# Small town Lodges



## Anson575 (Sep 9, 2009)

Greetings all. I am curious to know how many here are members of smaller Lodges and how they are holding up. We are looking for ideas on how to get people interested in petitioning the Lodge. We try hard to get our faces out there by participation in school events, donations to local charities and so on but we just can't seem to get interest flowing. Any ideas out there?


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## BrianM (Sep 9, 2009)

I am from a small country lodge here in Kentucky . We average about 25 to 30 regular members attend every meeting  , with several regular visitors . We have an annual golf scramble , and we cater other golf scrambles that helps raise money for our annual college scholarship . We have a hog killing every winter and give away fresh sausage for a minimum "donation" . We make a killing at that . Everyone asks all year long when we are going  be making sausage again . The sausage is usually gone before it's even made . We have an annul veterans day dinner for all the vet's in the area . We decorate graves of vets every year on Memorial day . We gather food for our local food pantry and few other community services we do . All these things we do have brought in a few petitions .

 It's funny , I read on the internet how some say all lodges need to have to get with the times and create web sites so our lodges can grow . How we should have to wear suits and tuxes to stated meetings and degree work and how the Fraternity needs to change to attract younger men . We have no web site , we don't wear suits and tuxes and we do not want to change and we are growing by leaps and bounds . We have more and more 20 somethings joining our lodge to the point that we can not keep up with all the work . Just this year we have had at the very least 2 Initiations a month . Last month we Initiated 4 young men , Passed 2 and Raised 2 . I don't think it is so much getting our faces out there , it's that we attracted these young men the good ol' fashioned way , they asked to become Masons because they looked up to or admired someone in the Lodge and wanted to be part of it .


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## js4253 (Sep 9, 2009)

BrianM said:


> I am from a small country lodge here in Kentucky . We average about 25 to 30 regular members attend every meeting



Sounds like you are doing a great job.  Hope you continue to grow.


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## Anson575 (Sep 10, 2009)

js4253 said:


> Sounds like you are doing a great job.  Hope you continue to grow.



No kidding! We only have 30 or so total members. We participate in all of the local Grand Lodge programs that we can (Take Time to Read etc) as well as do a few other special things. But we don't have the manpower to organize and run big events and we just aren't attracting new inquiries. That's the part that drive me crazy.


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## Anson575 (Sep 11, 2009)

Great stuff Blake! We are doing some of these things in our Lodge but there are many more that we could be doing. I will be covering this list at our next stated meeting.


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## BrianM (Sep 11, 2009)

That is a great list . One of things we started that has brought back a few of the older members that haven't been in lodge for awhile is a lodge newsletter  . I went old school with it and sending them out paper form through the mail , because most of these old farm boys are like me and never check their e-mail (and I am on my computer everyday and go days or weeks without checking it ) or do not use computers period .


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## Blake Bowden (Sep 11, 2009)

Last week I ran across an article in our local newspaper. It included a photo of 34 Odd Fellow initiates....34! And that only included members of that initiation! So far, in 2009 our Masonic Lodge has had 1.


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## BrianM (Sep 12, 2009)

I have no Odd Fellows near me . There is an Improved Order of Red Men Tribe (lodge) across the river from my town in W VA. , but I really do not know much about them .


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## js4253 (Sep 12, 2009)

blake said:


> Last week I ran across an article in our local newspaper. It included a photo of 34 Odd Fellow initiates....34! And that only included members of that initiation! So far, in 2009 our Masonic Lodge has had 1.



Blake, my Deacon at church is a 50 year Odd Fellow.  I'm going to find out more about that organization.  They seem to be pretty comparable to Masonry.


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## Chaplin the Elder (Sep 12, 2009)

Anson575 said:


> No kidding! We only have 30 or so total members. We participate in all of the local Grand Lodge programs that we can (Take Time to Read etc) as well as do a few other special things. But we don't have the manpower to organize and run big events and we just aren't attracting new inquiries. That's the part that drive me crazy.




You don't need big events.  We try to participate at local functions given by the city.  We usually have 5 to 7 brothers show up.

What you can do, IMHO, is make sure that you are taking care of the brothers.  By that I mean making sure the EAs and FCs are included.  Not just in study night, but during degree work.  We have a tradition at Montgomery that each new EA is brought up to the East allowed to speak for a few minutes right after his initiation.   This allows all the brothers to get a good look at him and recognize him the next time he comes to lodge. 

Also by including them in degree work you are helping them to learn.  

Another thought, we just sent, (in August) our JW, SD and JD to Warden's retreat in Waco, they took their wives and came back jammed with new ideas to move the lodge forward.  I am giving them their time and space to move forward with these ideas. (the wives also)

One further thought on the subject and I know that this might strike a nerve with some brothers, but, here goes.  Do you have members who are always negative?  "We can't do that. GL won't allow that, etc.??"  I have found that they do more harm to a lodge than all the anti-masonic websites in the world.  If you can weed them out, circumvent them, or just plain ignore them you will find that you can do many of the things with just a few people that will start to gain you new members. 

Remember, Henry Ford said, "If you think you can, or you think you can't, both are correct."


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## nightjmper (Sep 26, 2009)

blake said:


> Last week I ran across an article in our local newspaper. It included a photo of 34 Odd Fellow initiates....34! And that only included members of that initiation! So far, in 2009 our Masonic Lodge has had 1.



 I had never heard of the "Odd Fellows" so I looked them up.  I was shocked to see how old an organization it is.  I only feel sad for the acronym for the Grand Lodge...  "The Grand United Order of Oddfellows Friendly Society" (GUOOFS).

Wow, what a name to put in a signature page!


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## nightjmper (Sep 27, 2009)

BrianM said:


> I have no Odd Fellows near me . There is an Improved Order of Red Men Tribe (lodge) across the river from my town in W VA. , but I really do not know much about them .



The improved order of Red Man Tribe states it is America's oldest Frat organization.  Created in 1867 and chartered by Congress.

 It's Offices are in Waco, Texas.  Here is a link
http://www.redmen.org


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## RedTemplar (Sep 27, 2009)

nightjmper said:


> The improved order of Red Man Tribe states it is America's oldest Frat organization.  Created in 1867 and chartered by Congress.
> 
> It's Offices are in Waco, Texas.  Here is a link
> http://www.redmen.org



They also claim to descend from The Sons of Liberty. Now, does anyone know who this bunch is?


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## nightjmper (Sep 27, 2009)

RedTemplar said:


> They also claim to descend from The Sons of Liberty. Now, does anyone know who this bunch is?



I know this is getting a little off topic from this tread, but i am finding this group interesting.  Here is what they say they stand for..



> To promote patriotism and the American Way of Life, to provide social activities for the members, and support various charitable programs. Our activities include:
> 
> Flag Recognition Program â€” A program to honor those patriotic Americans who display the flag regularly.
> Faith Of Our Fathers Chapel â€” Chapel erected at Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to memorialize the ideals and principles of our founding fathers.
> ...



I love this comment in the FAQ:



> Q. Must I memorize a large amount of unwritten or secret work?
> A. No â€” You will be required to know the password and the secret signs of the Order, both of which may be learned in only a few minutes.


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