MW, I’m going to differ with you slightly on a few things when it comes to temples. Temples
Can be kept but there has to be an iron will to see things through and there HAS to be buy-in from the members. Our SR temple in Little Rock was built when we had approximately 1800 members. It was the home of the only SR bodies in the state and by 1929 we had almost 3,000, and that necessitated building the Fort Smith temple. In the 1920s Freemasonry had a higher percentage of the population that was masons but lower numbers than we had post-WWII. Sometime during that membership swell we cheapened it and made impossible to run these buildings. I think I’ve said this before, by great-grandfather paid the modern day equivalent to $2,000 to be a Scottish Rite Mason in 1943. That’s 14yrs after the official end of the ”Golden Age of Fraternalism” but fees/dues were still significant even during the war. I heard the other day one of the York Rite guys say that in Arkansas to be a Templar used to cost $261 a year in the 1920s. That’s $4,745.37 nowadays, you’re going to take an organization that costs that much VERY seriously. The members saw VALUE in what we did and we were, and they paid dearly for it.
We have a pretty good success story in AR, but it required planning, work, and a degree of iconoclasm.
Today we are down to somewhere less than 2,500 SR members and the original temple, but seeing the VALUE of the edifice for all Freemasonry in AR our SGIG instituted something we call the “Orient Concept” which did away with superfluous secretary pay in the smaller valleys centralizing all admin/clerical work under the Orient out of Little Rock. He made it known that the temple was no longer solely the property of “The Valley of Little Rock” and henceforth would pay rent. The SGIG then changed dues structure to include an annual “Orient Assessment” for the running of the temple/admin and so on. Then the BIG one…he hired a 25y/o “black cap” to run the office and get the rental business started.
Branding, public and private facing websites, catering to wedding and special events, tactical advertising was all under the young mason’s purview. There were brethren who grumbled about his age, and about the decision to “open up to the public” but they were told in no uncertain terms that that was the only way to keep the building and retain membership. This came from the same SGIG who showed up to Grand Lodge, in the temple, with a “for sale” sign to let everyone know how dire the situation was. But it all worked, young men, vibrant energy, and new ideas all worked.
Additionally, with less members and office space needed the Orient determined that some old office space no longer needed by the Grand Lodge could be rented to non-fraternal entities which led to a few brothers renting offices for their respective businesses helping diversify income sources even further. From starting a magazine to using rentals as a way to help raise the question “how do I become a Mason?” all the way to allowing brothers to be compensated for working these events more men have become engaged and invested in the SR and our temple.
I rant and ramble to tell brethren that just as there’s hope mentioned in the MM there’s hope for temples…but you can’t do what you’ve always done.
Thank you for this RW. I certainly won't disagree that it is for the best when we can save our Temples by setting them up for success over the long term. And that certainly seems to be the case with your SR Temple in Little Rock.
My concern is more towards those Temples in which the Brothers don't have any intention to make any of the changes needed to make them successful, and instead simply prolong the deterioration as long as possible, before eventually selling out when a great deal of the value has been lost.
There are, in what you wrote here, a lot of good and wise ideas that we should emulate. Particularly with outside income, and proper utilization of space for maximum value.
>>>I heard the other day one of the York Rite guys say that in Arkansas to be a Templar used to >>>cost $261 a year in the 1920s. That’s $4,745.37 nowadays
This is a huge problem we face. Far too many Masons are willing to stand up and argue against high enough dues levels to pay our own way. And for some reason, we collectively allow these misguided voices guide our actions. I don't remember exactly how much my Templar dues were this year, but if memory is close it will probably take me ten years to hit $261 in dues to my Commandery. And indeed, I'll not be asked to pay over $4,000 over my entire lifetime.
Very true, and in a symbolic lodge it is harder to make such things happen because of the…get ready this is gonna blow your mind…”progressive line.”
When you have frequent leadership change with no cohesive vision at all you ultimately end up doing nothing. My back to back 2 years in the East was not particularly good because I am some phenomenal leader. I had a good bit of luck and great support. My officers knew me and my style and knew, almost instinctively, what was or was not going to be my thoughts on any number of issues.
However I knew I wanted to push the lodge and get the E.H. English award for lodge excellence. We talked about the qualifications, I’d say at least quarterly. But most guys are more focused on being a PM than leading a lodge.
Agreed. That changing of vision every year makes things really hard. We've seen that in our Grand Lodge line as well.
I was super lucky in that regard though. The year prior to my election as JGW there was a tremendous rift between the elected Grand Lodge Officers, but everything smoothed out after that, and I was able to enter at the bottom of a line in which everyone shared a really similar vision, and that continued my entire time through the line.
Out of all the years I've spent on Temple Boards, a Board that has more than one member with a good familiarity of the construction trades is a really rare thing.
Could the fact that most Lodge dues are lower than those for Boy Scouts? There seems to be an unusually high percentage of cheapskates occupying chairs in our Gentle Craft. Period.
Agreed. Just last night I sat through a Lodge meeting arguing about increasing the dues from $60 per year.
That said, as someone who spent a lot of years as a Scout, when I read your comment, I couldn't remember what the dues were. So, I looked them up. And you're right. According to the BSA website, it is $80 national dues. That doesn't include the local Troop dues that will be on top of that.
Pretty bad if we have 11 year old kids paying more for Scouting than 50 year old men paying for Freemasonry. Rather shameful actually.
I guess it’s my turn to drop dynamite into the Masonic fishpond. This seems to be a very hot topic issue from the Masonic crowd that states“without the Lodge you don’t have Masonry” and another side that says “ Lodges are like people they live and they die the people who gather inside them are the soul”. If you have an overly large building and you can still salvage it, it’s really up to the brothers that inhabit or possible outside parties that would like to keep it going because it’s a literal work of art. Somewhat akin to medical states, if you can repair a building in the summer of its life that’s great, the fall not so much, the Winter a lot of times you have to throw in the trowel.
Much like the unfortunate Masonic Lodge that you found in such a decrepit condition , not enough had been done at the right time with people that had the actual knowledge to maintain the building , or the motivation simply was not there and the building suffered externally as entropy bit down hard and chewed.
As another of the brothers wisely pointed out on this comment thread, Temple boards often lack the working knowledge on how to keep a building running both on a budget and bulging with common sense. People are brought on their knowledge for the position and so often fail to put it into paper and legacy documents are often not created , causing once again the frustrating but charming Masonic tradition of passing things down orally , playing the game of telephone.
Eventually, that knowledge is sadly gathered onto the Other Side, That sacred repository of the afterlife where all thought goes to exist elsewhere.
The solution would seem to be not only saving for a new building when you start a lodge or buy a new one, planning for the very long future, as many of our historical fathers in Masonry have done before, but also having the The social machinery built into the Lodge itself ( one of the few applications where “we’ve always done it that way” actually applies in a positive sense)
Having professional training from an outside organisation on how to run a temple board efficiently and having general contractors come in perhaps, to have guest speakers give ideas for spotting flaws in the building or have it regularly inspected by inspectors is always cheaper than repairs.
Using your Lodge to make new masons which is one of its principle if not foremost duties allows these interested younger Masonic parties to train with older ones in a generational exchange rarely seen on a civil level these days ( boomer vs Gen Zed etc) inviting new skills and connections and allowing our ancient craft to flourish using that most venerable of mortars and materials human experience networking and socialisation which was practice in Neolithic times until now.
So to summarise, financial support maintaining eventual replacement for a slowly aging building, saving for a new structure or a complete facelift and reprocess of the old (whichever is more cost-efficient) , a lasting generational educational motivational curve which is difficult to sustain but if done almost perfectly allows written down Scribed legacy policies to care for the building , ( Masonic owners manual if you like) and regularly Creating new younger Masons who will care for the Lodge. Using one of The most sacred of our symbols, the beehive, the Hive/Lodge lives on as long as bees/masons are continually bred/made who labour to maintain the structure itself, Promoting charity and community and being active in the cultures around us.
>>>Having professional training from an outside organisation on how to run a temple board >>>efficiently and having general contractors come in perhaps, to have guest speakers give ideas >>>for spotting flaws in the building or have it regularly inspected by inspectors is always >>>cheaper than repairs.
This is really solid advice because the simple fact is that most of us are not skilled in this kind of work. And those skills are growing more and more rare with each passing generation as our economy requires specialization. I've been on a Temple Board for almost my entire time as a Mason, but I don't know how to build buildings, or fix plumbing, although I did manage to electrocute myself once. And when I look around at our Temple Board, we might have one or two guys who know this stuff, if we are lucky. Trusted professional help is undoubtedly needed by most if not all of our Temple Boards.
This subject is tied to the migration of families after WW2 from the city to the suburbs, and the birth of the truly american invention called the shopping mall.
After WW2, the country was still recovering from the depression, and the sudden return of millions of american soldiers who needed jobs. Historians don't really talk about this part much, it wasn't until Truman slashed income tax rates that the economy began to recover. The GI Bill also helped veterans get degrees and thus, gainful employment with better pay. The explosion of automobile ownership also contributed to the problem.
As families moved away from the city, businesses in the downtown core began to suffer, and one by one, businesses left for the new shopping malls that began to replace downtown.
Lodges in the golden age of masonry had built lodges in those downtown cores, but slowly over time, the decay of the inner city brought empty buildings, crime, drugs, and vagrants. Once businesses stopped paying taxes in the city, the infrastructure began to suffer as well.
Today, a lot of those large edifices to the craft sit in areas that are mostly, to put it frankly, shitholes. Property values are almost non existent, even if the building is well maintained. The city is forced to raise taxes to offset the losses of businesses and increased costs from crime and vagrancy. Thus, selling those builds is nearly impossible as even the land the building sits on isn't worth anything.
That's why it is in the best interest of these lodges to file for exemption of property taxes as a 501c10. It's a ton of work, but once done, can save the temple boards thousands of dollars a year. Money that can be best spent on badly needed repairs.
You bring up a solid point here, that certainly does effect some, but not all of our Lodges. Not too far from my home we have one of our State's largest, if not the largest Masonic Temple. Bigger I think even than yours. But the city surrounding it has completely died. No jobs to speak of, more boarded up storefronts than not. It's really sad, and probably the most economically distressed place in this State.
We have another one, a bit farther away from me, but the neighborhood around it has deteriorated so badly that whenever I visit, I kind of wonder if my car will still be there after the meeting.
But, other places remain vibrant. Doric for example is a very old building, but only a block away from new Google offices, Occidental is also quite old, but in an extremely vibrant part of the city. So, I guess it depends a lot on location.
But, as you say, changing demographics make a huge difference. For our rural Lodges too. In 1900 40% of the US population worked in Agriculture, by 1920 that figure was 26%, today it is 1.2%. That is devastating to our rural Lodges.
Too many of our rural lodges die, because young people leave the podunk towns for advancement. As I rode around the state, I found so many lodges abandoned and empty in town that were dead themselves. They just hadn’t gotten the memo.
A brother I respect mentioned that we can’t abandon those sections of the state. I’m sorry but they are dead already.
I belong to 3 lodges. 1 is a building that works, the Lodge room is suitable, but not much else to recommend about it. The 2nd is falling apart. No resources to do basic maintenance and without an annual fundraiser we can't afford to pay property tax and other critical bills. If the 2nd moved to the 3rd, things would be improved. They don't have to merge even, just meet in the building. But the lifespan of the 1st and 2nd building is clearly coming to an end sooner then later.
The 3rd is a remarkable building, complete with a gorgeous lodge room. But it is in dire straight of updates. The Brothers are doing everything they can and I think can make the building truly remarkab
Speaking frankly, I think that you and I are on exactly the same wavelength here.
Your number 1 is really cool, but super impractical. It should be sold.
Your number 2 is a disaster and should have been sold 30 or 40 years ago. Every year that it isn't sold it will just deteriorate further, and eventually the day will come that the taxes/insurance/water can't be paid and it will be lost. We've seen that happen in this Jurisdiction in the past.
Your number 3 is a really, really awesome building.
1 and 2 should be sold, given their close proximity each of these buildings are in, those Lodges should move into building 3, and then the efforts of three Lodges could be wisely spent keeping that treasure of a building vibrant and alive for another hundred years, instead of wasted on buildings that are so far gone they can never truly be made suitable.
That this hasn't happened always makes me shake my head in wonder.
But that is a big problem in this Jurisdiction. We have too many buildings. We have so many because when they were built, travel was hard. Now we have cars that zip 70 MPH down the freeway.
MW, I’m going to differ with you slightly on a few things when it comes to temples. Temples
Can be kept but there has to be an iron will to see things through and there HAS to be buy-in from the members. Our SR temple in Little Rock was built when we had approximately 1800 members. It was the home of the only SR bodies in the state and by 1929 we had almost 3,000, and that necessitated building the Fort Smith temple. In the 1920s Freemasonry had a higher percentage of the population that was masons but lower numbers than we had post-WWII. Sometime during that membership swell we cheapened it and made impossible to run these buildings. I think I’ve said this before, by great-grandfather paid the modern day equivalent to $2,000 to be a Scottish Rite Mason in 1943. That’s 14yrs after the official end of the ”Golden Age of Fraternalism” but fees/dues were still significant even during the war. I heard the other day one of the York Rite guys say that in Arkansas to be a Templar used to cost $261 a year in the 1920s. That’s $4,745.37 nowadays, you’re going to take an organization that costs that much VERY seriously. The members saw VALUE in what we did and we were, and they paid dearly for it.
We have a pretty good success story in AR, but it required planning, work, and a degree of iconoclasm.
Today we are down to somewhere less than 2,500 SR members and the original temple, but seeing the VALUE of the edifice for all Freemasonry in AR our SGIG instituted something we call the “Orient Concept” which did away with superfluous secretary pay in the smaller valleys centralizing all admin/clerical work under the Orient out of Little Rock. He made it known that the temple was no longer solely the property of “The Valley of Little Rock” and henceforth would pay rent. The SGIG then changed dues structure to include an annual “Orient Assessment” for the running of the temple/admin and so on. Then the BIG one…he hired a 25y/o “black cap” to run the office and get the rental business started.
Branding, public and private facing websites, catering to wedding and special events, tactical advertising was all under the young mason’s purview. There were brethren who grumbled about his age, and about the decision to “open up to the public” but they were told in no uncertain terms that that was the only way to keep the building and retain membership. This came from the same SGIG who showed up to Grand Lodge, in the temple, with a “for sale” sign to let everyone know how dire the situation was. But it all worked, young men, vibrant energy, and new ideas all worked.
Additionally, with less members and office space needed the Orient determined that some old office space no longer needed by the Grand Lodge could be rented to non-fraternal entities which led to a few brothers renting offices for their respective businesses helping diversify income sources even further. From starting a magazine to using rentals as a way to help raise the question “how do I become a Mason?” all the way to allowing brothers to be compensated for working these events more men have become engaged and invested in the SR and our temple.
I rant and ramble to tell brethren that just as there’s hope mentioned in the MM there’s hope for temples…but you can’t do what you’ve always done.
ARScottishRite.com
APdowntown.com
Hear! Hear!
Thank you for this RW. I certainly won't disagree that it is for the best when we can save our Temples by setting them up for success over the long term. And that certainly seems to be the case with your SR Temple in Little Rock.
My concern is more towards those Temples in which the Brothers don't have any intention to make any of the changes needed to make them successful, and instead simply prolong the deterioration as long as possible, before eventually selling out when a great deal of the value has been lost.
There are, in what you wrote here, a lot of good and wise ideas that we should emulate. Particularly with outside income, and proper utilization of space for maximum value.
>>>I heard the other day one of the York Rite guys say that in Arkansas to be a Templar used to >>>cost $261 a year in the 1920s. That’s $4,745.37 nowadays
This is a huge problem we face. Far too many Masons are willing to stand up and argue against high enough dues levels to pay our own way. And for some reason, we collectively allow these misguided voices guide our actions. I don't remember exactly how much my Templar dues were this year, but if memory is close it will probably take me ten years to hit $261 in dues to my Commandery. And indeed, I'll not be asked to pay over $4,000 over my entire lifetime.
Very true, and in a symbolic lodge it is harder to make such things happen because of the…get ready this is gonna blow your mind…”progressive line.”
When you have frequent leadership change with no cohesive vision at all you ultimately end up doing nothing. My back to back 2 years in the East was not particularly good because I am some phenomenal leader. I had a good bit of luck and great support. My officers knew me and my style and knew, almost instinctively, what was or was not going to be my thoughts on any number of issues.
However I knew I wanted to push the lodge and get the E.H. English award for lodge excellence. We talked about the qualifications, I’d say at least quarterly. But most guys are more focused on being a PM than leading a lodge.
Agreed. That changing of vision every year makes things really hard. We've seen that in our Grand Lodge line as well.
I was super lucky in that regard though. The year prior to my election as JGW there was a tremendous rift between the elected Grand Lodge Officers, but everything smoothed out after that, and I was able to enter at the bottom of a line in which everyone shared a really similar vision, and that continued my entire time through the line.
Two possible reasons I can think of:
Trustees with 3-year terms don't deal well with longterm issues;
The buildings is a sideline business to our purpose where we are all mangers of sorts, few of us having any knowledge or skill in such things.
I vote more for number 2 above.
Out of all the years I've spent on Temple Boards, a Board that has more than one member with a good familiarity of the construction trades is a really rare thing.
Could the fact that most Lodge dues are lower than those for Boy Scouts? There seems to be an unusually high percentage of cheapskates occupying chairs in our Gentle Craft. Period.
Agreed. Just last night I sat through a Lodge meeting arguing about increasing the dues from $60 per year.
That said, as someone who spent a lot of years as a Scout, when I read your comment, I couldn't remember what the dues were. So, I looked them up. And you're right. According to the BSA website, it is $80 national dues. That doesn't include the local Troop dues that will be on top of that.
Pretty bad if we have 11 year old kids paying more for Scouting than 50 year old men paying for Freemasonry. Rather shameful actually.
I guess it’s my turn to drop dynamite into the Masonic fishpond. This seems to be a very hot topic issue from the Masonic crowd that states“without the Lodge you don’t have Masonry” and another side that says “ Lodges are like people they live and they die the people who gather inside them are the soul”. If you have an overly large building and you can still salvage it, it’s really up to the brothers that inhabit or possible outside parties that would like to keep it going because it’s a literal work of art. Somewhat akin to medical states, if you can repair a building in the summer of its life that’s great, the fall not so much, the Winter a lot of times you have to throw in the trowel.
Much like the unfortunate Masonic Lodge that you found in such a decrepit condition , not enough had been done at the right time with people that had the actual knowledge to maintain the building , or the motivation simply was not there and the building suffered externally as entropy bit down hard and chewed.
As another of the brothers wisely pointed out on this comment thread, Temple boards often lack the working knowledge on how to keep a building running both on a budget and bulging with common sense. People are brought on their knowledge for the position and so often fail to put it into paper and legacy documents are often not created , causing once again the frustrating but charming Masonic tradition of passing things down orally , playing the game of telephone.
Eventually, that knowledge is sadly gathered onto the Other Side, That sacred repository of the afterlife where all thought goes to exist elsewhere.
The solution would seem to be not only saving for a new building when you start a lodge or buy a new one, planning for the very long future, as many of our historical fathers in Masonry have done before, but also having the The social machinery built into the Lodge itself ( one of the few applications where “we’ve always done it that way” actually applies in a positive sense)
Having professional training from an outside organisation on how to run a temple board efficiently and having general contractors come in perhaps, to have guest speakers give ideas for spotting flaws in the building or have it regularly inspected by inspectors is always cheaper than repairs.
Using your Lodge to make new masons which is one of its principle if not foremost duties allows these interested younger Masonic parties to train with older ones in a generational exchange rarely seen on a civil level these days ( boomer vs Gen Zed etc) inviting new skills and connections and allowing our ancient craft to flourish using that most venerable of mortars and materials human experience networking and socialisation which was practice in Neolithic times until now.
So to summarise, financial support maintaining eventual replacement for a slowly aging building, saving for a new structure or a complete facelift and reprocess of the old (whichever is more cost-efficient) , a lasting generational educational motivational curve which is difficult to sustain but if done almost perfectly allows written down Scribed legacy policies to care for the building , ( Masonic owners manual if you like) and regularly Creating new younger Masons who will care for the Lodge. Using one of The most sacred of our symbols, the beehive, the Hive/Lodge lives on as long as bees/masons are continually bred/made who labour to maintain the structure itself, Promoting charity and community and being active in the cultures around us.
>>>Having professional training from an outside organisation on how to run a temple board >>>efficiently and having general contractors come in perhaps, to have guest speakers give ideas >>>for spotting flaws in the building or have it regularly inspected by inspectors is always >>>cheaper than repairs.
This is really solid advice because the simple fact is that most of us are not skilled in this kind of work. And those skills are growing more and more rare with each passing generation as our economy requires specialization. I've been on a Temple Board for almost my entire time as a Mason, but I don't know how to build buildings, or fix plumbing, although I did manage to electrocute myself once. And when I look around at our Temple Board, we might have one or two guys who know this stuff, if we are lucky. Trusted professional help is undoubtedly needed by most if not all of our Temple Boards.
This subject is tied to the migration of families after WW2 from the city to the suburbs, and the birth of the truly american invention called the shopping mall.
After WW2, the country was still recovering from the depression, and the sudden return of millions of american soldiers who needed jobs. Historians don't really talk about this part much, it wasn't until Truman slashed income tax rates that the economy began to recover. The GI Bill also helped veterans get degrees and thus, gainful employment with better pay. The explosion of automobile ownership also contributed to the problem.
As families moved away from the city, businesses in the downtown core began to suffer, and one by one, businesses left for the new shopping malls that began to replace downtown.
Lodges in the golden age of masonry had built lodges in those downtown cores, but slowly over time, the decay of the inner city brought empty buildings, crime, drugs, and vagrants. Once businesses stopped paying taxes in the city, the infrastructure began to suffer as well.
Today, a lot of those large edifices to the craft sit in areas that are mostly, to put it frankly, shitholes. Property values are almost non existent, even if the building is well maintained. The city is forced to raise taxes to offset the losses of businesses and increased costs from crime and vagrancy. Thus, selling those builds is nearly impossible as even the land the building sits on isn't worth anything.
That's why it is in the best interest of these lodges to file for exemption of property taxes as a 501c10. It's a ton of work, but once done, can save the temple boards thousands of dollars a year. Money that can be best spent on badly needed repairs.
You bring up a solid point here, that certainly does effect some, but not all of our Lodges. Not too far from my home we have one of our State's largest, if not the largest Masonic Temple. Bigger I think even than yours. But the city surrounding it has completely died. No jobs to speak of, more boarded up storefronts than not. It's really sad, and probably the most economically distressed place in this State.
We have another one, a bit farther away from me, but the neighborhood around it has deteriorated so badly that whenever I visit, I kind of wonder if my car will still be there after the meeting.
But, other places remain vibrant. Doric for example is a very old building, but only a block away from new Google offices, Occidental is also quite old, but in an extremely vibrant part of the city. So, I guess it depends a lot on location.
But, as you say, changing demographics make a huge difference. For our rural Lodges too. In 1900 40% of the US population worked in Agriculture, by 1920 that figure was 26%, today it is 1.2%. That is devastating to our rural Lodges.
Too many of our rural lodges die, because young people leave the podunk towns for advancement. As I rode around the state, I found so many lodges abandoned and empty in town that were dead themselves. They just hadn’t gotten the memo.
A brother I respect mentioned that we can’t abandon those sections of the state. I’m sorry but they are dead already.
I belong to 3 lodges. 1 is a building that works, the Lodge room is suitable, but not much else to recommend about it. The 2nd is falling apart. No resources to do basic maintenance and without an annual fundraiser we can't afford to pay property tax and other critical bills. If the 2nd moved to the 3rd, things would be improved. They don't have to merge even, just meet in the building. But the lifespan of the 1st and 2nd building is clearly coming to an end sooner then later.
The 3rd is a remarkable building, complete with a gorgeous lodge room. But it is in dire straight of updates. The Brothers are doing everything they can and I think can make the building truly remarkab
Speaking frankly, I think that you and I are on exactly the same wavelength here.
Your number 1 is really cool, but super impractical. It should be sold.
Your number 2 is a disaster and should have been sold 30 or 40 years ago. Every year that it isn't sold it will just deteriorate further, and eventually the day will come that the taxes/insurance/water can't be paid and it will be lost. We've seen that happen in this Jurisdiction in the past.
Your number 3 is a really, really awesome building.
1 and 2 should be sold, given their close proximity each of these buildings are in, those Lodges should move into building 3, and then the efforts of three Lodges could be wisely spent keeping that treasure of a building vibrant and alive for another hundred years, instead of wasted on buildings that are so far gone they can never truly be made suitable.
That this hasn't happened always makes me shake my head in wonder.
But that is a big problem in this Jurisdiction. We have too many buildings. We have so many because when they were built, travel was hard. Now we have cars that zip 70 MPH down the freeway.