Uh huh. Thought so. Or is it you just can’t type “yes” because your hands are up?
As the hopefully-retiring Secretary of one Lodge (I am retiring in a second as of September), I put addresses of blogs and podcasts in the last several of our notices. Despite my constant complaint that members don’t read notices, the S.W. actually clicked on a URL in one, found the L.A. Times article and read it in Lodge. The only problem was he did it on a degree night and the members didn’t have time to discuss it.
Which brings us to the point of today’s blog missive.
Greg Stewart in California has come up with another edition of his postcast, which can be found HERE. His guest is Tim Bryce, whose stones may be found in virtual Masonic library buildings around the globe.
In the first half hour, he discusses some relevant stuff:
• The future of the Shrine
• What True Freemasonry is
• Participation and Communication
Some of Tim’s conclusions I agree with (his theory about the Shrine seems inevitable for the reasons he mentions) while some of his experiences are totally foreign in my jurisdiction (assorted cease-and-desist orders, opposition to Prince Hall recognition). However, it’s interesting to listen to.
I did mention to Greg that the show takes too long to get started. There’s no need for a huge introduction and then guests to list umpteen credentials before getting into the meat of the discussion. Broadcaster Val Geller wrote The Powerful Radio Workbook, which lists some common-sense ideas of doing a talk format, some of which would apply to a podcast.
A Master shouldn’t waste someone’s time in a Lodge meeting. Pod Masters shouldn’t do the same thing in their Pod Lodge.
The other thing that struck me as disconcerting is that voices came out of nowhere. For example, that
The nice thing about the podcast is you can listen back to it when you have the chance.
The disadvantage of a podcast isn’t the podcast itself. The keeper of the Grand Lodge of B.C. and Yukon web site was remarking to me yesterday that there are all kinds of Masonic discussion fora (forums, if you prefer) and blogs that he checks out; some of which have been left fallow and untouched by their owners for months and months. Someone gets all excited about a Masonic blog or website, puts it up, and then loses his enthusiasm not long afterwards. A podcast is no different. I hope Greg and his crew are able to sustain their efforts for the foreseeable future.
P.S.: Further to my opening line, is it true that there are jurisdictions in the U.S. where members get absolutely no written notification of a Lodge meeting and what’s to occur at it, such as balloting or degrees?
8 comments:
Yes, it is true; I'm in one. Here, if one was present at the last meeting, one can be reasonably current on what will occur next time. If a member hasn't attended for a while, though - forget it - he has no idea what is to occur until he shows up.
The problem here against changing from our no-notice format is two-fold,
1. Not everyone (code for guys raised before 1974) has The Internet; and,
2. We can't spend all that money on postage mailing notices out.
Personally, I think an agenda of some type, circulated via email and carrier pigeon would boost attendance, but so far, I am in the minority.
Wayf, I don't know if it would boost attendance. Lodges in British Columbia are Constitutionally required to notify all members five days in advance of any meeting (funerals excepted) and attendances are still too low.
The cost of the mailing is simply one of the necessary expenses a Lodge must bear, like rent and Grand Lodge fees, though Lodges have been able to use e-mail notices for about five years now.
Considering all this "guard the west gate" talk, how can members do that if they don't even know there's a ballot and upon whom they are balloting?
(And where does "west gate" come from? It's never used in the ritual to refer to the entrance of a candidate).
In my area of Conn, we don't send out notices previous to a meeting. Some lodges send out monthly trestleboards (newsletters) and some send them out quarterly. A few are now going to electronic PDF versions, and we just started that and are trying to do it monthly.
But T-boards are newsletters, and are a month behind the times. Only rarely do lodges send out advance notices, generally not for candidates, but on spending capital funds or doing other expensive projects. In fact, in Conn you can not put a candidate's name on your T-board until after he has been voted in.
As to the podcast the other day, I missed the first one and came in only halfway into the second one, and I made an assumption as to how things were working based on how Cory Sigler and I ran The Working Tools casts a few months ago.
I'm sure those little details will get worked out. Oh, and dont' forget that in 2 weeks, I'll be the guy on the hotseat. I have yet to understand why anybody would want my opinions - around here I can't give them away.
Thanks for the mention and the advice. Its something I'm going to try and weave in on the next show. As all of us are non broadcast professionals, I think we managed to do pretty well :) you woudl of gasped at our first few attempts, so I have to admit we are really trying to hammer it down into something solidstate.
I have to admit though, as much as I am on the web, my lodge has been terribly resistant to adding some of the electronic functionality. Even an online calendar to keep current with whats going on (a degree night, shrine visit, etc) I think change is just very hard to implement unless one or two brothers are completely behind it, and even then are willing to push it up hill to put it in place.
As longevity goes, I think we will be around for a while, at least while we have something interesting to say. Who know, maybe we'll get into making videos at some point. If anything else it ads to the material culture of the Masonic ephemera. In a hundred years, like we do with Pike now, brothers will listen back and wonder what we meant exactly.
In the meantime, its great fun. Thanks for listening and the good advice.
Greg
masonictraveler.blogspot.com
masoniccentral.blogspot.com
I defer to your experience in the matter, but would only say that if we put on the agenda that we planned to spend $8.65 on some shelf brackets, we would get at least 35 guys who are over 70 show up to explain to us the meaning of the word "profligate." And that's better than nothing, right?
We refer to the west gate only once, and over a tyled beer, I'd be happy to talk to you about it.
In my Lodge in Minnesota, we are not required to send out a newsletter. During a period of 3-4 months, we neglected to write a newsletter. All of a sudden, we received to responses: 1) Where did the newsletter go? and 2) a precipitous drop in the brothers that came.
However, adding the website, we have been getting inquiries about the Lodge and other Lodge events. It is important to keep the Brothers informed, then you have to get the right activities. Communication is just one piece, but it is a very important piece. I agree that mailing is expensive but it is also a great way for en to remember, when the only mail a person normally receives is a bill or two, a letter is a welcome change.
Although we do not currently send out summonses, I would like to re-introduce the practice to my lodge. Although we send out Via email and snail mail a trestleboard when our WM deceides to give us a message from the East (which is sometimes like pulling teeth),it is, like previosly stated dated although we do put future planned meetings on it. I also keep our lodges website as up to date as possible, even though the majority of my brethren are casual internet users at best, and that is stretching it! Being a habitual collector of masonic books that are filled with pictures of old summonses, I would like to restart the practice.
At 27 cents a post card (the current USPS price) it would add up to a cost of $540.00 a year (2 meetings a month times ten months) which will probably be shot down by the guys who always bring up "where is that money going to come from!" Which I think is unfortunate. I think the summons adds a classy meaningful reminder to the brethren that stuff is going on at the old lodge.
3M - you could probably have a list of guys who would be just fine with getting email, and possibly saving some postage. We mailed out the first Tboard in Jan, and out of almost 200 people, almost half asked for a PDF to save postage. Obviously, we have a younger group of guys who can use those computer thingies; I know that not everyone wants to bother.
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