I'm going to attempt to swing this discussion back to the starting point. There are a lot of "problems" and solutions but it seems that no one wants to try to sort out the former with the latter. One thng I've noticed is that Lodges (and the members) need to figure out what type of Lodge they want to be. For example, 1) Craft Lodge that stresses work and gorwing the knowledge of its members with some community outreach, 2) Lions Club with some memory work, or 3) a merge of both. I'd say that my Lodge is #3 with leanings towards #2. We stress work but I think we stress the community outreach a bit too much and it tends to overshadow some of the reasons why some Brothers joined (myself included). Outreach is important (awards, scholarships, trash pickup, thanksgiving baskets, inviting folks to the important banquets) but some of it, in my opinion, fails to achieve the goals that were sat in place. As one brother said: "It is hard to pay dues when people are asking for $10-$20 everytime you turn around." Anyway, it might be a good idea for a suggestion box to be sat out with a questionnaire and the Officers review the comments to figure out a way to help swing the Lodge towards the future; the Grand Lodge could also hold an online survey for the same reasons.