"This year we've lost one EA to college away from home. Thirteen others have moved through to Master Masons ... the last turning in his ALL program this past Tuesday evening. One gentleman who works off-shore for seven-week hitches plans to turn in sections two and three of the EA on his next trip home. We'll slap a FC on him before he goes back out.
These new masters are teaching this year's crop of initiates. They are also preparing themselves to be the first graded degree team our lodge has ever produced. They are grading out at about 850 now. They'll confirm their second FC degree Monday night. I expect them to be ready to score in the 930 range by September.
These brethren have felled trees in the back lot, built raised gardens and are preparing to harvest their first crops to provide the local food bank with fresh vegetables within the month. They've traveled together and more than half are LIFE certification holders. We're teaching them to do the degree work in all degrees. They are busy as can be and looking for more!
Much of the success we've had is from a wise group of past masters and long-time brethren who've encouraged the new members to get in there and roll their sleeves up and work. Insistence on lodge protocol and providing topics and discussions on masonry (not just paying the bills) have kept the e-mail address and stated meetings lively and much less boring.
We had to do this. Our active membership had taken a devastating blow over the past five years due to deaths. We now have lodge meetings with 25-30 of 200 members at each stated meeting. When I assumed the East this year we couldn't count on more than eight to ten MMs in the chairs. I only opened the Lodge of Sorrow and two stated meetings on the MM level before late November, 2012.
Our Monday night study session now number between 13-20 each week. It's like holding stated meetings. I insist that everyone move around and greet the new fellows and visitors. "Never set in the same chair with the same group" more than once a month. Get around and talk to everyone. It's working. And it's keeping clicks from developing among the brethren. Visitors are now remarking on the friendliness of this new group and making return visits to the lodge. The excitement is catching and it can only go forward with the support of each mason in the lodge.
You can't do this without the buy-in and solid support from your past masters. Yes, we were lucky this year. Everyone knew we had to open ourselves up to the new folks coming in. We realized that "the future is now." Depending upon how entrenched your fellow lodge members are and how willing they are to accept the new members has everything to do with how much success you will have in the East.
That said, you must always be on guard to pour water on the politics and personal grudges you will be exposed to when assuming the East. Hopefully, once exposed, you will not lose faith and sour on the lodge. This happens all too often and is the prime reason too many past masters walk away from their active participation in the lodge. Just like that shinning city on the hill, once you get close enough you can begin to smell the garbage and it's not always a sweet smell. You just have to realize that lodges are made up of people with people-like shortcomings. We all have them. We're all exposed to them. It's where the "mettle" meets the road and makes or breaks the success of the man and the lodge during his year in the east.
If you aren't warn out and looking forward to handing it all over to the next man coming up you haven't worked hard enough and learned what it all means to serve your lodge in the East. Sad to see the man who wants to hold on to presumed power and prestige. His year did neither his lodge nor himself any lasting good. You will know him by his play for power, recognition and control. He is a day late and a dollar short and a sad sight: even when he looks in the mirror.
Should you do it the right way you can't miss coming out changed after that year in the East. No longer do you look at yourself, others, teamwork or the brotherhood the same way. You will be tempered and you will either make the grade as a man or not."
- thank you for those words of wisdom.
My plan thus far:
1. My lodge has many members who are starting want to "retire" from their jobs in the lodge, which is understandable, many of them have been doing active work for a number of years, and who wouldn't want a break. That being said since I've joined there has been at least 8 new candidates, all of whom are young. In my lodge, only the first and second degree are done by the lodge members, in the third we need a degree team. I would like to change that and do ALL 3 degree with the members of my lodge. The degree team does an amazing job, but how much better would it be if we could do all the degrees?
2. Education. In the two years I've been a member, only 3 meetings TOTAL have we had Masonic education. In any sense. This I would like to change. I know many brothers across Canada and the US who have contributed many hours putting together Masonic education pieces, which with including own finding, could provide the lodge with education for a few years. (Many of these brothers are on this site!)
3. Actively seek out local charities and other ways to sponsor local groups or events. The GL has all the charities it donates to and we do as well at the lodge, but its always to big charities. Brother Bowden had mention on another thread about sponsoring little league teams. I think this is something crucial to the lodge. Getting the lodge in involved at the local level can only result in good things. Little leagues are just one example.
This what I've been thinking about so far. I have a few years until I have to really start buckling down. But please keep up the suggestions! Please!