Horace E. Curtis, 32°

In preparing an annual plan for your Lodge or Temple, three basic steps—examination, diagnosis, prescription—will assure its health for now and the future.

Is your Lodge or Temple dying on the vine, failing to attract or keep members, especially baby boomers and their offspring, suffering from inadequate programming, having serious financial problems, or simply not feeling up to snuff? No matter how your Masonic Body is doing—good, bad, or indifferent—here’s a sure-fire way for it to breath in some fresh air and enhance its vitality. You can begin in the same manner as your doctor would in annually examining a patient to determine how to keep him in tip-top condition for many years to come.

• First, the doctor would check the patient’s vital signs and organs along with his height and weight. Then, he would relate his findings to his patient’s medical history to spot trends and possible problem areas.

• Second, after the doctor determined the facts, he would prepare a diagnosis defining what is right or wrong with his patient’s condition.

• Third, the doctor would offer a prescription for his patient to help him achieve the highest state of physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

You, too, can follow these same three basic steps—examination, diagnosis, prescription—in preparing an annual plan for your own Lodge or Temple to assure its own health for now and for its future as a major force for good and decency in your community. Just like the doctor, you would examine the facts about your Masonic Body, evaluate the findings, such as its strengths and weaknesses, and then prescribe, in the resulting annual plan, what the Lodge or Temple should do not only to survive but to prosper.

During the examination, you would probe many factors, including the Body’s history, past and present membership records, demographic and residence profiles, program performance, candidate selection, degree training, community relations, and financial situation.

Next you would evaluate these findings: diagnose the Body’s overall situation with respect to its pluses and minuses, what kind of Lodge or Temple it is, and what kind does it want to become to meet competitive challenges in today’s society. Armed with this diagnosis, you would be ready to compile your prescription: the annual plan listing objectives, strategies, tactics, timetable, and budget.

For example, supposing your diagnosis reveals your older members are dying off and are not being replaced with younger men. Compounding the loss, you discover this new generation of prospects is reluctant to join anything because they say they don’t have enough time or interest.

Consequently, your Body’s number one objective might be "to target your recruiting efforts only at younger men who indicate they really want to join a fraternity which demonstrates family values, male bonding, moral discourse, and philanthropic service."

To accomplish this goal, your broad strategy might call for "using special appeals uniquely designed to enable younger men, especially fathers, to become Masons without feeling they will be taking valuable time away from their families."

The follow-up tactics would consist of the how-to-do-it ways and the means to fulfill this strategy. One such tactic might be to transform the Body’s all-male image into a brand new family look. This change could influence a number of other accompanying tactics such as: rescheduling regular monthly meeting dates from weekdays to Saturdays, which would allow all family members to attend; creating distinct activities for women and children while the men are in Masonic session; and holding family-style dinners, possibly with entertainment or an enjoyable and educational program of interest to families as well as members, when the Lodge or Temple meeting is over.

Other appeals to younger men might include establishing a Masonic-sponsored job referral service featuring local employment opportunities. A "Who’s Who" biographical sketch file of the Body’s members could be assembled and published to help all members become better acquainted with their new Brothers’ backgrounds and accomplishments.

In summary, when all the objectives, strategies, and tactics are interlocked together, they will form a Masonic road map directing where the members have agreed to go and how to get there on time and on budget. It is not set in concrete since it can be changed annually, or even more often, as new circumstances arise. For example, a Lodge’s Senior Warden and his hand-picked team should take the responsibility for preparing this annual plan at the beginning of his term. In this way, he can have his recommendation ready for Lodge review and approval by the time he normally would be elected to the Worshipful Master post.

Such organized thinking, planning, and execution should go a long way in assuring we Masons are doing our level best to turn over the Craft to future generations in even better condition than we found it.

Horace E. Curtis is a member of the Valley of Dallas, Texas, and John L. DeGrazier Lodge No. 1349, Dallas. He was raised a Master Mason in Central City Lodge, No. 305, North Syracuse, N.Y., in 1942. Following USMC military service (receiving two USMC Letters of Commendation for meritorious staff and combat duty), he affiliated with St. John’s Lodge, Boston, Mass. He received his 50-year Veterans’ Pin in 1992. Before retiring in 1988 as SW Manager for Business Week BIP, he spent 26 years as either VP or SVP with major national advertising agencies. A recipient of Syracuse University’s Outstanding Alumnus Award in Communications, Bro. Curtis is married and has two children and two grandchildren.

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