Bloke
Premium Member
Funny you would say so, Brother. It's so true.
Told him the exact same thing recently. I rarely check the lodge's email account. My preferences are personal email accts. My reasons are to control the quality of inquiries and volume i choose to deal with sometimes. Lots of cranks & kooks out there. The lodge's email attracts all.
Android OS Nougat 7.0
It amazes me how little crazy email I get to my lodge accounts.... what does shock me is the number of spammers trying to sell me regalia.
My recommendation is not to have an email you only check once a month. I have one like that, but it actually says "inquiries from this contact form are rarely checked and it might be several months before we reply" then lists other ways to contacts us via other sites "for a more speedy response". By chance I checked it yesterday and thought about removing it, it's only been used 3 times in 6 months to contact us (I'd easily get double that many external emails a day to my other masonic accounts). I will check my analytics to see if folk are using the links to other sites I control.
Not replying to a reasonable and sincere question is rude, especially if you've invited people to ask questions. Have you considered supplying an email and not checking it is similar ? Many visiting brothers I respond to say they've contacted other Lodges without a response and it creates a bad impression of those lodges and Freemasonry. If you're not going to check your email weekly, then I suggest you just refer people to GL.....
This is a bug bear of mine, so many potential bros spend months trying to contact lodges, if your not going to answer inquiries, please don't create the false impression you will reply by giving out an ignored email address. It your going to have a web presence, don't create a poor impression of local Freemasonry by not responding to people who use it to contact you.... if your not able to commit to replying, then simply refer people to others who will.