Is your lodge a tenant in another order's building?
Doug Freyburger
each other. Do you know of a lodge that rents from a non-profit other
than another Masonic lodge?
My lodge is a tenant in a building owned by another lodge a couple of
towns over. The tenants include several Masonic groups and at least two
non-Masonic non-profits. Those non-Masonic tenants has gotten me
thinking.
We are Arlington Heights lodge and we'd like to move back to the
village of Arlington Heights. There are currently no Masonic halls in
the village of Arlington Heights. A few years ago we sold our building
and split the proceeds with the other Masonic order that co-owned the
building with us. Because we only have half of the money from the sale
of our building and even with the current real estate market it's
unlikely we could purchase a commercial property under foreclosure and
rebuild it to suit us. To move back to our own home territory we would
need to become a tenant in someone else's building.
I know that at least Knights of Columbus, Moose and American Legion own
their own buildings in our home territory. If I looked I would likely
find a Veterans of Foreign Wars and an Elks lodge. I don't think I've
seen an Odd Fellows hall within the entire Chicago metro area so I don't
think there's one in our suburb. Very likely one of them has Mondays
available and would be willing to take us in as tenants with a low
fraternal discount rate.
I wonder what restrictions there are in various jurisdictions when it
comes to renting from another non-profit. I think Illinois AF&AM GL
rules would forbid us from renting from an order that has a liquor
license. I'll check with the Grand Secretary's office to be certain. I
wonder if it is time to submit legislation to allow that. This month is
the best time to submit legislation for the Annual Communication in
October.
Fraternal regards,
Doug Freyburger
PM 2007-8 Arlington Heights 1162 Illinois AF&AM current SD
PM 1999 Pasadena 272 California F&AM