It has been many years in discussion. The fact of the matter is we have let our building fall into a state of disrepair that we can no longer keep up with the maintenance costs. Our membership is small and the amount of available funds to raise will be difficult. But as a fraternity with a main purpose of serving its community we should not be trying to raise funds to furnish our buildings, but rather we should be raising funds for the sole purpose of benefit to our community.
So, the discussions have begun and we had our first reading of the motion to allow us to sell the building. Communications have gone out to the membership, and we are asking that ALL reply before our Stated Meeting in July with their wishes towards the vote. But the response thus far has been minimal, which leads me to believe that either the members are for the sale or just no longer wish to keep talking and want something if anything done soon.
What is our goal as Freemasons? First and foremost is to “Make Masons”. It is in our charter as one of our responsibilities. A fraternity cannot continue through the ages if we don’t let new members join. But part of this making Masons, is that we need to be providing value to our members and helping them become better Men, husbands, fathers and members of the community. The stone guilds were setup to teach their members, and that is what we should be doing.
However, we seem to have been lately spending far too much time worrying about expenses and arguing about what we should do about the building. When we really should be spending quality time together discussing how best we can help our community and to increase our knowledge in “Things”.
The reality of our situation, we just don’t have the resources with our current membership and funds to maintain the building any longer. We need to think about conserving our resources to put us on a better footing to find a new place to stay. However, rents in the local area are sky rocketing due to the increased development from the nearby major metropolitan city. Property owners on the main strip know that the village is growing quickly and pressures from development mean they can easily get the going rate for the higher rents.
We just need a place to meet under dispensation from the Grand Lodge for a short period of time until we can better organize our resources. We can better focus our energies in good works in the community, getting our name out in the public and enticing new members to join. We need to work on rebuilding and planning for the future.
But the main concern of our current members is staying active in the community. Granted, we have been very remiss in doing our works and I think it is because we feel drained from the financial discussions. So what can we do to stay local, but yet hold our meetings at another lodge building?
For one, we really need to keep up with our once a month breakfast that we assist with in the local community church organization. That event actually spawned from the weekly event that was held at the lodge, until our kitchen really was not suitable for dinning. I am proud to say that one of our members upheld the tradition by working with the local church community to find a new home for the free breakfast. It is our duty as a lodge to help keep that project going.
At least once per month, we should be doing something visible in the community. Whether it be a neighborhood cleanup, helping the elderly with yard work or attending village events providing support for parking, information or general cleanup. And part of these events, we should be all wearing the same polos or t-shirts with the Lodge name on them.
We need more advertising about who we are in the community. Maybe it could be possible that we support the local high school arts events and take ads in the event programs that people receive. Maybe we can assist in parking at the events or providing information and guidance to seating or shuttle people in a golf cart that have to park further away. All at no charge of course, because we should be doing this for the community, not for our personal gain.
After all is done with this sale, I am confident that our Lodge can stay active and a large part of the community. Maybe even more-so than before. But if we want to continue to be a Lodge dedicated to the village where we were once housed, we will definitely need to stay active in that community. For if we falter, we will likely fold or never return, and this would be a very sad day for Masonry and the community we serve.