Making Improvements

There was a different atmosphere at the lodge last night as the crowd continues to slowly grow during these times of fellowship. No meeting, no degrees, just time to spend with our fellow brothers, prepare those in the process of getting their degrees, and continue planning for the end of the year and the long year ahead of us. It is also a time to talk about all the things that we would like to see done to the building as we discuss changes and improvements to our space.

While we have the brothers now showing up and getting more involved, we would like to make the space more appealing and entice more of the lodge to join us during these nights. This is all part of the resurgence that I have written about previously. We have the motivation and the participation, now we are working on the other things that will accelerate that change. The actual lodge building is only a part of that effort.

Over the past year we have slowly been increasing our presence in the community through open houses, Alex’s Lemonade Stand fundraisers, the CHIP event during National Night Out, and soon we will be having a community blood drive. Each of these things you have read about at one point or another and while they are great events to open up to the community they have also been a great way for the brethren to get involved and have their family join in the efforts. Being able to include brothers, family members, candidates, and potential candidates has been a great way to reinforce the fact that we are all part of the same fraternal family working together to help and support our community.

There seems to be a growing sense of pride among the brethren as well. We are proud to be members of this fraternity and we want to get to the point when we can have that same sense of pride in the building itself. During the many open events and meetings over the past year we have been happy to bring family and friends to take part in the occasions but, at times, there were always those lingering moments when we would have to explain at one point or another that the building itself is still a work in progress. I look forward to the day when no explanation is needed.  

In one way or another, these are issues that all lodges are facing right now. Some may be further along in certain aspects but the general goals remain the same. We want our lodge and the fraternity as a whole to grow, our lodges be places where people look forward to meeting, and our communities to know the good work that is being done both within and outside the walls of our buildings. Our goal has always been to make good men better but we also need to look beyond that principle by making our community better and our families stronger. These are pillars of our fraternity and they remain essential to our future success.