The Invisible Fraternal Organization
There was a time in America when membership in a fraternal order was de rigueur. Everybody who was anybody was an Odd Fellow, or a Mason, or an Elk, or a Knight of Pythias, or a Moose, etc. There was a time when the United States boasted hundreds of fraternal orders,...
The Odd Fellows Code as a Bludgeon
Remember when we were all young and in better health? As young as fifty? And before we knew it, there was a code that served to isolate us where we stood in a nearly empty building? It’s humorous, and also a little frightening, when you stop to think about it. That we...
What do you do at your Odd Fellows Lodge?
Ten years ago, I wrote a DMC Newsletter focusing on the forgotten members of our Odd Fellows Lodges. It is as true today as it was a decade ago, and it's worth remembering. So, here is that newsletter from April 21, 2013. F - L - T Dave RosenbergPast Grand...
Dear Dedicated Members for Change,
Recently, I received an email from a long-time and active member of our Order (and of DMC), who resides in a state other than California. I will not reveal the member’s name, or gender, or Lodge to protect the member’s privacy. The member told me the following:
I resigned my membership from my lodge today.
The Noble Grand belittled me in front of my family. This type of treatment caused me to drop out of the Lodge completely.
All the best, sorry to have to give you notice on a sad note. But I will no longer be a member.
All The Best,
This is one of the sadder notes that I have received since we organized DMC ten years ago. The letter-writer goes on to say that he/she has brought in many new members into the Odd Fellows Lodge including the member’s spouse and son – but the Noble Grand was antagonistic to these new members. Apparently, the Noble Grand felt that new members brought change to a Lodge and the Noble Grand was resistant to any change which would alter the status quo to which he has grown accustomed.
There are several things very wrong with this picture.
First, we see the abject failure of that Odd Fellow Lodge’s Noble Grand to exercise the most basic teachings of Odd Fellowship – in particular of the First Degree of Friendship. We have all come into contact with Odd Fellows who act like that Noble Grand, haven’t we? These are people who are often rude or abrupt. They have their way of doing things, and if you don’t like it then too bad – it’s either their way or the highway.
Second, and perhaps even worse, we see the Noble Grand’s conduct played out in public – in fact, acted out right in front of the member’s family. It’s one thing to be rude in private – that’s bad enough. However, it’s geometrically worse to be rude in public, particularly in front of another member’s family.
Third, we see a Noble Grand who is acting as the chief gravedigger at the funeral of his own Lodge. New members are the lifeblood of a Lodge. The status quo is nothing to covet – it is merely a slow demise. An Odd Fellow Lodge’s viability is limited by the lifetimes of its members. It’s really just simple math. A Lodge that fails to bring in new members at least commensurate with departing members is a Lodge on a slow spiral to oblivion. What this Noble Grand seems to ignore is the simple fact that every single member of his Lodge was once a “new member”. Even the Noble Grand was a new member at one point in time.
Rather than criticize a member for being interested in new members, a Noble Grand would be well served in praising members who bring in that essential source of the Lodge’s future viability.
F – L – T
Dave Rosenberg
Past Grand Master
Jurisdiction of California
Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF)