RW Cameron, Well done Brother, just read this and enjoyed it. It harmonizes with my thoughts in several areas. I will need to reread this a few more times...your "Bunkai" is deep, Brother!!!
Myrtle #108 is a living, thriving example, and proof to the ideas of how to grow a lodge. Currently we have 11 EAs waiting for degrees. Two new petitions were presented on Thursday, May 20, 2021.
Our 9:00 AM Saturday breakfasts, which I will be attending in just over two hours, started just a few years ago with just two or three Masons. Just before the shutdown we regularly had 12 to 15, and sometimes over twenty Masons sharing a meal. The Gaslamp is a small restaurant, and we packed the place. And that's another key, we MUST meet regularly, and it can't be just in a lodge, and it can't be just once a month.
Myrtle Masons bought the land on which the lodge sits in 1913, and erected the building a couple of years later. The Lodge building sits in the center of Issaquah. For decades it was the cultural center of the town. In times of plenty, the summer of our existence, we forgot to prepare for winter. The lodge declined. Membership declined, and the building became shabby. Four years ago I brought my son into the building to show him the lodge. His response shocked me. "It's old, and dingy. And it smells! I don't mind "Old", Oxford is old. Yale is old. This is just shabby."
He was right! And that critical evaluation of our building motivated me to make some changes. Paint is the cheapest, easiest, fastest, and maybe most effective remodel we can do. It's amazing how a little work can improve an image.
But our bare walls needed help. Next I found a treasure trove of old Masonic items long stored away, and nearly forgotten. There was the original DeMolay charter, the Knights of Pythius Charter, a chart of the genealogy of the Masonic Lodges of Washington, an poster of an American flag that contained the names of every Mason in Washington, and much more. We even have the original Bill of Sale for the land! $250 paid to the Issaquah Coal Company.
They, together with the Masonic aprons donated by WB Brian Thomas, provided the foundation for more than 70 pieces of quality Masonic items which I had professionally framed, and hung on our once bare walls. It wasn't just a random hanging of items. People love to tell stories of their adventures and discoveries. These pieces of Masonic art tell the story of Myrtle Loge, a story that Myrtle members, guests, and visitors can tell others.
Another very important item is food! Am I really going to ask my Brothers to get off work, drive in Seattle traffic, and then come to lodge on an empty stomach? NOPE! It's not fancy, but we make sure dinner is ready at 6:30. As our finances improve so will the food, but the really important part is that we share a meal.
I don't know anyone who loves "Reading the minutes and paying the bills". We open our lodge at 7:30 and we're finished with Lodge Business at 8:01! The next thing we do is gather our chairs between the altar and the East and have a Masonic discussion. WB Jamie Speicher, of Unity, brought a wonderful presentation on Synchronicity. Our discussion lasted until 9:00, and could have gone longer, but some brothers need to get up very early for work.
We've painted the outside of our building and hung a new sign. But just as Covid hit, we lost our tenant, Rogue Brewing.( Rogue did tens of thousands of dollars of damage to our building and then concealed the damage - but that's another story ) The silver lining is that one of our Brothers, my SW Mike Inman, had a background in construction. He worked from Thanksgiving evening to after Christmas and repaired the damage! This enabled us to find a renter. Fifty Five Sunset, owned by Greg Fossum who was awarded "Business of the year" by the Issaquah Downtown Association, is a coffee house with a breakfast, lunch and light dinner menu, and will shortly open. I'm sure I'll see a lot of Masons from Dist 7, and beyond, there every Saturday.
With ten inquiries, 11 Entered Apprentices, and as of Thursday, two new Petitions, Myrtle Lodge is financially stable, structurally sound, and is growing. And there is much more to come.
I think it was at Scottish Rite I heard of the old African saying "If you want to travel fast, travel alone. If you want to travel far, travel together!" As Masons we've traveled together 300 years and more. I'm quite sure we will be here 300 years from now.
Forwarded to my lodge mailing list.
Let's hope it works.
RW Cameron, Well done Brother, just read this and enjoyed it. It harmonizes with my thoughts in several areas. I will need to reread this a few more times...your "Bunkai" is deep, Brother!!!
I concur with each and every one of these points.
Myrtle #108 is a living, thriving example, and proof to the ideas of how to grow a lodge. Currently we have 11 EAs waiting for degrees. Two new petitions were presented on Thursday, May 20, 2021.
Our 9:00 AM Saturday breakfasts, which I will be attending in just over two hours, started just a few years ago with just two or three Masons. Just before the shutdown we regularly had 12 to 15, and sometimes over twenty Masons sharing a meal. The Gaslamp is a small restaurant, and we packed the place. And that's another key, we MUST meet regularly, and it can't be just in a lodge, and it can't be just once a month.
Myrtle Masons bought the land on which the lodge sits in 1913, and erected the building a couple of years later. The Lodge building sits in the center of Issaquah. For decades it was the cultural center of the town. In times of plenty, the summer of our existence, we forgot to prepare for winter. The lodge declined. Membership declined, and the building became shabby. Four years ago I brought my son into the building to show him the lodge. His response shocked me. "It's old, and dingy. And it smells! I don't mind "Old", Oxford is old. Yale is old. This is just shabby."
He was right! And that critical evaluation of our building motivated me to make some changes. Paint is the cheapest, easiest, fastest, and maybe most effective remodel we can do. It's amazing how a little work can improve an image.
But our bare walls needed help. Next I found a treasure trove of old Masonic items long stored away, and nearly forgotten. There was the original DeMolay charter, the Knights of Pythius Charter, a chart of the genealogy of the Masonic Lodges of Washington, an poster of an American flag that contained the names of every Mason in Washington, and much more. We even have the original Bill of Sale for the land! $250 paid to the Issaquah Coal Company.
They, together with the Masonic aprons donated by WB Brian Thomas, provided the foundation for more than 70 pieces of quality Masonic items which I had professionally framed, and hung on our once bare walls. It wasn't just a random hanging of items. People love to tell stories of their adventures and discoveries. These pieces of Masonic art tell the story of Myrtle Loge, a story that Myrtle members, guests, and visitors can tell others.
Another very important item is food! Am I really going to ask my Brothers to get off work, drive in Seattle traffic, and then come to lodge on an empty stomach? NOPE! It's not fancy, but we make sure dinner is ready at 6:30. As our finances improve so will the food, but the really important part is that we share a meal.
I don't know anyone who loves "Reading the minutes and paying the bills". We open our lodge at 7:30 and we're finished with Lodge Business at 8:01! The next thing we do is gather our chairs between the altar and the East and have a Masonic discussion. WB Jamie Speicher, of Unity, brought a wonderful presentation on Synchronicity. Our discussion lasted until 9:00, and could have gone longer, but some brothers need to get up very early for work.
We've painted the outside of our building and hung a new sign. But just as Covid hit, we lost our tenant, Rogue Brewing.( Rogue did tens of thousands of dollars of damage to our building and then concealed the damage - but that's another story ) The silver lining is that one of our Brothers, my SW Mike Inman, had a background in construction. He worked from Thanksgiving evening to after Christmas and repaired the damage! This enabled us to find a renter. Fifty Five Sunset, owned by Greg Fossum who was awarded "Business of the year" by the Issaquah Downtown Association, is a coffee house with a breakfast, lunch and light dinner menu, and will shortly open. I'm sure I'll see a lot of Masons from Dist 7, and beyond, there every Saturday.
With ten inquiries, 11 Entered Apprentices, and as of Thursday, two new Petitions, Myrtle Lodge is financially stable, structurally sound, and is growing. And there is much more to come.
I think it was at Scottish Rite I heard of the old African saying "If you want to travel fast, travel alone. If you want to travel far, travel together!" As Masons we've traveled together 300 years and more. I'm quite sure we will be here 300 years from now.