Dues and.......
grac...@gmail.com
Dues are $160 a year and if we calculate rent, postage, GL dues,
districts dues, etc etc will end up at about $140.00 yearly.
We ask the brethren to donate for our banquet hour, and pay for all
visitors.
Having been on a long range planning commitee years ago, we certainly
are underpricing oursleves.
Finances for many lodges as far as I understand are in bad shape, due
to the reluctance of lodges to raise the annual dues for varied
reasons, none of which I find acceptible. a wide majority of lodges
have the means to commute the dues of a brother unable to pay the
dues.
Frats
Ben Gee
Ionic #25
York # 156
Toronto
Doug Freyburger
>
> Finances for many lodges as far as I understand are in bad shape, due
> to the reluctance of lodges to raise the annual dues for varied
> reasons, none of which I find acceptible. a wide majority of lodges
> have the means to commute the dues of a brother unable to pay the
> dues.
In the Shrine and Scottish Rite concordant bodies the dues
are set annually so they get adjusted for inflation.
I've suggested a by-laws change to have the craft lodge
dues adjusted for inflation based on the consumer price
index. The resulting language is more complex than
usually appears in lodge by-laws.
I've also suggested that the annual GL per capita be
added to the lodge dues rather than be subtracted from
them. Then at least the remaining portion drops in value
with inflation rather than dropping faster than inflation
because of per capita taking up a larger and larger
portion each year.
When I was raised in the mid-1990s I was handed a dues
bill for $35 or was it $40. I asked if that was the monthly
dues. Since then I've recommended to newly raised
brothers that they do treat it as monthly - The first month
covers the first year. Months 2-12 pay half of a life
membership. Month 13 pays for the second year. Months
14-24 complete the endowment amount for the life
membership. The trouble with life membership income is
it drifts up and down over time as interest rates track the
economy so if too many members become life members
at once there isn't enough current income to run the lodge
during years of low interest rates.
Torence
> I've also suggested that the annual GL per capita be
> added to the lodge dues rather than be subtracted from
> them. Then at least the remaining portion drops in value
> with inflation rather than dropping faster than inflation
> because of per capita taking up a larger and larger
> portion each year.
year and the Grand Lodge received 75� per capita for every member.
Using the consumer bundle on the price index, that equates to $32-$64
in Lodge dues per year in 2009 with $8 going to the Grand Lodge.
Lodges currently charge $35 (the state minimum) to $75 per year and
the Grand Lodge receives $10 in per capita. So these numbers prove
generally relative.
Some of us have worked very hard over the last quarter century to
keep the Grand Lodge portion from exceeding the old standard; and I
would not want to see this change anytime soon.
What affects the Lodges most negatively, however, are how each
maintain large roles of indolent names. Masons who attend no lodge and
therefore never really learn anything about our trademark principles
and tenets. The festivals produce hundreds of �Master Masons� who
neglect their lodges and pay no dues; but for whom each Lodge must pay
Grand Lodge per capita until the suspension process is executed.
Though a discordant voice was staunchly raised, we were
unsuccessful in the 1990�s to keep those Grand Lodge administrations
from mortgaging the future. The aggressive campaign to add Life
Members to the fifty year members have produced today�s roster with
very few Brothers actively supporting their lodges either in person or
from their wallets.
Aside from this discussion, however, the important note to realize
is that in 1920, degree fees were $100 in Chicago and $75 elsewhere
around the state. In 2009 the equivalent is $804-$1174 for degrees.
Yet, then, Masonry had no trouble attracting new material in huge
numbers. Something bad has happened to our work over these decades to
where most lodges feel sheepish about charging $150 for the degrees.
Even though today most lodges buy an apron, a Bible and either a
Monitor or the $15 Book of Standard Work as a �gift� to the new
candidate from his money. My lodge, like most lodges, rent. At $200 a
meeting night, candidates prove to be a loosing proposition. That is
why we always arrange for degrees to be done as multiples.
Now I am not supposing, here, that we increase degree fees to the
old standard; but it is important to realize where lodges used to
derive their income and how it is that so many were able to appoint
such large and magnificent buildings. One thing is certain, lodges are
going broke; and, we must rely on ourselves who will continue on this
earthly plain for a while longer to secure our future. We cannot
continue hosting leadership who are unemployable outside the
fraternity. Though honorable men, the realities of this new century
can only be adequately addressed by Laboring Age Men.
Fraternally,
Torence Evans Ake
Senior Deacon & Secretary Pro Tem � Auburn Park Lodge No. 789 � Crete,
Illinois
PM � Arcadia Lodge No. 1138 � Lansing, Illinois
cl_freemason
you are absolutely right.
we cheapen everything and then wonder why no one cares.
i would rather have a lodge of 10 brothers willing to spend $1,000 per
year on dues than 100 members unwilling to spend $50. not only would
the lodge have more money, but it would get a lot more done, it would
be worth something more than just a casual meal and the odd pancake
breakfast (yes, those are important elements, but they are NOT
masonry; masonry is, and always has been, a system of moral
instruction and self-improvement). After all "what came you hear to
do?" --- while I have heard a few variations in response, NONE of them
include "charity work, pancake breakfasts, reading minutes or spending
30 minutes discussing whether we should meet at the restaurant for
dinner before lodge or have someone bring sandwiches to the lodge"...
every WM, in IL, upon opening a Lodge is informed that he is in the E
to "set the craft to work and give them proper instruction"... when
was the last time this actually happened in your Lodge?
Sincerely, Fraternally and Respectfull,
Bro Jonathan
Nunda #169
Crystal Lake, IL
grac...@gmail.com
Funny thing happened on the way to the farm!!
We raised the dues, lost a minisicule amount of members ( like 3out of
90) and attendance picked up, and the lodge got stronger.
What we lost are people who in my humble opinion were of no interest
in the well being the lodge and malcontents.
If the brother can not afford dues, we have always paid his dues out
of our benevolent fund, so that not being able to pay should never be
a factor. Only the Master and ruler of the lodge (a/k/a the
secretary) are privy as to who and if anyone gets a helping hand, so
no one need to feel embarased. In today's economic times we need to
reach out to those in the craft, who might need some short term help
in paying the dues.
The way I see it, a lodge has to be put on a sound financle basis, or
the problem will linger on and and on.
When talkintg to new members, our initiatesfees of $500 seems to most
to be on the low side, according to them!!!!!
Is lodge worth a cup of coffee a day?
Skip a Timmmy or a Dunkin once a day, and presto, you can afford
$200-300 annual dues.
Beng
Ionic # 125
York # 156
Torence
> If the brother can not afford dues, we have always paid his dues out
> of our benevolent fund, so that not being able to pay should never be
> a factor.
though the conversation may be uncomfortable, our Charity Funds. Most
Grand Lodges pour out the fund to either the very young or the very
old. There is a huge gap for assistance for ages in between.
The conventional wisdom is that the very old need our help; but
today, the reality is that most of the burden that our club has
traditionally addressed is in large part being met by government. I
have always feared that the motivation for assisting youths was a
fundamentally un-Masonic one; that, supposedly, by spending our
Charity money on kids, we will entice them to later join our club.
We know from our instruction that Charity is not to be puffed up or
made to behave unseemly. (Interesting enough, though, the original
passage was about �Love.� �Love seeks not her own, etc. I wonder if
any jurisdiction that uses this passage in the circumambulation
retains the original �Love� wording.)
The hot political topic in America right now, of course, is health
care reform. We have three large groups of the demographic who receive
paid health care benefits, the old, the veterans and in some states,
children. The opponents of extending government health care benefits
to the rest of us often receive, themselves, Medicaid etc. They must
not believe that there is enough to go around, that they must
therefore hoard their benefit. But those of us who work and generate
the income that goes to these programs are left to either neglect our
health or suffer impoverishment. Even though we pay out of pocket for
health care insurance, many families are driven to bankruptcy and the
American Work Force has evaporated and is being extinguished in favor
of the idle.
For decades, in our jurisdiction, we have had an off again on again
battle to see that the Grand Lodge Charity Funds are only expended
only for their intended purpose. The current Grand Line Officers are
actually doing the right thing in selling off our Masonic Home and
redirecting the operation to an Outreach Program; though the steps
employed were not their best work. But for this new century, the
constituent lodges must assert themselves with the $140 million
remainder. What should it be used for?
Work is a fundamental Masonic tenet. We use the word extensively to
describe who we are and what it is that we do. Work is for us a real
and tangible worthwhile activity and ours is probably the only club
that reveres work and instills the desire to work in its members.
Shouldn�t our charitable efforts, therefore, go to the Laboring Age
Family Men who are struggling? And, if so, what form should twenty-
first Century Masonic Charity take?