The evening started with a wonderful meal and was completed with a Fellowcraft Degree.
Included is a copy of the D.D.G.M.'s address. Please take a few moments to read it.
OFFICIAL VISIT – GORE
BAY LODGE
November 12, 2015
Brethren:
As you
all know my theme for the year deals with membership, attendance and
participation. So far my talks have been
fairly broad in scope and have even touched on the symbolical lessons and what
they can offer in terms of education and increasing participation.
Tonight
I want to focus in a little more deeply and delve into the aspects of why each
of us attend meetings and what we might be able to do to increase the frequency
of that attendance and participation.
Life
today is much more complicated in terms of demands on our time. There are many items which compete for the
time to attend lodge. Simply put, the
answer here all comes down to priorities.
Participation in the lodge competes with other priorities and while it
need not and perhaps should not, be the #1 priority, it needs to be significant
enough so that the Mason will want to attend lodge regularly…..the key here is the
WANTING to attend….I would say that for most of us there is also an element of
duty …but more of this later.
I love analogies
as this puts thoughts into visual explanations….there is a movie at the
theatre, my friend wants to go, but the last time I went the place was noisy,
food was poor and the movie was the same old stuff…..so I did not go….it was
not a priority in my life. The lack of
priority and desire was based in this case on past experience. We all know this can be to some extent
applied to the lodge meeting….in other words the meeting has to be of a quality
that makes me want to attend….that it’s a significant enough priority in my
life to make me WANT to attend.
I have
touched on this concept already this year….we are… whether we like to describe
it this way or not….selling something!
And we need to make sure the product is good enough to buy….I think you
all understand what I am getting at here.
And putting it simply, if the product (the Masonic whatever) is not
attractive we will not buy.
So the
message so far is that to increase the likelihood of attendance and
participation we need to have a good product and sell it well. Sounds simple….?
But
there is as you will have guessed other elements I want to touch on. And I want to move away from the broader
Masonic concept, to the individual Mason, being that a new…. or longer serving
member. The commonality between them for
the discussion is that both do not attend much and do not really participate.
When I
think of many of these situations I start by asking myself how I feel about the situation, how I would react and more particularly in
this case, what do I want. I have over the years discovered that many
of my own feelings here are very applicable to my brethren. As I have stated in previous speeches, I
believe that we as humans all want much the same….to belong, to be part of
something, to have the opportunity to participate to the level of our comfort
and ability.
We all
assume that we know what the members want and broadly speaking we do…but how
often have we sat the new or older non-participating member down and asked them
what they want to do?….what they want to be part of? Another important consideration is to determine
the skill set of the person…we need to match the skills with the job…and often
a frank caring face-to-face
conversation will lead to an increased commitment to the lodge.
I have
a good friend who really does not want to be a lodge officer, does not really
want to do long pieces of work, but has taken on an important role within the lodge,
does a fantastic job, and is a regular attendee and participant in the business
of the lodge. All that was needed was to
find his niche, his skill and of course to offer the opportunity.
What I
am trying to convey here is the need to reach out individually to the members
and talk to them about their relationship with the lodge….what do they
want? This is best done by a friend,
sponsor, the Master or a well respected brother. The conversation needs to be open, frank and without pressure. …the latter is
crucial. We all want to be wanted…that
is another one of those human traits I talk about….the difficulty is finding
out in what way.
Perhaps
he is interested in doing ritual work….but was never asked…the first time is
often the hardest…there may be a need to establish a support mechanism
here….Mentor him!
We find
out that we have a bookkeeper or accountant who is a member….this may lead to
the next treasurer of the lodge. Hey
that new member just graduated with a degree in communications….the secretary
needs help with the summons….here I am touching on an earlier speech about
improving the sell via the summons. What
about the people person….surely we can find a role for him?
I do
not want to belabor this point, so to put it simply…we need to determine far
more what the new or non-participating member is looking for and once this is
determined we can open doors that will lead hopefully to increased attendance
and participation. It should also be
stated that this concept can be applied to members who actually participate……
in that we often do not ask “what do you want to do next”. This leads to the
theme of Succession Planning which will be covered in a subsequent Official
Visit talk.
Another
important point that I mentioned earlier are opportunities…..too often these are somewhat limited, as the role,
the ritual or the responsibility often continually lies with the same
people….they do not or are not allowed to give it up. I do not want to suggest there are nefarious
dealing going on here, the cause is not the result of some negative
intent…..for example, often the Master asks the same person to do the work as
he wants the degree to be at its best…the intent is certainly good, but it is
short sighted, does not plan for the future and does not allow an opportunity
for the less involved member.
Returning
to the participation theme, I want to touch on the mistake of assuming the
applicability of the “one-size fits all approach”. We do not all join Masonry for the same
reasons…some commonalities exist, but there are enough different reasons both
in type and extent that makes us each different. As we become more experienced we still have
differences in what we are looking for, we do not all want the same… or life
pressures are such that we want different things at different times in our
journey. So again I come back to the
need on an INDIVIDUAL LEVEL to determine what the member wants.
Some
lodges have workshops where they talk about the expectations, rules, duties and
processes involved in the journey and these have significant value in educating
the Mason, BUT these do not touch on the INDIVIDUAL needs and wants. Therefore it is imperative that we talk on THAT
level to find out the wants and desires and to determine how this may fit into
the lodge.
Another
important point is that the concepts of the past, while they still have
significance and great value; they sometimes do not fully include, some of what
I would call….. modern day concepts of commitment, of duty, of participation. We need to recognize that the world is a
different place than it was only 20 years ago….values are changing and while
the Masonic value system may be one of the things a candidate is looking for,
we need to in our discussions with the member remember that our perhaps older
values do not necessarily fit with today’s lifestyle.
Exploring
this further, I want to ask you why you are here this evening? Is it out of a sense of duty?....or to hear
an inspiring speech from the DDGM?....these are rhetorical questions that do
not need an answer….we all know the real reason was the excellent meal before
the meeting!! Seriously though….there
was a time when “duty” held far more sway than today….you joined an
organization and attended because, as a member it was your duty to do so. For many this is NOT as much the case
today….there has to be some other glue that makes them attend and participate
and it is incumbent on all of us to find out, on the individual level, what
this is!
So talk
to the individual. Find out his TRUE
comfort level….he should answer this based on his own true needs…not what he
thinks the lodge needs or what the lodge is pushing him towards…it is ok for
the lodge to open doors and encourage, but he needs to walk through them himself….he
needs to WANT to do it. The challenge is
to align what is offered with the needs or wants of the individual.
I
believe we lose members without ever really determining why. Was it the young family? Was it the work commitment? Or are these just excuses as the reality is
that what we were offering did not make
attending a priority?
I
believe that if the product we are selling is attractive enough it will be
bought! This is not a black-and-white
statement as there are viable reasons why a new Mason cannot participate to any
great extent, but we have to try harder to make our organization attractive to
our brethren so that we increase the chances of a brother attending and
participating.
We are
on occasion the guilty party in that the product was not what he wanted to
buy….we did not sell it well. It is too easy
to dismiss a lack of attendance / participation as being an outside influence.
And if
it is an outside influence, we need to keep selling… to show him we care and
that the door is always open should his life circumstances change. We all make choices in life, but surely even
if the Mason has a busy life he can attend on occasion….if he does not attend
we will surely loose him!
The
discussion presented here is by no way complete and to make it so would require
a greater amount of time and the participation of all of you in the discussion,
so being that the evening is getting late and some of us have a longish drive
home I will bring this to a close……but my brethren, on closing I must stress
the importance of the broader aspect of my message, it is not just candidates
coming through the door that is important, but getting each and every one of
them involved to the greatest extent we can….an organization does not live on
membership numbers alone, but needs PARTICIPATION to make it a strong, vibrant
and viable entity.
Worshipful
Master....I thank you for your indulgencies this evening and my Brethren I
thank each and every one of you for your kind attention.
R.W.
Bro. Clive D. Stephenson
DDGM
Thursday
November 12, 2015
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