Fundraising/charity/good deeds

Haha, I think you mean "shot down." Some brothers, and maybe it is the fault of a lot of things, are just naturally inclined to be dismissive of ideas. What kind of ideas did you have for charity?

 

Forgive me for saying it, but it sounds like you are making the oldest mistake in the book. Being retired, I attend three different Lodges every month. Every month I see a Mason stand up in one of these Lodges and propose some wonderful idea that the other Brothers immediately shoot down. The trick to making an effective proposal in Lodge is to solicit support before you announce publicly. In my Lodge there are three Brothers who control what everyone else in Lodge thinks. I do not make ANY suggestion in Lodge without asking these three Brothers for their support first. I learned this the hard way.

 

It is said that you need 20% buy in to make change. Like stated above, get some ideas on your subject or program and get a little buy in before you announce.

 

If the same person/people are always the ones against a proposal, politely call them out in public. Say, "OK, Brother, give us some ideas that you are in favor of doing." When they are put on the spot and have no response, the next time they'll think twice before shooting everything down on a routine basis.

As for gaining support before anything is brought to the floor, that is a must. There is rarely anything ever brought up at our lodge that hasn't been discussed at length beforehand.

 

That is the purpose of an officers meeting prior to the Stated meeting. To iron out any differences and present a united front to the Brethren.
Keeps down the nay- sayers.

 

Pretty much anything is resisted. That's not restricted to Masonry. The challenges are to learn types of resistance, how and when to ignore resistance, how and when to overcome resistance.

We've done that before - Remember Einstein's definition of insanity. When was it done before and why did it fail then? If you can't correct for that you'll repeat history. Being a different year is not a change in approach or a corrective action*. So work on corrections. Your pitch is going to be how and why this attempt is more likely to work based on the lesson learned from previous attempts.

* Or is it? Different years might imply more guys volunteering or more active volunteers. That difference is something other than just trying in a different year.

We've never done that. Sometimes with a statement that it's against the rules - You have to know the actual rules and sometimes the process to change the rules. Folks fear the unknown or have seen others burn out flailing around. Plan it out, present the plan. Ask the objectors to watch what happens.

We've never done it that way - Figure out if this is because it was trying and failed (correct) or not tried (plan).

 

For us, it's really more the Past Masters than the officers.

 

I would undersign the statement that you should thoroughly discuss the idea beforehand and get some co-sponsers. I have found that that will silence the ruly.

 

I like your suggestions.

 

I put a huge Christmas paper wrapped box in Lodge dinning room in October and asked for new unwrapped toys for the Local Blue Santa program , pass the word in lodge and OES , After 5 years we now have 4 huge Boxes, The Police department picks up in mid December . The lodge is out no money, but believe it or no I've heard some rumblings about how much space its taking up, lol

 

You are running into a problem that is rampant throughout Masonry ( and the appendant bodies). Many lodges have a "buzzard's row" of members who will shoot down every new idea or project. "We never did it that way before", is their chorus. When I hear this I reply, "If we never did it that way before, then this lodge is lucky. We get to go first".

 

1st don't get discourage nor upset continue to show your efforts to improve in the fundraiser and charity. One thing you can do which I am doing in my lodge is this gather valuable information before you suggest it. By this I mean get the amount the lodge has donated each year for the past 3 yrs and the person who suggest and involved parties. At that point you give your projected image on what your idea will bring and the involved parties as well. Many lodges suffer from what I call " We have done that or that will not work" so you have to be creative in your attempt to get your ideas across to everyone. If you have one person that is shooting your ideas down simply ask that person this " How many fundraiser have you suggested and how many have you carried out for this lodge". Nod your head and wait for a reply!!!

 

Our lodge does a great deal of charity fundraising, including the local Clam Festival in Yarmouth, Maine. However, we also have monthly bean suppers which are a pillar of the community. Even the Roman Catholic Priest from across the way is a regular attendee. Well, our many times past master who runs them said "I'm tired". So a committee was formed to decide how to proceed and a good friend of mine and a brother said "oh, we elect you Chairman!" It's going to take some time but what it really goes to is dues. Our dues are unbelievably inexpensive, mostly because of the income from that bean supper. Sadly, many brethren do no attend lodge regularly but do help at the suppers or help out at our booth at the Clam Festival. We've got to figure out how to motivate less active members while telling them that their dues could go up exponentially if we don't keep up the bean suppers. I've been on a lot of committees, particularly in church, and this is the absolute worst!