Hey Scotsman, KeeperOfTheBar, PurpleDragon and other Freemasons! (If Willin' isn't, he should be)
Does your lodge website suck? Ours sure did. Not more than a business card and three years out of date. When it finally went belly up I decided to take over. Since a blog is the easiest way to post stuff on the Internet I registered one for us at www.Blogger.com. Then I added some links for navigation and posted tons of stuff from our monthly bulletin.
http://www.irving1218.org/
I think it presents us Freemasons well.
My hope is it serves to bring more good men to the lodge.
Bro. John Thalacker
Irving Lodge, Senior Deacon
Come to think of it John, I don't think our lodge even has a website. With the way our lodge is DYING OFF, we might not have a lodge for that much longer.
Sorry to hear that Charlie. Is there a nearby lodge yours can merge with?
Ours is also declining. 35 men at stated meeting is a good night. We have 450 members, most elderly.
Making my think about joining a lodge again. Long line of Freemasons in my family.
Quote from: John on February 27, 2009, 08:58:55 AM
Sorry to hear that Charlie. Is there a nearby lodge yours can merge with?
Ours is also declining. 35 men at stated meeting is a good night. We have 450 members, most elderly.
On the other end- it is sad to see so few
young people joining DeMolay these days...
Catering to a wider audience with more modern communication methods is a very good way to start getting the attention of younger members. I believe many younger people seek the sort of connection and inclusion these societies provide, and would be more interested in joining if they were more visible and accessible.
Perhaps it says something about the state of familial communication breakdown that children seldom join their parents lodges anymore... but the world is definitely a different place than it has ever been before, and perhaps new methods of teaching and learning are necessary if mentorship is to continue to successfully encourage new generations to connect to the ancient brotherhoods and sisterhoods.
I am fortunate in that my home lodge is in the NASA area & thus has a large pool of young(ish) men to draw from. My second lodge (with Purple Dragon) is loaded with law & fire personnel that tend to be younger also. These two lodges are going strong but I have seen the ageing effect on some of the smaller country lodges.
You are right about Demolay. The chapter that I belonged to mmmm years ago had to move to a more suburban area to keep from dying & it's still very hard to get the young ones interested.
Interesting note.... Buzz Aldrin was a charter member of my home lodge. On the wall over the Junior Warden is the patch our Eastern Star made for him to take to the moon. Kinda makes you stop the first time you see it.
James Huckabay, MM
Clear Lake Lodge #1417
Spring Lodge #1174
Scottish Rite, Houston
Quote from: Rani Zemirah on February 27, 2009, 11:39:54 AM
Catering to a wider audience with more modern communication methods is a very good way to start getting the attention of younger members. I believe many younger people seek the sort of connection and inclusion these societies provide, and would be more interested in joining if they were more visible and accessible.
Perhaps it says something about the state of familial communication breakdown that children seldom join their parents lodges anymore... but the world is definitely a different place than it has ever been before, and perhaps new methods of teaching and learning are necessary if mentorship is to continue to successfully encourage new generations to connect to the ancient brotherhoods and sisterhoods.
More open and accessible can be counterproductive though. Imagine if everyone in the world was on this website...
Of course, you're absolutely correct that not everyone is right for these organizations! I'm not at all meaning to take anything away from the selectivity of the membership, or suggesting all information be made available to everyone, but just like other forums where only certain areas have full access, any website can contain a guest area and a members area, and there is always a target audience that is catered to.
If someone was interested in finding out more about membership, but couldn't access enough of the info to at least make them want more, they might just give up, but a well built, sexy website (web sexy, not Sports Illustrated sexy) will always generate interest, and interest will keep an organization alive and thriving when other methods haven't had much success.
It would take an excellent balance of information coupled with just enough of a hint at the secrets to be revealed to full members to whet the appetite of the desired type of candidate, while subtly discouraging those who don't possess the necessary characteristics and values looked for in those who would carry on the work of previous generations. And that is where a good advertising director comes in! Preferably recruited from membership, since they would have to have privileged information, and an understanding of what may and may not be revealed...
Perhaps a rework of the national site, and a wide range of templates made available for satellite sites if desired, so they could all access info similarly without being cookie-cutter copies.
Sorry, just thinking out loud, so to speak... As a graphic designer and copy writer/editor this is stuff I get enthusiastic about, and I have to remind myself to shut up after a bit. Please forgive my intrusion into this area... :-\
John, I looked at the blog page, and your info is well ordered and concise. Nice job... :)
Thank you very much Rani. I'll start to sex irving1218.org (http://www.irving1218.org/) up a bit with pictures taken on family nights and functions. People should see that we have wholesome fun and want to be involved.
Rani- you make some really good points here.
I'd love to see DeMolay return to the prominence it had years ago when we still had a Chapter. I believe the Denver Chapter was the third in existence.
Getting young people into DeMolay is such a great source for all Masonic organizations and if someone isn't interested they won't stay.
ravic- Buzz Aldrin once said, "I may not have been the first man to walk on the moon, but I was the first to pee his pants." Richard Nixon was another famous individual to have been in the Order of DeMolay.
Best of luck with your website John!
Past District Master Councilor- State of Colorado.
Degree of Chevalier.
Representative DeMolay.
Quote from: John on February 27, 2009, 07:34:00 PM
Thank you very much Rani. I'll start to sex irving1218.org (http://www.irving1218.org/) up a bit with pictures taken on family nights and functions. People should see that we have wholesome fun and want to be involved.
Any time, John. If you can also create a link every now and again throughout the main page that's just too tempting to pass up then it gets even sexier. Family events are good, as are intergenerational activities, things that focus on singles and/or couples, and community works projects. Don't forget awards and special recognitions, either. On the main page there should only be one, or at the very most two photos per article, though, with a link to the rest of the event album, and every shot should have at least a word or two of description. Keep the front page streamlined, and quick and easy to load, with links that lead to the juicy stuff, and people will spend more time looking around. Easy navigation will ensure that they want to return, and readily accessible info areas such as a Calendar of Events page ensure higher volume regular traffic. If you're wanting to generate interest in new membership then a link to member requirements and guidelines might be a good idea. Linking your site to other high traffic sites designed for your various target audiences can help direct more traffic to you, also.
Ok, really I'm not this bossy... or, uhhhh... well, maybe I am, but only if I'm trying to help,
really! ::) :D
The Village Recorder, where I worked for many years in Santa Monica. Originally a Masonic Temple, there were many hidden passageways and the various iconic insignia of the Masons everywhere. Plus lots of great r&r trivia, tales and stories.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Snicolette/VillageRecorder.jpg)
Well, as for my lodge it's in a small town, pop. 1085 and now that the big job here has just now gone under, looks like Redfield Ar. will be getting smaller. And or lodge has had it's up's and downs like most other lodges. But, this is my humble openion only, my generation, "X" is just not into civic or fraternal organizations, nor is the generation that comes after mine, and I see this also with the VFW which I'm a live member. The VFW openly recruts, and is still having a hard time filling it's ranks to replace it's WWII and Korea war vet's that are dieing at a rate of 1200 a day. But we as masions can not go out and openly recruit, but I do feel that we as masions do need to be more seen and do more in or comunites so that others would want to be part of us. I wish that for me I was more able to do more with my lodge, but because of my job and I live on there side of the state, I can not.
Bro. C.H. Coleman
Redfield Lodge #700
Redfield Ar.
Scottish Rites
Valley of the Little Rock
Little Rock Ar.
The last VFW I was in refused membership to my dad because he was "only" a Korean War vet, if I recall rightly. They were kinda vague about it but gave him the run around about filling out forms that they didn't currently have and all that. Not saying they are all cliquish but the one in Baker, La. can burn to the ground for all I care.
I'm not a Mason, but I can relate on the effects of declining membership. The decline in membership is not due to dis-interest, but death of the members. I speak of the Submarine Veterans of WWII. Over the past few months, many of the established groups have disbanded, because there aren't enough members to hold meetings. In their upcoming national convention, they may disband totally. This is sad, because these folks went in harms way and lived to tell their tales. Next month, several of us are heading to Washington D.C. to bury Ron Smith, a WWII torpedoman who wrote two books about life during the war.
As the base commander for Submarine Veterans in the Houston to Galveston area, I attend at least two funerals a month, mostly WWII veterans. Many of them never talked about the war, so their memories are lost forever.
In Massachusetts, where we were visiting friends, we saw an excellent commercial on TELEVISION promoting Free Masonry. I think it was broadcast on the cable networks at our friend's house. It was a commercial focusing on the Masonic connections of the founding fathers of the United States. Apparently, such public promotion is not the norm for most lodges.
My husband has been a Mason since he was 21 and I am a new Eastern Star member.
I feel that effective (blogs, electronic media) promotion /invitations to join of DeMolay, Rainbow, Free Masonry and Eastern Star is the way to have it survive.
Programs for Rainbow and DeMolay also need to be current with current youth interests.
I'm a strong personal promoter of the 'No Child Left Inside' movement. Just read the book 'Last Child in the Woods' by Richard Louv. www.childrenandnaturenetwork.org Environmental and Natural History Education through my bird of prey programs.
Congratulations on your entry into the Order of the Eastern Star HawkMom.
I hope you find much joy.