How to Increase Your Lodges Membership
I hear locally, domestically, and internationally that lodges across the globe are struggling for membership. The issues are the same everywhere, and they are not unique. We always say that everything is different: Oh, the city is different from the country. This city is different from that city. This state is different from that state. This country is different from that country.
Yes, there are indeed differences, nuances, and idiosyncrasies. But I can see that when you look at things objectively instead of with our rose-coloured glasses, they’re all the same.
That’s supposed to be the beauty of Freemasonry, that while there are minor variances between lodges the world over, Freemasonry is practically the same everywhere. This also means that issues are largely the same even with their minor differences.
I don’t buy the argument that “this” won’t work here or that won’t work there. If you don’t believe me, just look at any business that operates in a chain across a broad demographic and geographic spread. Fast Food, Hardware Stores, Supermarkets, Car Dealerships, Hotels. If you are still not sold, consider the fact that Freemasonry is practically everywhere and you can travel to a lodge anywhere on earth and while, just like McDonald’s there is a local menu with local ingredients, a Cheeseburger (First Degree), Quarter Pounder (Fellowcraft) and Big Mac (Master Mason) are the same everywhere.
Ok, maybe in France they’re different because they have a Royale with Cheese due to the Metric System but you get the point.
Regardless, everyone everywhere has the same peculiar system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. It’s this system that has allowed Freemasonry to stand the test of time and become such a global institution spanning every walk of life.
So when it comes to addressing the membership issue, to me it’s very clear what the actual problem is and the good news is, I know how to fix it. Well, I stole how to fix it from Freemasonry because our peculiar system has told us how to fix it.
Let’s look at any of the successful businesses that operate with the same expansive reach as Freemasonry. Pick any chain of business, in any industry. I will wait. Like I said before, despite local ingredients the thing that doesn’t change is the process or the system they use to produce their product or service.
Go into any McDonalds, Hotel Chain, Supermarket Chain, or Convenience Store Chain - every one of them follows the same processes globally.
What I have found is the more we deviate from sticking to the process of making masons as we have done throughout time, the more we struggle. So clearly, the answer to the membership problem is to stop deviating from the process, get back to basics and to follow it to the letter. Sure, put in your local ingredients and culture, but the process is the process.
The other thing is, and I think this is the most critical part of why many lodges are struggling, is that if we remember that one of the core aspects and lessons from Freemasonry is to bring order from chaos, the more we head towards chaos the more we struggle. So this is instructing us to get back to order and stick to order to bring success.
So what does Order look like?
Let’s start with what it’s not. Saying that just because we do the three degrees in any random order, intermittantly and have an installation is following the system. It’s not. Following a process where you do the steps randomly is like putting all the ingredients for a cake in a baking tray, sticking them in the oven and then after 45 minutes at 180 degrees taking them out, attempting to mix them and thinking you will produce a cake.
Let’s now get into what Order looks like.
Before I do that, let's look at any form of Educational institution. Have you ever bought an online course and never completed it? Maybe you haven't or maybe you are one of the few that did complete it, but one thing education institutions know is that their courses can’t leave students to go at their own pace.
Do you think Harvard lets students enrol in a course, freely turn up to class at their own leisure and then when the student feels they are ready lets them sit the exam then?
The University of Bologna has been teaching informally since 1088 and formally since 1180. Oxford informally since 1096 and formally since 1214, then there is Cambridge since 1225. There are a dozen others who have come after these oldest three who commenced teaching before the 1500s that still exist today. From our Old Charges like the Regius Manuscript, we can date ourselves to be since the 1300’s even though the Freemasonry we know today wasn’t established until 1717. One thing I bet is those universities don’t have membership, engagement or retention issues.
Those revered educational institutions are thriving, difficult to get into and have very high standards expected among their students and teachers which are a stark contrast to Freemasonry. While I am not advocating to be as restrictive as them, our Degrees do teach us and instruct us to adhere to high standards of morality and practice and warn us against the very things we have been slipping into.
The thing I want to point out about these ancient revered educational institutions, and the many other formal educational institutions be it our Primary or High School, Technical Colleges, Local Universities or indeed any other successful teaching and learning course is they are all systems of education. Freemasonry’s peculiar system of morality is a system of education. From the moral lessons in the first degree, the liberal arts & sciences in the second, the life lessons in the third, the leadership lessons in office or the administrative lessons in the north. Freemasonry is a unique education system.
What makes these institutions successful, Why have they stood the test of time, and will continue to, What have those chained businesses I mentioned earlier that are successfully doing that is the same as these Universities?
Well for several hundred years regardless of the nuances of the course the basic process of how they educate their students has remained the same and largely unchanged. No, don’t mistake what I am saying for how surgery and medicine were taught in 1225 to how it is taught in 2025. Whether it’s a university or a chained business, they all follow the same process of producing a replicable outcome.
If you want to argue the pros and cons of mass manufacturing that makes us into sausage factories with how we should be a bespoke and highly curated institution, you may be missing the point.
Consider some of England's oldest and most sought-after Savile Row bespoke tailors like Ede & Ravenscroft est 1689, Gieves and Hawkes est 1771, Henry Poole & Co est 1806 or Davies & Son est 1803. If I had a Shirt and Suit made from any of them, with my 181 cm and 125 kg it would strictly follow the same manufacturing process to make a shirt or suit even with your unique measurements. Each garment they produce follows the same process. Whether it’s mass manufacturing or hand-tailored bespoke offerings the basic and underlying process is the same, it’s just the ingredients whether it's a horsehair full canvas or a fused nylon canvas and the mechanics. The other thing is, you know it's going to take a while, it’s like clockwork. They don't take on more work than they can handle, hence why they charge a high price.
The closest we have to mass manufacturing in Freemasonry is double or triple candidates for a degree conferral, or if you are in the USA blue lightning or Master Masons to 32nd Degree in a couple of months for AASR. This is just like buying a fast fashion suit where they skip some steps in the process, cut corners and make it out of cheap materials (reading the ritual). For Education it's making the students sit in an online course and watch videos, then giving them a participation award whether they learned something or actually can walk away with the skills and ability to apply, correct, even remember what they learned.
The point I want to make here is this. Look at the length of time those Universities and Bespoke Tailors have been in business. Look at how many big chain organisations have been in business whether it's a supermarket, hardware store, swedish furniture, or fast food restaurant. What do they all have in common? They have a repeatable system that they follow every single time that produces repeatable and consistent results of a certain quality within a defined timeframe.
How many education institutions, fashion brands or any business in general? Those who don’t follow a strict system that produces repeatable and consistent results of a certain quality within a specific and defined time frame.
What do we do at Lodge?
Multiple candidates in a degree, variable quality of work, putting someone through a degree to give the lodge a live candidate, just doing first degrees, just memorise the card, Candidate to Master Mason in lightning fast time, 32nd Degree from Master Mason without having been in the Chair let alone Most Wise Sovereign.
But despite all of these cut corners on what the system of moral education tells us, the one that is the biggest pain point is leaving someone to their own devices to tell us not only when they’re ready, but what they want to be educated on. We wonder why we can’t engage & retain members, we are leaving it up to them to engage with us. Then we say we need to retain them and we have retention issues. You don’t say we have problems.
But you get out as much as you put in. That does no one any favours.
When we initiate someone, they are Apprenticed to a Master and the Lodge. Imagine if you ran a building company, do you think you'd ever be successful if you just kept hiring apprentices and letting them decide when they wanted to learn their trade? No, they go to a technical college that progresses them through their trade, the Master tradesman they’re apprenticed to has a curriculum they need to make sure to take them through. There is no, when you are ready to pick up your hammer and chisel have a go at shaping the stone. What do they do? “We need to build this temple, so here is a hammer, here is a chisel, here is how to use them” and they take them through a process.
I have ranted long enough to make the point about the need to strictly follow the system of Freemasonry to solve the membership issue. So here it is.
The System of Freemasonry
When I was working out the mathematics and pattern behind the system of Freemasonry, what I found is when you kept the system within a cycle it works and there are no conflicts. Breaking the cycle sends the whole system into chaos and the meeting which constantly breaks the cycle is the Installation meeting.
Holding the Installation at a set month of each year can break the cycle because it creates an uneven number of meetings to be able to conferr a degree. This is where I was reminded about how Universities have a summer break. This is what prompted me to realise that perhaps the genius behind the how English Lodges also have a summer break is to enable the system to mathematically work.
But what do I meant by a cycle? Well, this is quite simply the performance of all three degrees in a consecutive order being 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 3rd, 2nd 1st. One thing with a cycle is that within a 3 month period all three degrees must be performed. You can’t do multiple of the same degree. This allows some variation and flexibility without introducing too much chaos. Its important to keep to the cycles as otherwise the system breaks.
Keeping everything within cycles allows you to schedule your future degree work very easily, you know what you are doing in advance. So do the Officers, Candidates & Mentors. When you get a candidate for Freemasonry you can schedule in his Initiation based upon when your next available 1st Degree is, and if you stick to cycles, his 2nd Degree and 3rd Degree are then also scheduled in. Everyone then has a curriculm and a system to follow.
I will come back to what happens when you don’t have a candidate for a degree a little later. But let’s now look at the number of meetings. I am going to propose a few solutions here to keep the system functioning without introducing any chaos and keeping it in order.
Option 1: 12 Meetings a Year, plus Installation = 4 Cyclces
Option 2: 12 Meetings a Year, then Installation
Option 3: 10 Meetings a Masonic including Installation
I looked at all the different potential patterns for which a Lodge could follow and time and time again, where a masonic year didn’t have a multiple of 3 for Degree conferrals, it just didn’t work.
There was also the realisation that the candidate curriculm needs to be able to fit into this cadence as well, and what sealed these three options for me is they need to still be working through the curriculm during meetings where a higher degree is being conferred. Without working through the lectures on meetings of a higher degree, they are left to not having anything to do, and thus, there is no benefit of attending.
Let me break each of these options down so we can understand what constitues a Year. In Freemasonry we have a Masonic Year comprising the period between Installations, so when I say a year, I mean Masonic Year unless otherwise stated. Also, for all intents and purposes, I am starting the year in January, but substitute January for the 1st Meeting in the Masonic Year.
Option 1: 12 Meetings a Year, plus Installation
For every month of the year there is a Regular Meeting held on a specific date, such as the 1st Wednesday of the month. In this option, every month from January to December there is a Regular Meeting which a Degree is conferred on a candidate.
The Installation is held as an Extra Meeting on a completely different date, maybe its the 3rd Wednesday or it could be a Saturday. But, its treated similar to an Emergent Meeting. However, one thing to note with the Installation in this option is that it is always held after a 3rd Degree in a Cycle and before the 1st Degree of the next cycle.
Holding the Installation between a 3rd and 1st, or the end of one and the start of the next cycle is so the officers can have completed all three degrees in each cycle before they move forward in their progression.
Going with Option 1 provides 4 cycles of work, so a Lodge can Initiate 4 new Masons each year as well as perform the Second and Third Degrees each four times. The Candidate Curriculm doesn’t break and continues.
Here the meeting pattern looks like this:
You will notice for Candidate 1, come the next January in the month column, you are repeating the process again.
Option 2: 12 Meetings a Year, then Installation
This option is very similar to Option 1, but with a major difference at the end of four cycles within a year. After completing 4 cycles of degrees and 12 monthly meetings the next month is the Installation, ie Month 13 or Month 0. Then the 12 monthly meetings starts again.
With Option 2, the Installation Month is constantly changing and a Masonic Year is deemed as 12 monthly meetings. If you take January as Month 1 in the series, then December is the 12th, then the meeting in January is the Installation or 13th Month, with February then becoming Month 1 in the next Masonic Year.
This allows you to complete 4 cycles of work and have the Installation as a seperate monthly meeting. Like before, 4 cycles means 4 Initiations. The sequence is:
I have depicted this a little simpler than the previous, because essentially the cycle repeats. However, its important to note that with an Installation being Month 13 or Month 0 — you have to break the curriculm, so the Candidates get a break in the time between the Installation and the Regular meetings before resuming their studies and progression.
This is my preferred option because it takes into account that Progressive Office is Higher Education in Freemasonry. Officers get the full 12 months of meetings, performing each degree 4 times and that is more than sufficient to learn & develop in their roles.
Having the Installation after the completion of the full sequence of meetings elevates it for everyone, all officers can look back at the completion of their higher studies of the previous year.
Option 3: 10 Meetings a Masonic including Installation
In this option, you have 3 cycles of each degree, ie 9 months then an Installation in the 10th month after, you have a summer break of 2 months.
In this option, while the Lodge is on Summer Break from working, the Officers would not be having a holiday, in that two month “break” you’d expect them to be spending that time meeting informally with rehearsals and practices to learn their new roles because they have less opportunity to develop with one less cycle than the previous two options.
Like Option 2, where you break for an Installation, the Candidates also get a break for Installation along with the Summer Break.
I am not really a fan of this, because having an extended break of what adds up to be 4 actual months of no Masonry is a big hurdle where you’d expect to have significant risk of not getting them back for the next year. Atferall, unlike a university you don’t need to become a Master Mason to start your career.
Candidate Curriculm
As I mentioned earlier, a big problem is we don’t treat Freemasonry like an education institution, which at its heart it is. unskilled workmen go in, masters of the trade come out. This means candidates need to follow a curriculmn. Yes, this means they will need to sit exams, but this isn’t new, we already do this being the preliminary examination of each degree.
My preference would be Option 2, because you have that minor break and each of the officers are also progression through a 12 meeting program and advancing they complete a masonic year while having had the opportunity to learn and perform each degree four times.
Now, any course or education needs content. The beauty is, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Why? We have the sectional lectures which were used historically to educate brethren on the Degree. As I have written previously our Degrees are two parts, a ceremony and a lecture. We will basically follow the sectional lectures with each section being material to study over the month in between meetings, but with minor exception for the period between the closing of the degree conferral to the next monthly meeting.
The Degree Lectures or Sectional Lectures as we know them consist of:
7 Sections in the First Degree Lecture
5 Sections in the Second Degree Lecture
3 Sections in the Third Degree Lecture
At first you may find that the number of sections doesn’t play nice in the system of Freemasonry, even though 3, 5 and 7 are Masonic Numbers.
Here is a little tidbit if you will indulge me.
Initially I thought the sections of the third degree lecture was a little light, and that it really needed more sections. But, let’s cast our minds back to the signifigance of 3, 5 and 7 in Masonry:
3 Rule a Lodge in reference of the 3 Masters that hed sway, but also, it is Master Masons who as Wardens or as an Installed Master, rules the lodge. Hence 3 sections to the 3rd Degree Lecture.
5 Hold a Lodge, being the 3 that rule the lodge and 2 Fellow Crafts, which is why there are 5 sections to the 2nd Degree Lecture
7 or more make it perfect, where 2 Entered Apprentices are added to those already named. Hence the reason why there are 7 sections in the First Degree Lecutre.
Ok, back on track.
One of the shifts will be in terms of how long does it take someone to become a Master Mason. At the moment, we base this upon the conferral of the degree, except while this is what makes them a Master Mason, it doesn’t make them proficient in the degree. So the shift is to actually bring forwards to 3rd Degree conferral to Month 9, with the view they will need to complete the three 3rd Degree lectures to be proficient in the degree before being awarded their Master Mason certificate.
If we look at the Degree Cycle being 1st, 2nd, 3rd — here is how the Brothers Degree progression fits into the degree cycle:
First Cycle, First Degree
Second Cycle, Second Degree
Third Cycle, Third Degree
Fourth Cycle, Certificate
This might seem “too fast” for a candidate to progress, such being made a Master Mason at 9 months, however, while this seems counter initutitive, it’s actually the right way to go about it. They still take 12 months to be proficient, but to become such, they first need the content of the 3rd Degree and they can’t get that without receiving the degree itself. If you don’t agree, look at what happens now, does any Master Mason actually learn about the third degree after the closing of the Lodge on his raising? Be honest, msotly no. The Third Degree Ceremony as seen as the climax of their journey so far, and not start of the next step to complete the work neccessary to earn their certificate as a Master Mason.
If you still don’t agree, the Third Degree Ceremony is only the culmination of learning of the previous two degrees, they still haven’t learned from the third. They’re now at liberty to make the circle of their masonic knowledge complete, but do they? no.
Let’s now look at how the Candidate Curriculum comes together with the Degree Cycles. Notice something peculiar, especially around how it all comes together?
In the cycle, the month where a higher degree is being conferred on someone else, the candidate has two studies. The first study is to be delivered either at Rehearsal, the Management Meeting or a time mtually convenient for both the Candidate and the Mentor.
The second study is the section listed second in the Content Cirrculumn. This is to be delivered at the Lodge meeting when a higher degree is being conferred.
Isn’t that peculiar how that works out mathematically, and that there is order to the system when you discover how the system is supposed to work. Also notice the beauty, while an Apprentice, when the Initiation in the Second Cycle Occurs, he only has 1 study as he will still be in the Lodge room to witness that Degree. As a Fellowcraft, he does the Third Section of the Section Degree Lecture while a Third Degree is being performed, but is then present in the Lodge Room for an Initiation and Passing.
Things to note:
For this system to work there are some things to note otherwise it wont work. Again, these will seem counter-intuitive but are neccessary to keep the system going. Remember, growth comes from following the system and keeping it in order and not introducing chaos, otherwise it fails. While it might not fail immediately, it will eventually.
How to start:
If you haven’t done a degree in a while, start from 1st Degree and get into your cycles of 1st, 2nd, 3rd. If you just had a degree, whatever would be next in your cycle, do that.
When you don’t have a Candidate
You don’t need a ‘live’ candidate for the system to work. Do exemplifications. Put through the Brother who last recieved that degree or who is next to be adanced, such as the 1st Degree in the Second Cycle and be the Brother who was Initiated in the First Cycle. Pick the IPM or a Past Master. Just do an exemplification.
You get a Candidate for Initiation
If you are performing exemplifications and then you get a candidate for Initiation, what you do depends on where you are in the bigger picture of the system. If you don’t have any other Candidates in the System, ie working towards their Second or Third, you can restart your cycles form the Initiation.
But if you have candidates already in the cycles and an initiation comes up, you must not break the cycle to Initiate him. This breaks the system. Instead, when you next have a vacancy for initiation in the cycles, is when he can be next initiated. No compromise in any way, no double degrees either. You must stick to the system.
How this becomes your Membership Process
Because everything is systematic, its part of your membership process. When speaking with prospective candidates for Freemasonry you can tell them exactly what will happen over their next 12 months in their journey:
Our next available Initiation is ____, this would mean your Second Degree is ____ , Third Degree is _____ and Master Mason Certificate is ______. In order to progress through the degrees and earn your certificate you’d need to do ______.
Here you can spell out the exact process he’d go through. What, that’s too much for him. Good. You’ve saved yourself initiating something that isn’t ready or will not work out in the long run. If you set the expectations upfront and spell everything out with the dates, curriculum and when it’s asll meant to happen, he is under no illusion as to what he’s committing to and you have that commitment from him as well.
The system is designed to ensure quality Masons, not quantity.
Double Degrees or Emergent Meetings
No. One candidate per Degree, no emergent meetings.
The Geniuses of the System for Officers
This is not explicitly mentioned in the System of Freemasonry, but one of the critical elements of going through these degree cycles with such regiment is to ensure the learning and development of the Officers and Brethren.
If your lodge is just doing work as it comes up, then your Officers will never become proficient in each Degree. There will be this constant learning and relearning of the degree when you have work. Freemasonry is supposed to be a flywheel not a stop start process.
Sticking to the System means that someone who starts progressive office at Inner Guard and does each degree 4 times before moving up, he will absolutely know his stuff across all three degrees in his role. This is the same with every officer, and it also allows them time to learn, refine and perfect their work.
The genius of progressive office is that each office is a curriculm on its own for deeper knowledge of each Degree. Ceremonies will be far more enjoyable when the work is performed to a high standard because everyone will be match fit in their work.
Learning the next office will be less difficult because they’ve seen it all done several times before and not maybe once if they’re lucky.
Something else that makes this genius is that Brethren can have an opportunity to learn the charges as well. Each Degree is scheduled in a cycle so someone can learn a new charge knowing they have to set amount of time and a date of when they need to learn it by.