Four Letter Words
In Freemasonry the word recruitment is given a wide-berth, similar to most four letter words. This need not be so.
While it is not our custom, nor am I saying it should be, to actively solicit new members, it is essential to track the rate of loss through death and NPD, and understand how many new Brothers, by Raising or Out-of-State Affiliation, are needed to maintain an active Lodge community. It is correct for a Lodge to determine such goals as growing by 10 new Master Masons in a given year. While it is wrong to simply accept a man into Freemasonry to fulfill a quota, however it is also wrong to never develop and manage membership growth because we fear crossing the solicitation/recruitment line.
For Freemasonry to survive in the 21st century it is exceedingly important for Lodges to compute growth rates and trends – if for no better reason to compare against the rates for their community, and it is important to re-evaluate our practices, keeping in mind that our core Landmarks are unchangeable, but how we practice them most be mutable for a Lodge to stay relevant in their community.
More Thoughts
Of late, I have noticed many, many, many Masonic Temples being put on the market across the US. I have mixed feelings about this. My real point of contention is with the Brothers of those Lodges - how dare you let it come to this. How dare you become Freemasonarians. How dare you let this happen.
On the other hand, it is just a building - Freemasonry is not found in brick and stone, which is ironic because bricks and stones are Masonic symbols. Kinda drives the point home doesn’t - stop worshipping the symbols, become the messge behind them.
Somehow, I think that if the Brothers of those Lodges caught onto that message say, two decades ago, they wouldn’t have to put their building on the market.
J.
November 5th, 2005 at 11:48 pm
like a phoenix to the flames. guard well your sparks for they shall prove good ignition to the tinder laying itself around our feet.
my personal method is to simply ask the GATUman to send me the ones searching, god knows there are enough of them and they are hungered and thirsting.
in fact tonight i had six of them in my home, fed them, enjoyed conversations and talked about everything but the stonework.. that comes later.
i feel that streak, the one that takes me closer to ignoring paragraph 9 of my MM obligations. i want to ask them, WHAT have you done? WHAT HAVE you done? of course, more poingnantly is the question, what havent you done. but semantics aside, i cannot do a damn thing about previous shoddy work and reckless abandon displayed in the legacies of slack-minded men calling themselves ‘worshipful’ this and ‘past’ that. all i can do is forge my own tools in the fires of those frustrations and make damn sure no one ever will accuse me of such mediocrity.
like a phoenix for the flames. time for things to die and be re-born. not because some poo-bah says so or wants us to believe it but simply because i ‘will’ to victory, i shall not fail.
i also had the revelation tonight that in endeavoring to find these men and show them vistas of things masonic, i am doing nothing less than finding the men who shall, one day, bury me.
oh profundis mentis!
xam o-›
November 8th, 2005 at 11:47 am
“Fire! Fire!” - Beavis and Butthead
As a good pheonix, like you could ever be a bad one, I expect that you like a little fire now and again - so why the advice of Caution (like I have ever been).
November 8th, 2005 at 12:40 pm
i’ve been known to strike matches and dance around bonfires..
November 8th, 2005 at 1:37 pm
And yet I never see you at any bonefires, or playing with matches. It leaves me quite perplexed. Just for fun, I will get about 20 Brothers to affiliate with Acacia, and elect you Master that you might have a new bon/e fire to dance around.