Freemasonry Tomorrow

1
Freemasonry Tomorrow?
of boiling frogs and roast pigs
2
Situation, complication, question answer
3
Rhetorical Questions
1. How do you characterise Freemasonry?
2. What do you want Freemasonry to become?
4
Membership Statistics
5
Lodge of Truth No. 521
6
(No Transcript)
7
(No Transcript)
8
Facts and Figures

• 300,000 90,000 fills Wembley Stadium
• 200 decline in market share since 1945
• Increased halls / membership ratio
• Middle class now 50 of population

9
Scenarios
10
3 Decline
11
4 Decline
12
5 Decline
13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
What is the problem?
Tradition, bureaucracy, hierarchy and a
thoughtless adherence to the past is being used
as an excuse for ultra-conservative
protectionism. Freemasonry is living on the
momentum of the past.
16
Lodge of Truth No. 521
17
(No Transcript)
18
A Dissertation on Roast Pig is a satirical
account of how the art of roasting was discovered
in a Chinese village that did not cook its food.
A mischievous child accidentally set fire to a
house with a pig inside, and the villages poking
around in the embers discovered a new delicacy.
The eventually led to a rash of house fires. The
moral of the story is when you do not understand
how the pig gets cooked, you have to burn a whole
house down every time you want a roast-pork
dinner.
19
Competence Trap

• ... organisations falsely project into the future
  strategies of action that have worked for them in
  the past

• This leads to dynamic conservatism

20
(No Transcript)
21
Lodge of Truth No. 521
22
The question is, what can we do about it?
23
(No Transcript)
24
A Tradition of Innovation
25

• Society for the Advancement of Freemasonry
  annual conference.
• Create an Innovation Committee
• Create a Master Mason Association.
• Conduct research into why people enjoy
  Freemasonry what they want Freemasonry to
  become.
• Bottom-up innovation

26
Lodge Structure
27

• Candidates do not exist for the convenience of
  Lodges to conduct a ceremony.
• Candidates are not commodities Freemasonry
  does not have the same attraction it once did
  (Though we operate as if they did).
• The Membership Prevention Officer.
• Horror stories of what has happened to
  candidates.

28

• Focus on the members. Priority member, lodge,
  building.
• Reduce the mother lodge concept - eradicate the
  FIFO technique
• Establish Pillar Lodges
• Establish lodges with a progressive outlook
• Encourage easier transfers between Lodges
• Themed lodges (Diving, rugby, cycling, daylight,
  university, esoteric).

29

• Reduce the risk of joining.
• A prospective candidates pack membership
  expectations.
• A candidate walking away is also a result.
• A Lodge check list.
• A welcome pack.

30
Opportunities
31

• The Fantasy element
• A portfolio of interests
• There is a need for spirituality in a secular
  world.
• Secrecy curiosity
• Dan Brown Robert Lomas books
• Focus on self development
• Technology Web 2.0, Facebook, blogs, Second
  Life, Skype, YouTube.
• Work with the healthy parts of the organisation.

32
Conclusions
33

• Freemasonry has an extrapolated life-span of
  approximately 50 years.
• Freemasonry was at its most successful when it
  had a liberal outlook. Tradition backwardness
  incorrigible behaviour.
• The current lodge structure has created a
  bottleneck to innovation.
• We need to understand why members are masons, and
  why they leave.
• We need to lift the taboo of seniority and rank.

34
www.freemasonrytomorrow.com