dfreybur
Premium Member
I like to think there's a reason for everything, even if it isn't obvious. I like to think the "no invitation" policy encourages us to be more as lodges and individuals so that we attract men to us.
History matters. What's the history of when and why we went to invitations? Be sure your answer takes into account those jurisdictions that never changed away from being by invitation. Which is to say be sure your answer includes that we were founded as an invitational organization.
The surface history is that operative lodges started inviting eminent men to join them and that's how we became speculative. Which states that even in the operative days we'd been invitational and the change hadn't been about invitations.
Switching away from invitations is like the switch away from having toasts at our meals. Not a part of the original design of the order.