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Blue Lodge Dues

Brother Mark

Registered User
Hey
I am wondering how high is to high for blue lodge dues? I was a member of a lodge that is now considering 200 for blue lodge dues. To me that is way to high.
 

JJones

Moderator
$200 bucks a year comes out to $16 bucks a month, which is far less than most people spend on luxuries such as cable or satellite. If someone can't afford it (I'd have a hard time justifying it ATM) that's one thing, but if someone can justify spending $50 a month on some superfluity but not $16 a month on lodge then I'd tell them just to stay home and watch TV. :p
 

Brother Mark

Registered User
True. I told them that I don't believe raising dues is the right thing to do, they need to control their spending. Their budget for this year is 45k.
 

Ashton Lawson

Premium Member
Lodge dues are too cheap. I think they should be at least $50 per month. We don't take care of our lodges because dues are so low...

My $0.02
 

BryanMaloney

Premium Member
No more than 45k? I wonder how many other groups that meet regularly on their own property can keep things that low? I'm not joking. Like I said, $200/year is petty cash.
 

jwhoff

Premium Member
... :001_rolleyes:

I'm trying to think of anything else I spend less than $200 a year for.

You know ... something that really / or really does not mean so much to me.


:glare:
 

TexasMason73

Registered User
Currently working thru EA, I haven't gotten to the point of being a due paying brother but I do currently throw on average $50.00 per month in the Kitty jar at the premeeting lunch. I would gladly pay $500.00 per year in dues as a MM.
 

Mac

Moderator
Premium Member
I definitely think dues are too low. As a college student, though, I think I would find it difficult to have $200 set aside for just Freemasonry at the end of December (after buying all those Christmas gifts, etc). If we were to increase dues to a level where they actually helped, I would hope that a payment plan would be an option. ;)
 

Brother Mark

Registered User
See guys I am currently an engineering student. 200 or the 300 is out of my budget for just blue lodge dues. On top of the 100 that I owe to the York rite, for their dues. If I wasn't going to college then I would agree that it wouldn't be that much, but as it stands it is. And 45k that is way to much for a yearly budget. I know several lodges with a budget of 22k.
 

TexasAggieOfc1273

Registered User
We went to $75 this year from $45 in previous years. We knew we needed to raise to accomodate the increase from GL, and we also knew that we could do better to have a little more in the bank. I still think it's a deal. I understand concerns about the costs for people on fixed incomes, like the two students. We don't have any college students in our Lodge, but we have more than a few folks whose sole source of income is social security.

45k may not or may not be all that much depending on that Lodge's individual circumstances. We own our building, so we have to pay a light, gas, & phone every month. Additionally, our building is an older building, we recently replaced some very large air handlers that nearly broke us.
 

Benton

Premium Member
Our dues are at $65.00, I believe, and let me tell you, that is cheaper than any college organization I've been in by a long shot. (Currently still in school.) Most college frats are $150 per school year minimum. (Often times half each semester.) And those are the service organizations. The drinking frats often pay $300.00 a semester or more to afford their keggers etc.

So yeah, Masonry is a steal. I don't understand why our dues are so incredibly low. I really don't.
 

BryanMaloney

Premium Member
I did a little quick online research from a variety of sources, and what I found was that, when adjusted by Consumer Price Index, historical lodge annual dues were around $65 +/- $13 (95% confidence interval). When adjusted by Consumer Bundle, it came out to $120 +/- $41. Constant dollar dues started fairly low (yes, even for CPI/CB adjustment) in the late 1800s, rose and peaked around the 1930s, and then have fallen, since.
 

Benton

Premium Member
My frustration comes in when we can't even cover basic expenses with our dues. It's one thing to have fundraisers to do things like hand out scholarships and other charitable activities. Those things I think are fundraiser worthy. But if you need new carpet, shouldn't you have enough money in the bank from dues to cover something like that? Dues don't have to be extremely high, they just have to be slightly higher than necessary and the money will accrue over time and be there when you need it, assuming you're a wise spender.
 

KSigMason

Traveling Templar
Site Benefactor
A few years ago during our Fall District Communication, the Sr. Grand Warden had a list of every Lodge with their initiation fees and annual dues at the establishment of the Lodge, what it is now, and what it should be if it followed inflation. Comparatively most Lodges around the country have extremely low dues today than what they were in the early 20th century.

The Sr. Grand Warden split us into two groups: one for those under 65, and the other for 65+. The younger group was more willing to raise dues. In retrospect, I belong to a college fraternity that charges $300 per semester or $600 per year.

I don't think $200 a year would be too bad and right now my Lodge in Idaho currently sits at $125 a year, but they can fluctuate each year as our By-Laws state our dues are "per capita + $80".
 

Brother Mark

Registered User
I hear ya Benton. When I hear the money report, and we are running a negative balance. I get upset and wonder where our money from dues went.
 

Benton

Premium Member
Yeah, I can see how if you're retired and having health problems, $200 would be a lot. But for the average person, its not that much. I think of how much money I blow on fast food or coffee that I could make/brew myself, and all I would have to do is be wiser with how I spend to make up the financial district. And I bet most of us, if we're truly honest with ourselves, are the same way.

I'd be willing to pay $100 annually easily. That'd give my lodge an extra $35 it didn't have before. Since we need new light fixtures soon, wouldn't it be nice to be able to just take that money from the bank account instead of worrying where it would come from? I bet an extra $35 from everyone in the lodge would easily cover the cost of replacing all the lights in the building. It's things like that I'm talking about.
 

JJones

Moderator
It's all about what Freemasonry is worth to you. I often find that if a brother doesn't feel he's getting his due's worth already then there's no justification in raising dues and, to be fair, there's plenty of lodges that don't offer much for their membership.

It's already been pointed out that dues used to be much higher and still would be if inflation was accounted for. I personally believe that dues should be high enough to cover the lodge's operating cost at least and the constant need for us to fry fish and sell BBQ just to keep our doors open a bit disgraceful. If our dues aren't high enough to keep the lodge in operation, then we quickly find most or efforts geared towards raising money instead of obtaining more light.
 
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