Professional Help
Are Lodges Too Resistant
I’ve been away from Emeth this week due to a bit of a perfect storm of happenings:
Bright and early Monday morning I got a call that there was a water leak in the Masonic Temple in my hometown. So that took a bit of time to address lest we suffer a disaster.
Tuesday our stove died. And of course we are hosting a large group in our home on Christmas Eve. So, that took time over a couple of days to address. (This house is the only one I’ve ever lived in that has a kitchen designed for a built in stove. I have to wonder, why on earth would anyone have ever felt that to be a good thing? I’ve already started talking with Melinda about ways we could remodel the kitchen so that we could utilize a freestanding stove instead.)
I’ve had to get ready this week for the upcoming Legislative Session here in Washington. My real job outside of Masonry. The good news is, I’m going to have some shared office space very near the Capitol this year! No more trying to get work done in a campus coffee shop.
We also had a Temple Board meeting this week. Call me Mr. President.
Two happenings at that Temple Board meeting have me thinking about professional help.
When I got the call about the leak, I called my Brother Bob. Because I don’t know the first thing about plumbing. Lest I make whatever problem it was worse, Bob went down to the building with me. We found the leak (thankfully just a drip) put a bucket under it, and called a plumber.
Funny thing though, there was a touch of pushback to our calling of the plumber at the Temple Board meeting. One or two of the Brothers thought that we should have just gotten a wrench and fixed it ourselves.
The last time we had a plumbing leak in the building it impacted three floors, and did many tens of thousands of dollars in damage. Paying a professional a couple hundred bucks to come fix the thing is money very well spent.
Also at that meeting though, we voted to hire a professional cleaning company to clean the common areas of the building. For all the years that I’ve been a part of this Lodge, we’ve handled the cleaning on our own. But, things change, people grow tired, and we received our first ever complaint about poor cleaning from a tenant. Wanting to keep our renters happy, we decided to pay a professional to handle it.
But, we’ve been discussing that for months and months and months, paralyzed when it came to actually pulling the trigger.
Those two decisions, to hire a professional plumber, and a professional cleaner, combined with my preparations for my upcoming season of work got me thinking about our Masonic Temples, the need many of them have for improvement, and professionals who could assist with that.
Back in Washington D.C. Congress has something called ‘earmarks.’ In a nutshell, a Member of Congress can identify an important project in his or her district, and assuming there isn’t opposition to that project from other Members, can direct some funding to that project.
That’s a very good thing, because a Member of Congress knows their District well, and without this ability to earmark, the decision to fund or not would be made by a bureaucrat in Washington D.C. who had most likely never once even stepped foot within the Congressional District.
Here in Washington State our Legislature has something rather similar. The term earmark isn’t used, but a Legislator can identify a worthy project in his or her District, and advocate for the funding of that project. A great many important things are funded in that way, in every nook and cranny of our State.
And Washington Lodges benefit from this.
In the years I worked for the Legislature I couldn’t help but notice that we never saw any funding go from the Legislature to our Masonic Temples. No money for historic preservation, no money for energy efficiency, nothing. But other organizations were receiving funds for these things.
I never mentioned it to any Masons, because it would be unethical for an employee of the Legislature to reach out to an outside group and encourage them to seek funding. Legislative staff is always keen to help, but a person or group must generally go to them, they don’t proactively reach out.
But, eight years ago, I left that employment to strike out on my own, lobbying.
When I did, I took this program to our then Grand Master and explained it to him. He jumped on board, and since then one Lodge or another in our State has received funding for something important every single year. Generally these projects have either been for the preservation of one of our historic structures, for energy efficiency, or both.
It has been a boon to us, resulting in millions of dollars worth of important construction projects these past years.
Not every State has a program like this.
Indeed, I would imagine that what is done here in Washington is more or less unique, and every other State will be different.
But that said…
I can say with confidence that every single State has funds available for things like historical preservation, environmental improvements, energy efficiency, and more.
Beyond the States, local governments often have programs as well.
Indeed Washington’s largest county has a very robust local funding option for projects just like this. A couple of our Lodges have utilized it for their Masonic Temples.
Funding is available to help Masonic Temples.
If we know where to look.
And honestly, in today’s world, that is the work of professionals.
Highly specialized professionals.
In 2025 I will be working for five local governments, all seeking funding from the Legislature for their planned construction projects. That’s what I do, and that is all that I do. I don’t write grant applications, I don’t track what funding might be available from the federal government, or counties, or cities. I only work with the Legislature of my own State, trying to help small local governments compete with the big guys. And we manage to do well.
But everything is different, everywhere. That is why it must be highly specialized.
Let’s say that I run the Temple Board for my Lodge in Anytown, Anystate. And let’s say that our Temple is a major downtown building, over a hundred years old, beautiful, but fading fast. I need funds, if I am to keep it beautiful for my community.
Maybe funding is available through the State Legislature. Maybe not.
Maybe funding is available through a State Agency. Maybe not.
Maybe funding is available through the County Government. Maybe not.
Maybe funding is available through the City. Maybe not.
Maybe funding is available through a consortium of local governments called something I’ve never even heard of. Maybe not.
But wherever it might be available from, it is there.
But how do we know where to find it as Masons?
In reality, we can’t. At least not effectively.
If we hope to receive it, we need to hire some help.
We need to talk with a State government lobbyist to see what might be available through the State. Talk with a Grant Writer to see what they might know to be available for us. And when we identify a funding source, maybe we should even hire someone to help us through the process to increase our chances of securing that funding.
But we seem to be highly resistant to that. In fact, I’m not aware of a single Lodge or Temple Board in my Jurisdiction that has ever hired a Grant Writer. But we sure have a lot of historical buildings, and there sure are a lot of organizations giving away money for worthy historic preservation projects.
Ultimately I think we are resistant for the same reason a guy or two in my Lodge are resistant to hiring a plumber.
But that seems pretty darn short sighted to me.
Three things:
First, Washington Freemasons are lucky to have you and getting funding for lodges from the legislature is just one example of why we are lucky.
Second, as my latexFriendxand Brother Ken Wilson frequently pointed out to me Freemasons are great men but poor businessmen. They don't understand you sometimes need to spend money for the good of the lodge.
Third, when we were renovating my home lodge we found an extension cord that ran to an outlet used tp power equipment in our kitchen that was plugged into an outlet in a tennant below us (and had been there for decades). This is stuff that happens when the brothers undertake a job they aren't fully qualified to do.
We learned to leave it to the professionals and had more time to focus on Freemasonry.
Yes! Plan, fund, and execute the work professionally. And if the stars just don't line up to fund professional work then it's time to get out of the building business. I often hear how sad it is that one lodge or another had to sell their building because they couldn't maintain it. Frankly, I have no interest in these pity parties. Maintain the lodge properly or sell it, it's literally that simple.
I don't take lightly that the buildings Masons no longer own were in so many cases spectacular. But look around. Masons never had a monopoly on spectacular buildings. How many churches, schools, theaters, department stores, city halls, and even train stations were once showcases of fine craftsmanship and sources of civic pride, but they're gone now. We're not the only ones who can't afford to professionally manage an aging facility. Spending any energy on being sad about this is like standing in quicksand.
Don't get me wrong, it would be great if we had the wonderful old buildings, especially if they're still wonderful. But it's not essential. Masonry is not a building. It's not even a place.