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to handle a candidate? It is a privilege, my brothers,
and we all know it. In the deepest parts of our souls,
we all know that, but bring that attitude to your lodge.
Concentrate on making a better lodge through the
attitude for you and each and every member. The
gentleman, who spoke to us this morning, had it right.
He has it exactly right, it’s about positive attitude,
it’s about what we do. I went to a lodge one time in
California and the flag was brought in and presented
at every lodge meeting. They didn’t just sit up in
front and say, join me in the Pledge of Allegiance,
they brought it in. They had three brother bring in
the flag, one was a WWII vet, one was a Korean vet,
one was a Vietnam vet, and all brother Masons. I’ll
tell you what, if you tried to take that job away from
any one of those three veteran, you would have seen
WWIII, because they were proud that they presented
the flag in their lodge. Find a niche for brothers.
That brings us to our next letter. ‘I’ involve, involve,
involve. Broaden your base. I hear everybody say that
we have to streamline, we’ve got to sharpen the pencil,
we’ve got to sharpen the sword. Forget it. We are in a
volunteer organization, the way you make them work
is you involve men doing things. I’ll prove it to you.
Go to any school music program, in any small town
in Wisconsin and you can’t find a parking space. Why,
because every kid in that school is doing something
in that program. I was one of those kids. I have no
musical ability at all. Do you know what they did with
me? They gave me the triangle and they pointed at
me when they wanted me to hit it. So, guess what?
My grandparents came, my parents came, the uncles
came, and the aunts came to watch me go ‘ping’. That
was my big moment and it’s that way for every parent
in the audience. What do you think they would have
as a turnout if they only let the kids that could sing
real good sing? You would be able to hold a jamboree
in the parking lot, because there would be all kinds of
room. Involve, make committees, create committees
and get them to report. Don’t just let the head of the
committee report every time. Gentlemen, we whip a
pulling horse, we are guilty of it. We find somebody
who will work in a lodge and we keep loading that guy
down until he finally falls over dead or he says the heck being the Grand Orator because it forces me to learn
with this or his wife says the heck with this. We do it
again and again and again. Quit whipping a pulling
horse, spread the wealth, get more people involved.
Take your pulling horses and get them out there to
help give away work. Another thing you can do is build
a membership committee. If you have three members
on the membership committee, have each one reports
at a different time, each lodge meeting or every second
lodge meeting. Why, because they have to be there.
How many people do we bring into our lodge, we raise
them as Masons and we never see them again? That’s
because we aren’t trying. Do you have a transportation
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committee? Why didn’t Bob get to the last meeting,
because nobody picked him up. Okay, transportation
committee, start marrying rides up, especially at today’s
gas prices, that can’t hurt. I bet if I married rides up
to go to lodge; 1. I’d improve the attendance at lodge,
2. I’d save the brothers money. Think about things
creatively. Involve more Masons. These are good men.”
The third thing is membership. Membership doesn’t
cure everything, but I wouldn’t mind trying it. And it
isn’t that hard. I asked Brian McQuilkin from Valley
Lodge #60, ‘What’s the secret?’ He looked me right
in the eye and said, ‘It’s simple, new blood begets new
blood.’ New members bring you new members. Valley
Lodge is going through the Monroe County Sheriff ’s
Department like a dose of salt through a widow
woman. Every time you look there is another detective
coming through the lodge. That leads to EMTs, guys
in the fire department, and the city employees that
don’t want tickets. Really, new members beget new
members, one gives you the next. Our new Grand
Master says aim high, be all you can be. Aim, attitude,
involvement, and membership will solve a whole
bunch of problems and you will have more fun going
to lodge. It’s always fun being part of a winning
organization. Next year when we come here to Grand
Lodge they are going to have to figure out how to get
people to sit up there, if we do it right because those
new members participate, they get involved, they do
things. We have centers of excellence that show it.
We have centers of excellence in other areas, not just
membership, but I am saying to you that we need to
find the centers of excellence. I challenge the District
Deputies to find those centers in their districts and
share those experiences. Bring those Masters from
those lodges that have centers where they do great
ritual, where they have great membership, where they
have great openings, closings, committees, or activities,
whatever it is, bring them. Davey White, you belong
to a lodge that does great on visitation, share that, get
that out so other lodges can find out the magic that
can bring. It pulls brothers together, they get in a car
together and ride together. My brothers, aim high.”
I will share one final story with you. I have loved
new things, to study and do that sort of thing. I enjoy
learning, I just love to learn. I took on a new project.
My wife and I just bought a house. We decided that
we could renovate this house and then put it back on
the market. Big mistake. It is a one hundred-year-old
farm house. Thank goodness that I was in DeMolay as
a young man because a friend of mine from DeMolay,
whom I kept in contact with, does historic renovations
of homes. He takes old homes like mines and makes
them original again. My friend said I am not doing
anything for a couple of months, why don’t I come up