Rite, Park Boards, or Grand Officer for concordent bodies. So many Masonic organizations eat up a lot of time.
I have not done the research, but do other countries have the other concordent bodies that we have in the US?
I don't know everywhere, but since it was Mexican Masonry that inspired this post, and since I do know about Masonry there, I'll speak to that. Yes, they have largely the same groups there was we have here. The York Rite Bodies, the Scottish Rite, the Shrine, OES, and various invitational orders. The Grotto is either entering Mexico very soon, or is expanding there soon. I'm not 100% certain which, but I heard it being discussed yesterday.
Beyond North America, one tidbit I've always found interesting is that in England OES is considered clandestine. If you are an English Freemason, you are not permitted to be a member of OES.
Yes, when Centralia voted to have a dark period recently I was extremely disappointed. Doing that kind of thing does nothing at all but harm a Lodge, because men get out of the habit of coming, and then it takes a bit to get them back into it.
If a guy doesn't want to come in June or whatever, I can't understand why he just doesn't stay home instead of advocating that no one else can come either.
Recently, my mother’s Eastern Star Chapter voted to go dark in the month of January, because over the last few winters, many of their Stated meetings had to be canceled due to inclement weather, and they decided to just skip the month. In so doing, they meet once in November and December, and not at all in January. This frustrated some of the members who noted that the Chapter is Dark in July and August as well, and they were wondering if the Chapter was going to cut back even more meetings.
I remembered that in December, the Chapter makes an effort to contact all the “Shut-ins”, who are the members who cannot attend the meetings anymore due to their age or other infirmities. This is a great thing that the Eastern Star does, and it gave me an idea. I discussed with my bicycle riding partner that they could take three ideas and combine them into one: Mom’s OES Chapter did an excellent job with the Zoom meetings during the shutdown, and this included the “Shutins,” as well as others who lived in other areas and other states. I suggested that when the Chapter was “Dark” in December and January, they could hold informal Zoom meetings on those old meeting dates, that way those who couldn’t normally attend the in-person Stated Meetings could meet up with those who could. My riding partner said toss it out there, see where it goes. His wife picked up on it, and suggested to other members to try it. Sure enough, their Associate Matron (similar to our Senior Warden) set up a Zoom, and while I had a prior commitment and couldn’t attend, my Mother did, and she noted that a ton of members showed up and caught up on things, including a member who lives in California! Of course, being informal Zoom meetings, no business was conducted, but that was okay! It was a pretty inventive idea, the members could convene regardless of the weather, or if they could drive at night, or other things. And it also showed that the OES members wanted to see each other more often, not less often.
There are a lot of ideas out there. It can’t hurt to look at your resources and think outside the box.
You are certainly correct, we should take advantage of technological advancements when they can improve our experiences. I'm glad that it worked out well for your Chapter!
My lodge in Indiana we have stated on the first Thursday of the month and called meetings the other Thursday. On every Tuesday we have craft practice/ social night. This is tradition not a rule. This being said; men got burnt out and once we came back from darkness ( where we still did craft practice and town parades) we would lose 1 or 2. I think in today society where men have to work more; kids and spouse are more active ;that having to many meetings cause burn out. Men feel something has to give. It ends up the brother giving up his lodge time. Now that all being said I don’t know what the answer is; maybe it’s whatever works for the particular lodges brethren.
I think that you hit it on the head here, the optimal is different for every Lodge. I do know of two extremely successful Lodges in my Jurisdiction that meet quarterly.
That said, it seems to me that the default is to cut back on meetings. Lazy assed Master standing in the East who doesn't want to be bothered with two meeting a month, cut it back to one. Attendance falling off at two per month, cut it back to one. A holiday takes place somewhere near a Stated Meeting, so some guys don't usually come that month, go dark that month.
Just cutting back like that, and that is what I have seen in my Jurisdiction through the years doesn't make any sense. What does make sense, in my view, is experimentation. Change something, see how it works.
But what we shouldn't do is default to what is easier. Easier may actually be better in some cases, but we can only know that through experimentation.
I think it depends on the culture of the lodge. When I was a younger mason, I spent 2-3 nights a week in masonic activities, either in my home lodge, or traveling to visit others. I belonged to two lodges (until they merged) and joined the scottish rite. I also belong to a motorcycle rights group that meets once a month, as well as the local VFW.
I've cut back on the traveling quite a bit since I've moved, but I still have a rather busy social schedule. My new lodge has it's meeting once a month, the other weeks we're either practicing, or meeting at a local watering hole to socialize.
Part of the reason I cut back on traveling so much is that the lodges were all the same. Boring business meetings. Why spend an hour traveling to another lodge just to sit through the same monotony?
I do like the education part of your idea, but it's hard enough to get education in a meeting to begin with.
I know what you are saying, and I agree with you. If a Lodge hosts one meeting a month, and it sucks, adding three more meetings a month that suck improves nothing. It actually makes the situation worse.
But, I think we have forgotten that Freemasonry comes with responsibilities, duties. A Mason has a responsibility to his Lodge. To provide education, the Master could simply get a list of the members of the Lodge and go down it assigning one Mason to bring an educational paper/discussion/whatever to the Lodge on his assigned meeting. That's actually how it is done in the SR Lodges in Mexico. The Master doesn't provide it, the Masons do, with preference given to the newest Masons.
And I think that every Mason can provide Masonic education. Even if he knows nothing whatsoever about Masonry. He can search around for an interesting Masonic question and put it out there with every Mason giving his view, round robin style.
But the fear is, at least in my mind, that these extra meetings would slowly degenerate into business meetings. I think that in order to prevent that from happening the Lodge would have to develop extremely firm rules about what can and can not happen at these meetings. The Master 'needs' to read a Letter from Grand Lodge? Too bad, it is outside of the rules of these meetings that were previously voted on and will have to wait until the monthly business meeting. The Secretary really 'needs' to bring up this piece of emergent business? Too bad, it is out of order to do so at this meeting. If a Lodge were to ever allow tiny bits of business to slip into the educational meetings it would open the flood gates.
That would work in our Jurisdiction. But I still think it would need to be carefully policed. I have no doubt but that guys would try to bring up business items.
I attended a Second Degree this last Saturday in Wenatchee and on the way home I posed this question to both brothers i traveled with. One of the brothers has been a mason for 72 years and is 95 years young. The other has been a brother for 20 years.
In our Lodge the York Rite chapter actually pre-dates our Blue Lodge, which makes it pretty interesting. We currently meet once a week, but most of our Master Masons are members of our York Rite body and as such we end up meeting multiple times per month.
One of the Worthy Brothers said if we didn't have York Rite we would probably have more meetings, but since we are all in the same groups then every night we meet we are doing something different which keeps masonry fresh and doesn't burn us out. Its a interesting and unique approach to this question and I think provides a great answer.
The other Brother said traveling and finding brothers and mason's everywhere is what he has enjoyed. Seeing as we three were the only ones traveling and attending this degree within our district from our lodge, our opinion may be a bit biased.
Its commonly said you get out of masonry what you put into it. Travel, More Meetings, etc. Any can work for more experiences.
I am much like the Brother who most enjoys traveling. I love having the opportunity to visit other Lodges and meet other Masons, as the three of you do. I feel that it is a good chance to learn from others, and find the fellowship to always be worthwhile.
We, King Solomon Lodge No 60 in Auburn WA, "meet" 6 times a month!
First Saturday is a family social breakfast at a local restaurant.
First Monday is our Temple Board and officers meeting that anyone is invited to attend.
Second Monday is our Stated Meeting with a Supper and Social 90 minutes before Lodge at 730p.
Third Monday is Proficiency night, PiLM, Degree Proficiency, Practice, etc
Fourth Monday is reserved for Degrees or exemplification/practice as needed.
Fourth Thursday is our Social Night of Brotherhood at that same local restaurant, we take up their back room and just be friends and invite inquirers to join to get to know each other.
We haven't quite figured out what to do with the 5th Mondays yet. 😉
5th Mondays, bring in a Masonic speaker. Someone with a good Masonic presentation, from Craft Masonry, or one of the other Masonic bodies. I might know of a Lodge that does just that when they end up with a 5th date.
The more time I spend in Masonry, the more this resonates with me. One of the things that attracted me to my lodge was the fact that it /didn't/ meet frequently (I'm a busy guy, after all) but as I've come to love all my brothers and the time we spend together I find myself wishing our meetings were more frequent.
It is interesting to me that your perspective on this changed over time. I've been trying to think back in my memory to discover if mine has as well. Alas, I just can't remember what my feelings about it were in my early days as a Mason.
My lodge in Albuquerque NM was like that. They had a stated meeting the 1st Thursday of every month. They had specials the 2nd 3rd and 4th Thursday. Each was reserved for an EA, FC and MC respectively. This allowed for long term planning and scheduling. If we didn't have a degree, we still met. It might turn to a fellowship meeting or an educational meeting.
I think that sounds like a great way of going about it. No more wondering when the degrees will be scheduled.
We would be hard pressed to add another meeting as a tenant. With 3 WA Blue Lodges, OES, Amaranth, Rainbow, Scottish Rite and Prince Hall Blue Lodge with OES and PH Scottish Rite, there isn't much tike left to schedule regularly.
Most of our Brothers are in at least 3 of these organizations that meet in the same Temple. And may even be on GL committees, Temple Boards, Shriners, York, Rite, Park Boards, or Grand Officer for concordent bodies. So many Masonic organizations eat up a lot of time.
I have not done the research, but do other countries have the other concordent bodies that we have in the US?
I don't know everywhere, but since it was Mexican Masonry that inspired this post, and since I do know about Masonry there, I'll speak to that. Yes, they have largely the same groups there was we have here. The York Rite Bodies, the Scottish Rite, the Shrine, OES, and various invitational orders. The Grotto is either entering Mexico very soon, or is expanding there soon. I'm not 100% certain which, but I heard it being discussed yesterday.
Beyond North America, one tidbit I've always found interesting is that in England OES is considered clandestine. If you are an English Freemason, you are not permitted to be a member of OES.
I was disappointed my Lodge voted to go dark. Some didn’t want to come to a Stated in the summer, now none can.
On the other hand we have two Stated meetings monthly plus two practices plus a weekly breakfast.
Yes, when Centralia voted to have a dark period recently I was extremely disappointed. Doing that kind of thing does nothing at all but harm a Lodge, because men get out of the habit of coming, and then it takes a bit to get them back into it.
If a guy doesn't want to come in June or whatever, I can't understand why he just doesn't stay home instead of advocating that no one else can come either.
Recently, my mother’s Eastern Star Chapter voted to go dark in the month of January, because over the last few winters, many of their Stated meetings had to be canceled due to inclement weather, and they decided to just skip the month. In so doing, they meet once in November and December, and not at all in January. This frustrated some of the members who noted that the Chapter is Dark in July and August as well, and they were wondering if the Chapter was going to cut back even more meetings.
I remembered that in December, the Chapter makes an effort to contact all the “Shut-ins”, who are the members who cannot attend the meetings anymore due to their age or other infirmities. This is a great thing that the Eastern Star does, and it gave me an idea. I discussed with my bicycle riding partner that they could take three ideas and combine them into one: Mom’s OES Chapter did an excellent job with the Zoom meetings during the shutdown, and this included the “Shutins,” as well as others who lived in other areas and other states. I suggested that when the Chapter was “Dark” in December and January, they could hold informal Zoom meetings on those old meeting dates, that way those who couldn’t normally attend the in-person Stated Meetings could meet up with those who could. My riding partner said toss it out there, see where it goes. His wife picked up on it, and suggested to other members to try it. Sure enough, their Associate Matron (similar to our Senior Warden) set up a Zoom, and while I had a prior commitment and couldn’t attend, my Mother did, and she noted that a ton of members showed up and caught up on things, including a member who lives in California! Of course, being informal Zoom meetings, no business was conducted, but that was okay! It was a pretty inventive idea, the members could convene regardless of the weather, or if they could drive at night, or other things. And it also showed that the OES members wanted to see each other more often, not less often.
There are a lot of ideas out there. It can’t hurt to look at your resources and think outside the box.
You are certainly correct, we should take advantage of technological advancements when they can improve our experiences. I'm glad that it worked out well for your Chapter!
My lodge in Indiana we have stated on the first Thursday of the month and called meetings the other Thursday. On every Tuesday we have craft practice/ social night. This is tradition not a rule. This being said; men got burnt out and once we came back from darkness ( where we still did craft practice and town parades) we would lose 1 or 2. I think in today society where men have to work more; kids and spouse are more active ;that having to many meetings cause burn out. Men feel something has to give. It ends up the brother giving up his lodge time. Now that all being said I don’t know what the answer is; maybe it’s whatever works for the particular lodges brethren.
I think that you hit it on the head here, the optimal is different for every Lodge. I do know of two extremely successful Lodges in my Jurisdiction that meet quarterly.
That said, it seems to me that the default is to cut back on meetings. Lazy assed Master standing in the East who doesn't want to be bothered with two meeting a month, cut it back to one. Attendance falling off at two per month, cut it back to one. A holiday takes place somewhere near a Stated Meeting, so some guys don't usually come that month, go dark that month.
Just cutting back like that, and that is what I have seen in my Jurisdiction through the years doesn't make any sense. What does make sense, in my view, is experimentation. Change something, see how it works.
But what we shouldn't do is default to what is easier. Easier may actually be better in some cases, but we can only know that through experimentation.
I think it depends on the culture of the lodge. When I was a younger mason, I spent 2-3 nights a week in masonic activities, either in my home lodge, or traveling to visit others. I belonged to two lodges (until they merged) and joined the scottish rite. I also belong to a motorcycle rights group that meets once a month, as well as the local VFW.
I've cut back on the traveling quite a bit since I've moved, but I still have a rather busy social schedule. My new lodge has it's meeting once a month, the other weeks we're either practicing, or meeting at a local watering hole to socialize.
Part of the reason I cut back on traveling so much is that the lodges were all the same. Boring business meetings. Why spend an hour traveling to another lodge just to sit through the same monotony?
I do like the education part of your idea, but it's hard enough to get education in a meeting to begin with.
I know what you are saying, and I agree with you. If a Lodge hosts one meeting a month, and it sucks, adding three more meetings a month that suck improves nothing. It actually makes the situation worse.
But, I think we have forgotten that Freemasonry comes with responsibilities, duties. A Mason has a responsibility to his Lodge. To provide education, the Master could simply get a list of the members of the Lodge and go down it assigning one Mason to bring an educational paper/discussion/whatever to the Lodge on his assigned meeting. That's actually how it is done in the SR Lodges in Mexico. The Master doesn't provide it, the Masons do, with preference given to the newest Masons.
And I think that every Mason can provide Masonic education. Even if he knows nothing whatsoever about Masonry. He can search around for an interesting Masonic question and put it out there with every Mason giving his view, round robin style.
But the fear is, at least in my mind, that these extra meetings would slowly degenerate into business meetings. I think that in order to prevent that from happening the Lodge would have to develop extremely firm rules about what can and can not happen at these meetings. The Master 'needs' to read a Letter from Grand Lodge? Too bad, it is outside of the rules of these meetings that were previously voted on and will have to wait until the monthly business meeting. The Secretary really 'needs' to bring up this piece of emergent business? Too bad, it is out of order to do so at this meeting. If a Lodge were to ever allow tiny bits of business to slip into the educational meetings it would open the flood gates.
The additional meetings would be special communications. Only stated meetings can conduct business. This would take care of that concern.
That would work in our Jurisdiction. But I still think it would need to be carefully policed. I have no doubt but that guys would try to bring up business items.
I attended a Second Degree this last Saturday in Wenatchee and on the way home I posed this question to both brothers i traveled with. One of the brothers has been a mason for 72 years and is 95 years young. The other has been a brother for 20 years.
In our Lodge the York Rite chapter actually pre-dates our Blue Lodge, which makes it pretty interesting. We currently meet once a week, but most of our Master Masons are members of our York Rite body and as such we end up meeting multiple times per month.
One of the Worthy Brothers said if we didn't have York Rite we would probably have more meetings, but since we are all in the same groups then every night we meet we are doing something different which keeps masonry fresh and doesn't burn us out. Its a interesting and unique approach to this question and I think provides a great answer.
The other Brother said traveling and finding brothers and mason's everywhere is what he has enjoyed. Seeing as we three were the only ones traveling and attending this degree within our district from our lodge, our opinion may be a bit biased.
Its commonly said you get out of masonry what you put into it. Travel, More Meetings, etc. Any can work for more experiences.
I am much like the Brother who most enjoys traveling. I love having the opportunity to visit other Lodges and meet other Masons, as the three of you do. I feel that it is a good chance to learn from others, and find the fellowship to always be worthwhile.
We, King Solomon Lodge No 60 in Auburn WA, "meet" 6 times a month!
First Saturday is a family social breakfast at a local restaurant.
First Monday is our Temple Board and officers meeting that anyone is invited to attend.
Second Monday is our Stated Meeting with a Supper and Social 90 minutes before Lodge at 730p.
Third Monday is Proficiency night, PiLM, Degree Proficiency, Practice, etc
Fourth Monday is reserved for Degrees or exemplification/practice as needed.
Fourth Thursday is our Social Night of Brotherhood at that same local restaurant, we take up their back room and just be friends and invite inquirers to join to get to know each other.
We haven't quite figured out what to do with the 5th Mondays yet. 😉
So far so good.
That sounds good indeed!
5th Mondays, bring in a Masonic speaker. Someone with a good Masonic presentation, from Craft Masonry, or one of the other Masonic bodies. I might know of a Lodge that does just that when they end up with a 5th date.