POWER

I am Master hear me roar !!! I am Potentate bow before me !!! I am Grand (you fill in the blank) kiss my ring.............

Luckily most men don't seek power and even luckier most that do humbly seek not for their own benefit. But history is full of those who seek it for their own glory or who once get it become intoxicated with its effect. Our fraternity is set up with a system of government that is a dictatorship, one of the most abused systems in the history of the world since in this system the man at the top is the "The Man". To think that because of the nature and philosophy of our fraternity that we are immune to abuse would be naive. Now I still believe this is the right form of government for our fraternity and it has worked well for centuries. Most Masters only have one year to govern and any other form of government would simply be to cumbersome to operate under. Hopefully the cream still rises to the top but with thinning numbers and less willing to step up to the plate I think the odds have greatly increased for the wrong people to succeed.

I recently listened to a horror story that happened in one of our appendent bodies, the "leader" did so much damage in his one year that the ramifications will be felt for years to come. In a recent blog by a fellow mason he accounts on how after a degree a Grand Line officer suddenly quizzed his candidate on proficiency. I found this outrageous, what would possess a brother to potentially embarrass a candidate, the Master and the Lodge. I am sorry but talk about drunk with power, hopefully I will only be sitting on the sidelines when this one comes to power. I watched in disgust earlier this year after serving as Master on an elite degree team how the peacocks fluffed each other after the degree. I left thinking this is not the fraternity I know and love, will I serve again ????????

I guess us purest can still can still be proud of what we accomplish at the local level and help ensure that brotherly love still prevails. I will end with this word of caution: When you select Stewards this year, is this a man you want to lead your lodge ?

THE NUMBERS GAME

In my last blog I commented on the leasons learned from GM, although the issues facing GM are different than the problems facing our fraternity there is a common theme, the numbers game. In GM's case through the years they slowly lost market share and hence the volume necessary to maintain the size of their organization. In our case we have far fewer members than we did decades ago and time seems less available, so lets do the numbers game.......


Let's say I join the fraternity and fall in love with the organization therefore I attend all the meetings, twice a month. The next thing I do is join the officers line which leads to practice nights so lets say one extra night a month so we are up to three nights. Now we decide we want further light in masonry so we join one of the rites, lets say the York Rite. Wow this great, I love every aspect they have to offer so now I attend a night of Chapter, a night of Council, a night of Commandery every month therefore three more nights a month. So now we are up to six nights a month but wait I hear the Shrine has a lot to offer and supports a great cause so we join that, great, wonderful, we join a unit so now we do two nights a month for the Shrine. So lets see now we are up to eight nights a month. Realistic maybe for some but for most not really so what happens we spend our time where we can or devote all our time to the part of the fraternity we enjoy the most and become simply a dues paying member of the others.

Freemasonry - GM

The failure of GM and the conclusions reached during the reorganization should cause masons to pause and at least take a moment to ponder; do we have too many brands and too many dealerships to support for the size of our current membership ?

Unfortunately our fraternity like many volunteer organizations has shrunk in numbers over the years/decades and yet we still have almost the same number of lodges and appendent bodies. While I am a member in most of the appendent bodies; Scottish Rite, York Rite and the Shrine and I enjoy the aspects that each has to offer, I do question if there is enough brothers to go around to effectively support and perhaps more important lead all these associated organizations......

Yet the appendent bodies is where some of, in my opinion, the most effective charity work is done; Shrine burn hospitals, Scottish Rite Learning Centers, etc....with the blue lodges as the cornerstone of entire thing.

So here is the dilemma, if I only have so much cement (time, members) how thin do I spread it before the whole thing becomes weak? Even on a more micro scale, how long should lodges (dealerships) hold onto charters when they really are no longer effective and no longer create more cement (members) to support the larger picture.

Another aspect which we see throughout lodges and the fraternity as a whole is what we have decided to do, or should I say has been a natural circumstance is water down our cement by having the same leaders throughout multiple lines, multiple lodges, etc....

Like GM, we need to decide can we still effectively manage all these brands the way they are currently structured ? I think the value of the appendent bodies is still there but I do feel some reorganization is needed and perhaps as they say it is time to right size the organization.

Expectations

How does a volunteer organization establish any consistancy and standards.....expectations. Why are some lodges much stronger than others even with similar membership.....expectations. There is no pay associated with what we do or how well we do it only pride in a job well done.

One of our Past Masters once told me that a lodge is only as good as its ritual. Once you let your ritual slide the whole lodge slides and I have to agree with him since good ritual work is the cornerstone of any lodge. How does a lodge establish good ritual practices......expectations. It should be expected that if you are a Steward you will perform the first section lecture. In my home lodge it is expected that if you are the Senior Deacon you will perform the Middle Chamber lecture. The Junior Warden does the EA Degree, the Senior Warden does the FC Degree and the Master is expected to do all three degrees. Any officer starting in the line knows these expectations, period.

The problem is a lot of lodges have trouble getting brothers to become officers and to do so they often lower the expectation of the position, the any warm body will do syndrome. While this may work for a short while in the long run without developing upcoming officers the seats end up getting filled with Past Masters who eventually burn out. This is what basically happened to my affiliate lodge. I am now proud to say that they have a full progressive line and all the officers know the expectations of the positions.

What changed ? Expectations, plain in simple. How did they change ? New Leadership, as with sports teams what do teams do when they are not getting the desired results, they change managers, they change expectations. All Masters have their own unique style and leading a volunteer organization is not easy since the key word is volunteer. Therefore not all styles work or should I say are effective.

IGNITE OUR PASSIONS

We as masons are taught to subdue our passions and improve ourselves in masonry....while this has its own unique meaning I suggest that what we need to do "ignite our passions and improve masonry".

As a volunteer organization everyone chooses their personal level of participation. Many join and fade away only to be dropped for NPD a few years later. While becoming an officer is not for everyone, those that choose to do so must realize that when they become Master they are the guiding force for their lodge for a year. It is easy for complacency to set in as anything beyond complacency takes effort. We all have lives that are very busy and time is a precious commodity, it is easy to kick your masonic duties to the curb.

As with all organizations leadership is the key and passionate leadership ignites the fire of others, which in turn encourages them to invite others. Members need to feel excited about what is happening in their lodge or feel what is happening is worth while and more importantly worth their time. So I say to you up and coming Masters, ignite your passion and make your year worthy of the rank you have achieved.

THE TWO DEGREES OF MASONRY

I often work with a traveling degree team that performs the Master Mason Degree. In my years working with the team I noticed that we keep going to the same lodges over and over. While I understand many lodges have reached the point where they no longer have the man power to perform this degree or have not built back up to such a level I also feel many lodges simply don't try. It becomes all too easy to have a degree team come in or to farm candidates out to other lodges. One of these most frequented lodges has brought in many new candidates in the past few years and has developed a officer line. As we all know, if you don't perform a degree, you don't learn it. Therefore all they are doing by constantly using a degree team is developing an officer line that only knows the first two degrees.

There are strong lodges and weak lodges in every district and it is not uncommon for neighboring lodges to assist eachother. I think it is far more useful for a lodge to bring in the help needed to perform the degree than to outsource it.

PURPLE AMOUNG US

Now that most lodges have their new officers installed it is time to get down to business again. Which of course means performing degree work for this years candidates. Along with this of course comes the visit by the purple people. I remember when I was a junior officer this was a big deal and I remember how everyone got so nervous about it. Now as "veteran" officer I realize it is really nothing at all but a formality that is required once a year by the Grand Lodge. I am also willing to bet that the DD will be more nervous about doing the inspection than the lodge will be about doing the degree. Our Grand Lodge is now pushing for that on inspection nights, all officers should be in their installed positions and that work should be performed by members of that lodge only, no outside help. While I realize that lodges should be graded by the work that they perform and not by some outside ringers brought in that night, I also see the other side of this.

What gets lost in all of this is that the degrees are all about the candidates and if the degrees are done much better with outside help so be it. Why should Grand Lodge prove their point at the expense of the candidates, most lodges know where they stand on the quality of their degree work and often take steps to make up for their inadequacies by moving officers around and supplementing with outside help.

I would like to take this one step further and I will propose this to our district that at the end of the inspection period that the scores given to each lodge should be presented at the Blue Lodge Council. Are we not grown men ? Did not most of us go to college and see our grades posted ? There is no greater motivator than peer pressure. How would you like to be the lodge in your district with the lowest score ? Perhaps it is time for a merger if you always are. And you can bet the strong lodges would work hard for the perfect score.