Dear Dedicated Members for Change,
One of the best-kept secrets of Sovereign Grand Lodge is the Five-Year Plan developed by SGL in 2011. I say “best-kept secrets” because the great majority of you have never seen it, and I daresay that many of your have never even heard that the Order had a “Five-Year Plan.”. Why SGL developed the plan and then essentially kept it in a drawer is beyond me. A plan of this nature should have been shared with every Lodge in North America, and input sought from throughout our Order. But I am confident that only a small percentage of Odd Fellows have ever seen it, and I am equally confident that virtually no Lodge discussed it at a meeting. The plan, developed in 2011, is supposed to be updated every year. I wonder if that happened in the years after 2011 . . . .
In any event, because DMC is all about transparency and opening our doors and windows – attached for your reading pleasure is the SGL Five-Year Plan. I note that because it was developed in 2011, presumably it is applicable and effective till 2016 – so we are still in the midst of this plan, even though most of us know nothing about it. Kind of the perfect Odd Fellows Conundrum.
I think you will find it interesting, but at the same time, rather general (e.g. energize lodges with positive activities), and in some instances, rather vague (e.g. involve all ages and life issues). And while the plan has some notable elements (e.g. encourage use of social networking), there are big holes in it (e.g. no mention of involvement in the local community), and it fails to be specific about the elephant in our Lodge rooms (e.g. rapid declines in our membership).
F – L – T
Dave Rosenberg
Deputy Grand Master
View the Sovereign Grand Lodge Five-Year Plan