How to Solve the Membership Problem

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Robert H. Johnson, PM

Not too long ago, I published the partial results of a few surveys I completed about certain topics within Freemasonry. The first was when I tried to ascertain if the AASR (Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite) brothers knew what the "Royal Secret" was. You can read those results HERE. The second time around I though perhaps I would ask what people thought Freemasonry is in relation to the question I proposed. Find those results HERE. And the last time I ran it, I tried to ascertain just what would make our fraternity better. So, I created the "Let's Make Freemasonry Better" survey. Those results have never been released...until NOW.

Shortly after I released some data, I was contacted by Bro. Greg Stewart, Masonic author, Blogger etc. He talked to me about a survey he ran back in the 1990s. I was amazed at the results which he shared with me. Now, another survey is underway. Brother Jon Ruark, PM is undergoing the most comprehensive data analysis that has ever been done. While many of the questions he asks are similar to what we have asked before, it's how you're able to filter those results when it's complete that matters. This can give us some really intriguing views into what our strengths, weaknesses are and any other trends that may be present. Please take the time to watch the video presentation Bro. Ruark made at the Pennsylvania Academy of Masonic Knowledge. Skip to the 17 minute mark, as annotated in the video to get right to the presentation.

Now, I will invite you to take the new survey, and again it is imperative that you do. Remember, you can skip questions but honesty will give us answers. Follow the link below and then, read on.

www.tinyurl.com/masonicsurvey

So, what now? I am finally ready to release all my data. For the first time ever...take a look at the charted data below and enjoy. Over 1000 masons from Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets were surveyed.

Member Retention: Keeping Them Coming Instead Of Going

by Midnight Freemasons Contributor

Todd E. Creason, 33°

So lets say I own a business that sells office supplies, and I begin losing customers.  I would immediately realize there's a problem.  Something changed and I need to figure out what that is.  If I'm a smart business owner, I'm not going to spend a bunch of money in advertising to try to attract new customers until I figure out why I can't hang onto my old customers . . . right?  It's probably one of two things--I'm doing something wrong, or somebody else is doing something better than I am.

So why do Masonic Lodges have such a difficult time understanding that? 

I was at a meeting a couple weeks ago, and there was a discussion about membership retention.  Some of the comments went as follows:  Our old members aren't active.  We get new members, and they come for a few meetings and then we never see them again.  The Shrine and the Scottish Rite are poaching our members.

I didn't say it, but it's obvious what the problem is.  It's the Lodge!  If your old members aren't coming, it's because they aren't getting anything out of it--or at least enough to keep them coming back.  Same with your new members.  And if appendant bodies are able to get your members involved in their organization, it's because they are getting something there they aren't getting from the Lodge. 

And how do lodges typically counter this problem with retention.  In my opinion--in the wrong way.  They work to recruit MORE MEMBERS without ever considering why they can't keep the members they already have--and the cycle repeats. 

If you want your Lodge to thrive, there's no reason to add one single new member until you figure out why you can't keep the ones you have.  Doesn't that make sense?  Take a break.  Talk about it.  Talk to a few of those guys that aren't coming anymore.  Look at your meetings--are they boring?  Do your active members look forward to the meetings or do they suffer through them?  Do you have education at your meetings or invite speakers to come and talk?  Do you have social events at your Lodge? 

There are all kinds of things you can do to identify the problem your Lodge is having once you recognize the fact that maybe it's not your members, or those pesky appendant bodies--it might just be your Lodge.  I think if you take the time to look into the issue, you're going to find that the problem isn't identifying the problems, it's in finding amongst your membership a willingness to change. 

Talk about it.  Come up with a plan.  Start small.  Try a few things.  See what works, and what doesn't work.  And share those successes with other Lodges--as often as this topic comes up, you're not alone.

~TEC

Todd E. Creason, 33°, FMLR is the Founder of the Midnight Freemasons blog and is a regular contributor.  He is the author of several books and novels, including the Famous American Freemasons series. He is the author of the From Labor to Refreshment blog.  He is a Past Master of Ogden Lodge No. 754 (IL), and currently serves as the Secretary, and is also a member of Homer Lodge No. 199 where he serves as Senior Warden.  He is a member the Scottish Rite Valley of Danville, the York Rite Bodies of Champaign/Urbana (IL), the Ansar Shrine (IL), Eastern Illinois Council No. 356 Allied Masonic Degrees, Charter President of the Illini High Twelve in Champaign-Urbana (IL), and a Fellow of the Missouri Lodge of Research.  He is a charter member of a new Illinois Royal Arch Chapter, Admiration Chapter U.D.  He was named the 2014 Illinois Secretary of the Year Award by the Illinois Masonic Secretaries Association.  You can contact him at: webmaster@toddcreason.org

That's Not the Way It's Done

by Midnight Freemason Guest Contributor

Bro. Guidon Sobecki

My career as a Masonic officer began like many others. I was a new member who had been to a few meetings since my third degree, and the Steward’s chair was empty. I was asked if I could sit in so we could have a full slate for opening, and I walked over figuring it could be fun to hold a staff and wear a jewel for the evening. Ten minutes later, I was jolted by someone yelling to “un-socket your rod.” Bewildered, I pulled the staff out of its base next to my chair and held it. As we stood up to give the sign, the ritual was halted as someone told me I was passing the staff to my other hand the wrong way. As we sat down for the business meeting and members brought out their phones and planners, I went to put my rod away, and was instantly told to un-socket it again until the Master gave permission. The Master overheard this and casually said we could put the rods away. But first, I had to uncross my legs and keep them planted firmly on the floor at all times. I looked around the room at the sideliners who were comfortably leaning back in their pews with their legs crossed. “So this was what it feels like to be an officer,” I thought. 

Six months later, we were conferring a degree, and they needed me to take the Steward’s chair that night. A Brother from another lodge walked up behind me, grabbed my arm and forcibly walked me through the Steward’s floor work without a word of introduction of explanation. I didn’t know who he was, and still don’t, but I remember his hand leaving a mark on my arm. As I circled the lodge room behind the blindfolded candidate, voices would randomly sound off from the sidelines that my pace was off, I was ahead or behind, or that someone else was similarly out-of-spec. The candidate, hoodwinked and undergoing a transition into our ancient fraternity, heard every word of their commentary tossed in between the prayers and sacred obligations.  After the last gavel sounded, I was told not to leave until I had been given a refresher on the proper way to turn ninety degrees. 

One year later, I was at a district ritual class. The sidelines were packed with members from several lodges, gathered to review the latest ritual instructions from the experts. I was twenty-two at the time; the next youngest Brother in attendance was in his sixties. As the instructors filled the chairs, someone volunteered me for a position. The usual voices were now amplified and multiplied because there wasn’t a candidate to distract them. After completing my segment, someone in the corner seated in the corner raised his hand to tell the instructor that I should be run through the section one more time for practice. The instructor obliged, and it all happened all over again. At the coffee and donut session afterwards, I sat alone for a while and left without anyone noticing. 

Not long ago, I served as Junior Deacon for a First Degree. Someone whose name I didn’t know, sitting by the door in jeans, crossed his arms and announced that I wasn’t having the candidate knock on the door at the right moment. Later, as the newly initiated Brother was handed off to me for the grand exit, the same Brother near the door yelled from behind us that I had to switch my rod to the other hand.   I ascended the East to give the last lecture of the evening. At various points of my memorized speech, I could hear the casual conversations from the sidelines about the temple board meeting and the restaurant on First Street that just closed. It took me an hour and a half to get home, which was a relief compared to the two hours it took to drive from my office to the lodge. 

The other day, I was enjoying a rare night off. My desk was cluttered with my blue ritual book with the pages wedged open to a lecture another lodge asked for help with, a red York Rite script because I had a feeling someone would cancel and I’d need to change parts, and printed copies of a Scottish Rite degree and the Shriner initiation lectures. As I pushed my dinner plate aside and picked up the blue ritual book with the bent corners, I found myself skimming the degree for what seemed like the thousandth time, double-checking the second half of the sentence in paragraph six just in case I’ve been saying  “therefore” to myself instead of “hence.” It matters. No one has ever told me why, but it apparently does. 

That first night in the chair being told to un-socket my rod, I suspected that it was all a part of the journey. Hidden amongst all these awkward dance classes was a true reflection of something grander than all of us. There would be a time when it wasn’t just casual rehearsal, and perfect ritual would truly make an impact. And on that day, when I turned ninety degrees just right, an old past master would summon me to a candlelit room and tell me the true power behind all this “wax on, wax off” hazing. I would finally be included in understanding these ancient mysteries and could someday pass them on to those who would seek them after me.  As time went on, I realized that this would never happen. If the officers all truly achieved ritual perfection within our year, the sidelines would be silent, and the candidate would only hear the ritual and his own thoughts. That is, there would be silence until an inexperienced Brother would take a chair, and the uninvited chatter and correction would start all over again. 

I have been duly taught that these words and movements, which have been passed down verbatim for generations, must be preserved in their true form at all costs. However, I don’t know who wrote them, what inspired them, or what some of these words even mean. Neither do many of those Brothers on the sidelines watching out for infractions. But I do know when to socket my rod during meetings, even though some jurisdictions have no rod instructions, and some don’t even use rods at all. I can draw out the Steward’s movements with enough detail to put John Madden to shame, but I didn’t know what the word Steward meant until Jon Snow became one on ‘Game of Thrones’ and I looked it up. I’ve asked the ones correcting me what these words mean and how all this started. At best, I’ve been told that they do ritual, not education. At worst, I’ve been told to just read it again. It’s all right there in my dog-eared blue book. 

I first walked into the lodge looking for reflection, tradition, and moral contemplation. I keep going back to that lodge because I know that if I don’t sit in that chair and walk the gauntlet of ritual corrections, there may not be anyone else willing to sit in that chair when it’s time to perform our duties. While I was being taught how to walk and talk, new members came and went like phases of the moon, and the officers and those on the sidelines remained in their chairs. I’ve slowly become a better ritualist and hopefully a better Mason over these last few years, but the lodge room seemed to grow emptier and emptier. 

I don’t know much about this fraternity. I’m often told I know even less about ritual. But I may just have an idea why the new members never came back, and why it so often seems that no one wants to walk up and sit in those chairs. 

~GS

Guidon Sobecki is a Master Mason out of DeKalb Lodge #144 in DeKalb, IL. He is also a member of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Valley of Chicago, NMJ and is also the current King of Keystone Chapter #281 of the York Rite.