PROCEEDINGS GRAND LODGE - Freemasons of Wisconsin

others. It is not that expensive compared to what you get out of it. Lodges have sodamachines and other things in there for fellowship. I encourage them to come downand play cards. Lot of times I cook at my lodges and I say hey brother I am here anhour before. If you want to come down and play cards, come on down because lodgenight ought to be a special night. It’s more than showing up and paying the bills andgoing home. We associate with good men.”Then you have to start asking your members, what do you want in your lodge. Somemight say lets do a survey, but surveys are worthless. If you mail out a survey to yourmembers, most will never respond. Only those that have kind of burr in their saddlewill fill out the form, which will give you a colored view of what is reality. One churchI was at, the chairman of the ad council said let’s send out surveys, so we did. We hadsome questions; do you want more Bible studies? Yes. Do you want a youth group? Yes.Do you want Sunday School? Yes. Do you want a second worship service? Yes. Do youwant a contemporary service? Yes. Then I asked the question of what part she wantedto participate. She answered, ‘none of the above.’ She answered all of the questionsbut didn’t really care. But if I talk to people one on one and ask them what they wantin the lodge, and maybe give a few ideas. In my lodge I had what I called a Warden’sCouncil. It was announced at every lodge meeting, then the officers would gather atdifferent homes and anybody could come. It was open. We would talk about what wewanted to do and make a plan. It united us. Why did we go to homes? A home is muchwarmer than the lodge hall. The lodge is neutral grounds, but if you go into a man’shome, you get to see what his hobbies are and meet his family. If you look around hishome you will see what his interests are and get to know him. That’s why yourinvestigating committee should go to the home and talk to the man and talk to thefamily. What does he want out of Freemasonry? What are his hobbies? What does helike to do? Where does he work? These are key element to getting people involved. Thatforms my foundation for the vision. Then I combine the goals and dreams, we developa plan together as a team and set a plan of action. We combine the finance,membership goals, activity plan, and dreams into one and then we start to put ittogether. Your job as Worshipful Master or lodge member is to help that lodge todevelop a plan that they will own. Now, say that you are just a Past Master sittinghere, you’re not an officer and you have a lodge in trouble. What do you do? Find twoother guys who think like you do and talk about the lodge and then begin to talk toothers about the idea. Build the groundwork. Talk positive, don’t’ talk people, talkideas and build upwards. You’ll know when you succeed when somebody stands upand takes credit for your idea. Then you can sit back and smile and go, yep, it caughton the vision.”Dues are a privilege of membership. When I am in Africa they never take up anoffering, they take up the blessing. I have been in churches that have taken fortyofferings in one service. They don’t just pass a plate, they have boxes up front and theydance to the front, singing and clapping and put their money in the box, because itis a privilege to give. We need to remind our brothers that paying our dues is aprivilege for being a part of this world’s greatest fraternity. That little card opensdoors of friendships around the world. How do you figure what your dues ought tobe? Take your operating expenses, divide them by the number of members and thatwill be your dues. If it is $5,000 and you have one hundred members, that’s $50 amember. Now, you are going to say, well my dues are $15 per year, I can’t afford $50.Don’t’ raise it the whole $50 overnight. I start a campaign at that place sayingbrothers, here’s our problem, I do the graphs, I show everybody where our financesare, and I talk to brothers individually. We have a period where we try to raise in86