This will be a short post because I'm on my phone and the keyboard won't turn to landscape. I've been looking at different models for Masonic lodges lately and there seems to be two related goals, more education, less business. I had to ask myself, while thinking about these two concepts, "is there a brother who wants more business and less education?" I've never met one yet many Masonic meetings devolve into the mediocre minutiae of boring business. Why? Is it how meetings are designed? Is it a rut? I don't know but I'm seeing a turnaround.
Lodges are unshackling themselves from tedious business. Minutes are distributed instead of read, committees are formed, and their actions approved in one fell swoop, and Masters are cutting off debate. These are great advances.
My lodge has the LEO speak before any business is discussed. That way, any of the inside baseball comments about the (insert fundraiser here) will hopefully die as no one wants or remembers to talk about them. Fundraisers are not Masonry, education is.
Business isn't evil but it should be handled well and quickly. Masonic meetings are supposed to be an educational experience. That is the way to save Masonry.
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4 comments:
I think the business rut started with the era of property ownership followed by us jumping headlong into exhorbitant charity fundraising. There was no need to talk about bills when we rented the room above the tavern, at least not to the extent that property ownership demands.
Also when we kept charity local, and mainly between members and their immediate acquaintances, there was no beaucratic structure that exists for all our 501c3 things.
I think the main reason we got in the rut was the aging of the fraternity...as the new candidates slowed to a trickle the guys became more involved in the beaocracy to justify the meeting, but it's obviously snowballed and taken on a life of its own.
I'm trying to think of ways to document, yet speed through the minutes. Minutes, at times, can be the bane of my existence.
With such a void in education, it surprises me that more Brothers don't jump at the chance to contribute a presentation. Most are very supportive of the educational imperative, but unwilling to compose or research on their own.
and, Masonic Education makes good men "better", not "bitter"!
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