Yes, and: Those buildings now making money that were not doing so under faternal management have a couple other things that they didn't used to.
1) The capital needed to fix up the building's problems. Every Lodge I've been in has had maintenence issues outstanding. Things that NEED fixed. A bussiness man can take out a loan to fix the building, we can't or won't.
2) Professional management. That means an advertising budget, a manager available during bussiness hours that can talk to you and sign a contract, usually an event coordinator who can assist with decoration and design... and all the other trappings of a bussiness. Does your lodge (and I speek to all Masons reading this) have an advertising budget? Does it have someone who is readily available during bussiness hours that can sign the contract? Or is it a brother who is at work, and can meet up with you some time after work, then we can go to the temple board and ask permission....
3) No arduous rules. No "you can't have beer, wine, or alcohol on site, because a group of tee-totalers is offended by the idea of alcohol, so they made a rule that either you can't have booze at all, or you must have a professional licenced bartender to have it.
In short, they are, and run like a bussiness who is in the bussiness of making a proffit. Suprise, suprise, they do so.
Capital is a problem with most Lodges, but I think not an insurmountable one. Such things can be figured out, if there is a will to do so.
I think Lodges make a terrible error when they think that professional management would be an expense. Good and proper professional management would make for the Lodge more money than their fees. Considering only the fee side of the equation is short sighted and wrong.
And yeah, having to go to the Temple Board to ask permission is nuts. There just need to be guidelines in place, in advance.
Agreed 100% on the idiotic rules imposed by lots of Temple Boards. And I would add fake ass concerns about mythical 'liability.' We have insurance for a reason.
Good piece. We love the stuff and the clutter dont we, so we stop seeing it the way a bride or an event planner would.
I often wonder if the reason most of us never convert our spaces into event centers is that our heart isn't in it. It feels like a business, or a job, or something we're only doing to survive. I used to see the wedding venue as the obvious play too. Then a conversation with a local 4-H leader changed my mind. She told me her clubs were struggling to find places to meet for classes, and when they did find a spot, the place wanted market rate. So we fixed that. We host 4-H summer camp now, and we've got a Girl Scout sleepover coming up to help a visiting troop save on hotel money.
That got me thinking about the building as a community hub instead of a banquet hall. If we sent a hundred letters to every club and public group in town offering them space, our building starts to become their building too.
There's a practical side to it. A lot of our temples qualify as historic places, which opens up grants and exemptions we leave on the table. Our own board reincorporated as a 501(c)(3), and as a public charity instead of just a title holder, we can run programs, apply for grants, and offer space to other nonprofits. We serve a public good, and in our state that earns the property tax exemption. The community hub is where the charity status and the grants finally make sense, in a way that chasing weddings never quite did for most of us.
None of which kills the event center idea, if a lodge truly wants it. Two things just have to be honest about it. One is capital. A private buyer walks in ready to invest, while a lodge is usually keeping the lights on with nothing left for marketing. The other is skin in the game. When the place runs as a business, somebody's livelihood depends on filling that calendar, and a volunteer committee that meets once a month can't match that. So if nobody's paid to care, pay somebody. Lease the space to an operator at a flat rate and let them keep the upside. Tie a manager's pay to bookings. One temple in my district sold their building to a brother and his wife, but part of the deal was a 30-year lease back to the Masons at a fair price. The brothers kept their home, somebody with skin in the game runs the place, and it actually gets used.
>>>We love the stuff and the clutter dont we, so we stop seeing it the way a bride or an event >>>planner would.
Yep, when it comes to the clutter, this is it exactly. We need to look at the space through the Bride's eyes, not through fraternal eyes.
Your point is well taken that another avenue is to utilize other community groups to make the Temple into a community space. With the benefits that come along with doing so. Of course those benefits change from State to State with our federal system. For example, here in Washington our Lodges holding corporations do not need to be 501 C (3)'s in order to access government grants.
We have so many lodges full of generations of junk. I went through our lodge a few years back and just gave away or cleaned stuff out and it really made a difference.
I've said ti before and I'll say it again most masons mistake Freemasonry with free masonry...this has killed the ability of our lodges to keep their temples.
I'm a guy who loves our old junk, but alas, I think we have to recognize that it severely limits our ability to make commercial uses of our spaces.
If we aren't willing to pay Lodge dues in keeping with what it actually costs to run a Lodge, and we aren't willing to do what's necessary to get the highest and best use out of our assets, well then, we are sunk.
Fortunately, my first visit into Webster Masonic Lodge No. 538 building, was to a Xerox Quality Control Seminar held in the basement dining area. Years later, I asked for a Petition.
OMG!! Get rid of old things that are no longer used? I can hear the howls and teeth gnashing from here. The grumpy past masters would want a committee to meet and do nothing and then report back that “ they are working on it” and should have some ideas on what to get rid of in a couple more months.
10 year old cans of green beans…,nope, 7 year old pancake mix in the freezer? Might need it soon.
I belong to 4 Lodges. Two are doing well, have some rental income and have updated their buildings. One has a bit of an investment account, although some old guard members control the access to those funds. This Lodge had to spend $60,000 on deferred maintenance replacing 4 failing HVAC systems and is looking at another .$20,00 to go yet.
The other Lodge is always 3 months away from not being able to pay its building operating costs. They would not be able to pay for even a minor repair cost. They voted a voluntary assessment to help defray costs. Less than 5 members have paid anything.
Masonic Lodges are notorious for kicking the can down the road. The can has done been kicked in the ditch and the road is running out. Members have to develop a unified vision, formulate a plan and execute that plan if they hope to retain and own these buildings in the future.
I'm reminded of a true happening at my Lodge, some years ago.
An Appendant body had a quite large decoration in our building. It was obviously poorly made, and obviously made many decades ago. It would have been ugly as sin in 1959. The decades of dust and dirt didn't improve it any.
We finally got tired of looking at the damn thing and pitched it in the dumpster.
Someone dug it out of the dumpster and put it back in the building. If memory serves, that cycle repeated three times. I think that it is still there, but at least the Appendant body eventually put it into their own storage closet instead of the middle of the dining room.
I think we keep stuff because we’re so afraid of upsetting a brother or their lady because they donated that old coffee maker that hasn’t worked in 10 years. I also believe many lodges fail to make the transition to an event center because of one or two “older” brothers that hold their breath and stomp their feet because strangers shouldn’t be given access to our building. When I was president of our Temple Board I was able to rent our dining hall out on two different occasions. After that it was too big of a hassle to do it again. The lodge has found a new and innovative way to create income that I believe will be successful. My lodge is across the street from a high school so the parking lot is being prepped to support food trucks and the kitchen is being upgraded for food prep. Something other lodges may consider so they can keep their “stuff”.
>>>I think we keep stuff because we’re so afraid of upsetting a brother or their lady because >>>they donated that old coffee maker that hasn’t worked in 10 years.
Yes, I think this is exactly right. A fear of making anyone feel bad.
>>>I also believe many lodges fail to make the transition to an event center because of one >>>or two “older” brothers that hold their breath and stomp their feet because strangers >>>shouldn’t be given access to our building.
The 'heckler's veto.' Unfortunately this has impacted many Lodges. The trouble is that we let it work, at least occasionally, and by letting it work, it only encourages more of the same. When we see such things we need to put them down right away lest they fester and grow.
In my own Temple, I too have heard the whining about letting strangers into the Lodge Room. Crazy,
The food truck idea is great, given the location of the Lodge!
You are again making me think of the old and crumbling Masonic Temple in downtown Winnipeg which has not been used for anything in many a year. (The Masons have a more state-of-the-art modern facility a few kilometres away.) Maybe the fact that it is reputedly haunted is keeping potential users away...
Maybe they could use the 'haunting' as a benefit with the right marketing. My Temple is in no way haunted, but some people think it is, and in the fall we play into that, offering Ghost Tours!
I have to agree with you here MWB Bailey. I do think the state of our buildings does play heavily into their success and longevity. I also think having enough active bodies to help keep the building, and projects, in motion is another significant challenge. Though one I feel very strongly is an essential and worthwhile effort we must keep chipping away at if we are to keep our inheritance.
Our lodges are sometimes filled with clutter, because they have become dumping grounds for items such as furniture from members' home, books no one wants to read, countertop kitchen appliances, etc.
Yes, and: Those buildings now making money that were not doing so under faternal management have a couple other things that they didn't used to.
1) The capital needed to fix up the building's problems. Every Lodge I've been in has had maintenence issues outstanding. Things that NEED fixed. A bussiness man can take out a loan to fix the building, we can't or won't.
2) Professional management. That means an advertising budget, a manager available during bussiness hours that can talk to you and sign a contract, usually an event coordinator who can assist with decoration and design... and all the other trappings of a bussiness. Does your lodge (and I speek to all Masons reading this) have an advertising budget? Does it have someone who is readily available during bussiness hours that can sign the contract? Or is it a brother who is at work, and can meet up with you some time after work, then we can go to the temple board and ask permission....
3) No arduous rules. No "you can't have beer, wine, or alcohol on site, because a group of tee-totalers is offended by the idea of alcohol, so they made a rule that either you can't have booze at all, or you must have a professional licenced bartender to have it.
In short, they are, and run like a bussiness who is in the bussiness of making a proffit. Suprise, suprise, they do so.
Each of these points are well taken.
Capital is a problem with most Lodges, but I think not an insurmountable one. Such things can be figured out, if there is a will to do so.
I think Lodges make a terrible error when they think that professional management would be an expense. Good and proper professional management would make for the Lodge more money than their fees. Considering only the fee side of the equation is short sighted and wrong.
And yeah, having to go to the Temple Board to ask permission is nuts. There just need to be guidelines in place, in advance.
Agreed 100% on the idiotic rules imposed by lots of Temple Boards. And I would add fake ass concerns about mythical 'liability.' We have insurance for a reason.
quite
Good piece. We love the stuff and the clutter dont we, so we stop seeing it the way a bride or an event planner would.
I often wonder if the reason most of us never convert our spaces into event centers is that our heart isn't in it. It feels like a business, or a job, or something we're only doing to survive. I used to see the wedding venue as the obvious play too. Then a conversation with a local 4-H leader changed my mind. She told me her clubs were struggling to find places to meet for classes, and when they did find a spot, the place wanted market rate. So we fixed that. We host 4-H summer camp now, and we've got a Girl Scout sleepover coming up to help a visiting troop save on hotel money.
That got me thinking about the building as a community hub instead of a banquet hall. If we sent a hundred letters to every club and public group in town offering them space, our building starts to become their building too.
There's a practical side to it. A lot of our temples qualify as historic places, which opens up grants and exemptions we leave on the table. Our own board reincorporated as a 501(c)(3), and as a public charity instead of just a title holder, we can run programs, apply for grants, and offer space to other nonprofits. We serve a public good, and in our state that earns the property tax exemption. The community hub is where the charity status and the grants finally make sense, in a way that chasing weddings never quite did for most of us.
None of which kills the event center idea, if a lodge truly wants it. Two things just have to be honest about it. One is capital. A private buyer walks in ready to invest, while a lodge is usually keeping the lights on with nothing left for marketing. The other is skin in the game. When the place runs as a business, somebody's livelihood depends on filling that calendar, and a volunteer committee that meets once a month can't match that. So if nobody's paid to care, pay somebody. Lease the space to an operator at a flat rate and let them keep the upside. Tie a manager's pay to bookings. One temple in my district sold their building to a brother and his wife, but part of the deal was a 30-year lease back to the Masons at a fair price. The brothers kept their home, somebody with skin in the game runs the place, and it actually gets used.
This is an interesting perspective... Great comments Brother Rob!
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.
>>>We love the stuff and the clutter dont we, so we stop seeing it the way a bride or an event >>>planner would.
Yep, when it comes to the clutter, this is it exactly. We need to look at the space through the Bride's eyes, not through fraternal eyes.
Your point is well taken that another avenue is to utilize other community groups to make the Temple into a community space. With the benefits that come along with doing so. Of course those benefits change from State to State with our federal system. For example, here in Washington our Lodges holding corporations do not need to be 501 C (3)'s in order to access government grants.
Fantastic write up.
We have so many lodges full of generations of junk. I went through our lodge a few years back and just gave away or cleaned stuff out and it really made a difference.
I've said ti before and I'll say it again most masons mistake Freemasonry with free masonry...this has killed the ability of our lodges to keep their temples.
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.
I'm a guy who loves our old junk, but alas, I think we have to recognize that it severely limits our ability to make commercial uses of our spaces.
If we aren't willing to pay Lodge dues in keeping with what it actually costs to run a Lodge, and we aren't willing to do what's necessary to get the highest and best use out of our assets, well then, we are sunk.
Fortunately, my first visit into Webster Masonic Lodge No. 538 building, was to a Xerox Quality Control Seminar held in the basement dining area. Years later, I asked for a Petition.
That's cool! I know that our Lodge at Skykomish is used occasionally for large corporation trainings and the like too.
OMG!! Get rid of old things that are no longer used? I can hear the howls and teeth gnashing from here. The grumpy past masters would want a committee to meet and do nothing and then report back that “ they are working on it” and should have some ideas on what to get rid of in a couple more months.
10 year old cans of green beans…,nope, 7 year old pancake mix in the freezer? Might need it soon.
I belong to 4 Lodges. Two are doing well, have some rental income and have updated their buildings. One has a bit of an investment account, although some old guard members control the access to those funds. This Lodge had to spend $60,000 on deferred maintenance replacing 4 failing HVAC systems and is looking at another .$20,00 to go yet.
The other Lodge is always 3 months away from not being able to pay its building operating costs. They would not be able to pay for even a minor repair cost. They voted a voluntary assessment to help defray costs. Less than 5 members have paid anything.
Masonic Lodges are notorious for kicking the can down the road. The can has done been kicked in the ditch and the road is running out. Members have to develop a unified vision, formulate a plan and execute that plan if they hope to retain and own these buildings in the future.
I'm reminded of a true happening at my Lodge, some years ago.
An Appendant body had a quite large decoration in our building. It was obviously poorly made, and obviously made many decades ago. It would have been ugly as sin in 1959. The decades of dust and dirt didn't improve it any.
We finally got tired of looking at the damn thing and pitched it in the dumpster.
Someone dug it out of the dumpster and put it back in the building. If memory serves, that cycle repeated three times. I think that it is still there, but at least the Appendant body eventually put it into their own storage closet instead of the middle of the dining room.
I couldn't have said it better. Trying to correct this in one of my lodges right now.
Thanks! And best of luck getting rid of the junk!
I think we keep stuff because we’re so afraid of upsetting a brother or their lady because they donated that old coffee maker that hasn’t worked in 10 years. I also believe many lodges fail to make the transition to an event center because of one or two “older” brothers that hold their breath and stomp their feet because strangers shouldn’t be given access to our building. When I was president of our Temple Board I was able to rent our dining hall out on two different occasions. After that it was too big of a hassle to do it again. The lodge has found a new and innovative way to create income that I believe will be successful. My lodge is across the street from a high school so the parking lot is being prepped to support food trucks and the kitchen is being upgraded for food prep. Something other lodges may consider so they can keep their “stuff”.
>>>I think we keep stuff because we’re so afraid of upsetting a brother or their lady because >>>they donated that old coffee maker that hasn’t worked in 10 years.
Yes, I think this is exactly right. A fear of making anyone feel bad.
>>>I also believe many lodges fail to make the transition to an event center because of one >>>or two “older” brothers that hold their breath and stomp their feet because strangers >>>shouldn’t be given access to our building.
The 'heckler's veto.' Unfortunately this has impacted many Lodges. The trouble is that we let it work, at least occasionally, and by letting it work, it only encourages more of the same. When we see such things we need to put them down right away lest they fester and grow.
In my own Temple, I too have heard the whining about letting strangers into the Lodge Room. Crazy,
The food truck idea is great, given the location of the Lodge!
You are again making me think of the old and crumbling Masonic Temple in downtown Winnipeg which has not been used for anything in many a year. (The Masons have a more state-of-the-art modern facility a few kilometres away.) Maybe the fact that it is reputedly haunted is keeping potential users away...
Maybe they could use the 'haunting' as a benefit with the right marketing. My Temple is in no way haunted, but some people think it is, and in the fall we play into that, offering Ghost Tours!
"...but some people think it is..."
You mean some people KNOW it is...
I have to agree with you here MWB Bailey. I do think the state of our buildings does play heavily into their success and longevity. I also think having enough active bodies to help keep the building, and projects, in motion is another significant challenge. Though one I feel very strongly is an essential and worthwhile effort we must keep chipping away at if we are to keep our inheritance.
Yep, we need people to keep things going, and we need a space that a bride would want to get married in. That means, we need to take out the trash!
Our lodges are sometimes filled with clutter, because they have become dumping grounds for items such as furniture from members' home, books no one wants to read, countertop kitchen appliances, etc.