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What would you like to see changed in the Masonic experience?

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cemab4y

Premium Member
Re: What would you like to see changed in the Maso

I would like to see the ability to fundraise more than twice a year. Hold an open house (Mass does this ) you invite the public to your the lodge and ask questions.

Also the ability to wear our aprons if we participate in parades and have a banner too. Also allow for more public relations in the newspapers.

There may be a loophole for your fund-raising.

Set up a "Square and Compass Club" . Incorporate as a non-profit corporation. State in your articles of incorporation, that your organization is NOT affiliated with the Grand lodge in your state. That way you have a "wall of separation", and the Grand lodge will keep their hands off of your club.

Use the S&C club, to hold fundraisers. Take the proceeds, and donate them to your lodge.
 

Brother JC

Moderating Staff
Staff Member
Re: What would you like to see changed in the Maso

Unfortunately, any "club" in Texas that requires you to be a Mason, also requires recognition from GLTX. Attempting your S&C Club without due process would cause a world of grief.
 

dfreybur

Premium Member
Re: What would you like to see changed in the Maso

Unfortunately, any "club" in Texas that requires you to be a Mason, also requires recognition from GLTX. Attempting your S&C Club without due process would cause a world of grief.

I was about to respond "That's how it should be. Any organization that requires Masonic membership needs to be approved by GL." Then it occurred to me that many lodges started out as S&C clubs in their geography until they reached critical mass to ask for a charter and form a lodge. It is historically a slam-dunk to ask the MW GM for dispensation to form a S&C club with that intention and to be approved? Not just a Texas question as I've seen the issue happen in other states. Informal clubs without written membership seem to be a way around this but it seems a hack.
 

dfreybur

Premium Member
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.
 

JJones

Moderator
Re: What would you like to see changed in the Maso

Its been my understanding that a lodge can hold as many fundraisers as they like. We are only limited to two raffles a year and that has to do with state law.
 

cemab4y

Premium Member
Re: What would you like to see changed in the Maso

Do NOT set your Square and Compasses Club up as a "Masonic" organization. Do NOT restrict the membership to Masons. In your articles of incorporation, state clearly that "membership is restricted to individuals who are interested in Freemasonry, and Masonic history". If your club is set up along these lines, and you state that your organization is not affiliated with any Masonic organization, then you are protected. Get a local attorney to advise you.

In the state of New Hampshire, nearly all lodges close down during the summer months. S&C clubs enable the people who are "interested" in Freemasonry to socialize, have barbecues, and family events, during the summer (and year round).
 

polmjonz

Registered User
Re: What would you like to see changed in the Maso

Deleted by poster.
Sent From My Freemasonry Mobile App
 
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Morris

Premium Member
Re: What would you like to see changed in the Maso



There may be a loophole for your fund-raising.

Set up a "Square and Compass Club" . Incorporate as a non-profit corporation. State in your articles of incorporation, that your organization is NOT affiliated with the Grand lodge in your state. That way you have a "wall of separation", and the Grand lodge will keep their hands off of your club.

Use the S&C club, to hold fundraisers. Take the proceeds, and donate them to your lodge.
We had a charity corp (dyslexia) and that portion of the building sold alcohol after meetings. It was our mini wall of separation.


Jeff
 

dfreybur

Premium Member
We had a charity corp (dyslexia) and that portion of the building sold alcohol after meetings. It was our mini wall of separation.

Sold? The state laws are different state to state on that. In general to sell per drink requires a liquor license of some sort. Some states allow non-distilled to be available at a meal that is paid for as long as no money is charged for the alcohol but the details are wildly different state to state. That's in addition to any restrictions in the jurisdiction's regulations.

On the one hand I think American Masonry needs to get over its teetotaler stance. On the other hand I viewed it as an advantage that unlike the Elks or Legion the lodge does not have a liquor license and bar. To me the better solution is what the state allows at a paid-for meal, with jurisdiction rules moved to match the state rules.
 

Companion Joe

Premium Member
I don't see American Masonry getting over the teetotaler stance, especially in the South, in our lifetime. It wasn't until about 20 years ago in my state that you couldn't even work somewhere that sold alcohol. I'm sure it wasn't changed even then because of a desire to do it; it was probably changed when every grocery store and chain restaurant started selling beer. At some point before my time (70s or 80s) apparently a member of my Lodge came into ownership of a liquor store. By the state code, there was no choice but to have a trial and expel him. I don't know any more details than that. Now, the state code says you can't be involved in illegal alcohol or have a place of business where alcohol causes it to become disreputable. I see that as a gray area. Who decides what is disreputable? To me, owning a liquor store isn't disreputable. To many members of my Lodge, it would be.

In our state code, drunkenness is No. 2 on the list of Masonic offenses. Abusing/neglecting your wife or children is listed No. 25. Go figure.

Therefore, I don't see it changing anytime soon.
 

cemab4y

Premium Member
I would LOVE to see the moderate use of alcohol return to our lodge functions. What USA masons do not realize, is that nearly every lodge and Grand Lodge in the world, permits alcohol in the lodge. Look at our neighbor, Canada, and see how they do it!

Until the disaster of national prohibition, alcohol was served in our lodges. In George Washington's time (he owned a distillery, by the way), when the lodge broke for refreshments, they passed a jug around!

We can return to our roots, and have distilled beverages in our lodges. We can control ourselves, and act like adults, and see that none pervert the purpose into intemperance or excess.
 

Morris

Premium Member
Sold? The state laws are different state to state on that. In general to sell per drink requires a liquor license of some sort. Some states allow non-distilled to be available at a meal that is paid for as long as no money is charged for the alcohol but the details are wildly different state to state. That's in addition to any restrictions in the jurisdiction's regulations.

On the one hand I think American Masonry needs to get over its teetotaler stance. On the other hand I viewed it as an advantage that unlike the Elks or Legion the lodge does not have a liquor license and bar. To me the better solution is what the state allows at a paid-for meal, with jurisdiction rules moved to match the state rules.
Exchanged is a better word I guess. "Bob" would purchase a cooler of beer and we would pay him back individually. It was a nice time. We would open that portion of the building for one hour after meetings. It had a pool table/dart board and "bobs" cooler.

It would always be open minus cooler if you wanted to bring your kids to play or just swing by.


Jeff
 

Brother JC

Moderating Staff
Staff Member
Don't forget that there are lodges in dry counties. Regardless of what Grand Lodge says, there won't be even a glass of wine at dinner in some places.
 

MarkR

Premium Member
Minnesota just prohibits alcohol in the actual Lodge room. Elsewhere in the building is okay. We bring our own beverages and have a couple in our "Rough Ashlar Lounge" downstairs after meetings. We also have a wine-tasting annually as a charity fundraiser.
 

Morris

Premium Member
Minnesota just prohibits alcohol in the actual Lodge room. Elsewhere in the building is okay. We bring our own beverages and have a couple in our "Rough Ashlar Lounge" downstairs after meetings. We also have a wine-tasting annually as a charity fundraiser.
Put Minnesota on my to travel list!


Jeff
 

cemab4y

Premium Member
I would LOVE to see our stated meetings, be more interesting. I have been to so many stated meetings, and it is open the lodge, read the sick list, pay the bills, recognize the past masters, close the lodge and go home. And then members are surprised that attendance is down.

Maryland has a tradition of having excellent programs at their lodge meetings. I have been to meetings, where they have civil-war reenactors in full costume, and I went to a meeting where they had an FBI agent give a talk.

I would love for masonic meetings to have speakers deliver talks on Masonic and non-Masonic topics, that the members would find interesting.
 

Brother JC

Moderating Staff
Staff Member
Our stated (business) meeting is exactly that, and we make no apologies about it. We encourage visitors to come the next week when our focus is education, illumination, and a formal dining experience.
 
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