I agree, Plural memberships, unfortunately can lead to "parachute Officers". A whole line of officers who are just members to help. Great intentions, however what happens as they fill the ranks of attending masons is they parachute in for the meeting. They do not belong to the local community and thus don't do anything in the community itself. Leading to a unfocused Lodge, which is unknown to the neighborhood. This has been my experience.. In my district I have at least 1 Lodge that has 30 members. 4 active people who are with in 35 mins drive of the lodge. The lodge is dead, and it does not know it. They do nothing in the community, no one in the community knows anything about them save they have a run down building.
Serving the community starts with a plan of action, and follows with action. Serving the community is the best out reach. Sponsor a ball team, Clean a highway, Park cars at an event, hand out water at a parade. etc.. Agile, don't let waiting on perfection stop you from acting.
I heard (or read) somewhere awhile back. A mason should belong to his mother lodge, home town lodge and 1 appendant body.
I have also often wonder how much does plural membership inflate the total number of masons. I know in Indiana they calculate masons by lodge membership numbers not names. So if they belong to 5 lodges the get counted 5 times. I am sure there are other states that do the same.
Excellent article. A contributing factor may be that no single Lodge is providing 100% of what he is looking for in Masonry. While the call to "Be the change you're looking for" is appealing, it requires a lot of Masonic background that may be lacking if one were raised in a struggling Lodge. Thus, plural membership allows the jurisdiction to provide some fulfillment to these men.
Early in my Masonic career I joined a second lodge to “help out”. That particular lodge was dying, and a number of us from the area joined to try and save it. I was also going through the chairs of my home lodge. I eventually became treasurer because no one else would do it.
Over the next several years, I worked my ass off trying to fix the mess the lodge finances were in. We also labored in navigating a merger with my home lodge, because by the time the two lodges merged there were only three men left in the second lodge to run things, all the other seats were run by brothers from other lodges.
I was perfectly fine being involved in both lodges. I fulfilled my duties in each to the best of my ability. I didn’t find that one interfered with the other, and I think it actually made me a better mason because I was so intimately involved with the management as treasurer while learning the chairs of JD, SD and JW in my home lodge. I conferred degrees in both. I helped organize outside activities in both. All the while holding down a job and a family.
It is possible to be an active and productive member of multiple lodges.
Now, I do agree that there can be some men who join a bunch of lodges or organizations for purely selfish reasons, hunting titles and such. You’re right, they bring nothing to the party. But I’ve also known plenty of men who are members of many lodges and organizations who are active in all of them. Yes, there is a point where you’re not going to be able to be as productive as someone who can devote their time and efforts to just one lodge. But that’s up to those men to decide. It’s their cable tow.
It's tough to be the one who's walking around the dining room reminding people that the donation can is out and at a certain location in the room. Then noticing the reminders almost double the amount of the donations.
This year I had asked the Job's daughters to do the dinners. They kept all the donations as a fundraiser for the girls to go to their annual event. I would always remind the brothers that this was a fundraiser for the girls, and it's seemed to work out plenty well. But when I've prepared meals and looked at the donation jar afterwards, I'd always find 3-4 dollars mixed in with the rest of the bills. Like...really? I spent 4 hours busting my butt to make this nice dinner and you think it was only worth a dollar or two? You would *think*, as charitable men, that the JW fund would make money, except it always seems to never cover the cost of the food I've bought and prepared. Have these men gone out to even buy a Big Mac meal lately? It's over $13 dollars. Yet the meal I prepared isn't even worth half that for most people.
There's a lodge in Australia that charges, as part of it's annual dues, $60 dollars per meal. You can opt out of not paying for the meals, but then you don't eat. If we tried to do something here, it would raise holy hell.
I'd say the same thing is true for members who are int he line at their home Lodge and hold a position in Grand Lodge. Both take a HUGE amount of time, and home Lodges suffer because of this.
That is very true. The Grand Lodge IS a Lodge, in its own way. When I became a Grand Lodge officer, my Lodges knew I wouldn’t be available for a lot of the heavy lifting at that level – therefore, I’m only an officer in one of the Lodges, and while it’s the Senior Deacon, we’re still building enough membership in that Lodge to where I can move to sideliner. That being said, I’m quite involved with my Lodge in Centralia, but mostly as an advisor and assistant.
Deep down, you know when your Cable Tow is starting to get a little tight.
A Mason should always mind his cable tow to his Mother Lodge first. I started to rush to join another Lodge after being raised, but do to some misunderstandings I didn't. Now that I've reflected on it, I may not join. I don't need to be a McCabe on the roster to show support. Committing my name to the roster means I will show up, if I can't because my mother Lodge needs something, or other obligations then I don't want to worry that I missed something important that I should have been there for. I can still support the Lodge through showing up, interacting with its members and giving my insight when it's needed. If the Lodge gives me a good reason later to join, then I'll consider it again. This mind set for me will carry with all Lodges in my district and surrounding area.
I agree, Plural memberships, unfortunately can lead to "parachute Officers". A whole line of officers who are just members to help. Great intentions, however what happens as they fill the ranks of attending masons is they parachute in for the meeting. They do not belong to the local community and thus don't do anything in the community itself. Leading to a unfocused Lodge, which is unknown to the neighborhood. This has been my experience.. In my district I have at least 1 Lodge that has 30 members. 4 active people who are with in 35 mins drive of the lodge. The lodge is dead, and it does not know it. They do nothing in the community, no one in the community knows anything about them save they have a run down building.
Unpopular opinion: A Lodge should have a program worthy of being known, before reaching out to the community.
Serving the community starts with a plan of action, and follows with action. Serving the community is the best out reach. Sponsor a ball team, Clean a highway, Park cars at an event, hand out water at a parade. etc.. Agile, don't let waiting on perfection stop you from acting.
I heard (or read) somewhere awhile back. A mason should belong to his mother lodge, home town lodge and 1 appendant body.
I have also often wonder how much does plural membership inflate the total number of masons. I know in Indiana they calculate masons by lodge membership numbers not names. So if they belong to 5 lodges the get counted 5 times. I am sure there are other states that do the same.
Ha! I wasn't aware of this... I know brothers that must be counting five or six times at least! :D
Excellent article. A contributing factor may be that no single Lodge is providing 100% of what he is looking for in Masonry. While the call to "Be the change you're looking for" is appealing, it requires a lot of Masonic background that may be lacking if one were raised in a struggling Lodge. Thus, plural membership allows the jurisdiction to provide some fulfillment to these men.
Early in my Masonic career I joined a second lodge to “help out”. That particular lodge was dying, and a number of us from the area joined to try and save it. I was also going through the chairs of my home lodge. I eventually became treasurer because no one else would do it.
Over the next several years, I worked my ass off trying to fix the mess the lodge finances were in. We also labored in navigating a merger with my home lodge, because by the time the two lodges merged there were only three men left in the second lodge to run things, all the other seats were run by brothers from other lodges.
I was perfectly fine being involved in both lodges. I fulfilled my duties in each to the best of my ability. I didn’t find that one interfered with the other, and I think it actually made me a better mason because I was so intimately involved with the management as treasurer while learning the chairs of JD, SD and JW in my home lodge. I conferred degrees in both. I helped organize outside activities in both. All the while holding down a job and a family.
It is possible to be an active and productive member of multiple lodges.
Now, I do agree that there can be some men who join a bunch of lodges or organizations for purely selfish reasons, hunting titles and such. You’re right, they bring nothing to the party. But I’ve also known plenty of men who are members of many lodges and organizations who are active in all of them. Yes, there is a point where you’re not going to be able to be as productive as someone who can devote their time and efforts to just one lodge. But that’s up to those men to decide. It’s their cable tow.
How can you forget the dinner time masons. The ones who join every lodge in the district and never have to cook a night for themselves.
Are they the ones that put $5 in the donation jar?
If that.
It's tough to be the one who's walking around the dining room reminding people that the donation can is out and at a certain location in the room. Then noticing the reminders almost double the amount of the donations.
This year I had asked the Job's daughters to do the dinners. They kept all the donations as a fundraiser for the girls to go to their annual event. I would always remind the brothers that this was a fundraiser for the girls, and it's seemed to work out plenty well. But when I've prepared meals and looked at the donation jar afterwards, I'd always find 3-4 dollars mixed in with the rest of the bills. Like...really? I spent 4 hours busting my butt to make this nice dinner and you think it was only worth a dollar or two? You would *think*, as charitable men, that the JW fund would make money, except it always seems to never cover the cost of the food I've bought and prepared. Have these men gone out to even buy a Big Mac meal lately? It's over $13 dollars. Yet the meal I prepared isn't even worth half that for most people.
There's a lodge in Australia that charges, as part of it's annual dues, $60 dollars per meal. You can opt out of not paying for the meals, but then you don't eat. If we tried to do something here, it would raise holy hell.
I'd say the same thing is true for members who are int he line at their home Lodge and hold a position in Grand Lodge. Both take a HUGE amount of time, and home Lodges suffer because of this.
That is very true. The Grand Lodge IS a Lodge, in its own way. When I became a Grand Lodge officer, my Lodges knew I wouldn’t be available for a lot of the heavy lifting at that level – therefore, I’m only an officer in one of the Lodges, and while it’s the Senior Deacon, we’re still building enough membership in that Lodge to where I can move to sideliner. That being said, I’m quite involved with my Lodge in Centralia, but mostly as an advisor and assistant.
Deep down, you know when your Cable Tow is starting to get a little tight.
A Mason should always mind his cable tow to his Mother Lodge first. I started to rush to join another Lodge after being raised, but do to some misunderstandings I didn't. Now that I've reflected on it, I may not join. I don't need to be a McCabe on the roster to show support. Committing my name to the roster means I will show up, if I can't because my mother Lodge needs something, or other obligations then I don't want to worry that I missed something important that I should have been there for. I can still support the Lodge through showing up, interacting with its members and giving my insight when it's needed. If the Lodge gives me a good reason later to join, then I'll consider it again. This mind set for me will carry with all Lodges in my district and surrounding area.