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.
We have something similar in one of the Temples I'm associated with. We have one ceiling light that is somehow wired to no system in the building. Every single breaker in the building can be turned off, and it will still be shining bright. We've looked at it for years, no idea where the electricity is coming from!
>>>We learned to leave it to the professionals and had more time to focus on Freemasonry.
This is exactly right. In some Lodges I see all of the energy that goes into keeping the Temple from falling down, and think about how much better the Lodge itself would be if all that energy was redirected.
Some lodges seek professional help when it comes to managing our money, either in investment accounts or when it comes to our audits. They do this because they understand that they have a lack of understanding in those areas and want it done right. The same thought process should go into the building. Learn what we can to take care of our building on simple things, but hire professionals for the big things (if they can afford it)
To my knowledge, all of the Lodges I'm associated with do have professional help with investments. I'm pushing all to have professional audits.
And yeah, we need to get professionals to do the work in our buildings. Assuming that we don't have those professionals as members. If we can't afford that then we have to look at doing something different.
Having the buildings inspected makes a great deal of sense to me. Even if a Lodge wasn't looking to sell. In that case it would give a list of items that will eventually fail, and perhaps when, allowing for fact based planning. Always a good thing.
I think part of the resistance to professional is that there was a time when so many community members were also lodge members that it was unusual not to have a professional of most trades in the lodge that would be happy and competent to donate their skills. But most lodges these days are either skeleton crews of mostly men in their dotage, or populated by office workers who have few skills beyond their computer desktop.
I think that is exactly right. We used to be a nation of farmers, then became a nation of tradesmen, now we are increasingly a nation of laptop users. Even in a thriving Lodge there will be very few, if any tradesmen in today's world.
That's not a bad thing, but we do have to recognize that the world has changed.
And that concept of change seems oddly foreign to so many Masons. We struggle to understand the impact of inflation as well. 😎
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.
Your point is extremely well taken, and one that is often forgotten by lots of Masons, including myself. We aren't the only ones with buildings we can't afford.
The finest hotel I ever stayed in was built long ago as a department store.
And it is impossible to ignore the success of a number of Lodges in our Jurisdiction that do not own a building. When I had an opportunity to visit most of the Lodges in the Jurisdiction there were 5 that in my opinion were truly superior. 3 of the 5 do not own their own building.
But, I will admit that I look at our beautiful buildings and wish that we could keep them going forever. So I am one of those who does expend energy being sad about all of that. Ultimately though, you rightly point out a better way of looking at this.
Growing up we had a stand alone stove when most modern kitchens of the 60’s and 70’s featured cool built in stoves. I always wanted one, and finally got my wish later in life purchasing a home at the coast, Built in everything, and modern. Then our stove broke, and that’s when we decided to remodel our kitchen! We cooked outside for about a month or so. ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
Our stove gave up the ghost shortly before Christmas. It's a built in, and I didn't figure on being able to get a new one in place by Christmas (which we were hosting) so I had my handyman come over, and we started taking it apart, then hauling the pieces to the appliance parts place where they were able to test them. We started with the easy thing, the element.
Parts place said that the element was OK, so what to check next. Ultimately we made four trips into the parts place, and had the stove in about a thousand pieces by the time we hauled in the actual broken part.
A part that is no longer made. The parts place did find them available as New Old Stock on Ebay, but there is no way it would ever make it here by Christmas.
Luckily though, they were able to get us a new stove, of the proper size for the hole in our cabinets, and get it installed by Christmas.
But through this whole experience, I was sure wishing that we had a stand alone like I've had in every other house I ever lived in. Something that can be swapped out with great ease.
I relate this whole boring story though, because the appliance parts place has a collection of old appliances on display. The coolest thing they have is a full set from the old black and white TV show Bewitched. Including the stove in which the burners slide back when not in use into a cabinet, as if they were a drawer, and above them are the glass ovens that open sort of like the doors on some super high end sports cars from Europe.
The ideas the brothers (especially the older ones) grew up in a time where these buildings were all built by the masons themselves. I know if at least three lodges in my district that were all built at least in part by the members of the lodge, in some cases using materials and equipment from the nearby naval yard. At the lodge in Port Orchard they have in their library a ledger detailing the build, the materials, and final costs (about $30,000 dollars in the 1950s, which today is nearly $400,000 dollars. Still a steal as most of the labor costs were free since brothers did most of the work.
So, at the time, the brothers were much better able to do self help in maintaining the buildings, unlike today, but we're still stuck in that mindset of self help.
My grandfather built his own house, by hand, in the early 1950's. I know what the original footprint was, and it was quite small. But it grew through the years, and now it is a pretty large home as things go.
But, he didn't build any of the three additions to the house. I imagine because things change. He grew older, and importantly to this discussion I think, things became more complicated. Fuses were replaced with breakers. Two prong outlets were replaced with three prong, which of course meant three wires instead of two. Rooms have a dozen outlets, instead of one or two. Permits and inspectors and insurance companies want to make sure that work is done to code instead of via brute strength and ignorance. (He did always tell me that the built the initial house with such brute strength and ignorance.)
That refusal to accept that things change seems to be one of the things that truly holds our Fraternity back.
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.
Thank you for your kind words.
We have something similar in one of the Temples I'm associated with. We have one ceiling light that is somehow wired to no system in the building. Every single breaker in the building can be turned off, and it will still be shining bright. We've looked at it for years, no idea where the electricity is coming from!
>>>We learned to leave it to the professionals and had more time to focus on Freemasonry.
This is exactly right. In some Lodges I see all of the energy that goes into keeping the Temple from falling down, and think about how much better the Lodge itself would be if all that energy was redirected.
Some lodges seek professional help when it comes to managing our money, either in investment accounts or when it comes to our audits. They do this because they understand that they have a lack of understanding in those areas and want it done right. The same thought process should go into the building. Learn what we can to take care of our building on simple things, but hire professionals for the big things (if they can afford it)
To my knowledge, all of the Lodges I'm associated with do have professional help with investments. I'm pushing all to have professional audits.
And yeah, we need to get professionals to do the work in our buildings. Assuming that we don't have those professionals as members. If we can't afford that then we have to look at doing something different.
One local Brother is keen to consolidate three Lodges into one.
This eventually means to him selling three Lodges and creating a new well-designed Temple.
To sell, we ought to know what shape these buildings are in. He got his Lodge to fund inspections for all three.
Once that’s done we’ll have a better idea of what it takes to sell or restore them.
Having the buildings inspected makes a great deal of sense to me. Even if a Lodge wasn't looking to sell. In that case it would give a list of items that will eventually fail, and perhaps when, allowing for fact based planning. Always a good thing.
I think part of the resistance to professional is that there was a time when so many community members were also lodge members that it was unusual not to have a professional of most trades in the lodge that would be happy and competent to donate their skills. But most lodges these days are either skeleton crews of mostly men in their dotage, or populated by office workers who have few skills beyond their computer desktop.
I think that is exactly right. We used to be a nation of farmers, then became a nation of tradesmen, now we are increasingly a nation of laptop users. Even in a thriving Lodge there will be very few, if any tradesmen in today's world.
That's not a bad thing, but we do have to recognize that the world has changed.
And that concept of change seems oddly foreign to so many Masons. We struggle to understand the impact of inflation as well. 😎
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.
Your point is extremely well taken, and one that is often forgotten by lots of Masons, including myself. We aren't the only ones with buildings we can't afford.
The finest hotel I ever stayed in was built long ago as a department store.
And it is impossible to ignore the success of a number of Lodges in our Jurisdiction that do not own a building. When I had an opportunity to visit most of the Lodges in the Jurisdiction there were 5 that in my opinion were truly superior. 3 of the 5 do not own their own building.
But, I will admit that I look at our beautiful buildings and wish that we could keep them going forever. So I am one of those who does expend energy being sad about all of that. Ultimately though, you rightly point out a better way of looking at this.
It comes in 3’d! 🙈
Growing up we had a stand alone stove when most modern kitchens of the 60’s and 70’s featured cool built in stoves. I always wanted one, and finally got my wish later in life purchasing a home at the coast, Built in everything, and modern. Then our stove broke, and that’s when we decided to remodel our kitchen! We cooked outside for about a month or so. ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
I just went through my own stove nightmare!
Our stove gave up the ghost shortly before Christmas. It's a built in, and I didn't figure on being able to get a new one in place by Christmas (which we were hosting) so I had my handyman come over, and we started taking it apart, then hauling the pieces to the appliance parts place where they were able to test them. We started with the easy thing, the element.
Parts place said that the element was OK, so what to check next. Ultimately we made four trips into the parts place, and had the stove in about a thousand pieces by the time we hauled in the actual broken part.
A part that is no longer made. The parts place did find them available as New Old Stock on Ebay, but there is no way it would ever make it here by Christmas.
Luckily though, they were able to get us a new stove, of the proper size for the hole in our cabinets, and get it installed by Christmas.
But through this whole experience, I was sure wishing that we had a stand alone like I've had in every other house I ever lived in. Something that can be swapped out with great ease.
I relate this whole boring story though, because the appliance parts place has a collection of old appliances on display. The coolest thing they have is a full set from the old black and white TV show Bewitched. Including the stove in which the burners slide back when not in use into a cabinet, as if they were a drawer, and above them are the glass ovens that open sort of like the doors on some super high end sports cars from Europe.
The ideas the brothers (especially the older ones) grew up in a time where these buildings were all built by the masons themselves. I know if at least three lodges in my district that were all built at least in part by the members of the lodge, in some cases using materials and equipment from the nearby naval yard. At the lodge in Port Orchard they have in their library a ledger detailing the build, the materials, and final costs (about $30,000 dollars in the 1950s, which today is nearly $400,000 dollars. Still a steal as most of the labor costs were free since brothers did most of the work.
So, at the time, the brothers were much better able to do self help in maintaining the buildings, unlike today, but we're still stuck in that mindset of self help.
My grandfather built his own house, by hand, in the early 1950's. I know what the original footprint was, and it was quite small. But it grew through the years, and now it is a pretty large home as things go.
But, he didn't build any of the three additions to the house. I imagine because things change. He grew older, and importantly to this discussion I think, things became more complicated. Fuses were replaced with breakers. Two prong outlets were replaced with three prong, which of course meant three wires instead of two. Rooms have a dozen outlets, instead of one or two. Permits and inspectors and insurance companies want to make sure that work is done to code instead of via brute strength and ignorance. (He did always tell me that the built the initial house with such brute strength and ignorance.)
That refusal to accept that things change seems to be one of the things that truly holds our Fraternity back.