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How much do you pay?

Blake Bowden

Administrator
Staff Member
My Lodge's Degree fees (currently) are between $50-$75, depending on which one. Our yearly dues are $50/year, which is the bare minimum my Grand Lodge (GLOTX) allows. Now I've always heard that Prince Hall Brethren pay a significantly higher amount. Is this true?
 

Brent Heilman

Premium Member
I have always heard that myself and I am curious too. My Lodge dues are $60/year and the degree fee is $145 for all the degrees.
 

Pscyclepath

Premium Member
We're "mainstream," not PHA, but for reference, our fees are $30 for the criminal background check, $120 for the three blue lodge degrees, and once raised, $60/year for annual dues.
 

Colby K

Premium Member
Degrees are 200 euro each and dues are $50. Each degree a good portion of the fee goes to the "grande oriente d'italia" here in Sicily.
 

JJones

Moderator
We pay $75 per year now for dues.

We charge $90 for each degree and $30 for a background check with new petitioners.
 

Plustax

Registered User
Excuse my ignorance brother, but what is "mainstream"? BTW our dues are $80 per year. Degrees are 125, 125 & 120 .... includes investigation.
We're "mainstream," not PHA, but for reference, our fees are $30 for the criminal background check, $120 for the three blue lodge degrees, and once raised, $60/year for annual dues.
 

Bill Lins

Moderating Staff
Staff Member
"Mainstream" refers to the Grand Lodge of Texas, A.F. & A.M., (or, in Bro. psyclepath's case, Arkansas) as opposed to Prince Hall Affiliated and other Grand Lodges.

Our dues (Wharton #621) are $75/year, and our degree fees are (EA) $55, (FC) $75, & (MM) $125.
 

Benton

Premium Member
$65/year. I don't remember what the degrees are offhand, but they're all under $100. Too low if you ask me.
 

towerbuilder7

Moderator
Premium Member
Right now, my Lodge is at $175, which includes the $60 for Grand Lodge Relief. Next year, we are hearing that Relief is being increased to $80, so that would bring dues to approx. $195-200, if Brothers vote to increase them to ensure adequate monies are still being left for Lodge business . Petitioners to our Lodge are currently charged $250, which includes the $175 for their first year's dues. With the increase, their fee may or may not go up; that hasn't been discussed and voted on by the Lodge yet...........
 

K.S.

Registered User
Our degree fees are $225 or $250-I don't recall off hand (it's been awhile) and our dues are $130 a year. Not too bad, if one participates in lodge. But I can see brothers complaining about it if they just mail in a payment and never attend. --Come on back to lodge, doors are always open to you brothers!
 
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filmgeekben

Registered User
Here in IL I paid $200 for the degrees and then dues are $50. But there is plenty of speculation that we may need to increase dues. I would support such a motion.
 

VHN5150

Registered User
My experience thus far has been $83 per degree and the same for annual dues...plus the $30 for background check.
I have seen some a lot higher. I wonder why it fluctuates...
 

sands67

Premium Member
Brethren I am almost embarrassed when I say that our dues are 50 per year. We do not charge for each degree.
 

robert leachman

Registered User
Not sure what my lodge charges as I'm not as active as I'd like to be.

Some of thaws degree fees seem rather high to me. If we are wanting to appeal to young men, a high degree fee might just cause them to not turn in that petition as they cannot afford it!
 

Benton

Premium Member
Not sure what my lodge charges as I'm not as active as I'd like to be.

Some of thaws degree fees seem rather high to me. If we are wanting to appeal to young men, a high degree fee might just cause them to not turn in that petition as they cannot afford it!

Contrarily, there's also a lot of talk about perceived value. If I'm only paying $40.00 for a degree, my perceived value is a lot lower than if I'm paying $100.00.

It's actually similar to universities. I heard a recent interview on NPR about this. Many private universities have a much higher sticker price than the average person pays. That's why tuition might be $56,000.00 for all expenses on paper, but often times fewer than 20% of students pay that full price, and the majority pay less than $25,000.00. It's all about perceived value, and they've found that having that higher sticker price attracts better students who perceive the education at their institution to be better than one at a lower price point, regardless of whether or not there's any trying to that.

The same thing can be said for a store that, right above their list price, has the 'MSRP' value listed. Why list it? No one charges that high of a price. They list it because of perceived value/savings.

So there's actually a pretty strong case to be made for raising dues purely for the sake of perceived value, as strange as that may seem. Human nature is weird sometimes.
 
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