Lodge Safety
As many Brothers, and others around the country may have heard a Mason was shot leaving his Lodge in Texas. Brother Hodapp, who wrote Freemasons for Dummies(a must read for anyone truly curious about The Craft) reported the news of the slain Brother. This lead to a conversation with my mentor, and then we sat, and we thought about our Lodge, and the various Lodges in our district. How safe are we as Brothers? How safe are our buildings? Is there really a threat out there in our District? Freemasonry is some areas where I live is on the rise. Which is good, it shows that men are finding their way, and becoming better men.
We shouldn’t discount that anything that we do is always in the best view of the public. Everything we do is on the up and up, we, as Masons do not mean any harm to any person. However, not every single person alive is going to see things that way. People will always try to find evil in everything that anyone takes pleasure in. If you go looking for bad news, you will find it, people love to complain.
In my opinion, every single Lodge around the country should have some sort of safety plan in place to ensure that members of the Lodge are safe when attending meetings, and if the Lodge is rented out to another venue, the venue should also feel safe using our Lodges for their venues. I say this because people who wish to do harm to a Masonic Lodge or function could easily mistake another venue being held at a Lodge as something the Lodge is doing.
Lodges should update emergency contacts, check that their buildings are secure, install safeguards to make sure their Lodges are safe when the building is not in use. It’s hard to say what safeguards should go in place, as each Lodge if unique and should address this issue accordingly. Each Lodge should meet with local law enforcement, and let them know when their meetings are routinely held. This would allow for a larger response if an incident does occur.
While the Tyler is an important position for other things, they should also be vigilant of their surroundings at large, not just the door they are supposed to be at. This is to say that we shouldn’t put just anyone there, but make sure they understand their position as Tyler. This may also mean they actually miss part of the meeting.
Call it a little bit of paranoia or what have you, but for any social function to take place, on a routine schedule, safety should be top of mind. I hope that as each person reads this they think a little bit about the social functions they attend regularly and think about the safety of that function.
I agree that security is becoming increasingly important. Security cameras are good I think. Making sure that elderly Brothers are escorted to their cars by a younger Brother is good too. Locking the outer door while meetings are going on is vital I think.
One particular Lodge I'm aware of (I'll not say which one so as to not bring attention to it) has received some non-specific threats over the past few days. At their upcoming Stated Meeting they plan to have someone at the outer door to stop anyone who shouldn't be there from entering prior to the meeting, then locking that outer door while the meeting is taking place. They also are planning for their Tyler to be effectively armed.
It is sad that things have come to this, but the incident in Texas is just the last in a long string of violence directed at our Fraternity.
A few years ago my mother lodge placed security doors at the entrances. Once we have met the Tyler would close the door. A late brother would have to call the lodge (Tyler room has a phone). I know having that kind of money is a blessing for some lodges. Even with that it took a lot of meetings to get this accomplished.