St. Joseph lodge No. 970 St. Joseph, Illinois Mark Twain Masonic Awareness Award Submission

Transcription

1 St. Joseph lodge No. 970 St. Joseph, Illinois Most Worshipful Grand lodge of Ancient Free & Accepted Masons of the State of Illinois 2011 Mark Twain Masonic Awareness Award Submission Prepared by Gregory J. Knott, Chair Masonic Awareness submission Committee

2 Project Summary for St. Joseph Lodge No. 970 Charted in 1914, by 2008 St. Joseph Lodge No. 970 was ready to close its doors. No longer could even a simple quorum of members be gathered to have a stated meeting. The membership decided to not accept the status quo and the transformation began. Special attention and focus has been given to raise awareness of both our membership and general public of why masonry is still relevant in the 21 st century. The Mark Twain Award documents the journey to re-establish the lodge identity in the community and become a place of personal growth for its membership. Lodge Address: St. Joseph Lodge No E. Lincoln Ave St. Joseph, IL Mail should be sent to: Greg Knott 1377 County Road 2275 E St. Joseph IL Submission questions: ~ ~ Greg Knott /~~ GI<:n't63@gma~~.,-,orr

3 Project Summary for St. Joseph Lodge No. 970 Charted in 1914, by 2008 St. Joseph Lodge No. 970 was ready to close its doors. No longer could even a simple quorum of members be gathered to have a stated meeting. The membership decided to not accept the status quo and the transformation began. Special attention and focus has been given to raise awareness of both our membership and general public of why masonry is still relevant in the 21 st century. The Mark Twain Award documents the journey to re-establish the lodge identity in the community and become a place of personal growth for its membership. Lodge Address: St. Joseph Lodge No E. Lincoln Ave St. Joseph, IL Mail should be sent to: Greg Knott 1377 County Road 2275 E St. Joseph IL Submission questions: ~ ~ Greg Knott /~I uknott63@gma~~.. ~

4 Description of Activities and Success Planning In 2008 St. Joseph Lodge No. 970 was about to close our doors. Immediate action was needed to improve the lodge, reestablish ourselves in the community and grow our membership and fellowship. Two new members came in the summer of 2008, Tracy Hogan and Greg Knott who were both immediately seated as JD and SD respectively. Bro. Hogan and Bro. Knott suggested ways to begin improving the lodge and generate some excitement in the process. The veteran members of the lodge eagerly embraced the enthusiasm and the process was under way. The planning sessions began as after dinner discussions. These discussions yielded three main areas for work: Membership growth Lodge Growth Community Awareness We knew that this could not be done overnight. Our goal was to earn the Illinois Grand Masters Award of Excellence within 3 years, which was accomplished at the 2011 Illinois Grand Lodge Communication held in October This program provided a frame work for us to follow and expand upon. (See Award of Excellence tab for examples) Involvement of the active brethren was essential, needed was both some fresh ideas and the leadership and initiative to put them into action. 1

5 II. Execution/implementation: Membership Growth Only one degree had been held at St. Joseph in 5 years. We immediately worked on a list of potential members from the community. We had our first petition in hand within 3 months and held a first degree in the lodge. This was a catalyst for further membership development. In total we have now brought in 25 new members through initiation, plural membership and affiliations since the end of Keep in mind our total membership is only about 70 members. Communication with the membership and the community was a critical piece of our plan. The creation of a lodge website Facebook page and a new regional website ( were established to keep the members and public informed of our events and letting the community know we were still there. Additionally an electronic newsletter has been established for our members to deliver timely news to their inbox. (See Electronic Media tab and E- news tab for examples) Lodge Growth Lodge growth was designed to increase our members' involvement in the lodge in more than just meetings. Provide an opportunity for the new members to know one another and develop those brotherly bonds that are so important for long term growth and involve our families when possible. In practice now is the development an annual lodge calendar for planning the year. (See Lodge Awareness tab) 2

6 Some examples of activities: Lodge picnic - for the family Open Installation of officer - for the families to attend Pancake breakfast with Cub Scout Pack 40 - families invited and also Community Builder award - families invited, community members honored. (See Community builder, Lodge Events and Officer install tabs) Lodge events are communicated via our E-news, hard copy at meetings also via the Call-em-all phone system. WM is responsible for the e-news and JW Hitt is responsible for the call-em all system. (See E-news and Electronic Media Tabs) Each event scheduled has a committee set-up to take the lead. A member is chosen to chair the committee, which usually has 3-5 members. This is a significant change in lodge culture since 2008, when fewer members were available. Follow-up is handled by the committee chair. We have used this as a tool to involve members, especially our newer members Community Observance Our capstone event was a community 9-11 event that was held on September 11, 2011 to mark the 10 year anniversary of What started out as a small idea amongst a few of us, built into a community wide event that was attended by 400 members of the community, plus almost 75 on field participants. The Lodge voted to sponsor the 9/11 observance and put together a committee. We immediately sought to partner with the local Scouting units, fire departments, clergy and high school to bring it all together and truly make it a community 3

7 event. The committee met approximately 10 times including rehearsals for the event, ensuring the successful completion of the day. (See 911 ceremony tab) III. Evaluation/Reflections: Our initials goals were met, which was to rebuild the lodge through growth of membership, lodge growth for fellowship and re-establishing our community relevance. Having a target of the Award of Excellence helped keep our focus in achieving these goals and keeping our doors open. Numerous hours of hard work, a few mistakes and quite a bit of success kept us motivated to work towards our final goal of receiving the recognition at Grand Lodge. (See Award of Excellence Tab) More importantly, our lodge is thriving and providing the opportunity of Freemasonry to an entirely new generation of Masons. Other lodges in the area have used St. Joseph Lodge as an example to strive for in improving their individual lodges. Our community has benefited through our active involvement with Scouting, sponsorship of the high school scholastic bowl team and knowing that we are now a resource to call upon when proj ects needs to be undertaken (see Tucker Benefi t tab). Our members are proud to be part of St. Joseph Lodge, illustrated through the membership growth in their bringing in new members to be a part of Freemasonry. St. Joseph Lodge will be celebrating 100 years in 2014 and we will be strong and ready for the next 100 years in our community. (See 911 ceremony tab, Award of Excellence tab) 4

8 Description of Activities and Success Planning In 2008 St. Joseph Lodge No. 970 was about to close our doors. Immediate action was needed to improve the lodge, reestablish ourselves in the community and grow our membership and fellowship. Two new members came in the summer of 2008, Tracy Hogan and Greg Knott who were both immediately seated as JD and SD respectively. Bro. Hogan and Bro. Knott suggested ways to begin improving the lodge and generate some excitement in the process. The veteran members of the lodge eagerly embraced the enthusiasm and the process was under way. The planning sessions began as after dinner discussions. discussions yielded three main areas for work: These Membership growth Lodge Growth Community Awareness We knew that this could not be done overnight. Our goal was to earn the Illinois Grand Masters Award of Excellence within 3 years, which was accomplished at the 2011 Illinois Grand Lodge Communication held in October This program provided a frame work for us to follow and expand upon. (See Award of Excellence tab for examples) Involvement of the active brethren was essential, needed was both some fresh ideas and the leadership and initiative to put them into action. 1

9 II. Execution/implementation: Membership Growth Only one degree had been held at St. Joseph in 5 years. We immediately worked on a list of potential members from the community. We had our first petition in hand within 3 months and held a first degree in the lodge. This was a catalyst for further membership development. In total we have now brought in 25 new members through initiation, plural membership and affiliations since the end of Keep in mind our total membership is only about 70 members. Communication with the membership and the community was a critical piece of our plan. The creation of a lodge website Facebook page and a new regional website ( were established to keep the members and public informed of our events and letting the community know we were still there. Additionally an electronic newsletter has been established for our members to deliver timely news to their inbox. (See Electronic Media cab and E- news tab for examples) Lodge Growth Lodge growth was designed to increase our members' involvement in the lodge in more than just meetings. Provide an opportunity for the new members to know one another and develop those brotherly bonds that are so important for long term growth and involve our families when possible. In practice now is the development an annual lodge calendar for planning the year. (See Lodge Awareness tab) 2

10 Some examples of activities: Lodge picnic - for the family Open Installation of officer - for the families to attend Pancake breakfast with Cub Scout Pack 40 - families invited and also Community Builder award - families invited, community members honored. (See Community builder, Lodge Events and Officer install tabs) Lodge events are communicated via our E-news, hard copy at meetings also via the Call-em-all phone system. WM is responsible for the e-news and JW Hitt is responsible for the call-em all system. (See E-news and Electronic Media Tabs) Each event scheduled has a committee set-up to take the lead. A member is chosen to chair the committee, which usually has 3-5 members. This is a significant change in lodge culture since 2008, when fewer members were available. Follow-up is handled by the committee chair. We have used this as a tool to involve members, especially our newer members Community Observance Our capstone event was a community 9-11 event that was held on September 11, 2011 to mark the 10 year anniversary of What started out as a small idea amongst a few of us, built into a community wide event that was attended by 400 members of the community, plus almost 75 on field participants. The Lodge voted to sponsor the 9/11 observance and put together a committee. We immediately sought to partner with the local Scouting units, fire departments, clergy and high school to bring it all together and truly make it a community 3

11 event. The committee met approximately 10 times including rehearsals for the event, ensuring the successful completion of the day. (See 911 ceremony tab) III. Evaluation/Reflections: Our initials goals were met, which was to rebuild the lodge through growth of membership, lodge growth for fellowship and re-establishing our community relevance. Having a target of the Award of Excellence helped keep our focus in achieving these goals and keeping our doors open. Numerous hours of hard work, a few mistakes and quite a bit of success kept us motivated to work towards our final goal of receiving the recognition at Grand Lodge. (See Award of Excellence Tab) More importantly, our lodge is thriving and providing the opportunity of Freemasonry to an entirely new generation of Masons. Other lodges in the area have used St. Joseph Lodge as an example to strive for in improving their individual lodges. Our community has benefited through our active involvement with Scouting, sponsorship of the high school scholastic bowl team and knowing that we are now a resource to call upon when proj ects needs to be undertaken (see Tucker Benefi t tab). Our members are proud to be part of St. Joseph Lodge, illustrated through the membership growth in their bringing in new members to be a part of Freemasonry. St. Joseph Lodge will be celebrating 100 years in 2014 and we will be strong and ready for the next 100 years in our community. (See 911 ceremony tab, Award of Excellence tab) 4