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Do lodges REALLY need to have their own building?

vangoedenaam

Premium Member
My lodge doesnt own a building. We rent a small local churchbuilding where we setup our stuff to turn it into a lodge and clean up when were done.


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admarcus1

Registered User
When Lodges met in taverns, it wasn't like taverns or bars of today. Taverns would have meeting rooms that could be rented out for various purposes, much as hotels do today. This does not mean that I am suggesting that you have to have your meetings at a Four Seasons. A Holiday Inn Express or Hampton Inn may be more affordable for the average lodge. As a bonus, you wouldn't have to worry about clean-up, beyond taking the Lodge furniture and regalia with you when you leave.
 

Brother JC

Moderating Staff
Staff Member
When Lodges met in taverns, it wasn't like taverns or bars of today. Taverns would have meeting rooms that could be rented out for various purposes, much as hotels do today.
And restaurants, as well. How many of us have bemoaned the fare at a stated communication? It makes sense to me to have lodge in a private room, followed by an excellent meal. No dishes, no clean- up. Just an evening of Fellowship and Brotherhood.
 

Companion Joe

Premium Member
And restaurants, as well. How many of us have bemoaned the fare at a stated communication? It makes sense to me to have lodge in a private room, followed by an excellent meal. No dishes, no clean- up. Just an evening of Fellowship and Brotherhood.

This is the way our York Rite Association does it. We meet in the back room of a restaurant, and they even set up a special menu for us (one price, choose one meat, 2 veg, drink, bread). We eat, they take away the dishes, we meet.

As for the Lodge, our building has been long since paid for, so we aren't going anywhere.
 

Bill Lins

Moderating Staff
Staff Member
Why would adhering to our founding practices be considered a last resort? Grand lodge Masonry was founde din taverns.
Gee- and we were accused of "innovating"! The then GM stated that Texas had no tradition of "trunk" Lodges- a statement easily disproved by a quick reading of early Texas Masonic history.
 

Bill Lins

Moderating Staff
Staff Member
And restaurants, as well. How many of us have bemoaned the fare at a stated communication? It makes sense to me to have lodge in a private room, followed by an excellent meal. No dishes, no clean- up. Just an evening of Fellowship and Brotherhood.
It worked out very well for us.
 

Bill Lins

Moderating Staff
Staff Member
Just what we don't need. Some GM with zero idea of Masonic history and tradition messing with what works. (Sound track here has a raspberry sound).
Yup- he superseded one past GM's Decision and another's dispensation. If you have access to the book of GM's Decisions & Annotations, check out 2011-#11.
 

cacarter

Premium Member
To be blunt, the economic model we have operated under for the past hundred or so years no longer works for many, if not most, of our Lodges. The continually rising costs of insurance and utilities, along with declining membership, have made it so. If Lodges are to continue to own buildings, those buildings will have to pay for themselves by allowing the Lodges to rent them out, either to other Lodges or to outside groups. My parent Lodge, for four years, was allowed to use the "private party" facility of a local restaurant. We had our regalia and other necessities in a large wheeled toolbox, which our Treasurer kept at his house & brought to the facility for our meetings. It worked out well until a Grand Master decided he didn't like our operation and ordered us to either buy a building of our own or move into another Lodge's building.

Someone needs to remind that Grand Master of the 3rd section of the EA degree.


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Tony Uzzell

Registered User
Gurley Lodge in Waco hasn't owned its own building in decades. When I joined in 2004, we met in the Waco Scottish Rite Building. We moved a few years back into the Eastern Star's building close to downtown.

The only real problem I see with meeting in a building the Lodge doesn't own is that, when a Lodge decides to sponsor a DeMolay Chapter or Rainbow Assembly (or Job's Daughters Bethel), it must come to terms with a way of providing that group a place to meet. That can become expensive in itself if the organization is not self-sufficient, as many of the youth groups are, particularly during their formative periods.

Again, Gurley Lodge sponsors Waco DeMolay Chapter and we pay rent on their behalf as they are fairly newly-reestablished.

TU
 

Companion Joe

Premium Member
A couple of things ....
We have in writing that any Masonic body can use our building any time it needs, free of charge, as long as it doesn't fall on a night the Blue Lodge needs the building. Blue Lodge gets first dibs. Our building is used 2-3 nights a week. The way "payment" is covered is by helping with expenses. For example, we recently voted to install new lighting. We need 10 fixtures. The Blue Lodge bought 5. Each of the other bodies that meets there monthly bought one each.

We do not allow, for insurance purposes, any non-Masonic events in the building. So, for instance, a member could not rent the building for a family gathering.

Here is a question regarding multiple Lodges meeting in one building (not multiple bodies, but multiple Blue Lodges) ... why not just have one Lodge?
 

Brother JC

Moderating Staff
Staff Member
Here is a question regarding multiple Lodges meeting in one building (not multiple bodies, but multiple Blue Lodges) ... why not just have one Lodge?
I am a member of two lodges that meet in the same building. One has several hundred members, the other had less than fifty. They both have very different personalities and very different histories, neither of which should be lost. Talk of merging results in attitudes similar to the Lincoln County War...
 

Willys

Premium Member
A couple of things ....
We have in writing that any Masonic body can use our building any time it needs, free of charge, as long as it doesn't fall on a night the Blue Lodge needs the building. Blue Lodge gets first dibs. Our building is used 2-3 nights a week. The way "payment" is covered is by helping with expenses. For example, we recently voted to install new lighting. We need 10 fixtures. The Blue Lodge bought 5. Each of the other bodies that meets there monthly bought one each.

We do not allow, for insurance purposes, any non-Masonic events in the building. So, for instance, a member could not rent the building for a family gathering.

Here is a question regarding multiple Lodges meeting in one building (not multiple bodies, but multiple Blue Lodges) ... why not just have one Lodge?
In the case I have referenced, my Lodge was about 75 years old and had occupied its building for about half that time. The other Lodge meeting in the building was a new Lodge. Its general territory to be about ten or so miles to the north, near a rapidly developing area of the county. They needed time to raise funds for a building and completed that effort within about five years. Then moved.

A benefit - until lost - was that it increased the number of Brethren at hand for degree practice or conferral.
 

cemab4y

Premium Member
Here in WashDC metro area, you see 5-6 lodges occupying the same building. I visited Phoenix Lodge #17, in Moscow, Russia. They are just getting underway, so they meet in a conference room in a hotel. It will be some years, before they can afford a building of their own.
 

Bill Lins

Moderating Staff
Staff Member
Here in WashDC metro area, you see 5-6 lodges occupying the same building.
That works well in metropolitan areas. Out here in the sticks, Lodges are 15-30 miles apart, if not more. Coupled with the fact that many of our older Brethren are not able or willing to drive long distances at night, sharing buildings just isn't feasible in most cases.
 

Brother JC

Moderating Staff
Staff Member
That's a good point, Bill, but a single lodge still doesn't need to own a building. There's got to be somewhere, even in the sticks, that a lodge can use the one or two nights a month it needs it.
 

Bill Lins

Moderating Staff
Staff Member
That's a good point, Bill, but a single lodge still doesn't need to own a building. There's got to be somewhere, even in the sticks, that a lodge can use the one or two nights a month it needs it.
I agree. The point I was making was that, out here, it is not feasible for multiple Lodges to share a building.

If you'll go back to the beginning of this thread, you'll find my post about how my Lodge did exactly what you're proposing. It worked very well until a certain Grand Master decided he didn't like it & forced us to purchase a building of our own.
 

Warrior1256

Site Benefactor
Here in Louisville the Louisville-DeMolay Commandery owns its own building. It rents space to lodges for $80.00 a meeting. Four different lodges meet there including my mother lodge.
 
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