If you are renting your Lodge space from another Lodge, and were interested in creating some sort of fund that would go towards building your own lodge building; how would you go about it? Do any Brothers have experience with this, and were you successful?
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My first question is
why ?
(Like Bro Glen).
Are you being driven by geography ? Would be better for your lodge to meet in a different location ?
If not, then are the current owners not maintaining the building ? Is it falling apart ?
If all "no", then why would you split resources ? (that's
not a rhetorical question).
If it is maintenance, and if the building is structurally sound and has a lot of longevity left, the goal might (should) be to renovate not buy (and build), unless it is current location gives poor amenity you improve elsewhere for a cost (and value) you can bear.
If the current owners won't renovate and you don't have rights... just paint the place or spend some money on it as a last resort (other users will notice and you can promote the idea of co-ownership). The tension between "owner lodge" and "tenant lodge" is often massive. Find a way to remove it.. (and the first step is not to start with that but a collegial approach to develop a plan/vision as if already a co-owner and finalize that at the end of the plan/vision formulation by getting official rights in how the building is run and to ensure it cannot be sold from underneath you in the coming years..)
Noting your "ownership" comment - I think we need to take the view we don't "own" anything.. Freemasons who own buildings are custodians working to hand-on what we inherited to future generations. You inherited use of a lodge room (for paid rent I assume which is a fraction of ownership cost). If you have lots of money, could it not be better used improving what you have ? Don't think of it as "rent", think of it as your contribution...
If it is an issue of control, well, you only own what you can protect, and if you split resources will you be able to better protect the building you are in ?
I am a big big fan of protecting old buildings. I manage two and have helped a lot of others. (In COVID-19, the cash reserves both had "in case the roof blows off" etc etc etc suddenly seem like the best idea ever. I had to convince people to build that cash reserve, after essential repairs and by delaying the "nice to haves".)
Respectfully, it looks like you've had a thought bubble...
But that's good, because you can ask yourself why you had it, what is important and on what standards do you judge that... and a great question is
"What will leave your Grandson if he chooses to become a Freemason and how can that legacy be as sustainable as possible?"
The first answer of what you should be your warrant (and operating and healthy lodge and ultimately that will be around culture, not a building).
But one thing I know.. a lodge should never run a building in its lodge meetings. A separate legal entity should (or at least separate committee) and building matters should not enter the lodge room. That's for Freemasonry.
As I said, you only own what you can protect and cash is king, and the only way you keep in the cash is a sustainable plan over decades and decades..
To try to turn you building into an asset not a liability.
That's they key.
I took over managing two "albatrosses" just months from cash insolvency some years ago. They will not trade for 7 to 10 months through COVID-19. They will still have more than a 2 years expenses in the bank after COVID. It can be done.
But the first question is what is the goal and why ?
For us, it was keep our building and turn it from a "albatross" "millstone" liability and all the other words you hear about buildings to an asset. And that asset is not just about it's value or income, it is about it's utility to the lodges that meet there, because the utility now and beyond to the lodges is the whole point of owning a Masonic Building. There is no other.
And sorry if we did not answer your actual question.
The answer is bequests, grants, sponsorships, JVs, donations, indentures, debentures, mortgages, shares, fundraising and investments. All used within a sustainable business plan with clear agreed goals.
Keep us posted.
