Oh, you mean like Masonic Education? I saw the list allowed by our GL for instruction during Lodge meetings. It consists of the Laws, rules, and regulations, and a few (and I mean VERY few) boring little bits of education regarding etiquette and the like. They put the Kabosh on everything else.
In my Lodge, we have a Budget and Finance Committee, composed of SD (chair), JW and JD. Additionally the Secretary and Treasurer are nonvoting members. It gives the Lodge an opportunity to plan overall what the budget should be, and be able to hold funds for things that may be expected near the end of the fiscal year, when the brethren present may have eroded the funds on hand down to very little.
Well acquainted with Laudable Pursuit. Printed several copies and handed them out. Comments were from"nice, won't work here" to just handing it back.
Myself and another Bro tried this. At the first meeting there was 5 of us, second, 3, last three just me and the other Brother who started it.IMHO....do not have Masonic Education on "Bill paying night".....Have a seperate night for education.....then you can break up into groups....have EA education and FC education and MM Education going on.......or what is most needed....
Steve......( NO "I")
Okay, granted - the buildings can be a burden. That is most certainly true. However, some of us are fortunate enough to have buildings of great beauty and architectural importance. There's gotta be room for everybody, yes? Those of us who want to keep our buildings should be able to AND form powerful and meaningful Lodges. There just HAS to be a way!
Unfortunately, no. According to the Wisconsin work (the Alaska work and the Texas work), all money going out of the Lodge must be paid with the consent of the Brethren. As long as that is the case, it takes an assembled Lodge to pay the bills.
Now this idea is wonderful. I've also toyed with the idea of approaching a Master and presenting them with the idea that the minutes, the treasurer's report, the list of bills to pay, etc. (in other words, the boring grunt work) be published in the monthly Trestleboard and distributed well in advance of the Stated Meeting so that when we meet, we can just do an action vote on that stuff and not waste lots of time on it. Wisconsin (Alaska and Texas, too) makes it difficult to just have 'fun' meetings: petitions must be read, interview committees assigned, blahblahblah. But at least some of the drudgery could be contained, if not eliminated. And a Festive Board sounds very, very nice.
There is. We don't have too many Lodges, we have too many buildings. Why must every Lodge who has 6 guys that come together once a month to pay the bills have their own building. Some Lodges have beautiful buildings and they operate in a manner that it is not such a burden. And maybe it is cost prohibitive, if so, then those Lodges should become central Masonic buildings, accomodating several Lodges. Maybe even to the point that they are used almost every night for some Lodge's activities or meetings.
True, but a detailed study of the Code will show you how to accomplish it with the least amount of time devoted to it at Lodge.
F'sure!!!
That's just pathetic. What's wrong with people?
It does, Brother. My Lodge does not have a building. When we decided to turn things around, that was a major point. We use rooms at the Madison Club for our meetings. But we can meet wherever. We are doing very well financially!