“I just read a blog post last week about how to accomplish things in lodge. It talked about doing things in a way that you won’t get shot down. I guess I didn’t realize there was a lot of that type of thing but I can see that there are a lot of older guys here.” The young man who had just taken his Initiatory Degree two weeks earlier had sought out The Old Webmaster who was sitting by the light of his laptop in the lodge’s upstairs storage room.
“Perhaps you should come in and sit down.” The Old Webmaster said, pointing to one of the several overstuffed chairs from ages past that had been squirreled away in this little retreat.
“I guess I was unaware that the lodge was ’shooting things down’ all that frequently. Perhaps you can enlighten me.” he said as the young man felt the warmth of decades past envelop him sinking further into the depths of the chair.
“Well, I…. I suppose I really don’t know because I haven’t been at a business meeting yet – but this Blogger made it seem pretty apparent that this was a very common thing.”
“I read that blog too – and a couple of thoughts came immediately to mind. Care to hear my take on them?”
“Absolutely!” replied the new initiate. He’d been impressed by this man’s sage advice from the first conversation they’d had. It was like having…. Well, he’d never had an uncle but this would be what it was like, he thought. He thought how pleasant it would be just dropping by to talk with ‘Uncle Bob’ or ‘Uncle Harry’ about life in general – particularly since his family relationship with his father hadn’t been the best.
“My first thought was that the writer – anonymous, as so many of them are and seeming to be afraid of standing behind their claims either as Masons or men – had no conception of Freemasonry whatsoever.”
“Why do you say that?” asked the young man. “He sounded like he knew a lot about what went on – and had been on the losing side of a great many arguments in lodge.”
“You’ve just answered your own question without realizing it.” replied The Old Webmaster. “The Lodge is not a place for arguments about things. The Lodge is not a place where men should have to scheme and engage in trickery or deception in order to get others to support an idea. His whole premise was that we should all be engaging in some sort of Machiavellian plotting – all without any consideration of whether the initial proposal was good, bad, or indifferent.”
“Well, it DID seem awfully contradictory to what I’ve seen so far. The Brothers here have all seemed very friendly and open. I couldn’t imagine that there would be the type of ‘herd-mentality’ that he’d described.” The young man was becoming more pleased than ever that he’d sought advice on this before attempting any of the ploys he’d read about.
“I don’t want to mislead you. In some ways, there is a bit of a ‘herd mentality’ in Freemasonry. If anything, we can be accused of ‘going along to get along’. Thus, if someone DOES speak against an idea, there are likely many reasons for it. Masons, by and large, don’t just decide to not do things out of spite or personal animus. If there does happen to be a lodge member who’s particularly – how shall I say – ‘cranky’ about doing things, the others in the lodge will work to mitigate his objections. You don’t need to go plotting behind others’ backs just so you can have the benefit of bragging about “YOUR” idea getting adopted.” The Old Webmaster watched the young man carefully. Despite the dim lighting in the room, it was clear he understood – so far, at least.
“I don’t want to belabor this too very much but there is a second point to it all.” he said.
“Remember that the ‘old guys’ aren’t always out to get you?” the young man chuckled. “The ones I’ve met so far all seemed to be very eager to hear what I have to say about things. I guess I was just thinking that it might somehow be different during a business meeting.”
“I appreciate that you give us ‘Old Guys’ our due,” said The Old Webmaster, winking and grinning broadly, his cherubic face alight, “but that wasn’t the real point I wanted to make. I saw a second, similarly important flaw. The blog’s author seemed to think that after he had completed his lineup of support through whatever means, he should just spring things during the business meeting. It seemed to me that this blogger probably never held a position of leadership in a lodge or in any other organization. He didn’t seem to understand that the leader of ANY group should, just out of simple courtesy, be consulted first on any plan or project to be proposed. In our case, it’s the Master. He’s the guy who’s responsible for the Lodge and all the programs that it does during his term. He’ll get the blame if something falls flat, regardless of who comes up with the idea. He’s also the one that has, hopefully, planned the agenda items for the meeting, including the time allotted to various items on the agenda. To get blindsided with some proposal for something that requires a lengthy discussion and a lot of thinking isn’t really what a Master wants to have hit him as he’s moving along with the items he’s already prepared. It’s an ambush, so to speak, and it’s sure not very Masonic as far as I can see. So I’d suggest that the anonymous blogger not only has a very poor understanding of Freemasonry but also of simple, basic meeting management. Blindsiding another Mason in order to get your own way…. I dunno. It’s sure not what I consider Masonic. When you become Master of this Lodge, you might even remember this discussion and then you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.”
The Old Webmaster leaned back and his chair squeaked as it was accustomed to doing. He looked at the young man who was just beaming with the thought of becoming Master. ‘Time well spent.’ The Old Webmaster mused.
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