Temple Income

Maybe we can make some!

One perhaps unique aspect of my profession is waiting. I might have an appointment at 10:00 AM, and my next at 4:00 PM. Because we must work around large blocks of time in Committee Hearings and Sessions on either the House or Senate Floor.

Indeed, my profession is named after the fact that for centuries we have waited in the lobby.

Photo by Nils Huenerfuerst on Unsplash

This results in a practical question.

Where do all these people wait?

Sure, the lobby might work, but it certainly wouldn’t be comfortable or pleasant.

For some years now, that waiting has taken place in a large cafe on the Capitol Campus. Picture a huge Starbucks type place filled with Lobbyists and folks visiting the Legislature.

But, this year, the building which houses that cafe is under construction.

Where are we to go?

Well, we’ve entered the modern age, and now have a co-working space in an office building near the Capitol. Shared desks for perhaps 30 people, small conference room, a casual seating area, a few lockers, and of course the coffee machine.

Created only because the cafe is closed, but this is a far superior solution to what we’ve had before. An actual place where actual work can get done.

Back here in my hometown, we have a really nice co-working space just to the south of us in Chehalis. And we have one here in Centralia as well.

The one in Chehalis seems well utilized. The one in Centralia is so well utilized that there is now a waiting list to become a member, and the people who run it are considering opening a second location.

Thinking about all of this, I can’t help but think about our Masonic Temple here in Centralia.

We have two rooms that are not utilized. One was built for playing pool, the other as a conference room. We have a third room that is underutilized as the Lodge office.

We already pay for utilities. We already pay for fast commercial grade internet.

We could easily empty these rooms, put in desks and high quality office chairs. Easily add a bunch of electrical outlets, and a good coffee maker. Bingo! We’d have a good co-working space. In the heart of downtown, in a beautiful building.

We’ve got good electronic locks now, so building access changes would be easy as members came on board and left.

Say we charge $100 per month for 24/7/365 access. (That seems to be the going rate in this corner of the world.)

If we get fifteen people, that’s $1500 per month into the coffers of our Temple Board. With very little expense beyond what we are already facing. It’s just almost all pure profit.

Say we put in a few lockers that our members can rent so that they don’t have to take everything back and forth when they come and go. That’s more profit.

Say we get 30 members. The space is large enough to accommodate 30. That would result in an income larger than we receive per month for the entire first floor of our building.

And we wouldn’t even lose our Lodge office, because we would be building out a modern office space. We’d simply have to move our physical files, but otherwise Lodge work could continue as normal in the new space.

Many of our Lodges are quite Real Estate poor. They own great Real Estate, but have little or no money to keep that Real Estate going. I think that in a lot of cases, if we hope to keep it, we’ll have to think outside of the box and enter the modern world.

Some really quick research shows that estimates range from 16% to 20% of employers now operate with a fully remote workforce.

Where are these millions of people working?

Many at home. Many in cafes. Lots in dedicated co-working spaces.

Maybe, if our Masonic Temples have the room, we could do well by creating the facilities to serve these people.

What do you think?