I have often taken the liberty in this column to reflect on what I understand the outer teachings of Masonry to mean. In my monthly Esoterica column I  have  shared  my  research  into  the  inner  teaching  aspects.  Through  this  process I have educated myself on what it means to me to be a Freemason, and I hope that every now and then I’ve hit on something that resonates with your own personal understanding of what being a Mason means to you.

As I read other Master’s columns in other lodge’s Trestleboards, I see the sentiments and concepts I have shared here are not unique. I am not special or different than any other master from time immemorial when it comes to our deep love and commitment for our Gentle Craft and our fraternity of brotherhood and sharing what that means to us in the Master’s Column. The Trestleboard exists as an opportunity for the Master of a lodge to form thought among our brothers that goes beyond announcements of degrees and dinners.

I encourage all Masters to create a culture that involves Masonic education at  stated  meetings,  and  thoughts  from  the  east  in  the  Trestleboard  about  what being a Freemason means to you or our forebears.

It  is  interesting  to  me  that  there  should  be  an  organization  like  ours  that  engenders  deep  conviction  and  commitment  and  yet  is  not  a  faith  based  religion. Our commitment to our fraternity stems from the understanding that  we  are  collectively  repositories  of  a  set  of  great  secrets  that  hold  the  salvation  of  our  very  existence  as  humans  on  this  planet.  Knowing  this  information,  we  can’t  help  but  work  towards  the  enlightenment  of  the  entire human species that we may live in balance with our planet and see to the health and prosperity of all humans so that each may have the same AS THE SUN RISES IN THE EASTWORSHIPFUL MASTERMICHAEL McKEOWN
opportunity to become awakened to our True nature. The goal of Masonry to achieve civility around our realm can be achieved.

But in order for us to continue our work towards our centuries long mission objective we must first and foremost grow our membership. I don’t know the number, but I’m sure it is a small percentage of the men that become Masons that continue their Masonic education in the York and Scottish Rites, perhaps join a research body and write papers, and really become educated on what being a Freemason is all about. These few are often powerful men. Some of them become the Esoteric Elite that actually influence change in the world.

It’s a numbers game. We need to make a lot of men Masons. We need these good men to be officers in our lodges and in their turn do the work of making good men Masons. We need to proactively mine our local society for good men. We need to make Freemasonry sound relevant, which isn’t a hard sell if articulated; in other words, spoken about.

I am quite sure Freemasonry will never die per se., but if we don’t become engaged with growing our membership we will dwindle to insignificance and fail in our mission of bringing about a global civilization that lives in harmony with nature and civility with each other. Gone are the days when all we had to do was quietly do good work in our community and thereby attract good men. Today the rate of membership growth from that marketing method is not keeping up with declining participation from existing membership. I conjecture that there may be a root reason for both.

This challenge is not unique to our Fraternity. Membership of the church I attend has fallen to the point of barely surviving, and we were recently told that active membership has fallen precipitously globally. Rotary is struggling with active membership, hobby clubs are struggling. A reason might be the motivation behind the Great Resignation. I think people have learned that free time is more valuable than money and instead of asking “how much can I earn despite the commute and effort” they’re asking “how little do I need in  order  to  live  somewhere  inexpensive  and  have  free  time?”.  To  actually  have to, like, go somewhere to a meeting is maybe a rough sell today. The reason had better be compelling.

And Freemasonry’s reason to join and be active is compelling. I am convinced we  are  relevant  and  can  attract  good  men.  But  we  need  to  articulate  our  message and we need to broadcast ourselves. I think we need to pull out all the stops in order to grow our membership in a sustainable way. To this end I encourage our lodge in the coming few years, and by extension all the other lodges that read my missives, to increase your marketing efforts. Some ideas:

Buy a year of a classified ad in the local newspaper.

Attend  Chamber  of  Commerce  mixers,  and  when  in  public  please  unabashedly advertise yourself as members of one of our world’s most ancient and mysterious organizations by wearing your lodge jacket.

See if you can have your lodge’s logo art on file with an embroidery service so that a brother can go have his own choice of clothing embroidered rather than doing an expensive bulk buy of matching jackets. We need our colors out there in public, and the style of the jackets or shirts we wear do not have to match, so long as there’s a nice big square and compass on the back with the lodge name.

Have a booth at fairs, whether it be the fair at the fair grounds or street festivals. If Child ID is no longer a need with the advent of cell phone apps and Covid concerns, then  just have an information booth with a candy bowl.

Those of you that are already checking in on Facebook when at lodge events may be the ones to step up and show others how to do it. Post special events and  dinners  on  Facebook  so  that  followers  will  see  the  notices. 

Consider  advertising  on  local  listing  type  pages  like  Next  Door  and  Facebook  Marketplace.

Hold a once a year public lodge tour and education day/evening/hour. Choose  a  day  that  can  be  the  same  day  every  year  so  that  it  becomes  a  regular local event.

Make sure some brothers attend the youth sports your lodge buy signs at. In your lodge jacket of course.

PUBLIC BREAKFAST: I encourage our lodge and all lodges to consider a once a month public breakfast and advertise it with a permanent banner or sign in front of the lodge and in the lodge’s classified ad and on social media. People may love your old building but have no idea it’s a Masonic lodge. A banner from the second floor: “Masonic Breakfast Every Second Sunday” let’s everyone know. I believe the concept of a Sunday breakfast used as a marketing tool is as ancient as our very institution. There is nothing wrong in giving it a try. If a lodge can afford to hire out the cooking, great. Breakfasts  are  not  expensive,  and  the  investment  is  worth  even  one  new  active brother every now and then.

Of paramount importance at such an event is the lodge officers must speak, no matter how briefly, with guests. Don’t flood them with information about
Freemasonry; just be friendly and welcoming. Make being a Freemason look inclusive.

Make us look like Masonry attracts normal, healthy men. Masons are good, sane, safe, sober, moral, prudent people. Not everyone looks for drinking buddies when considering joining a fraternity, and there exists other clubs for better fulfill that need, so keep the booze on the down-low; let’s first make our guests friends. I’m not sure the promise of good times at the bar after a Masonic meeting is as powerful an attractant to join Freemasonry as the promise of saving our planet’s human population from strife, so share our  mission.  Share  why  you  are  commited  for  life  as  a  Freemason.  Share  what wearing your ring means to you.

Pull out all the stops. Everything we currently are doing to market ourselves needs to be taken to the next level.

Remember that while we can not ask anyone to join Freemasonry, there is nothing wrong with telling a good man that he is the kind of man that would make a good Mason. Let them know that no one will ask them to join our fraternity, that if they have interest they themselves must ask. People don’t know what they don’t know.

Masonry strives to achieve civility in the world, not by preaching or teaching about  it,  but  by  bringing  about  the  enlightenment  of  mankind  so  that  civility is the result.  Masonry brings to the world a method by which we can accomplish this goal. The method involves the recognition, by personal experience  (not  a  belief ),  that  we  are,  at  our  core,  collectively  a  single  awareness. The hundred monkey model shows that when enough members of a species learn something new, knowledge of that thing becomes accepted, recognized, and known by the entire species. When the preponderance of the human population realizes who we really are, the Masonic goal of civility in the world will be immediately created.We need Master Masons. We need a ground swell of growth. The world needs our  message  to  become  integrated  with  society,  and  that  takes  numbers,  not  a  dwindling  club  from  a  soon  bygone  era.  Let’s  make  the  square  and  compass widely recognized as an organization of good men that supports their community, and which, pssst, happens to hold at it’s core some of our world’s most enduring secrets.