Several Conservative Arts, by Paterson Burns

Brothers,

Why do young men come in to Masonry and become disinterested and ultimately disappear? False advertising and a lack of practical Content.

I would submit that the reason many young Masons enter a Lodge, go through the process of initiation, become dues-paying members and leave, is because of a lack of content. The content being offered to the new member of the Lodge is nothing that a member of generations X and Y hasn't already run across on the internet in the numerous tens of thousands of websites that are advertising the "Secrets of Freemasonry", that peaked his interest in the first place.

When he Googled Freemasonry, scrolled through the search results, jumped to a local Lodge listed in Yahoo Local and then printed off driving directions from Mapquest, to get to the Lodge that he submitted his Petition for the Degrees of Masonry to, he was hoping to find more than what he had already found on Google.

Upon his first entrance into Lodge, he was not looking for a group of men, huddled into a handful of separate cliques around long folding tables slurping weak burnt coffee, wearing powdered blue blazers with bolo ties, sporting white patent leather dress shoes, waiting for the "Nickel-Nasty" pre-meeting bowl of pork & beans with Costco bagged salad and too-thinly spread margarine on a bun, served on a paper plate with plastic utensils.

Too often brothers, that is the image of the Lodges and Valleys nationwide, and it is not the image that is portrayed in the books, movies, magazines and variety of other media vehicles which are lapping up subscription dollars while they have a field day titillating and stimulating the public's interest in "Secret Societies" and "World Domination" conspiracies and the like. We as Masons, Scottish Rite Masons especially must do a much, much better job of living up to our "press" and media generated reputations.

There is a ton of free publicity about our fraternity and our endeavors, and we are doing a really poor job of stepping up to the plate and maintaining our facilities and organizational appearance to new members as a whole. We should be dumping a supertanker of cash into maintaining, renovating, remodeling and improving our Masonic Temples and facilities, so that when a new member, or more importantly, the new member's friends come into our halls and temples, they are awestruck and dumbfounded by the impressive and awe-inspiring condition, appearance and gilding of our Masonic locales. The sad truth is that the average Starbuck's or MacDonald's is a more inviting and comfortable place to meet than the local Masonic Lodge.

As far as the content of information and education that we as Masons provide to our initiates and candidates, I would submit that we would do a much better job of retaining new Masons and compelling them to enroll their closest friends, if we were to perhaps offer them education that they need to be successful in today's society and business and professional environments.

Education and Information such as:

• balancing a checkbook

• the impact of compound interest on high interest credit card debt

• the amortization prospects of a 40year 7% variable rate mortgage

• sound investment strategies for developing a stock portfolio grounded in long term growth (retirement)

• reviewing the rate of depreciation and loss of equity involved with the purchase of a new vehicle

• how to structure tax shelters for single professionals with no dependents to write off on their taxes

• how incorporating as an individual can save you thousands a year on basic costs of living

• basic asset management and wealth preservation

• how to run a non-profit organization

• basic fundraising strategies for developing long term financial stability for the Lodge or Valley

• how to communicate with the press and make use of the "community pages" that every print newspaper maintains, for the sake of promoting activities in the community

These are just a small fraction of the skills and components that are required to become stable and successful in today's society and sometimes shaky economic environments, as an individual and as a fraternity. Basically, if we as Masons make our new Candidates and Initiates more successful by educating them with practical and applicable personal development skill sets, we will only ensure our own Lodge and Valley futures, and the future success of our Fraternity overall.

The same way they brought a man to light 200 years ago, by expanding his understanding and thusly his horizons and his future contribution to the Craft.