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Stephan Brault's avatar

As a Mason of 2.5 years, it became evident very quickly that raising dues $15 was akin to a debate over Universal Healthcare in the US (I'm Canadian and have seen both sides of the debate between American friends).

We own our on building and the hall is rented out consistently, so that's what the naysayers point to; "We have the funds coming in, why do we need to raise dues?!"

Well... the parking lot will need to be done in the next 10-15 years. So will the roof. Oh, you want to keep renting out the hall? Better spruce it up in the near future because it's starting to look old. Our few hundred thousand investment that pays 10% interest won't be enough. Don't get me started on the investment... it's high risk and not very long term thinking.

We're lucky as it stands now. I nice building with two "lodge" rooms (even though only one is used), a full commercial kitchen, a billiard/entertainment room, bar, large hall, and ample parking that's rented out to people that work at the hospital one block over. We even have a full-time caretaker that lives in the apartment in the temple. But gone are the days when we had four Craft (Blue) Lodges with 200 members each. They've amalgamated over the last decade and we're down to one lodge of 195 members, and a decent amount will "age out" over the next decade.

We're doing well compared to most Lodges in our district, but our large building is going to be a challenge to maintain in the not too distant future. We need to do better.

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Glenn Geiss's avatar

The issue with raising dues is Life Memberships. The right way to determine how much you should be charging each member is to take your expenses minus any income, and divide it by the number of members. For example, my lodge operates at a loss every year, using investment income to make up the gap. In order to make up that difference, we'd have to raise dues from 90 dollars/year to over 300/year. Conversely, Grand Lodge of Washington charges a sliding scale of costs for life memberships. If a lodge is charging $300 dollars a year in dues, it's only human nature to look at the current charges for life memberships and buy one of those instead. The only recourse a lodge has to stem that flow, or at least make some money off it, is to tack on their own charges on top of what GL wants. At least one lodge I know if does that, they charge double what GL charges the member, and the lodge keeps the rest. Otherwise, you'll have a lodge of life members and no dues income.

What is interesting is that the GL assessment increases, right now it's scheduled to go to $40 dollars in a couple years. Chances are that $40 dollars is going to be half of what most lodges charge for their own dues, a clear indication that lodges need to make adjustments. And you can't convince me that GL in a couple years won't come back with yet another request to increase the assessment.

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