Stated communication on EA degree

Companion Joe said:

Freemasonry isn't fast food. The fact I had to wait a few months to be a "full" member, as it were, didn't deter me. In fact, I see it as a method of putting a fire under someone to get their lectures turned in and get their degrees. Freemasonry is a progressive science, and knowledge is attained by degrees, not thinking you should be entitled to every benefit right out of the gate.

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Because nothing keeps those motivational fires burning like being able to one day attend a business meeting to vote "yay" on paying the electric bill?

If a Lodge has nothing more beyond the degree work to offer a new candidate besides the mystique of a business meeting, they have bigger issues to worry about.

Browncoat, the beauty of life is that folks can agree to disagree. If I recall, you and fell on similar sides of the fence in the discussion about whether or not EAs and FCs should wear jewelry. That's OK. That's what makes the world go around.

If all your lodge is doing on stated communications is opening, paying the bills, and closing, you've got a problem. That's what kills lodges. I might stop showing up for that.

We meet twice a month; the first meeting of every month is for business AND lodge education, the second meeting is for conferring degrees. Plus, there is fellowship after lodge every time. So, we want our new EA and FC to attend to get the education and the fellowship, to start to understand what we are all about.

Here in the British Isles (all 3 Home Grand Lodges) all Lodge meetings open in the EA degree and only open up further if a degree ceremony is to be worked and once a year a Board of Installed Masters is opened. Prior to the Lodge opening in a higher degree all those not qualified leave the room and return once that superior degree has been closed, it is a standard part of our ceremonial work and has been for a couple of hundred years.

Everything (talks, discussions, orations etc) are carried out in the first degree.

My lodge here in CA actually has three meetings a month. The first is a School of Perfection and might be held in a variety of spaces, including a Brother's home, and is most often a discussion over a glass of wine. The second is the Stated Meeting and is strictly business as per GL requirements. The third is a Lodge of Instruction where papers are given, which is followed by the formal Agape. If there is a Degree to be conferred, it would be on this evening.