How we can get Inactive Masons, back to lodge!

One interesting technique for bringing back inactive masons, is used in Virginia (and other places). It is called "Rusty Nail Night". A special dinner meeting is scheduled. ALL masons in your lodge, are invited. You go through your lodge records, and get the postal address, and phone number of all of the masons in your lodge who have not attended in the last 12 months ( or attended only sporadically). Every inactive Mason is sent a written invitaton and also telephoned and emailed. If any mason needs assistance in attending, like a ride to/from lodge, it is scheduled.

The dinner is served, and after the meal, all are invited into the lodge room. A brief class is held, to help the brothers through the various grips/signs/passwords, sort of a "refresher course". A BRIEF talk is made, on what the lodge is up to- How many new men are being made masons, what types of special activities are coming up in the next months. Basically all of the "rusty nails", are given a chance to polish up on their masonic skills, and brought up to date on the status of the lodge.

Each individual attendee is personally thanked by the WM, and invited back for all of the upcoming regular and stated meetings. All of his masonic records (address, phone, email) is updated. Every attendee is sent a personal "thank-you note" from the WM/Secretary, and a calendar of all of the upcoming events.

It is an axiom in politics- PEOPLE LIKE TO BE ASKED! Some men have been absent from lodge for so long, that they have possibly forgotten some of the signs/grips/passwords, and are too shy or embarrassed to attend. Some older men, may not be able to get out at night.

It is good psychology, to make people feel special. When you make a "fuss" over them, they will be so impressed, that they just might turn out to be regularly attending Masons again!

I urge you to discuss it with your WM, and see if your lodge can host a "Rusty Nail" night!!

Here is some additional information from Masonicworld.com

http://www.masonicworld.com/education/f ... degree.htm

Some states require that you get permission from the Grand Lodge, prior to scheduling this "degree". I believe that most Grand Lodges, would have no problem with your scheduling a "Rusty Nail Night", and not calling it a "degree".

If more inactive Masons, would become active again, it might serve to get Masonry growing again.

Thats a good idea to a ongoing problem in my lodge. Ill have to bring it up at our next gp.

Good Luck

I wish you luck. Keep in mind one meeting is not enough to keep inactive members coming back to lodge. You need to have interesting programs, spiffy ritual, and an a well-run lodge, else your members will disappear again.

I have to agree to one part of that more than the rest. Specifically the Ritual. Im in the process of puting together a education piece that is intended to drive to the core of the importance of the work.

My thought

In listening and observing many whom I know to be inactive members one of the keys is really listening to and finding out the Real reason they became inactive to start with. Some reasons were financial others were the inefficiency of some of the Lodges, some were because the vision did not meet the plan. Some used the expression absolute power corrupts absolutely. In meeting with them I try not to encourage or extend an invitation until I have the facts. Sometimes its difficult to get to the real reason especially when it is a financial one. To give you an example a few years ago I had a fire and lost everything and I do mean everything it set me back that the Lodge I belonged to then did nothing to assist me in refurnishing myself, needless to say I was not looking for charity but I thought the offer of assistance in a situation like that would have at least come. I later found out that this made several Brothers become inactive when they learned of the circumstances. It took several visits from me to them to convince them that change cannot be affected from outside only from within. So you see its not only a persons situation but can also be how they perceive a situation that can result in what I call disgruntlement. Sorry if I rambled on too much.

I think that is a great idea. We have been trying to get more people in our lodge who have been non-active.

You need to use your "Rusty Nail Night", as a two-way information medium. You need to inform your inactive members of what your lodge is doing, and why they should be participating. AND- You need to quiz your inactives on WHY they are inactive! Why are they paying their dues, and not participating in the life of your lodge! Maybe they are getting older, and unable to get out at night. There might be enough men in your community to establish a "daylight" lodge.

Masonry is what the members make of it. You should look on your inactive members, as a "resource". Find out what brought them to Masonry in the first place. Then use their incentives to build your lodge membership back up. Find out what is keeping them away, and make changes and adjustments in your lodge programs and activities, to make them active again.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta won the Nobel Prize. One of her secrets of leadership, is that she forbade the use of the word "problem". Her order is required to use the word "gift", instead.

We Masons, should take a page from her leadership skills. Find out what is making our Fraternity go down the tubes, and make the necessary changes and adjustments, to bring Freemasonry back from the brink.

In a sit down with our officers it was brought up to "collect" them every meeting in carpools. Setting up an rotating service for this and see what happens.

A rusty nail degree is a great idea to help some Brothers return to a Lodge they may have not visited in quite some time. But this type of event will do absolutely nothing to keep those Brothers returning if the Lodge does not offer a reason to keep coming back.

Shoddy ritual, poor leadership, boring meetings where the bills are hashed and rehashed for hours on end, endless quibbling about what to spend money on, The same Brothers engaging in mutual back-slapping, no education or social program, etc ad nauseum will remind these same brothers why they stopped attending in the first place.

IF WE FIX THE WAY WE MEET, ATTENDANCE WILL TAKE CARE OF ITSELF!

Freemasonry was in a bind for a few decades thanks to those damned hippies in the 60's and 70's and as a result many Lodges did what they could just to keep the doors open. Now that men are returning to the Order the Lodges are still meeting with a minimal amount of brothers in attendance and no reason for anyone to keep coming back.

We must go back to a more traditional method of conducting our business as well as get back to the business of making Masons, not members. An excellent way that many Lodges are doing this is the Masonic Restoration Foundation. It offers a model that any jurisdiction can use within the framework of it's GL laws and regulations but adding in those elements that are missing from most modern Lodges.

The Rusty Nail is a great way to get them back, but make sure they can see there is a reason to stay.

I hate making back to back posts but I just remembered a point that is germane to the discussion that I wanted to make. So please forgive me.

When I was Master of my Lodge I faced the same problems of attendance that many Lodges face and I tried several methods and ideas to solve this problem and bring more Brothers back to the Temple. In addition to regular and entertaining programing one of the methods I tried was to organize the Lodge in a quasi-military fashion.

Take the number of officers from the JW (minus the Se & Tr, they have enough work) on down and then divide the Lodge members by that number. For instance if you have 8 Officers besides the WM (SW, JW, SD, JD, SS, JS, Ty & Ch) and you have 130 members on the books, then each officer is assigned about 16 brothers. These become his "Column" (i.e. Senior Warden's Column, or the Chaplain's Column and the officers are the Master's Column) and he is responsible to contact those Brothers on a regular basis, inform them about upcoming meetings and events and encourage their participation and to find out why they are not attending.

The Master must demand accountability from his officers as to why the members of an officer's column are not attending or participating in Lodge. The officers should be permitted to have an Assistant Column Leader if there are too many Brothers on the books to handle efficiently. This assistant can also be trained in that Officer's duties so that there is a ready trained replacement in the event of being unable to attend.

The system works. Instead of the few who do show up to meetings sitting around kibitzing about why no Brother's show up to participate, there is an identifiable chain of command that can be used to find out why in a way that spreads the work out among many Brothers instead of one or a few. It also makes it much easier and faster to get information out when needed. For example, a Brother passes unexpectedly, the WM contacts his officers who then contact their columns. Bang, the whole Lodge knows in short order.

Note, this does not mean it works in the military sense with orders being issued and obeyed. We are still Masons and met on the level. But all of us are our Brothers keeper.

You must collect the names/addresses/phone/email of all of our inactive members. Each individual must be contacted by postal mail, AND telephone And Email, and in person if possible. ASK them directly to attend. If anyone needs help with transportation, arrange for them to be picked up and delivered.

Each inactive must be personally greeted at the door, by the WM. Each must be presented with a pin, or some other "token" of their attendance. Each must be individually "quizzed", on why they are inactive, and what will make them active again.

I agree, but the mechanism must be put into place so that this task does not fall on just one or two Brothers. It becomes too much work. And asking them back is one thing, they have to have good programing to com back to.