A Dread Disease

"Ignorance and Apathy is a dread disease, even nations die from it."

I don't remember where I first heard that quote but it has stuck with me. It may be paraphrased. I would add Complacency to the list.

This post is in response to an earlier post which asked "Are You Just a Place Holder?"

I was having an e-mail conversation with one of my Worshipful Masters (I have three) and he asked me:

"So, what do you think is the solution to the leadership problem in YR?"

Well he is right. I did not give a very good answer to what I think should be done. It is all very well and good to criticize but a person, to be effective, needs to propose some solutions. I had written at the very end of that post:

Only those who are progressing through the lines have the power to make the necessary changes so that can happen. At the very minimum all of the Dais Officers of the Three York Rite Bodies should be meeting quarterly (together not as separate groups) for at least a full day with others invited to participate. I will support their efforts in any way I can but I also am getting really tired of hitting my head against a stone wall. I think my brains are starting to leak out

Another person - a PGHP type doesn't think that you can train leaders. He thinks that a person is either a leader or not. I won't disagree with him but I will say that there are certain things that those in authority (Notice I did not say power) can do to develop organizational ability. It can't be done by one person. It has to be a long range strategic plan which lays out the MISSION of the organization and develops goals to accomplish. TEAM (Together Each Accomplishes More) work is the key to making the organization viable.

However that word complacency sneaks in here and that is really the crux of the problem. If men are complacent with things the way they are nothing will happen. If all they want are titles and honors and to wear the pretty necklaces then they are not interested in saving the Rite.

I personally think we need some strategic planning, commitment, monetary investment, people who are willing to do more than just stand around and look pretty, a program of support for those willing to try to revitalize the rite, a Reward system for things that work and by that I mean a meaningful one - The current Chapter of the Year Program needs revamping.

Leaders may not be born, you may not even be able to develop them but you can train those in positions of authority as to the necessary skills. But until someone cares enough to do something it will keep on the same path it has started on - a downhill slide. To the mud field at the bottom.

We had a Leadership Conference here in Ames this Spring. At that meeting M. W. Mosier described the Attributes a leader has:

• attitude - a leader must have a positive attitude
• vision - he must have a vision of what his organization is going to be. not just a wish but you have to believe it is going to be that way. This helps you relate to problems as they occur.
• communication - you have to communicate that vision and show through your actions what that vision is. The members need a full "buy in" they need to know what the vision is and why.
• delegation/empowerment - Assign people tasks and empower them (within due boundaries) to do those tasks. They need the authority to solve the problems.
• leading by example/rewarding - Recognition for what people have done.
• accomplishment -A public acknowledgement that there was success.
• training your replacement. - This is the most important task. If we don't train our replacement we haven't been a success.

Grand Lodge has a program called the Lodge Service Committee - this is a very hard working committee and it is out there twice a year with Grand Master Area Education Meetings and Neighborhood Area Meetings. They work together and plan for these meetings in a full day and a half of a workshop described like this:

The Lodge Service Committee, far as I can tell, has met in Marshalltown the weekend following Grand Lodge since Fred Flintstone was Grand Master. We forgather about 3:30, start informal discussions, break for dinner, and then get back to work until about midnight. Saturday we have an early breakfast, and are back in session by 8:00 a.m., with the goal of adjourning by about 3:00 in the afternoon. While we DO get food and lodging from the Grand Lodge, the GL also gets its money's worth of work from the committee that weekend. Out task is to prepare the entire year's work and agenda for the committee, including GMAMs and NAMs, as well as any other work we need to do in revising educational documents, identifying Lodges that need our attention and/or help, and trying to figger out what the GM wants us to do. It's a FULL weekend!

These guys are hard working Masons. They do it because they love the fraternity and care about it. They are members of a committee. Some of them are more effective than others but they all work to do the best they can to help "grow" the fraternity and help local officers do their work. I think it is partially because of their work that the Lodges in Iowa are beginning to show some improvement.

The Grand Lodge Officers also met together this past week-end and they also make plans and work together to do what they can to make things better here in the Lodges.

It is also because the last several Grand Masters have communicated with those who will follow them and have "trained their successors" and have carefully chosen those who will continue the strategic plans they are putting in place.

The York Rite needs to do that and they need to do it as a Rite with Chapter, Council and Commandery working together to get organized.

Another Brother writes

Organization is PRECISELY the problem. To be sure, time was when almost every burg and hamlet had at least one York body, and many had all three. They were all locally governed, fairly removed from the Grand Bodies, and that's the way they liked it. Many small-town Commanderies had 100 or more members.

But that was also when there were LOTS of Masons in Iowa. As Masonic membership declined, so did York membership, and many bodies went the way of all flesh. I think that gradual decay is the MOST important reason for the decline in York Rite Masonry in Iowa {...}

One of the fundamental problems is the difference in systems of governance between the Scottish and York Rites. For better or worse, the AASR is pretty much a trickle-down autocracy. What the SGC and Supreme Council decree trickles down to SGIGs, to Personal Reps, and to individual valleys.

Not so in the York Rite. While the structure EXISTS, it is neither effective nor practiced. Every York Rite body does its own thing, within reason, and that laissez-faire local independence causes larger-scale chaos. State level meetings are far more social events than anything else, and they tend NOT to attract most members.

It is my understanding that many of the Commanderies were not represented at Grand Commandery this past year. The situation was the same in Grand Chapter and Grand Council. When there is nothing there but a social event, even though the officers promise at their Installation that they will "attend on the " Grand meetings there is no real reason for them to go. Once they go and find out that it is just a self-congratulatory get together of the same old folks they quit going. There should/could be things happening at these meetings to make the local heads feel that they gain from the event. That there is something happening there that they can translate into action back at the local level.

You have to be willing to do something. Driving around doing ritual is not enough. You have to actively plan and take at least baby steps if you are going to accomplish things. The Rite won't save itself. The so-called leaders must do it. And, unfortunately the quote above seems to apply here.

So I would suggest that the "leadership" of the Rite get together for a week-end and meet like the Lodge Service Committee does. And make plans. And identify problems. And discuss solutions. And set long range goals. Then perhaps there will be hope. There are one or two bright shining stars in the firmament. I won't name them because I would get in trouble and who knows, maybe some of the others care also. Perhaps they are interested in the Rite and saving it. If not someday the degrees will be relegated to the Grand College of Rites never preformed - just read once in awhile, and that will be a sad thing indeed.