Membership is always a difficult discussion to hold. I am hoping to see some positive ideas from this thread that maybe struggling chapters can maybe work with to help bring up their membership numbers.
So how do you encourage membership growth in your chapters?
Have you found something in your chapter that has worked well in retaining new and active members?
For those members you find do not attend anymore, have you found a way to bring them back to meetings and participate in your events?
Brothers, for those of you that are members in OES, how would you recommend talking to another Brother about joining?
Thanks and I look forward to reading the responses. :14:
Maja Gerdin PM
We have a variety of tools that we use in our Chapter/Council and they are 100% "educational", no-pressure, information programs. Our main program is what we call "Blue Shirt Night" where we invite Master Masons from all of our "feeder" lodges (of the 6 Chapters in our district, there are generally 5 plus one out-of-district lodges that feed ours) to a program where we dine first, then the officers and companions adjourn into the lodge room and assume our stations, and then we call the guests in. Once they come in, we let them look around at the different floor setting and officer stations for a few minutes and then present the program. We discuss much of the info on the back of the petition form which describes the degrees and then we present them some "questions" to think about regarding their first three degrees. You have a treasurer, but you have someone else who "pays the craft their wages", why? How are wages paid to the craft and how do you know if ought be due them? Normally we close up the program by pointing out they've seen the first part of the story and ask why they wouldn't want to know how it ends? If you see the first part- and enjoyed it, don't you want to see the sequels and pre-quels? Our best Blue Shirt Night generated 14 candidates who completed their degrees.
Our second program is a lodge visit program. Some lodges invite our local Chapters to send speakers to educate lodge members about Chapter and Council. I did one a few months ago and spoke- very carefully- to a lodgeroom full of master masons, FC's, and EA's. It's very tricky having FC's and EA's in the room, but it can be done with careful navigation.
Finally, within our individual lodges, we watch for the master masons that are asking questions and are curious about the work and we propse the same questions to them- how do you determine if "ought be due them"?, and so forth.
It takes constant work and an active Membership Committee to create, seek, and take advantage of opportunities to speak with master masons and stimulate some interest that THEY want to satisfy. We want Companions that have come to Chapter/Council to satisfy their internal desire for light, not feeling like they were "recruited". We find the degrees mean much more to a candidate when they're there to find answers to questions they truly care about rather than because they were pressured.
Good luck Companion! I wish you well in your labor!
BroBill