Interpersonal Communication: The Foundation of Masonic Public Relations and Member Development

If you’re trying to convince complete strangers or mere acquaintances to join,

What if he saw my masonic license plate and asked questions?

if your Lodge’s culture requires a lot of work before you can truly feel good about promoting it, then you have bigger issues to face than interpersonal communications and public relations.

According to a 500 person anonymous survey I sent around the country, if someone thinks "we" don't have this issue widespread across the country, THEY have much bigger issues. What's the first step of AA.....

Great men make Freemasonry better. Think about that, Brother.

Or, Freemasonry makes good men better? I wouldn't say "most" of us are "great". I would say that most of us are rough stones just looking for the right tools so we can make ourselves a little better.

Would you rather have one engaged, new member who attends, participates, and then eventually focuses on membership development, or would you rather zip 20 guys through

You must be new here, lol. I've had countless conversations with WM's who want to "plant" 100 trees, instead of focusing on 10 trees. The difference is 100 trees won't be nearly as good as 10. Falls on deaf ears.

Stop relying on George Washington and other historical luminaries.

Now I know you must be insane. How dare you say such blasphemy?!

Once again, you’re not selling a product; you’re promoting an experience

Us: "Man, let me tell you... we make the best spaghetti and meatballs you've ever tasted. Which you will, 100x a year, on dollar store plates and plastic forks"

"..we're going to give you a really good 3 degrees, make you memorize a ton of stuff, then you'll get to hang out with us inside lodge!"

Them: "Nice, what do you guys do inside lodge?"

Us: "oh man, this is the best part. We first listen to 'minutes'. That is, the Secretary reads everything we did the last time everyone was there. Sometimes we read multiple ones at a time. Yeah, I know... awesome right? You get to relive it!"

"Then we debate whether we're going to pay our electric bill. What? You think we should? Well, of course we should. But we need to argue about it first"

"...then we debate, argue, and provide opinions on what stuff we need to do in and out of the lodge. For example, we spent 4 hours over 3 different meetings debating whether we should get a new dishwasher, or just have the stewards clean the plates by hand. At the end, one brother begged the conversation to stop and said he'll pay for it. That's great, but who will pay for the soap, amirite?"

"..oh, and after that... wow. Ya know Ol' G' Washington was a Mason? Yeah? Good. We're going to remind you about a dozen times"

Them: 0_o

/r/freemasonry Thread