The North Carolina Mason

May/June 2016 The North Carolina Mason Page 5 Building a Stronger Foundation It can happen to you, but it shouldn't By Bryant D. Webster Grand Master Have you ever consid- ered going NPD, or perhaps demitting? I have a confession to make: I once thought about quitting Masonry. Not recently mind you; it was a long time ago. I was attending my home lodge regularly, and, for a period of about a year, we did nothing. Our ritual was weak at best; we struggled to open and close the lodge properly. We had no Masonic edu- cation. We had no meals, except for degrees, and those were few and far between. We opened the lodge, read the old minutes, paid any bills due, dealt with any items of required business, and then read the minutes and went home. We painfully plod- ded through that suggested agenda in the Bahnson Manual, even though we almost never had any of the items of business prescribed. e bad news: it was awful; the good news, if you could consider it that, was we were done in under 45 minutes. Be- cause of the conditions, I had little interest in arriv- ing early or hanging around after; there was little spirit of brotherhood to be had. Unfortunately, I suspect there are Masons reading this for whom this is not abstract or unfamiliar. So, why did I stay? Initially, it was because of personal engagement. I had promised an officer in our line that I would be there to support him in any way as he progressed through the line. Due to that commitment, I could not leave at the time I was most dissatisfied. Unfulfilled or not, I had to attend and help because I had promised. However, it began to dawn on me that I could make a differ- ence, if incrementally. I began to help with meals. I began to report on our charities. I continued to attend, and encouraged others to attend. We began to have sporadic Masonic education. ings be- gan to improve very slowly. We got new members, and they helped us continue the improvement. We began to work on and improve our building. We began to fundraise for our charities. We started having special events such as awards night and a holiday banquet. Little by little, over many years, it became a lodge of which we can all be proud. Today, our lodge is thriving, filled with men young and old who are proud of their Masonry. When our lodge hosted a district meeting May 26, our build- ing, our ritual, our meal, and our fellowship shone like Masonic jewels. What can we learn from my near miss? 1. Having good programs is essential if we are to keep our members engaged. Regular meals of good quality, an atmosphere of love and fellow- ship, Masonic education, and interesting interac- tions both formally and informally are essential to the lodge experience. 2. Asking Brothers personally, one on one, to be involved and engaged, is critical to bind them to the lodge. 3. Stick with it. If I had quit, I would have missed out on the renaissance, and it might not have hap- pened, for everyone in our lodge, including me, had a part in breathing life into the institution. 4. Be patient. Very small steps are necessary and sufficient to start the ball rolling. Clean up your building. Mow your grass. Practice your rit- ual. Put on a Masonic education program. Cook a meal. Report on the charities. Encourage your brethren to join you and to do likewise. 5. Each member who attends is essential to the experience. Everyone must contribute in some way. Unfortunately, we don't always take the time or the effort to make our lodges great. I think it boils down to this: when I, as a member, give you a precious evening of my time away from work and away from my family, you must give me one of three things (and hopefully all three) in return: 1. You must give me some knowledge or infor- mation I did not have before, or provoke me to think about things I thought I knew already in a different way. 2. You must allow me to help someone as di- rectly as possible. 3. I must enjoy the fellowship with other men, because of food or shared interests or all the above. If you don't give me at least one of those things regularly, I have better things to do with my time. If you give me all three each time I come, I will probably be there every time the doors open. On the Grand Lodge website, under Education Resources, is a Lodge Self-Assessment Tool. is is a great starting point for your officers to review all the systems and components of your lodge, and see what may need to be improved, and then pick several areas to try to improve. I always suggest, when doing such evaluations and action plans, pick some easy items and some hard items. ere are always some low-hanging fruit that are easy, cheap, and not time-consuming to implement. In- clude several of these in your plans. It will give you a sense of accomplishment early on and energize your members immediately. Don't stop though. Have some harder items that take more time or money, and work together toward those larger or longer goals. Working together and getting it done will bring your lodge closer, and increase your members' investment. At least once a year, reevaluate, see what you have accomplished, and celebrate, then update your action list, add some more easy and a few hard items to replace the ones completed, and go at it again. You will be surprised by how much you ac- complish. Time, patience, and perseverance accom- plish all things. It is obvious to me in my travels that lodges are doing the best practices I have described above. e quality of our lodge experience is improving all over North Carolina. Sometimes, we hesitate to start, or we slow our progress because of money. If you start the process and you find that funds are scarce, don't be afraid to raise your dues as you increase the qual- ity of the experience. We have tremendous brand loyalty in our organization. When was the last time you saw someone with a Rotary emblem tattooed on their body? An Apple logo? A Coca-Cola im- age? Yet, we have many members who wear their Masonry on their sleeves, literally. ey are commit- ted to us; we just need to give them the value they deserve. If it requires higher dues in the process, I predict they will understand and support them. But, the value must come first. So, what does Masonry have to offer, and why should we stay? 1. e relationships we form with our Brothers are irreplaceable in any other venue or format. 2. e availability of help, of relief, of support to one another for ourselves and our families, is invaluable. 3. e teachings of Masonry, and the opportu- nity to constantly apply its lessons in our lives will help us to be better each day than we were before. 4. ere are countless other benefits of this gen- tle craft. Regardless of how bad it may be in any particular lodge at any particular time (and we all have those moments, no matter how good our lodges are), I strongly suspect that if we stop to think, and if we stop to invest even a little, we will realize, as I did, in the words of the old Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard song: "e reasons for quittin', don't out- number all the reasons why."

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