The Odd Fellow Academy, which is directly subordinate to the Grand Lodge of Sweden, deals with questions about the past, present and future. As the Odd Fellow Order in Sweden grew, it became increasingly clear that a central documentation of what had happened and is happening within the Order was needed to help out with and gather information for in-depth teaching in lodges and Encampments for both sisters and brothers. The Academy researches the Order’s historical background, develops results in lectures, pictures, websites and writings and provides ideas and conditions for the Order’s development into the future.
The Odd Fellow Academy began at the Grand Lodge meeting in Sweden in 2004: two motions had been submitted. One concerned the formation of a research lodge in the Order and the other concerned the creation of a Swedish Odd Fellow museum. Both motions were approved by the Grand Lodge meeting and the name of the research lodge was determined to be the Odd Fellow Academy. The institution of the Odd Fellow Academy took place on Saturday, October 15th, 2005 and the Order’s museum was inaugurated in the Odd Fellow Order’s house in Stockholm, in connection with the
Academy’s third anniversary on October 27th, 2007.
With other academies as a model, the members have numbered chairs, twelve in total, which shows the maximum number of members in the academy, even if the number of members of the Academy may have varied over the years. To be eligible for academy membership, one must be a member of the Order, brother or sister, who is known for good efforts within the Order and is judged to have the ability and willingness to work independently within the Odd Fellow Academy’s area of activity. The Odd Fellow Academy has its annual celebration day in the month of October, which begins with the annual meeting in ritualistic form followed by a presentation by one or more members on one of the Academy’s ongoing projects or on another Order-related subject, and the evening ends with a feast.
Why an academy?
If you ask the psychologist Maslow and his hierarchy of needs, you can at the same time discern the historical development of the Odd Fellow Order, where from the beginning it was an Order that satisfied physiological social security needs through its transition to an Order that more and more provides, in addition to the above, a place for developing self-esteem and self-development in accordance with the order’s goal of “betterment of man.”
With development becoming more and more important for our work within the Order, there are continuous requests for help in producing materials to use in instructions and symposia. It can apply to subjects of a more peripheral and general nature, as well as large overviews of, for example, our ethics, knowledge of the Order, or organizational development. There is a lot written about this outside the country, but in many cases this development feels like a difficult task if you cannot reasonably easily produce your own texts, of which the academy can be of assistance.
Our neighboring Nordic countries have shown great interest in the Academy. Norway founded its Academy in 2010, Finland has created a Research Committee and Iceland founded its Academy in 2017, all with very good results, both in produced material, engaged members, and projects.
“Uh-huh”
Onto the future.
If you look at the future and the development of the Odd Fellow Academy, I personally see a bright future if you choose to make the Academy and its work available to all members of the order. There is a risk that the Odd Fellow academy and its work will die out by itself if members choose not to take care of the commitment and interest in the order and its work that you can clearly see in the Orders in Sweden and the rest of the Nordic countries. On several occasions, Grand Lodge motions have been raised about closing down the Odd Fellow Academy, which is understandable, in my opinion, as the meaning and purpose of the Odd Fellow Academy are unclear to the person putting forth the motion.
This indicates that the Odd Fellow Academy is facing a number of difficulties: it is unknown, it is perceived as its purpose and mission are unclear, and it lacks brothers and sisters in the Order who start up and run events within the Odd Fellow Academy’s area of activity within the Order. All of the issues can easily be solved by opening up the work to more people, thus working on a snowball effect and producing more relevant content, thereby increasing the commitment to the Odd Fellow Academy and the Order in general without losing sight of the goal. That is to say, the same problems and proposed solutions that the Order has in general: creating relevant content to meet the demands of the golden age of Odd Fellowship that I truly believe is occurring. In short, let the past and present lead the way forward to a bright future.
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