Gentlemen,
    I have taken the suggestion of members here and tried to “settle” a little.  I am waiting on some type of call one way or another from the lodge. I assume they would notify a petitioner in either case, acceptance or rejection.  I understand the wheels move slowly as people have other lives and this is a voluntary organization.  I understand most lodges meet only monthly.  My particular lodge has not met since I submitted my petition.  My concern is this:  I have dropped a few emails asking if there was any more I needed to provide for information.  I went as far as asking if they needed help with any thing on a volunteer basis.  I have not recieved any response.  Is it that I am being a bit over the top, or just a case of the lodge not checking emails that often.  I can take suggestion very well and if it is to stop being a pest, so be it!  Any opinion?  Thanks, JC

Hi john,

That is a tough one to answer depending as it does on the personalities and dispositions of the secretary of the Lodge you petitioned and the character of the Lodge as a whole. On the one hand you want to appear enthusiastic but on the other you want to avoid becoming a nuisance. The safest bet would be to trust that, now since the secretary has received your petition, he knows what to do with it. Your petition will need to be read out in Lodge at the next scheduled meeting. After that the investigating committee will form to review your application. Nothing will happen then until they present their findings in a stated meeting. After that if all is positive you will need to be balloted on, again in a stated meeting. all of this depends on peoples schedules and on how swiftly your references responded if you needed to provide any. You are looking at a two or three month process at the very least. You can expect not to hear anything official from the Lodge until the investigating committee is ready for you. I found all the Masons I met to be very approachable and they provided me with their personal contact information which I took as an invitation to use it…..within reason. I called the secretary on the day after my petition was due to be read to find out if everything went ok…and then again after the Lodge had ballotted. If I were in your spot I would make contact with the Lodge sparingly…less so if they did not give you any personal contact info but only the Lodge telephone number and email address. Again this is just my opinion and what I can contribute based on my own experience.

I think the advice you’ve been given is sound. I also know that once I had stuck the stamp on my petition and mailed it to the Lodge secretary, I began chewing my nails and watching the calendar as each day went by. As has been said, Lodges move slowly. Remember that many of the men who you may be joining in that Lodge have full time jobs, may be retired and travel, etc. I guess if I were to put it bluntly, I would just say “they have your petition, now wait.” I was invited to go to one Lodge event while my petition was pending and that was just because it happened to be during the time frame and also it was a more open event at which wives and family members would be in attendance.

Patience is going to be a constant virtue in dealing with Freemasonry. We live in the 21st century and men have lots more on their plates besides just the Lodge. I was recently told by a Brother that during the 1950’s when he joined, it was nothing for men to be at the Lodge two or three nights a week if they joined the York Rite or participated in DeMolay or some other Masonic body. Even now this occurs. Worshipful Masters have the sort of unspoken chore of being sociable and putting in appearances when so and so is getting his 50 year certificate or attending a funeral for a member of another Lodge. I know our WM is on the road 4-5 nights a week and our secretary at least as much as he teaches classes, has the functions of his own appendent bodies, etc.

If you are accepted, youll see this even more so once you are raised to Master Mason and start sitting in Lodge. Depending on the size of your Lodge you may go to monthly stated meetings and find a full house, as it were, or see the same men each month with a few that attend on a semi-regular basis. I think also as we start to see younger men joining and swelling the ranks, we will see the things that are in young mens lives like having new babies or taking Jimmy to his t-ball game or maybe they work swing shift and sometimes just need to sleep.

The overall message I think should be that Freemasonry keeps its own time and only once you have been in for a while will you begin to see this and learn to roll with it. Ive been tying my tie getting ready to go out the door to a degree conferral and the phone rings and its been cancelled because the candidates wife went into labor or one of his children has the croup.  It also helps to see that if they accepted your petition in the first place, it means you met at least the minimum requirements of no felony record, so forth and so on.

When I first signed up on this forum, it took me a bit to realize that it was “hosted” by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. She is an old and venerable institution being among the first established in North America. The process takes time and, at least where I am, we are seeing a surge in the number of petitioners, and are assigning committees or voting on at least two new members at most meetings. That is to say they arent just dealign with you. And remember, if you feel like you have to jump through hoops, the Lodge has to jump through them ten fold with the Grand Lodge. I would say to take a deep breath and take it easy. If the Lodge hasnt met since you turned in your petition, then likely no action has been taken since, at least in my neck of the woods, the investigating committee is named in in open Lodge, so they may not have even gotten to that step yet.

I hate to say it, John, but these guys are correct. There is no instant gratification to be had with Masonry. Back in the olden days when I was WM (1969) my lodge had over 600 members and we met twice a month for stated meetings and occasionally for special meetings. Back then the average time from when a petition was received until the EA degree was conferred was about 2 months not counting June, July and August. The lodge operated like a well-oiled machine then, with plenty of members available for investigations, instruction of candidates, and to help out in general.

Now my lodge has about 110 members (we lost 2 just this month) and meets only once a month. Although it’s a lot harder to operate and fewer men are available to help out, the initial process isn’t that much longer—2 to 3 months from petition to initiation. Our worst problem comes after that. In the old days, the EA, FC and MM degrees were conferred two weeks apart—from EA to MM took 4 weeks. Now we’re lucky to get an EA to MM in less than 4 months, due to meeting only once a month and a shortage of instructors.

So stay cool. The brothers will get to you when they can. You can have no idea what they have to do. I know you’re eager and it’s hard to be kept in the dark, but it will be worth it in the end.

I agree with Bob…  John, I know how you feel, as I was there too.  I felt myself so drawn to Freemasonry back when I was petitioning that I was trying to read everything I could get my hands on, looking up various lodge websites, etc…  Heck, I watched “National Treasure” so many times, I could almost recite the script!  LOL… 

But, as you know, Freemasonry does take time from that first “knock on the door” so-to-speak, until you go through the degrees - mainly the EA degree.  People are a lot more busier now then back about 40-50 years ago.  And like Bob said, lodges only meet once a month nowadays.  My only advice would be to relax.  You’ll get initiated as an Entered Apprentice, and be well on your journey, believe me!

Thats funny Butch. I grudgingly admit I also watched National treasure….Only once though. There is something of Masochism in watching anything with Nicholas Cage in it more than once…maybe twice…ok three times.

Thats all there is to it John, waiting. Nicholas Cage movies optional.

Thanks Fella’s!  I need to take it back a notch and get out of my own head.  Things will progress one way or another as they are meant to and in the time they are meant to.  Thanks agian.

NH….. remember what Mr. Miyagi taught….“Patience Grasshopper” LOL. If ya need something to occupy your mind, FDIC in Indianapolis is soon…. I am only an hour away from there.

In an effort to fight the problem of falling numbers and the fact that some people not like waiting the 3 or 4 months, the Grand Lodge of Ohio has been giving 1-day classes to the 3rd degree of the Blue Lodge.

Some disagree with this move but it has helped to bring more people in. You might check with your Grand Lodge of your state to see if they have a similar class.