Posted on the Southchurch Forum: Sat Dec 30, 2006 1:06 pm Post subject: Re: Mentoring.
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crusty wrote:
(SNIP)
I'm at a loss to know why some people join Freemasonry. I give you an estimate, to be shot at, that only one in 10 new members are in the least interested in Freemasonry and just join to be member of a club. It just might do them some good.
If I'm right, only one in ten is worthy of 'mentoring'. The proposer and seconder SHOULD 'mentor' but how many are capable?
Cynical?
"Mentoring" is an issue that has gathered weight over the past fifteen years or so on the far side of the Atlantic, Brethren. A number of Grand Lodges in North America have adopted "complete mentoring programmes" to help educate, and retain, new Brethren. Several Grand Lodges have their entire programs available on-line.
That said, when I was Initiated in 1974, my Mother Lodge had assigned me a chap they called a "mentor" who was supposedly responsible for my Masonic education. His view was that his job stopped as soon as I had memorised a number of questions from the ritual along with the respective answers, also from the ritual, and the Obligation, from the ritual. As far as he was concerned, nothing else was needed. (Of course, the ritual used in my Mother Grand Lodge {Yes, only one was authorised for use in New Brunswick!} was based on an Antient Ritual used in the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, and for each Degree there were a minimum of 40 questions and in one case, sixty-seven! Our Obligations were rather wordy, too.)
Fortunately, I had a father who saw my disappointment, and who took responsibility for my further Masonic education. Sadly, most of our newer Brethren do not have that advantage.
I have observed Candidates and new Brethren in North America for over 30 years, now. I find that 80% join only so that they can say they are Masons and wear a ring displaying that membership. They seldom attend Lodge, and when they do, it is mainly for the social aspects following the close of the meetings. (FYI, proper "Festive Boards" are rare in North America, with the "after meeting" consisting of mainly of coffee, small sandwiches, prepared usually by the wives, occasionally some sweet cakes or other small "treats", rarely a beer and VERY seldom with wine.)
Another 10% of our new Brethren attend perhaps three to five meetings a year (where the standard is ten or more meetings) and are very unlikely to attend more often, even if pressed into taking Office.
Thank Heavens for that final 10%! It is there that we find our Officers, our working Committeemen, our Almoners and Charity Stewards, our longtime Secretary's and Treasurers. It is from these ranks that our Grand Lodges draw the personnel to fill the Grand Offices of the year. (Our structure is seldom organised to grant "Past" ranks to anyone. If you have initials after your name, you have served the Active Office.) If that final 10% ever decides to find another "hobby", the Craft may well become so shrunken that survival may be in doubt.
I do not believe these divisions, the "80-10-10" has always applied. I believe it is a result of our own efforts to accomodate the enormous growth in Petitions that every Grand Lodge experienced after the ends of WWI and WWII. In North America, that growth extended from 1946 through the end of 1950. At that point, the rate of growth started to slow, and in a few years had actually turned into a small decline. The shrinkage in numbers didn't really show in the Annual Returns until the later 1960's, and it is then that we started to see Lodges closing. Rarely, but it happened.
I tie both of these (the poor Masonic education, and the numbers issue) together. The poor Masonic education is the result of huge numbers of Petitioners who were not interested in the teachings of the Craft but in the social contact with men who shared experiences from the wartime years. This is not a slight to the hundreds of thousands of Brethren who served, and who continue to serve. It is simply the noting of a fact that a large proportion of those who joined in the years immediately following the ends of the wars did so to maintain contact with men who shared their experiences, in much the same way that memberships in veterans organisations expanded, the various Legions, Air Force Clubs, Naval Veterans Clubs, etc. In the town where I grew up, there were three branches of the Royal Canadian Legion, three Air Force Vets clubs, a Naval Vets Club, a Railway Veterans Club and four Army-Navy or Army-Air Force Clubs. There were also five Lodges, three of which were formed after the end of the War. Today, there is one Legion, two Air Force Vets clubs, and three Lodges. Why? The members have died off. The Clubs closed, or merged. The Lodges amalgamated.
Numbers will continue to drop off until the large influx of post-war Petitioners have gone. Until the 80% who really don't have any idea what Masonry is really about stop wasting their money joining "clubs" they never attend. When we are down to that 20% who at least attend half-time, the value of a proper mentoring program will become clear.
Because it will be left in the hands of the 10%.
People like us. You never see the 80% posting to websites like this one.