2024 has been a busy year…
Its my second year as your membership officer we have been busy with the continuation of the membership challenge with some lodges making excellent progress while others are a little slower to start.
A date for your Diary is the 18th January at Cosham centre for a membership workshop – please book in in square events, this is open to all members of the lodge. The event will be no more than two hours, even with free tea and coffee! Don’t miss out.
The Member’s Pathway is for all members and the experience we encounter from the first enquiry to the long-term active membership we all look to enjoy, how we are treated, how we contribute, how we influence and support.
We have seen a record number of enquiries following some social media and leaflet campaigns, resulting in 162 enquiries into the SE area alone and 42 men who have been handed to lodges in order to be progressed as candidates for initiation. These men are just the ones who are from the community and we have many men joining through the more traditional route.
It’s going to be a busy January!
The membership challenge is working with the Hampshire and IOW province seeing numbers increasing once again but we still have work to do with high levels of resignations and exclusions which need to come down significantly and we can all ask ourselves how we can support these Brethren to prevent this.
2024 also saw three brethren installed as Worshipful Master who had come through the community process-
W.Bro Dean Barlow of The Southsea Lodge
W.Bro Dr Matt Round of the United Service Lodge
W.Bro John Mills of Johore Bahru Lodge
We congratulate these brethren for their achievements and commitment to the lodges. The lodges that embraced the Members’ Pathway a number of years ago are paying dividends in the investment they made to make the necessary changes
I have been joined on the team by W.Bro Keith Walton and Bro Matt Lawes to help out on the initial contact and marketing. Given the volume of enquiries we have had in 2024 and with a new social media campaign being run mid-January, we hope to build on that success in recruiting more eligible men.
My team of 6 are experienced in chatting to non masons and giving them an overview of the craft. There is no try before you buy options regarding joining Freemasonry, but we have found that by providing sufficient information our potential candidates are more informed and are more likely to stay as freemason. If you have any questions or enquiries, we are all here to help.
