As I have been writing for a couple weeks now there is a huge change coming to Freemasonry. One I believe will help push our attendance to a peak level. However until this change happens, what can we do collectively to increase our lodge attendance right now? That is the million dollar question we have been plagued with for quite sometime now. Lodge numbers are decreasing at a steady pace causing some lodges to go dark or merge with sister lodges in the area. Yet, even the attendance in merged lodges is still at an all time low. What are we doing wrong as a society to cause such low numbers?
Our primary concern should be to keep members active. I have recently learned from Brother John Nagy; the origin of the term ‘cowan’, how it applies to Freemasonry and even how we have cowans who are current on their dues. How can we have lodge members be cowans when the sole purpose of the tyler is to guard against them? Well, as brother Nagy has pointed out to me the coined term is Gaelic and means hole, cave or crevice. It is allegoric to the people who lived in the caves and were content with the knowledge they have already received. They did not have any desire to better themselves or look for more to better their communities.
With that little bit of information I know you can look around your lodge and pick out those members who just roll with the punches, pay their dues and fail to enrich their lives with more masonic light. They are content with the first three degrees, have no desire to go further in the Rites’ and do not dig deeper into the meaning of the Craft. Every lodge has them, but they are hurting our fraternity. Just as a smile is contagious, negative attitude is contagious. It is especially contagious amongst family, and gentlemen we are brothers. The members we have who do not seek further light are causing other members to not seek themselves. After a while members will start to catch the disease of cowanism. (That term is now trademarked by Celestial Brotherhood, not really but it is creative.)
After so many members stop looking for more information there is a drastic change in their hearts. They will eventually become bored with the Craft and find no reason to attend. If they are simply only receiving one thing from lodge it is more than likely only fellowship. Something they already have at their place of worship, school, work or neighborhood functions.
I would like to compare stated meetings with something that has no connection to Freemasonry; Soap Operas. I remember as a child my mother always had Days of Our Lives on TV during the afternoon. I still remember that iconic phrase at the beginning, " Like sands through the hourglass so are the days of our lives..." I knew the story line, I knew characters— the joys of being raised by a single mother for a while. Now, I haven't seen Days of Our Lives in about ten years; but I know I can turn on the Soap Opera right now and know exactly what is happening and why it is happening. There may be a few new characters, but overall the same characters are active participants or have faded toward the background of the same story line that was playing ten years ago. It gets BORING! I am sure most of the gentlemen who read this blog agree and have even told their wives, girlfriends or mothers the same thing. Even the new soap operas face the same dilemma, they are the same show as the others with different characters, and maybe a twist. I remember when Passions came out, the only difference between two shows; Passions had a witch and a puppet that wished to be a boy. Ok, maybe I am showing just a bit much of how big of a mama’s boy I was growing up. I just want to emphasize on how boring soap opera’s story lines were.
In our lodges we face the crisis. If there is no active participation in lodge to seek further light, it becomes the same storyline with the same characters and maybe if you don’t attend for a little while there will be a few new members. The same issues rise up in lodge, the same people argue for or against the issues and sooner or later there is a motion and a vote is on the floor. Usually it is a debate over an idea that was tried once already and it didn't work 20 years ago. It is the repetitiveness of lodge meetings that cause members to become bored. If there is no degree work for the night, there is no reason to come together. We must change that to better our fraternity.
The ball is in the court of the lodge members. Like negativity is contagious so is positivity. If you don’t want people to become bored with the Craft try setting special things up for certain nights. If you aren’t doing degree work, have a special speaker come in and talk about his travels, his experience, his writing. There are many Masons who travel to different lodges across the nation to speak to the brethren. Provided they have the funds to do so. Some of those speakers could include members from this very circle; Robert Johnson, Todd Creason, Brian Schimian, Charles Harper Sr., John Nagy, Juan Sepulveda and even myself. I am willing to travel to any lodge and present some education based on the things I have seen and learned over the time I have served in the Army and as a Freemason.
It may cost a little money for your lodge to book a presentation, typically speaking it is just the costs of travel for the speaker. We could talk about ways to provide the funds for a speaker to present at your lodge, but there are just so many different ways to do so. Just to name a few: sell tickets to members and the lodges in your area, provide a dinner to the community for a small fee, or you could use the old fundraising trick of standing outside restaurants and grocery stores to get donations. What ever your idea is to raise money, use it and email me your ideas so I can bring them up in my lodge. It is good to share amongst our fraternity to help raise money and awareness across the various Grand Lodges and Districts. The Prince Hall Masonry is well known for their ability to fundraise. There isn't a day I don't go without talking to a Prince Hall Mason who is trying to sell something to help raise money. Usually they are tickets to some sort of dance or ball. Why shouldn't AF&AM or F&AM be able to do the same thing?
Get the members involved. That is key here when dealing with increasing our lodge attendance. If you decide having a speaker isn't what will do for your lodge, there are other ways to get masonic education into your work. Our Grand Lodge has made a requirement in the state of Oklahoma to read a section from Masonic Education. In our lodge we have different brothers reading the section. The Worshipful Master asks for volunteers to read, and someone reads it. If you have the same individuals always volunteering but have some brethren sitting on the outskirts and not participating, I hate to pull an old trick that was used when I was in school, but it works to voluntell (Military terminology) them to read a passage. It will increase their participation, possibly allow them to learn something that they weren't listening to and show them that we really do care about their presence in lodge.
Another idea is to have brethren research on their own. Bring up the idea in the lodge to have brethren do some research and present something to the lodge of their desire. If a brother seems to be more esoteric than others, he could potentially bring in a good discussion for the lodge by doing his own research and talking about something he enjoys to the brethren. If a brother is more along the lines of the business aspect of the lodge he could do the same. There are plenty of resources in your ciphers and rituals, online and in your local libraries to do said research. Set a date with the brother and ask him to present something on that date.
Practice. Practice. Practice. There is nothing saying you can’t practice ritual during a stated meeting. In fact, you shouldn't have to have a special communication in order to work on ritual. Practice your language, practice your footwork, just practice. It helps get the lodge out of the bland repetitiveness that we tend to see every stated meeting.
Have family night. It doesn't have to be on the night of a stated meeting. Just get the families involved. Have a pot luck dinner in the fellowship room, get together and enjoy each others company. It allows the families to see who their husbands, dads and brothers are hanging out with. When wives see the good men we get together with they tend to encourage our endeavors to become better masons and better men. Brother Bill Hosler, author of The 50 year member which is seen on The Midnight Freemasons and in The Working Tools, wrote a piece recently about the family. It was a great read and I encourage you to head over to The Midnight Freemasons and read it yourself. Just remember, without our families we wouldn't be where we are today. So include them and allow them to know that we are thinking of them, even when we are sitting amongst each other.
Don’t forget the widows. If you decide to have a family night, however you do it, include the widows of our brethren. When our brothers see that we really stick by our oath, they tend to become more involved. I read a recent article the other day about a widow who was so distraught by the Freemasons she no longer wanted anything to do with them. Simply because while her husband was sick or in a nursing home, I can’t quite recall the exact situation, our brethren never bothered to visit. So, get out grab a few brethren and head over to see the sick and distressed, visit their wives to make sure they are ok. There was another article I read about a widow who was helped by the brethren. They simply noticed some things on a visit, and helped repair her house that she was living in. It is our responsibility to go the length of our cable tow to aid and assist the sick and distressed brethren and families. That doesn't mean stop at the end of the tow. When we do this, other brethren will see it and become more involved knowing their families will be taken care of when they are gone.
Talk to the lodge brethren frequently. Even if it is just a simple text message, Facebook message or phone call. Talk them and see how they are doing through the week. Believe it or not, you could be just the person they needed to hear from. Maybe, it has been rough week for them at work, with the family, or they are struggling with life in general. When you call, text or message them on Facebook, it lets them know you are thinking of them. Not only did you just show that you care by a simple gesture, you could have just saved a life. People get caught in their own world and get lost and don’t know which is up. One simple expression of brotherly love can do miracles, not to mention get them back in lodge.
Finally, there is one more trick in my hat to help raise lodge attendance. Ask. Ask the brethren what they want to see, what they want to do. It’s a simple question and can be asked before the lodge is closed. “For the next stated meeting, what would the Craft like to do for work?” Open the lodge floor up for discussion and watch people get passionate about our great fraternity.
All of this is for the better of Freemasonry.
AG
