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.