What is being done today to stimulate Lodge attendance? Faced with declining membership, most Masonic Bodies are pouring their energies into new members. If you track membership decline, you will find that demits and NPD's about equal deaths. We can do nothing about death, but the price of neglecting thousands of Masons is that no matter how many new members we bring in, they simply do not equal the numbers leaving. One-day classes, however successful, may simply be building the next generation's NPD's and demits if we do not find ways to keep these new members interested and active.

How we bring members into the Fraternity is far less important than what we do with them afterwards. Even so, our emphasis has been on finding ways to encourage new members and ignoring the ones we already have! Simply increasing membership is not enough. We have to interest the new Mason so that he will want to continue Masonic activity after taking the Degrees. The only way we can do that is to make ourselves better informed about what our Fraternity is all about and what Masons are trying to accomplish. This is not an easy commitment. It requires time in an era where no one believes he has any time to spare.

We have to teach Masons to be Masons and not just members.... It won't happen overnight, but it will happen if enough Freemasons make that commitment. It would also produce the kind of Freemasons who would enjoy going to Lodge. Wouldn't it be great to hear, "You gotta be kidding! I can't go to the game; it's my Lodge night!

Illustrious Richard E. Fletcher, 33°
Excerpt from Scottish Rite Journal (June 1997)