Greetings, Sir Knights! The Triennial Conclave is just 31 days away! Thank you for your commitment to our Order. I look forward to seeing many of you in Salt Lake City. Please make sure to stop by the Hospitality Suite and chat with Brian DiMatteo (candidate for Grand Captain General) and me.
We talk a lot about the membership trend we are experiencing in the Grand Encampment and Freemasonry in general. There is no sugar-coating it, the trend is ugly as we are losing thousands of members annually. Weve lost over 175,000 in membership since I was knighted in 1985. That is an ugly number.
But, I think we are starting a turnaround.
I am a member of the American Legion. When we look at membership statistics, particularly when determining growth or loss in a Post for awards and such, we exclude the number of deaths among the Post’s membership. Why do we do this? Because we can’t control how many people die in a year. However, we can control how many join, renew, are reinstated, and choose not to renew their membership. We even set metrics for what percentage of the membership have renewed/joined over the course of a membership year, with a goal of being 100% (defined as the number of gains is equal or greater than the number of non-death losses) by the start of the final quarter of the membership year. Being over 100% also means the Post is gaining membership to cover at least some of the losses because of deaths. A Post that does not reach 100% is declining in membership. It seemed an odd way to track membership at first, but the more I thought about it, the more sense it makes.
Like the American Legion, we have a huge number of men who joined our ranks following World War II and Korea, and our membership gains began to slow significantly with the Vietman era, when “belonging” wasn’t considered the “cool” thing to do and doing the opposite of one’s parents was the rule of the culture. Past Department Commander Stu Dross, a member of the Membership Committee for the Grand Encampment, gave a good presentation at the recent Southeast Department Conference that looked at membership in a similar vein (great minds think alike, Stu!). He shared statistics for the Southeast Department, and I think it opened a lot of eyes.
I took a few minutes to look at the numbers on the Grand Encampment level for the last 5 Triennia (2010-2024). For the 69th, the statistics are through 30 June 2024,. I find the numbers interesting and encouraging:
What can we learn from this information?
First, on the sad side, we are losing fewer members to death. This isn’t necessarily because we are all living longer, but that we have fewer of those in the Greatest Generation and Korean War Era with us as each year passes.
Second, we had a rough period of nine years where our non-death losses increased significantly (2010-2019), but during the pandemic period, we at least held the losses fairly level.
Third, and most exciting, we are showing a net gain in membership (excluding deaths). This is not a bad thing, my Fratres! While we will continue to lose many good men as they lay down their swords and enter the Asylum Above, we are doing a better job at not only creating new Templars, but retaining the ones we have. With six months left in the statistical year 2024, we are reporting almost 6,000 fewer losses and our gains are less that 100 fewer than the previous Triennium.
We are not out of the woods yet, but I firmly believe we are on the right track to slowing the rate of loss and, hopefully by the 71st Triennium, be on the swing back upwards. We will need to be creative, assertive, and active in our recruitment and ritual work, but we can do it and I am here to assist you as best I can to make growth happen. However, we do have reason to be optimitic and to celebrate success this Triennium.
I appreciate your time and would also appreciate your support and vote to be the next Deputy Grand Master when we gather in Conclave in August 2024.
If you have questions or comments, feel free to contact me at art@40mileproject.us or through my Facebook page Art Hebbeler for Deputy Grand Master. I am happy to also chat on the phone or in a video call—just ask!