Money

In an earlier post, I stated that the primary goals of our organization are character development and leadership training: the former usually leading to the latter. In the pursuit of these goals: bills have to be paid and necessary expenses have to be covered.

The challenge of the 21st century freemason is how do you keep up? In the earlier part of the 20th century, membership was up so was the money. More importantly, for some of our organizations, they were functioning as endowment companies (some still do it now to a smaller scale) so there was an abundance of members in it for the mercenary purpose of life insurance and post-funeral care of their families. The buildings were grand and grotesque and the flashiness was out of this world with public parades and church visitations almost constantly been an ever mentioned activity.

But it's 2014, lodges are selling their old buildings, some toning down on the jewelry because the old ones are "antique" and rusty and the new ones are just too expensive. Some grand lodges can't even afford to pay out all the members on its roster who are currently in endowment plans. There's an urgent need for money and our lodges are using rustic methods to solve modern problems.

You will always hear about the car wash, the pancake breakfast, the fish fry etc. Often you will hear about lodges hosting parties or some kind of events to pay their bills. I think this is a shame. Why are we members of an organization that we can't pay our own bills? Why do we resort to asking a community or a group of people who often times are confused as to who we are or what we do? The financial problems we are facing are new and we need to adapt. So how do we adapt?

1) Streamline expenses and bills. My mother always taught me to sew my coat according to my size, sometimes make it a little smaller. Some of us have lodges that are huge, but only have about 30 people on our roster. Some of our lodges have activities every other month coming out of our pockets.

We need to do an audit and assessment of where our money is going to and how to manage it effectively. What is the most cost-effective way to allow for masonic education and encourage the spirit of our fraternity without having to resort to desperate tactics as begging the community for alms?

 2) Increase membership fees. Yes, I said it. We can not be paying the same amount that our fathers paid and expect the rate of inflation not to catch up with us. The bills need to be paid and it is already a hassle for worshipful masters and secretaries to chase around people to pay the flimsy dues our lodges ask for. So is it the amount that is the problem or the people? Often it's the latter, they can afford to throw money on other wasteful things. This is a great way of separating the chaff from the grain. After all, outside the western world, freemasonry still remains the association of the economic middle-class and above. However, my addendum to this is to make it reasonable. The fees can't be too high or too timely that good brothers don't feel a huge weight on their wallets. I can not see why masons shouldn't pay $300/year or less on dues.

However, I truly do believe that this should be done on a lodge by lodge basis after streamlining expenses and bills. This will also mean that our lodges, as a service, have to be worth what we are paying for. Why bother paying such an amount of money to an organization we are not getting anything from?