# Fees and Dues



## Wingnut (Sep 4, 2008)

What are your Lodges annual dues?

What are the fees for each degree (not including the Masonic Charity Donation and Geo. Washington Memorial donation)?

What other fees or income does you lodge have?

Im trying to get a feel for what other lodges in the State are charging since Im part of a committee to look at possibly raising dues/fees.  Ours are $50 per year, EA 50, FC 50, MM 75 (plus the required $5 for EA donation and $25 for MM)  Ive seen some as low as $30 and as high as $240.  Ive been told that PHA is $140 a *month*...


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## rhitland (Sep 4, 2008)

my only advice is to keep your Brothers in mind that are living on retirment and social security and such. We at 148 doubled our dues and lost over 60 mbrs out of 200 and I fear there will be more. The also are mostly older Brothers. I wish I woukd have thought of an alternative we could have offered Brother who are retired or disabled. 
My Grandfather told me he has lived on money from social security since 1988 and has recived very few increased to keep up with rising cost.  
A few of us wich now we would have done the raising over a 5 year period or more a little at a time.


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## Joey (Sep 4, 2008)

Our dues at #30 are $30 a year. 

I honestly don't remember what we charge for the different degrees.


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## Blake Bowden (Sep 4, 2008)

Joey said:


> Our dues at #30 are $30 a year.
> 
> I honestly don't remember what we charge for the different degrees.



Usually $20 I think


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## Wingnut (Sep 4, 2008)

Some of what Im looking at is there are minimums set by Grand Lodge for fees and dues.  (Degrees no less than $30, $25 to Masonic Charities at MM degree, $5 to Washington memorial, annual no less than $30... chapter 17, title II Fees and Dues, Laws of the Grand Lodge of Texas rv 2007)

Plus there are fees that have to be paid to GL based on number of members etc.  

In order to be sustaining and have any hope of being able to grow without eating into savings those values need to be exceeded.  For example we get requests for donations, poor and penniless etc etc..  Putting the onus on collections gathered at meetings puts the greater burden on the brothers that actually show up and participate in the lodge.


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## JTM (Sep 4, 2008)

55, 45, and 35 for the degrees, respectively. 

60 a year for dues.

if i recall correctly... either way, this is really close

keep in mind, we have a ton of college students, as well...hard for them to afford too much.  but i  think this will be raised to 120 starting this next january, with the endowment being 1200.


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## nick1368 (Sep 4, 2008)

We just went through this last year.  We were finding out that $60 a year wasn't meeting the needs of the Lodge and if we didn't do something drastic we would have to start going in to savings.  So after lengthy disscussion in committee and with some of our "older" members we settled on $108 a year.  I am can't recall what we charge for degrees.  We looked at how many years 108 would stain the lodge and not have to dip into savings.    Something else we did and I HIGHLY recommend any and all lodges to do is get the Ad Valorem Tax Exemption.  For our Lodge this expemption will  save us $20,000 over 5 years!!!
Anyways, $108 should stain us for at least 3 years (long enought to get me through the East without another increase!!!)  We could have done a standard $12 a year increase, but that would not have kept us out of savings.  I think the increase depends on each lodge, the committee really needs to hash it out then talk to maybe some "older" members and go from there.  I dont think its a good idea to try to hash it out in a lodge meeting...although there needs to be an explaination as to the reasoning behind the new rate.  I think after the increase we lost 6 members due to either demit, suspension, or moved their membership because they were no longer in the area but kept thier membership at "home".
hope that helps some.....


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## Bill Lins (Sep 5, 2008)

Wharton Lodge dues are $50.00/year, and the degree fees are $35.00/EA, $30.00/FC, & $55.00/MM. El Campo's dues are $75.00/year, and I don't know how much the degree fees are there.


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## david918 (Sep 5, 2008)

As Bill siad El Campo's dues are $75.00 our degree fees are EA $40 plus $5 for the George Washington Masonic memorial fund, FC$40 and MM $40 plus $10 for the Texas masonic retirement center endowment.

David Broman
Secy&PM El Campo#918
MC Wharton#621


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## JTM (Sep 5, 2008)

i forgot about St. Alban's that meets at the same building as Sul Ross here... degree fees are all well over 100, yearly dues are outrageous as well.

but they only meet once a month, the master lives out of town (sometimes out of state and flies in once a month for the meetings), and they all wear tuxes to all the meetings.


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## Wingnut (Sep 5, 2008)

Thank you all very much!  Keep 'em coming!  Also thank you for the ideas and direction!


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## JTM (Sep 5, 2008)

holding a table lodge with is always a good idea.  get a really nice meal, everybody dressed up, and have a donation of 50 bucks.  getting some speaker from grand lodge to come in and do some kind of lecture for it is always a possibility.

if your lodge is into that kind of thing.


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## ravickery03 (Sep 6, 2008)

*Building vs. No Building*

Generally Lodges that don't own a building are in better financial shape than ones that do.

Our lodge when first founded had yearly dues of $7 a year, and $120 for a lifetime membership.  Today that is the equivalent of $83 a year and $1400 for a lifetime members.  Right now Army Lodge #1105 is $45 a year and $600 for an endowed membership (we did away with lifetime memberships in the early 80's).

Honestly we haven't kept up with inflation, which is part of the reason we (lodges that own their buildings) are findings themselves in a financial bind of sorts.


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## RJS (Sep 7, 2008)

What is the difference between lifetime membership and endowed membership?


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## Bill Lins (Sep 7, 2008)

A life membership is just that- it stops when you do. An endowed membership throws off interest from the invested principal perpetually. Even after you're gone to the celestial Lodge above, your Lodge will get a check every year.


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## Bill Lins (Sep 7, 2008)

Doesn't take long to go from "Veteran Extraordinaire" to "Ruffian", does it?


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## david918 (Sep 7, 2008)

Ahh the 3rd ruffian


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## Bill Lins (Sep 7, 2008)

Actually, the FOURTH- "Jubalee"!


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## Nate C. (Sep 8, 2008)

At Tolerance 1165 in Beaumont, I think the annual dues are around $75. I don't recall what the degree fees are.


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## owls84 (Sep 8, 2008)

Fort Worth No. 148
EA: $70
FC: $70
MM: $70
Annual Dues: $100
Endowment: $500

A life of Masonry: Priceless


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## rhitland (Sep 8, 2008)

I read once there was a thing called a "jug Mason" they were given the degrees in exchange for a jug of Whiskey, to bad we cannot do that anymore!


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## RJS (Sep 8, 2008)

owls84 said:


> Fort Worth No. 148
> EA: $70
> FC: $70
> MM: $70
> ...



That's pretty cool Owls!  I like that.


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## Wingnut (Sep 8, 2008)

Our building's corner stone was laid in 1899.  Its been paid off for many years but now the maintenance is getting bigger.  We own it jointly with the Chapter/Council.


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## ravickery03 (Sep 8, 2008)

Wingnut said:


> Our building's corner stone was laid in 1899.  Its been paid off for many years but now the maintenance is getting bigger.  We own it jointly with the Chapter/Council.



Have you looked into historic clauses for taxes, maintenance, etc?


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## Wingnut (Sep 8, 2008)

yes, we have as low a tax as we can get with every possible exemption being used (gotta love having attorneys in the lodge).  One thing Im looking into is that since we are in a historic area of downtown, and have to abide by the historic districts rules on changes to the outside, I think we should get a historic site designation.  That does open up some grants.  Some members have been reluctant to do that however.  To me its a wash since we have to get historic distric approval to do anything anyway.


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## JTM (Sep 9, 2008)

Bill_Lins77488 said:


> Actually, the FOURTH- "Jubalee"!



I call him, the Traveling Man.  Not because he's "worse" than the ruffians, but because his degree work is the easiest.



owls84 said:


> Fort Worth No. 148
> EA: $70
> FC: $70
> MM: $70
> ...



nice.  i love the last line there.



ravickery03 said:


> Generally Lodges that don't own a building are in better financial shape than ones that do.
> 
> Our lodge when first founded had yearly dues of $7 a year, and $120 for a lifetime membership.  Today that is the equivalent of $83 a year and $1400 for a lifetime members.  Right now Army Lodge #1105 is $45 a year and $600 for an endowed membership (we did away with lifetime memberships in the early 80's).
> 
> Honestly we haven't kept up with inflation, which is part of the reason we (lodges that own their buildings) are findings themselves in a financial bind of sorts.



for this part, however, i beg to differ.  those that own a building and got their 501(C)3 status, it has been MOST beneficial.  we don't pay taxes or anything like that.  effectively, we are in the same boat as a "church" and the Rotary Club, Optimist Clubs, etc.

we even started a Library/Museum, where our lodge put all our history into a single room and claimed "museum" status.  saved us a TONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN of money.

we still own one of the older buildings we used to meet in, and collect rent on to a gas station now.  that money is tax free and we don't pay property taxes on it.  best investment EVAR.


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## owls84 (Sep 11, 2008)

This is a bunch of useful information. Thanks for all the posts.


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## Brother Secretary (Dec 1, 2008)

Robert Burns: $50 dues & $100 EA, $100 FC, and $115 MM
Parsons: $70 dues & $125 EA, $125 FC, $150 MM

Let's do a little quick math. Please don't think I'm trying to reduce the beauty of the Sublime Craft to something as crude as business, for me Masonry is far more than an interest or a hobby. However, my Brothers, when we buy property and pay taxes we must be responsible about such things.

I looked up the valuation & 2008 Tax rate in TCAD and Hays CAD of some lil ole Country Lodges I know of that own their own buildings. The least expensive was $3406 the most expensive was 6580. Lets call it $4000 in taxes for the sake of arguement. And lets suppose we have about 60 dues paying members (not 50 year or endowed) and dues are say $40 per year. 

$14.25 off the top goes to GL, leaving $25.75 x 60 dues paying members = $1545. So in this little exercise assuming a fee of about $40 for each degree (all of that for the MM is going to JP Luther / GL or whomever to cover the cost of Bible, Apron, Monitor, GW, et cetera, that lodge needs to raise about 30 Masons a year *just to pay the taxes on the building*.

That's a MM degree about every 12 days. 30 new masons a year just to keep Nelda Well Spears from putting a pad lock on the door. And that's before paying one utility bill or making one improvement to our 100+ year old building. Can anyone say, "pancake breakfast?"  

This touches on the thread, "Is Masonry too Cheep?" To the assertion that a significant increase in dues and fees would kill many rural lodges... I would have to argue that they're already dead... they're just not broke yet.

This conversation being particularly apropos as from Hill City # 456 with her 400 or so members down to Robert Burns # 127 with her 40 or so members, it looks like nobody is getting an endowment return this year. I'm very thankful RB owns no property.  

check out this article from the SR Journal: http://www.scottishrite.org/web/journal-files/Issues/jul-aug06/jacobson.html


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## Texas_Justice85 (Dec 1, 2008)

at mine its 50/year and 50 each time youre raised


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## Blake Bowden (Dec 2, 2008)

Our dues are $30/Year.


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## cmoreno85tx (Dec 2, 2008)

Community No. 1201
$60 - EA, FC, MM
$50 - Dues


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## JTM (Dec 2, 2008)

blake said:


> Our dues are $30/Year.



aren't ya'll losing money to GL, then?


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## Curtis Wilson (Dec 11, 2008)

50/ea, 75/fc, 60/mm


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## jwardl (Dec 11, 2008)

Spring #1174:

EA/FC/MM: $70 each
Annual Dues: $70
Endowment: $700


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## jonesvilletexas (Dec 12, 2008)

Melrose 1294  $100.00 per year

Cade-Rothwell 1151  $85 per year


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## eagle1966 (Dec 13, 2008)

we at Clyde Lodge just raised our dues to $75 begininng Jan 1, 2009
we had several members demit due to the raise in dues, we only have 86 members
own our building and are tax extempt
major expenses utilities, insurance


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