How These Small Things Changed Our Lodge For The Better

The Master Masons in attendance at Lodge Challenge’s Installation - 2024

I changed some of the ways which my lodge runs, and over the last 9 months it’s been for the better. Now, this wouldn’t be achievable if the Worshipful Master wasn’t on board. But, I’m glad that he gave me that latitude as Senior Warden to do so.

As a “Past Master” I took on SW to fill a gap in the officers, something which all PM’s are well accustomed to. However this has allowed me the opportunity to also take charge of the workmen, just as King Solomon (WM) charged King Hiram to do.

Through my studying of the practice of Freemasonry and my role at Grand Lodge, this has given me a fresh perspective on how we need to run our lodges. What I have seen is what is working and where most of the problems stem from. This perspective combined with my ADHD & Autism of being able to generate 1 Million Ideas to solve all the problems of the world.

But, as Gennaro Gattuso said about his soccer teams performance, my ideas, well

“Sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit”

You’ve been forewarned. That being said, at the Install I attended last Thursday in my District I imparted on the Deacons and Inner Guard what we have implemented in my Lodge. This caught the attention of the Deacons and Inner Guards of other lodges in the district who wanted to know my secret.

So I want to share some of these things that I/we have implemented and how they changed our lodge for the better, and hopefully if we can maintain them through succession then, we will never slip back to the old ways.

In this edition of Daily Masonic Progress I am going to share with you why these changes were needed, what the changes are and how to implement them in your own lodge.

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But first, let’s start with why these changes were needed in the first place.

When it comes to lodges, we all want to keep our members. We talk all the time about membership engagement and what we can do to keep our brethren more engaged. But, we often look externally for these things when really we should be looking internally.

Now, this shouldn’t be new to us as Masons. After all we are taught that Masonry regards the internal not the external qualifications of a Man. This can be used as a metaphor to remind us that we should always look internally for our solutions.

Where I see one of the biggest issues with membership engagement is that we don’t allow our Brethren to step up and take responsibility. We don’t empower them. We don’t back them and in many scenarios the “old guard” shut things down and hold the lodge hostage either intentionally or unintentionally.

Intentionally occurs when we as a lodge, forget that its the “majority of the brethren” who make a decision. Sure, we can say that when the time to make a decision, the majority of the brethren decide. But we often let of 1 or 2 brethren who intentionally take the lodge hostage by threatening to resign if they don’t get their way.

Unintentionally occurs when we make decisions because we have fear, uncertainty or doubt that the change would hurt them. We’ve come to rely on them for the thing they do. Yes, we don’t want to hurt our brethren, by asking them to step aside. But, we end up in this tug of war.

We ask them if they are ok to continue, thinking if they’re not they will say. But, being Men and being Masons, they don’t want to let the lodge fail so they just get on with it and say they’re happy to continue. So we think this is ok. But it’s not.

In both of these scenarios it’s usually, these brethren who are the backbone of the lodge, however they are only the backbone because the lodge has failed to have one of their own.

Therefore in the absence of responsibility, accountability and empowerment; such always fall to those who are willing to do the work “for the good of the lodge”.

But what if, for the good of the lodge, actually meant it had to fall in order to learn how to walk?

As we are growing up, we learn to walk by trying to stand on our own two feet. We fall, our parents pick us up, we try again. Eventually we learn to walk, then run, then sprint, then run a marathon. Ok, maybe a Netflix marathon.

However, today in our lodges, we are not letting them fall. We aren’t even letting them try to stand on their own two feet, so they are never learning how to walk, let alone run.

Up until two years ago, our Lodge Secretary had been “responsible” for setting up the Festive Board. Putting the tables, chairs, setting the table and by the end of the night was always one of the last few there, and he cleaned up as well.

He got sick of it. At the management meeting he said he was only going to do his Secretary duties and nothing else. That month, we turned up for Lodge, there was no south. Our newly invested Junior Warden had all of this dumped on him on his first night in the job.

Now, before you go and rage at the Secretary for allowing this to happen or say he should have done it for the good of the lodge — did you know he actually did it for the good of the lodge?

Let me explain.

One of the critical lessons we must learn in Masonry is to forgo the immediate gratification for the greater and long term good.

It’s how a monthly regular meeting builds disciple. It takes a long time and a lot of effort to overcome the friction of wanting to stay home and marathon binge Netflix to come to lodge. But, doing so allows you to build the discipline to do something hard that’s not immediately gratifying. It’s the same as putting in the effort to learn the ritual, not immediately gratifying like scrolling on TikTok but beneficial in the long term.

Here, the Secretaries actions set in motion for us was a pathway to empowering our officers within their invested & charged duties. But it’s what taught me the key lesson that sits under all of this, and I am grateful that this Secretary opened my eyes to this lesson.

So what this Secretary did, was force the issue of the (unsuspecting) Junior Warden to step up, take what he has been charged to do by the Master and do it. It also meant that as a Lodge we had to accept that the Junior Warden was in complete charge of the South and that as PM’s we couldn’t stifle his ideas and decisions at Management Committee.

So the first change we made was that The Junior Warden is in complete control and charge of the South. It’s success or failure was on his shoulders. He is responsible for everything from the setup, drinks, food, cleaning up, taking down and money. It’s all on him. No one to setup or clean up, too bad it’s his job.

Now this probably sounds harsh, but it’s fair, here is why.

What the Junior Warden did, was then find a caterer who was all inclusive. They did everything so our members didn’t have to lift a finger. The Junior Warden just had to organise it all. Yes the cost went up, some complained (although we’d been having the discussion for years about an all inclusive caterer) but at the end of the day, we just didn’t get the people following through their talk of “we will just clean up ourselves”. As a Lodge, we backed him and we are the better for it!

But it didn’t jut stop with the South, there were two more key things we have implemented as well that changed the dynamics of the lodge for the better.

Today I am sure you’d be hard pressed to find a Lodge with a dedicated Tyler. Traditionally the setup of the Lodge would fall to the Tyler, however I do disagree with this practice.

The notion that the Tyler is wholly responsible for the setup is based upon ensuring that the Brethren are “properly clothed”. We extend this to mean setting up the collards and jewels for the officers. However, to me, this doesn’t make any sense as he spends all his time outside of the Lodge, not within it.

In my mind, then Tyler should be focused on ensuring anyone who walks through the doors are indeed properly clothed, but also are not cowans or intruders. So this is where the Tyler really should just make sure the Apprentices and Fellowcrafts — especially visiting ones are properly clothed, signed in and welcomed. He should also be engaging with the visitors so he knows who they are, Afterall he’s going to have to muster them when its time to admit all masons.

But if the Tyler isn’t going to setup the Lodge, who is?

Well, like other responsibilities in the Lodge in the absence of the Tyler (even after we have agreed it’s not his job) — it usually falls on “well meaning” and helpful Brethren who are early. This is mostly the Secretary, Treasurer or Director of Ceremonies/Marshall.

The DC/Marshall is a Director level officer, while not a Principle of Executive Officer he shouldn’t be focused on making sure the Officers have their collars & jewels, the VOSL, Gavels, Charter etc are present. His focus should be on ensuring that any items specifically required for that ceremony are in their appropriate places. Such as the Apron for conferral of the degree, PM’s have been selected to perform a part in the initiation, the implements required for each degree.

So we still need the basics of the Lodge room to be setup!

Every installation I have been to in the last few years, most of the deacons just look completely lost when it comes to collecting the collars and jewels. Rightly so. Most of the time, they were told the week prior at Rehearsal “by the way, you have to collect the collars and jewels”. Many don’t learn it and it’s just poorly done on the night. They’re not to blame, rather the issue is the circumstance.

Given we still have to solve who does the setup and takedown of the collars and jewels as it’s not the Tyler or Director of Ceremonies role. What we did was charge the deacons with this responsibility.

Here is how it works.

When the Deacons arrive at the start of the night, they are to setup the collars and jewels for all the officers. But, they are to do it in the same order that on a night of installation they would collect them. Then at the end of the night, all officers remove their collars & jewels, place them on their seats before retiring, then after everyone has retired the Deacons go and collect them, again in the same order they’d collect them on installation.

If you have 12 meetings a year, the Deacons should have practiced this 23 times before they have do it during the installation. The best thing is, this is now a perpetual responsibility. The next deacons do the same, thus ensuring there is always someone to setup the collars and jewels of the Lodge.

But this still leaves the Volume of Sacred Law, The Worshipful Master & Immediate Past Master’s Collars & Jewels, Gavels and the Warrant/Charter.

These are the responsibility of the Inner Guard. This is the only one that doesn’t have some grounding in the ceremonies backing up why. So the reason is that it starts the Inner Guard on the path to responsibility of setting up and packing away while ensuring this is perpetual as well.

What this changes for the Deacons and Inner Guard is they now have a sense of purpose beyond performing the ceremonies in the functioning & running of the Lodge. They are part of making the Lodge happen

One thing Masonry often lacks is being able to provide a visible representation of the work we have completed. It’s mostly the unseen.

But most of all, they actually get to see the fruits of their labour. Once the lodge is setup, they can visibly see their work and what they did.

But there is still one other change we have made, and there are three more I have formulated as well.

They will have to wait until tomorrow for Part 2