Lodge Management Training
It works, and it's fun
Each year my Jurisdiction holds a retreat for purposes of Lodge management training. The Jurisdiction gathers at a large conference center somewhere in the middle of the State for a tightly packed schedule of classes, seeking to teach Masons what they will need to know when they step into leadership within their Lodges.
Following each of these retreats feedback is sought from the attendees, with the goal of making the event better with each passing year.
Here in Washington we call it the Lodge Leadership Retreat, but I presume that most Jurisdictions do something similar.
This year my Lodge sent two of our newest Masons. They reported back at our Stated Meeting last night that they both learned a great deal and had a good amount of fun.
The thing is though, the event is expensive. It costs a lot to put on, and tickets to attend reflect those costs. Our Grand Lodge isn’t particularly wealthy, so it has to pass those costs along.
As a result, lots of Masons can’t afford to attend.
In my experience, a great many of our Lodges have recognized this, so either pay for their members to attend entirely, or in part. That’s what my Lodge does, we find the Masons who want to attend and foot the bill as needed. We consider it an important and sound investment in the future of our Lodge.
Through the years I’ve been contacted by large numbers of Masters and Wardens of struggling Lodges. The questions may vary in wording, but all come down to something like:
“I want to make our Lodge thrive again, but I don’t know what to do, can you help?”
I think that I received the largest number of these calls when I was a District Deputy and seeking election to the Grand Officer Line than I did after I was elected. I presume that’s because it’s easier to speak frankly with someone who isn’t yet wearing the really fancy apron.
But, the calls have continued since, just not quite as frequently as they did in my Deputy days.
By the time I started receiving those calls, I’d visited an awful lot of Lodges across the Jurisdiction, and I’d started to spot a trend.
So, one of the first questions I always asked in turn was:
“How long has it been since your Lodge has sent anyone to the Lodge Leadership Retreat?”
Much more often than not the answer was some variation of:
“We never have.”
Based on my visits to so many Lodges over so many years it is really clear to me. Those Lodges barely hanging on by their fingernails usually haven’t sent anyone to our Grand Lodge’s Lodge Management Training program for years. And they are dying, at least in part because of it.
They will lose their Lodge because they don’t want to spend a few hundred dollars to give a Mason the knowledge and tools he needs to properly manage his Lodge.
How crazy is that?
If our Lodge is like that. If it hasn’t sent anyone to whatever training programs our Jurisdiction might offer in years, well, that’s a problem. It’s a really serious problem.
But luckily it’s a really easy problem to fix.
All we have to do is send someone.
I’m going to be a little behind in participating in the comments threads for the next few days. I’m off at a Federal Government grant writing conference.
A lodge doesn’t stand still. It’s either growing or it’s dying, there’s no long term in-between.
Growth takes investment. That means people, time and money. It takes members willing to show up, step in, and carry their part. If we want strong leadership and a healthy lodge, it’s on us to put something into it, not just expect something out of it.
In North Carolina Masonry, we have a similar leadership development program known as the Davie Academy - aptly named in honor of William Richardson Davie, our first Grand Master and a former Governor of North Carolina, Founder of UNC in Chapel Hill NC the first public University.
The Davie Academy is designed to prepare future lodge leaders through a structured, immersive experience focused on leadership, administration, and the deeper responsibilities of the Craft. The program typically spans three days.
Topics often include Lodge leadership and officer responsibilities, Masonic law, governance, and protocol, Effective communication and conflict resolution, Membership engagement and retention & Strategic planning for lodge sustainability.
The cost is approximately $1,500 per participant, and in our lodge, we make it a priority to invest in this development by sending our Senior Deacon as part of his progression toward the East.
It has proven to be a valuable program ensuring that those advancing through the officer line are well-prepared to serve. It was founded and sponsored by our Scottish Rite, and volunteered by our Grand Lodge members.
As an instructor for a few of the classes at our Lodge Leadership Retreat, I am biased, but I have been going to the LLR for 10 years (except for the covid years) as an attendee before I was invited to teach. As I've repeatedly said, the LLR is my favorite weekend of the year. It is something I look forward to and I am just gobsmacked (love that word!) that not all lodges have brothers attending.
I also feel that it doesn't matter if you're a new master mason, or a Past Master with 45 years under your belt - there is always something to learn. I would never discourage someone from broadening their horizons. It was nice that I did see some of our long time masons attend, I hope they were able to go back to their own lodges and relate their experiences.