Dear Dedicated Members for Change,
This year as Grand Master, I formed a “Dedicated Members for Change Committee” at the Grand Lodge level, and staffed it with a number of energetic and progressive members. This Committee is charged with being a think-tank of new ideas which may help this Order energize itself and grow in the 21st Century. As I have said many times in this newsletter and in my books, we simply cannot continue to lose members and close Lodges year after year as we have been doing for the past 70-plus years. That trajectory is a path of failure for our Order. We must, instead, re-invigorate, re-charge, re-new, re-energize, and re-invent this Order so that we may attract the new members that we need to move to the path of sustainability and growth. We have Lodges that have made the transition to this new Century and we are watching them grow and prosper. We need to look at these few growing Lodges and learn by their examples.
New ideas and new thinking should be welcomed in this Order, not condemned.
In this vein, we offer in today’s newsletter an article by one of the members of the Dedicated Members for Change Committee, Ron Carrey. Ron is a long-time member of the Order, who has served and continues to serve in many responsible capacities. He is the Past Grand of California Lodge #1, Past District Deputy Grand Master for District 1, Past Grand Instructor for California, and currently serves as a member of the Grand Lodge Membership Committee in addition to the Dedicated Members for Change Committee. His article is entitled “Outside the Box Thinking” and I guarantee that he will invigorate your brain cells. Certainly, we will not agree with all his ideas or proposals, but they are food for thought. We encourage freedom of speech and thinking outside the box, so that the box does not become the coffin of our Order.
F – L – T
Dave Rosenberg
Grand Master
Jurisdiction of California
Outside the Box Thinking
Over the last few years i have done some brainstorming with some of the most progressive and talented members in the order. Some have told me the same long term solutions. I have written them down. Think outside the box. Anything is possible.
The way to look at it is how would any successful corporation handle our problems.
1. Move Grand Lodge to San Francisco.
A. If things don’t improve the only lodges that will be left will be in San Francisco. Davis Lodge will still be around, if they keep the current leaders.
B. The international airport is there.
C. It was the original home of the Grand Lodge.
D. It has plenty of building space for our Grand Lodge office.
E. The building is the flagship of Odd Fellowship in California.
2. Move the Grand Lodge to Sacramento.
A. The international airport is there.
B. Sacramento Lodge no. 2 is there. And has plenty of space.
C. Most of our committees are there.
D. Why are we wasting rent money to stay in Saratoga?
3. Make the grand masters term 4 years, not a 1 year term.
A. The president of the united states serves 4 years.
B. How can the Grand Master ever finish his projects in one year?
C. Our Grand Secretary and Grand Treasurer serve 4 years.
4. Pay the Grand Master at least $100,000.00 a year.
A. Right now our Grand Secretary and Grand Treasurer earn more than the Grand Master. This is not the way successful corporations are run.
5. Reduce the power of the Sovereign Grand Lodge code.
A. The code needs a major overhauling.
B. The elected officers of Sovereign Grand Lodge should come from the top 3 jurisdictions in the world.
C. Make the Sovereign Grand Masters term 4 years.
D. Give him the salary of a world leader.
6. Consider selling the Saratoga home, so our 30 year, plus members can afford to go to the Napa home.
A. The homes are no longer a benefit of belonging, our members can’t afford them.
7. If any profitable corporation had city branches that were losing money they would close them.
A. This is about 50% of our lodges
B. I love odd fellowship. I drive 125 miles twice a month to go to a successful lodge.
C. I want to visit other lodges, and see why they are successful.
D. We are not meeting our duties of:
Visiting the sick
Relieving the distressed
Bury the dead
Educating the orphan
Fraternally:
Ron Carrey