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Figure 15. Candidates Rejected for membership 1866-2016.
Chart 15, above shows the number of petitioners who were rejected. This chart is interesting because it
shows the majority of rejections in the fi rst ninety years of this Grand Lodge, the high point in 1929 with 499
rejections. We still had a hand full of rejections over the last several years.
Brother Michael Harding may have said it best with:
"To date, no one at the local, state or national level has presented any real solutions, ideas or plans to resolve
the issue or at least curb the tide of the accelerating membership decline. The few solutions that have been
proposed tend to only deal with current membership retention rather than a solution or even recognition and
acceptance of the problem."

Lodges Consolidated, Charter Surrendered or Charter Revoked 1866-2018

Figure 16. Lodges Consolidated, Charter Surrendered or Charter Revoked 1866-2018
Most of the charts presented deal with individual membership, Lodge membership or the total membership
of the Grand Lodge of Montana. Chart 15, above depicts the number of Lodges that have been consolidated
or whose Charter was surrendered or revoked. Each year we see more Lodges that must face closing or
consolidating due to lack of activity, lack of members, or lack of funds to conduct any business. For some
Lodge, the surrender of their Charter rather than consolidation is often the only option left to a lodge with
only a handful of active members. Closing properly, resolving lodge debts, and ensuring that lodge property
is properly sent on to Grand Lodge prevents our history and artifacts from winding up on eBay for sale to the
highest bidder or in a private collection somewhere. Even worse members for our Masonic bodies state they
cant aff ord the building overhead but will keep going until the building is taken and sold for back taxes. Chart
16, above, show that the majority of Lodges in these categories occurred since about 1960 with the greatest
number of them occurring 1998.
Page 14 Montana Freemason January 2019