Re: What would you like to see changed in the Maso
And the fabulous buildings like the Philadephia masonic temple? Should we eliminate our Grand Lodges?
There's a reason our brethren in previous generations funded endowments to run their buildings and projects, why they limited their buildings and projects to sizes that were covered by endowments. Until some point they knew that membership was transient and that they had to build for the ages. Then membership grew without bounds and the order started taking on buildings and projects that required constant cash flow to maintain. And sure enough membership declined.
On the one hand I have seen the data on initiations and raisings and compared that data to membership. I know that the increase in raisings now correlates to increased membership in a few decades. What large resources we can hold on to during the inflection we will be able to afford after membership has turned.
On the other hand I have seen a lodge loose a building because it could not afford to maintain it. One time I saw that we absorbed that lodge and sold their building to a growing church. One time I saw that we were the absorbed lodge and we sold our building to a bank. Also I have seen lodges that own buildings that have tenants that generate a positive cash flow for the building.
My take away - If a building does not generate a positive cash flow from its tenants that building will eventually cost more than the lodge can afford and it will become a problem. If your lodge can't afford a building that can generate a positive cash flow then your lodge can't afford a building and should not buy. The problem is cash flow positive buildings cost 5-10 times the price of knock up buildings and most brothers want to build for now not for the ages.
My take away - If a project can not pay for itself through a properly managed trust fund endowment then that project must come with a definite end date because eventually the lodge won't be able to afford it.
Desires and realities can and do clash. Do I "want" to keep the list you wrote? Yes. Do I understand the financial consequences and realize that some of those will not survive the time it takes for our increased raisings to lead to increased membership and thus increase budgets? Yes.
There are lines in the second degree lecture that are moved to the Monitor in Texas. They are about buildings and projects that did not survive the ages, but Masonry nonetheless survived. We like the projects of the past. But what we can afford the trust fund endowment for is what we can in fact afford when we build for the ages.
I've seen Moose and VFW lodges that owned strip malls with their lodge rooms in back. That needs to be our model. I've read that the Shrine Hospitals were built with trust funds but in time more hospitals were built than could be paid for by the endowment. The edifice that is over extended is the one that collapses. The edifice that has balance in its proportions is the one that is still standing centuries later. Our ancient brethren in the days of the cathedral building guilds build a number of cathedrals that collapses and that no longer exist. It's a lesson to be learned.