Michaelstedman81
Premium Member
I was just reading the thread in the Voting Booth endowments. Up until this year, I never really thought too much about getting an endowment, and therefore didn't really ask too much into it. Before this year, I had heard that if you got the endowment, you wouldn't have to pay dues for the rest of your life, I just left it at that.
A couple of months ago when I had the privelage to visit several lodges in an area, the topic of raising the lodge dues came up and I started hearing things that I hadn't really heard about before. Per Capita, returns, and a few other things. My ignorance to this primarily comes from being deployed and away from home for training due to the military to really be considered remotely active. So, even though I have been involved with Masonry for almost six years now, I still consider myself a pretty "young" or new Mason as I am still trying to pick up a lot of this.
Can someone explain to me all this endowment stuff? Some key questions I have are the following:
1- I give the money to my Secretary for my endowment, where does it go from there?
2- What are the returns that my lodge gets, and where does it come from?
3- What exactly is Per Capita? (Just to make sure I am tracking the right thing)
4- Other than the forgetful individual (or one that is having a hardship during dues time), who benefits from endowments being purchased?
5- How much does my lodge get in "returns" or how is it caculated?
I was looking forward to getting an endowment, but with reading the thread I just did about all this, I really don't know which way I want to go with it now. Any other thoughts or information you Brothers can throw in a reply I would appreciate.
A couple of months ago when I had the privelage to visit several lodges in an area, the topic of raising the lodge dues came up and I started hearing things that I hadn't really heard about before. Per Capita, returns, and a few other things. My ignorance to this primarily comes from being deployed and away from home for training due to the military to really be considered remotely active. So, even though I have been involved with Masonry for almost six years now, I still consider myself a pretty "young" or new Mason as I am still trying to pick up a lot of this.
Can someone explain to me all this endowment stuff? Some key questions I have are the following:
1- I give the money to my Secretary for my endowment, where does it go from there?
2- What are the returns that my lodge gets, and where does it come from?
3- What exactly is Per Capita? (Just to make sure I am tracking the right thing)
4- Other than the forgetful individual (or one that is having a hardship during dues time), who benefits from endowments being purchased?
5- How much does my lodge get in "returns" or how is it caculated?
I was looking forward to getting an endowment, but with reading the thread I just did about all this, I really don't know which way I want to go with it now. Any other thoughts or information you Brothers can throw in a reply I would appreciate.