New Year’s Resolutions For Masonic Lodges?

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Bill Hosler, PM

For as long as I can remember people have looked at the beginning of a new year as a time to” Turn over a new leaf”, a chance to start anew.  Losing weight, quitting a bad habit, or trying to better themselves have always been popular resolutions on the new year. While many of these resolutions fall to the wayside by February, many people are able to make life-altering changes to themselves by sticking to their resolution and either prolong their life or give themselves a better quality of life. 

I know the thought of creating new year’s resolutions for a Masonic lodge at first blush, might seem to be a bit crazy. Under normal circumstances, the words ”lodge” and ”change” go together like ”ice cream” and ”mustard” but the events of this previous year may have possibly given us the ability to consider the possibilities. 

I’m sure each one of us was, if we were honest, we could think of some issues our lodge could resolve to change in the upcoming year. Just like a human could develop bad habits over its life or there are practices the lodge could adopt that would prolong its life. These issues could be anything from resolving to getting your membership to learn the ritual well enough to perform your own degree work instead of relying on outside degree teams to assist you or to clean and repair your building. As much as I can’t tell you what you should resolve to do for yourself in the next coming year in like manner only you and your Brethren know what your local lodge needs to resolve to work on. It might be worth a discussion. 

It won’t be easy and we all know there might be pushback among some members but it’s worth a try. If you get one thing corrected you are on your way to improving your lodge. Stay positive and don’t give up! We are in this for the long hall. Just like it may take a person several attempts to quit smoking when they finally do drop the habit it changes their life. The same thing applies to your lodge. Just keep trying. 

It may sound silly but I believe that if each lodge locally were to resolve to improve itself there would be no issues in Freemasonry. We all look to grand lodges to resolve our issues like they are some kind of lifestyle guru when actually we are the ones that hold the keys to our future. Individually we are the ones that affect change for ourselves and I feel it is the same for our lodges. Take advantage of the new year and make things happen! 

I wish you and your lodge members nothing but success and prosperity in the upcoming year.  

~BH

WB Bill Hosler was made a Master Mason in 2002 in Three Rivers Lodge #733 in Indiana. He served as Worshipful Master in 2007 and became a member of the internet committee for Indiana's Grand Lodge. Bill is currently a member of Roff Lodge No. 169 in Roff Oklahoma and Lebanon Lodge No. 837 in Frisco, Texas. Bill is also a member of the Valley of Fort Wayne Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite in Indiana. A typical active Freemason, Bill also served as the High Priest of Fort Wayne's Chapter of the York Rite No. 19 and was commander of the Fort Wayne Commandery No. 4 of the Knight Templar. During all this, he also served as the webmaster and magazine editor for the Mizpah Shrine in Fort Wayne Indiana.