DDGM Messages for 2005-2006

State of Masonry in Brant District:  Observations as DDGM

I feel you can classify the lodges of the District into four categories:

1.   Lodges that are very active with new memberships and visit throughout the District.
2.   Lodges that are very active with new memberships but do not visit the other Lodges of the District
3.   Lodges that visit around the District but are not very active with new memberships.
4.   Lodges that do not visit and are not able to attract new members.

What category do you feel your lodge falls into? Do you see a way for your Lodge to move to a number one from a number two three or four? What do you feel it would take to make such a move? Does your Lodge have a plan in place to take you there? What are the goals for your lodge next year or five years down the road? These are all questions we need to ask and answer if Masonry is going to thrive in Brant District .

There was for a period of time this year that there were no Lodges in Brant District meeting in Brantford , the largest populated area of the District. Brantford at one time supported four lodges. There is still only one lodge that meets in Brantford with one lodge working diligently to return to Brantford . It is important to keep the meeting place close to the members or they will have trouble getting to the meetings and attendance will suffer. Once it is lost, it seems very hard to get the members to come back out without considerable effort. It was not that many years ago that we lost Doric Lodge from our District in a fashion that was of no benefit to anyone. To allow a lodge to go into darkness is not a good option for its members. Amalgamation seems to be a word that arouses all kinds of images and emotions in the minds of the Brethren, but lets face some facts. If we are faced with a Lodge going into darkness, we should do every thing possible to see if we could amalgamate it with another Lodge. This would allow us to keep a good portion of the membership and still have those Brethren in the Fraternity and it would add strength to the Lodge they join. It would not surprise me if we will be faced with this fact in the future, which means we should be prepared and be able to handle the situation when it arises.

It is extremely important for our Lodges to be able to attract new members to our Fraternity. The cost of operating the Lodge and the building continues to escalate and will continue with the cost of heat, hydro, postage and taxes. Most of the dues structure in the Lodges are set to take care of the operational expenses but very little is put aside for major repairs and that can become very burdensome to the Lodge as the cost of repairs have gone the same way as the other costs. Trying to maintain the functionality of the Lodge by affiliations to the Lodge will help in the short term but is not the long-term solution. Lodge affiliations from outside the District if the Brother moves into the area will be a help but if there are affiliations from outside the District without a move to the District it becomes very hard to get them to participate in the District and more importantly to get them to feel as if their Lodge is part of the District because there is a lot of the members that still have an attachment to the District where they originally joined. We should work diligently to make the Brethren from all lodges feel they belong to Brant District .

The Lodges of the District should feel they could approach the Master, Past Masters and Wardens association if there are issues in their Lodges they need help with to find a suitable solution. The Master, Past Master and Wardens Association should become an organization that can function as an advisory committee to the Lodges of the District. Some of the Lodges are able to attract new members and the M, PM & W Assoc. could disseminate information that these Lodges are doing to attract members to the other Lodges and see if it works for them. The Master, Past Masters, and Wardens Association has a vast amount of knowledge and experience we are not taking advantage of to continue to make our Fraternity stronger for the future. However, I would be really dreaming to think this would be an easy task to achieve. Possibly there could be a meeting in late October set up for the Masters Wardens and Secretaries of the Lodges to meet with the Master, Past Masters and Wardens Assoc. to discuss the state of their Lodges before the start of all the installations in December and January, then a second meeting could take place in late June after all the new Masters are installed. This would create some unique interaction in the District and add some unity at the same time.

Brethren, these are just some thoughts and observations from my year of travel around the District as your representative to Grand Lodge. I have to make a report to Grand Lodge on the state of Masonry as I see it in Brant District but I also feel that I owed you a brief report, as many of you will not likely see the report submitted to Grand Lodge. While I am the Grand Master's Representative, I feel that there are things we are far more capable of doing in a timely fashion that may take Grand Lodge to long to put into action to help us in Brant District. If we can maintain open lines of communication between the Lodges and The Masters, Past Masters and Wardens Association, we can solve the problems that each Lodge thinks is unique to them.

I would like to end with one more thought for our District Brethren: "If it is to be, it is up to me."