I need some advice, brethren, on how to keep the lodge members presence during meetings strong and well. Heres the situation:

My lodge, as recorded, have 300 plus active members but only a few attend every wednesdays. Mostly the offcers and probably 8 or less master masons and the new candidates which are around 6… I fear that without support from the mm’s these candidates will also tend to stop attending lodge after they get their mm degree. These are the few ideas i came up with to try and encourage the members in good standing to attend lodge once again

Support the new candidates, show them how masonry has changed their aspects of life.
Have a gathering outside the lodge, not just meet up on meeting days, promoting camaraderie and thus making a greater bond.
Have a section in the trestleboard dedicated to introducing new candidates, their expectations and reasons why they are looking forward to meeting the other members at lodge.
Have a building association meeting where we can tackle certain issues where we can get the wives to also look forward to attending stated meetings. If we need to upgrade entertainment systems, have more fun activities in the lodge, etc.

These are the ideas i came up with. Please do suggest anything that comes up in mind.

Fraternally,

Goose

I would suggest maybe starting at a site called Masonic renewal (I’ll see if I cannot dig up the URL and if you like PM me and I’ll send it along).
It lists many different programs for Lodges to implement for retention and attendance.

The fact is that each Lodge is unique, what works for one Lodge may not work for another.

My basic advice is to keep it fresh. Work on getting speakers to give talks, make sure there is at least 15-20 minutes of Masonic Education in each stated meeting. This can be fun and exciting.
I implemented a Masonic Jeopardy game that I put together on Power Point and bring in a screen and projector. We split the attening members into 2 or 3 teams and they play just like the TV show. I started doing this about 3 years ago and each year we do it more and more brothers show up on this particular night as they have fun and learn something.

The last go round it was suggested we have a district wide competition with this, with a trophy and all. This would encourage some of the more enthusiastic Brothers to read up on masonry on their own and bring home the prize.

In any case if a Lodge opens and goes through the motions and closes so they can get on with the knife and fork degree, then many will decide to stay home rather then come out for that.
I have also presented several short papers to the Lodge on Masonic history, ettiquite and even the Constitutions of my Grand Lodge. Engage the Brothers that do come and slowly the word will spread to the ones that so not and they may decide that they are missing something worthwile.

Lastly I have taken charge of the mentoring of new Masons in my Lodge. I want them to all have a good basis to start with and encourage them to find a way to be involved. if they are not readers like I am ther are other activities that can suggest or even run themselves.
The newest members are the fresh blood and many have great ideas, but are sometimes too timid to open up or speak up becasue they are so new. I try to make them undertand that they have as much to give the Craft as the Craft has to give them.

Sorry for rambling on but this is a particular point of interest to me.

Goosebrother2 - 18 July 2011 03:40 PM

Support the new candidates, show them how masonry has changed their aspects of life.
Have a gathering outside the lodge, not just meet up on meeting days, promoting camaraderie and thus making a greater bond.
Have a section in the trestleboard dedicated to introducing new candidates, their expectations and reasons why they are looking forward to meeting the other members at lodge.
Have a building association meeting where we can tackle certain issues where we can get the wives to also look forward to attending stated meetings. If we need to upgrade entertainment systems, have more fun activities in the lodge, etc.

Hey Goose.  These are good ideas.  Of course a lot of it depends on what kind of funds your lodge has, but there are also other circumstances to consider.  Is your lodge a dry lodge?  Are there rules about gatherings using lodge funds outside lodge?

I can suggest a few more things here.  First, when a new member is initiated, get him IMMEDIATELY involved in officer rehearsals.  Have the new guys learn ruffian parts.  Create persuivant officer positions and make the new guys officers (persuivant is very vague with very few responsibilities so it is all purpose).  We created a few of these, also added an official standard bearer officer position for our processions in and out of lodge.  By getting the new guys active early, they get to know the officers better, which will hasten the creation of friendships that might tighten the lodge bonds and keep the new guys around.

Also, is your dinner in the middle of lodge?  Try having dinner AFTER lodge and serve wine and beer.  Then it will feel more like a nice dinner that men will want to attend.  Talk to your caterer about bringing your dinners a little more upscale (I’m making sweeping assumptions now, so this might not apply).  Try dining with real plates and glassware.  Make each lodge night an event, not just a meeting.  If you need to raise dinner fees to meet this requirement, so be it.  They’ll gripe at first, but if the quality of the dinner goes up, men will pay for it.  Still have the lodge subsidize some of it if possible so they feel like they are getting a deal.

Have other events outside of lodge.  We’ve gone out for cigars and drinks, we’ve had get together’s on one of our Brother’s roof decks with scotch and pizza, we’ve gone to baseball games together….try some of that.  Also, try to incorporate your charity work into your social outings.  For example, find needy children in the area and take them to the Shrine Circus on a rented bus.  Buy each kid a cotton candy.  Have the brothers come and bring their families as well.

The idea is to make the lodge an environment where men don’t feel like they are just going to do the work of the lodge, but rather a place where the gather with friends.  Changing this attitude is paramount to your success.  Every month my dinner list is between 50 and 80 men.  Of those, probably 45 are brothers, and the rest are guests (either men thinking of joining, or visiting bretheren from other lodges).  We have this many guests because we’ve made our lodge nights into events.  We get creative with dinner.  We have lectures and live entertainment.  We also give each brother a carnation for his lapel on his masonic birthday.  This is only a small token, but brothers appreciate the recognition.

Above all, your lodge needs to feel like a fraternity, not a business.  If you can bring back that feeling, you’ll achieve the level of amity and motivation that will keep your lodge alive.

Goosebrother2 - 18 July 2011 03:40 PM

My lodge, as recorded, have 300 plus active members but only a few attend every wednesdays.

If you are saying that your lodge meets every Wednesday, may not this be a big part of the problem?  My experience of nearly 50 years is that only a very large lodge (1000 or so) needs to meet that often. Over-frequent meetings causes members to stay at home most of the time. Most lodges these days meet twice a month at most, many only once a month. This gives the members an incentive to come out, as they miss out on the lodge experience if they don’t.

In any case, there have been a large number of good suggestions offered here. Try some of them. You have nothing to lose but some of the money in the bank, and that won’t do the lodge any good if it has to close for lack of members attending.

Wow, I guess I missed that part.  Yeah….if your lodge meets every week….stop that.  Guys burn out from it.

Thanks for the suggestions, my brothers. Sorry for the late reply.  So far, everything seems to be getting better with time. We do get the new candidates involved in or out of the lodge, meet up on the weekends to do some bbq (great weather these past few weeks). We also started to teach other brothers how to play golf. Fellowship, fellowship and more fellowship. A few of our brothers started to visit other lodges around the area which is a great idea because this starts an interaction between our lodge and other lodges and in return, we will try to keep that newly lit light (for us newly raised) burning.