Last night at our board of general purposes meeting I started laying out my plans for my upcoming Masonic year to the brethren.
One of the key programs I am going to institute is an officer mentoring program, where a group of volunteer past masters take individual officers and help them learn the ropes of their new position as well as guidance in transitioning to the next officer role.
My goal is two-fold: give the incoming officers all the tools they need to succeed, and make sure the past masters feel needed and valued for their contributions and experience.
I had no idea how important it was going to be.
Turnout was low. Attendance consisted of two of the "old guys," two past masters who had also served as Grand Lodge officers and had spent the last four years of my Masonic career telling me what was wrong with how the 'young guys' were doing things. There were two of the newer brethren there as well, a master and a fellowcraft. The fellowcraft is eager to get involved and was there to offer some assistance cleaning the lodge room prior to one of our meetings. Rounding out the room was a younger (late 50s) past master and our current DDGM. He's a big fan of preserving what needs preserving, but also changing what needs changing, and I would consider him one of my top three masonic mentors. Our conversations about the Craft have always left me invigorated rather than discouraged.
When I arrived I found the brethren there complaining about how participation in this meeting had diminished in recent months. Looking at the crowd I had the distinct feeling it was going to be a tough room.
So I addressed the attendance issue right away. I asked if anyone had heard anything that would lead them to think there was a problem keeping them away. A few mumbles at first, but nothing concrete to push with.
We talked for a few minutes more and I noted an observation that the past masters had been decreasing their attendance at this particular meeting since the younger masters started coming in, about 3 years ago.
Nods of general agreement. "Let's keep going in this direction," I thought to myself.
Some more statements arose that indicated the beginnings of a split in lodge. In suggesting that this was the absolute worst thing for the lodge, I received whole-hearted agreeement, which was great.
I chair these meetings in my role as senior warden. After letting them know we'd spent 10 minutes on that subject already, I asked if we could table it to the end of the meeting so that we could get through the needed business portions, and then we can return to this, because it's important and we have to start right away on a course of action. I told them that I had been thinking about this issue for a while, and I have a few steps right now that might work, but would need their input and polish before we presented them to the rest of the lodge.
Agreement around the table. The whole table. The whole freakin' table.
I just want to point out this was my 10th meeting, and I'd never had agreement around the table. Never. Until now. I've had consensus, and I've been able to get enough people to agree to get recommendations through to the regular meetings for voting, but never unanimous agreement.
So we get through the rest of the meeting. We had some business to take care for upcoming meetings, that went fine, then we talked about our installation and the upcoming officer line. I told them I would be putting together packages of information for the new officers. They need every tool possible to succeed. No arguments. I'm going to need to spend some money on this (< $100). A bit of hesitation, but no arguments.
The business portion taken care of, we moved back to the issue of division amongst lines of age in the lodge.
A few years ago, I had identified that there was a generation gap in our lodge, that there were very few men in our lodge between the ages of 40 and 60. I had mentioned then that this group had formed a bridge between young members and old members. Without such a bridge, conflict would ensue, in large part of the frustration expressed in each group with not understanding the other.
At that time, many agreed with me, but when asked what to do about it, I never had an answer. Personally, I hate identifying a problem without also proposing a solution, but the best I could muster at the time was "I'm working on something."
Over the years, I found my answer in the body of Masonry. Throw them all in the quarries, get them together for some authentic shared experiences through work, and in time the respect and understanding will follow. That was the inspiration for my officer mentoring program.
Outlining my plan quickly, I saw everyone around the table nodding their heads in agreement. The secretary of our lodge, a grizzly old past DDGM who I've butted heads with since I became a member had started writing a list of past masters whould would be interested in volunteering and priortizing them by how good he thought they'd be and also by what roles they'd be best at teaching.
I gained a lot of support last night. Support I never thought I'd get during my year as Master. I was humbled in that support, and I know that if I can support them properly in this important work, my year as Master will be one of the best years of my life.
One of the key programs I am going to institute is an officer mentoring program, where a group of volunteer past masters take individual officers and help them learn the ropes of their new position as well as guidance in transitioning to the next officer role.
My goal is two-fold: give the incoming officers all the tools they need to succeed, and make sure the past masters feel needed and valued for their contributions and experience.
I had no idea how important it was going to be.
Turnout was low. Attendance consisted of two of the "old guys," two past masters who had also served as Grand Lodge officers and had spent the last four years of my Masonic career telling me what was wrong with how the 'young guys' were doing things. There were two of the newer brethren there as well, a master and a fellowcraft. The fellowcraft is eager to get involved and was there to offer some assistance cleaning the lodge room prior to one of our meetings. Rounding out the room was a younger (late 50s) past master and our current DDGM. He's a big fan of preserving what needs preserving, but also changing what needs changing, and I would consider him one of my top three masonic mentors. Our conversations about the Craft have always left me invigorated rather than discouraged.
When I arrived I found the brethren there complaining about how participation in this meeting had diminished in recent months. Looking at the crowd I had the distinct feeling it was going to be a tough room.
So I addressed the attendance issue right away. I asked if anyone had heard anything that would lead them to think there was a problem keeping them away. A few mumbles at first, but nothing concrete to push with.
We talked for a few minutes more and I noted an observation that the past masters had been decreasing their attendance at this particular meeting since the younger masters started coming in, about 3 years ago.
Nods of general agreement. "Let's keep going in this direction," I thought to myself.
Some more statements arose that indicated the beginnings of a split in lodge. In suggesting that this was the absolute worst thing for the lodge, I received whole-hearted agreeement, which was great.
I chair these meetings in my role as senior warden. After letting them know we'd spent 10 minutes on that subject already, I asked if we could table it to the end of the meeting so that we could get through the needed business portions, and then we can return to this, because it's important and we have to start right away on a course of action. I told them that I had been thinking about this issue for a while, and I have a few steps right now that might work, but would need their input and polish before we presented them to the rest of the lodge.
Agreement around the table. The whole table. The whole freakin' table.
I just want to point out this was my 10th meeting, and I'd never had agreement around the table. Never. Until now. I've had consensus, and I've been able to get enough people to agree to get recommendations through to the regular meetings for voting, but never unanimous agreement.
So we get through the rest of the meeting. We had some business to take care for upcoming meetings, that went fine, then we talked about our installation and the upcoming officer line. I told them I would be putting together packages of information for the new officers. They need every tool possible to succeed. No arguments. I'm going to need to spend some money on this (< $100). A bit of hesitation, but no arguments.
The business portion taken care of, we moved back to the issue of division amongst lines of age in the lodge.
A few years ago, I had identified that there was a generation gap in our lodge, that there were very few men in our lodge between the ages of 40 and 60. I had mentioned then that this group had formed a bridge between young members and old members. Without such a bridge, conflict would ensue, in large part of the frustration expressed in each group with not understanding the other.
At that time, many agreed with me, but when asked what to do about it, I never had an answer. Personally, I hate identifying a problem without also proposing a solution, but the best I could muster at the time was "I'm working on something."
Over the years, I found my answer in the body of Masonry. Throw them all in the quarries, get them together for some authentic shared experiences through work, and in time the respect and understanding will follow. That was the inspiration for my officer mentoring program.
Outlining my plan quickly, I saw everyone around the table nodding their heads in agreement. The secretary of our lodge, a grizzly old past DDGM who I've butted heads with since I became a member had started writing a list of past masters whould would be interested in volunteering and priortizing them by how good he thought they'd be and also by what roles they'd be best at teaching.
I gained a lot of support last night. Support I never thought I'd get during my year as Master. I was humbled in that support, and I know that if I can support them properly in this important work, my year as Master will be one of the best years of my life.
