Bylaws?

[Beathard]

As part of the obligation we are supposed to follow the Bylaws of the organization as far as they come to our knowledge. I was thinking about that during a recent degree. I am a member of 4 lodges. I have been an active member for 21 years. I have only seen one set of Bylaws, and that was only due to the LIFE program. I guess that means I don't have to follow the Bylaws in three of my lodges? Do any lodges out there give the Bylaws to the candidates when passed or raised? I think it would make sense...

 

[Brent Heilman]

I agree that it would make sense to do that.

 

[tom268]

I'm not quite sure, if we talk about the same, when we talk about by-laws. Here, they mean a special set of rules, in addition to GL regulations, that govern the internal administration, organization and/or duties in a single lodge. They are given by the general meeting = all members of a lodge, and they should be given to a member at his initiation.

 

[Beathard]

Yes, that is what I am talking about.

 

[Ashlar]

We , here in my lodge in Ky , give a book of our lodge by-laws to all new Master Masons and we expect them to read them . I find it odd , no offense , that a lodge would not give their members their own set of by-laws . How do they expect them to follow the rules if they do not have access to said rules ?

 

[Tony Siciliano]

In my lodge in NC, all newly raised Master Masons receive a copy of the by-laws.

 

[Michaelstedman81]

This totally does make sense. I had the same question when I was first raised, but never did ask because of other circumstances. As a volunteer firefighter, each department that I was with would give a copy of the by-laws for the organization as well as a copy of the SOP's and SOG's. I guess I kind of figured that the by-laws were just in some book that the lodge Secretary had at his desk that you could ask to reference at any time.

So far, the only Brothers to say that they recieved a copy of the by-laws got them from a lodge that was not in Texas. Is this just a Texas thing, or are there any fellow Texans out there that have gotten them from their lodge?

 

[Benton]

No copy of bylaws in my hands. Frankly, ashamed to say that I'm not even sure that we have bylaws. If not, we seem to be functioning just fine without.

 

[relapse98]

I got a copy of the bylaws and a copy of the lodge roster at my raising.