Has your Lodge ever hosted an Open House? If so, how was the turnout? What activities did you have?
My lodge (Macedonian Lodge, Quincy Mass.) hosts two (2) open houses per year. Every lodge in the entire state of Massachusetts hosts two open houses per year on the same dates, statewide, and Macedonian lodge participates on schedule.
Here is the run-down: The Grand Lodge of Mass. directs that all lodges in in the state open on a Saturday in April and October. Massachusetts is a small state, and the Boston newspapers and television stations are available state-wide. The open houses are announced in statewide media.
The lodges open up, and serve coffee and snacks. Activities for children are sometimes provided. Some lodges get Ben Franklin impersonators, and other famous Freemason impersonators. Some lodges will have members show up in revolutionary-war costumes.
The lodges set up TVs and play short masonic DVDs, and other informative programs. Literature is distributed. People who attend are encouraged to ask questions about Masonry, and the appendant organizations. There are stacks of petition forms available, and if any man is interested in petitioning, he is given a form.
The result of these open houses, is that Massachusetts masonry is growing. Some lodges have a waiting list of men waiting to petition.
In 2007, only two Grand Lodges out of the entire USA showed any growth in Masonry. Massachusetts and Delaware.
If your lodge is considering holding an open house, You should look at how they do it in Massachusetts. You could consider having all of the lodges in your district hold an open house, on the same day, and collaborate on your media announcements.
I wish you luck.
Grand lodge had a couple of state wide open houses in the early 90's.Every lodge in the state was supposed to have one on the same day.We did not get hardly any response here in El Campo
Blake,
Does Gonzales Lodge still do an open house on the day of the "Come & Take It" celebration? I spent several hours in your dining room a few years ago talking to one of your Past Masters...there were several non-Masonic visitors as well.
Unfortunately no.