Page 16 - MFM August 2015 BCD X rev b

Montana Freemason August 2015 Volume 91 Number 2

as parks, charity for the needy, etc - can get us so and so says, based on no statistics whatsoever,
the “extra” numbers: those extra guys above what and I believe it.
they reasonably expect in a given community
setting. I’m excited to go to lodge, I look forward Closing
to spending time with those guys outside of a In closing, if you nished reading this,
tyled setting, and the community actually knows congratulations, you’re a hearty soul! It is quite
we are there: that brings in more petitions. long, aims to dismantle several pre-existing
beliefs, and only o ers one possible suggestion
Be Positive as a solution. However, my hope is that Masons
ere are some things which lead to feeling and their families (who sometimes do read our
“worse o ” as a lodge, one that can easily be magazines - Hi there, you!) will start asking better
addressed: lodge halls. Many of our lodge rooms questions when we discuss “more members” and
were built when a town was booming and had the “more money” - because it’s my opinion that there
expectation that the community was going to be are better, more critical questions that can be
larger than it ended up, and that people would asked, and we should be better informed.
continue “joining” things in the way that they had Finally, let me express that being in a large
been so doing. A lodge room built for 50 or 100 population center is not a vaccination against
people looks empty and cavernous when there are membership loss or poor nances, and being in a
6 men in chairs. smaller community does not mean that a lodge is
If you have a regular group of 6 people showing up already on the “hot seat.” However, we need to be
to your meeting, and even though 1 or 2 members honest - about our expectations and begin with a
pass away in 5 years time, if you’re raising a new new baseline.
Master Mason or two during that time, you’re on In the table attached, imagine 10-20% of that
your way to maintaining what you have. What’s membership showing up. It takes 5 per Code to
wrong with that? Maybe consider remodelling open. Is this lodge likely to be sustainable? Also,
your room and cutting out some space to give members = dues = $. Is this lodge stable? Also,
it a more “homey” atmosphere. Its something to three lodges (Virginia City #1, Boulder-Basin #41,
consider. Having the Worshipful Master holler Ottawa #51) are bolstered by plural memberships
across a giant lodge hall to the other couple of and the members shown may be skewed because
guys in the room can come o as futile and sad to of this in their cases.
new guys at times.

The New Guys
On the subject of new guys, please put to bed,
forever, the phrase “What young men want.”
When a middle aged man sees himself as young,
where is he coming from? If a Grand Lodge o cer
bothers to ask (rather than tell) what a young guy
wants, he still parses it through his own lter. His
take away from their feedback might still not
re ect what the young man had said. Put this in
perspective: By example, I am 38 years old. Let’s
say I had a kid at 20: he is now 18 years old - the
same age you can join Freemasonry at in Montana.
I am o en the youngest Mason in a room, though
not always, and many guys think of me as the
“young guy” or “kid.” However, to the young guy;
38 doesn’t make me the “young guy” to an 18 year
old. Now, what are men in their 50’s and 60’s doing
talking about “what young men want” for? I don’t
get it. It’s been a pet peeve of mine since before I
joined, reading this and hearing it. Its usually
based on anecdotal evidence anyway: this is what

Page 16