Member Retention Seminar -by Toby Hanson, PGM, PGP

We’ve all had the experience of people coming to join the lodge only to leave after the Initiation and never come back. I have collected some suggestions from various sources to help keep those members engaged so they will continue to attend lodge meetings and events and become valued, regular members.

Making Your Lodge Discoverable -by Toby Hanson, PGM, PGP

Some of the fancier and more modern lodges embraced the new-fangled fad of electric lights on the side of their halls to advertise which branch was meeting upstairs. Lodges of today need to embrace the modern equivalent of those fancy electric lights to let their communities know that they exist and are open for new members to come in.

Trouble At The Top -by Toby Hanson PGM, PGP (WA)

I’ve heard so many stories from new members who have to battle older, more entrenched members who have grown complacent and no longer care to follow the Code or their jurisdictional constitution. While I can and do empathize with those who have carried the burden of keeping a charter on the wall for many years, their actions are often detrimental to the survival of the lodges they have worked so hard to preserve.

But What Do You DO? -by Toby Hanson, PGM, PGP

When it comes to explaining Odd Fellowship to people not familiar with fraternalism, it’s a challenge. The two most common modes of explaining the Order to others are either 1) comparing it to certain *other* fraternal groups (of the apron-wearing persuasion, usually) or 2) talking vaguely about community service and listing off some of our bigger charitable partners or a couple of local lodge activities.

An Odd Fellows Christmas Carol

Young Tim Cratchit had, somewhat reluctantly, finally given in to his father’s pleadings to “just come check it out” and had decided to apply. When the time came to initiate him, Bob requested the lodge do as close to the full initiatory degree as possible instead of what they usually did, which was merely watching the video degrees and then unceremoniously draping a white collar around Timmy’s neck.

How We Saved The Lodge In Wenatchee

Everything seemed like it was going along well for Prosperity Lodge #301…. until Covid reared its ugly head. That wasn’t the only problem, however. Personality conflicts and disputes over the meeting time and other issues started tearing the lodge apart. When the meetings stopped in March 2020 the lodge looked like it was done for.

Growth Mindset -by Toby Hanson PGM, PGP

The hand-wringing keeps coming up: young people just aren’t joiners; nobody wants to be an Odd Fellow anymore; we don’t have the members we used to. But is that an accurate picture of Odd Fellowship and does it take into account the huge potential for growth going forward?

Promoting Odd Fellowship -by Toby Hanson PGM, PGP

In my musical career, if nobody knows what I do or how to get ahold of me, nobody will hire me. The same thing applies to Odd Fellowship. If nobody knows who we are or what we do, nobody will be filling out applications to join. Following that analogy, we should promote Odd Fellowship. That brings up a couple of questions, though: what exactly are we promoting? To whom? If the promotion is successful, how can potential members get in touch with our lodges? Each level of the Order can have a positive effect on our promotional efforts as long as we coordinate those efforts at every level.

How to Run A Lodge Meeting – by Toby Hanson, PGM, PGP

We’ve all attended lodge meetings that were slow, boring, meandering, and pointless. Nothing kills the desire of members to participate in meetings faster than having to sit through terrible, formless meetings with seemingly no reason to be there. Having been through that very same experience too many times myself, I decided to gather some sources and put together a guide to how a lodge meeting should be run.

Reflections from Sovereign Grand Lodge -by Toby Hanson

Having just attended Sovereign Grand Lodge in Cincinnati, Ohio, I’ve had the opportunity to get an idea of what some of the future trends are that will be emerging in Odd Fellowship. The first thing I observed is that there are several places in Odd Fellowship where exciting things are happening. People are wanting to be a part of those lodges. Growth is happening.

Wandering In The Wilderness – by Toby Hanson, Sovereign Grand Musician

If you’re reading this and you’re an Odd Fellow who has taken your Degrees (and remembers them) then you no doubt see the parallels between my experience on the road as a musician and what we teach in our Degrees. The idea of our Degrees is to try and simulate that very experience I had in my time of crisis while on the road playing music. Leaving the safety of home can be dangerous, whether you’re flying down the interstate highway with other musicians from town to town plying your trade or you’re traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho on foot.

Religion and Odd Fellowship -by Toby Hanson, PGM, PGP

The end result of all of this is that Odd Fellowship is left in a kind of middle ground. For some, the secrecy of our operations is reason enough to raise suspicions of our activities. For others, our religious inclusion makes us unsuitable. For still others, there’s already too much inclusion of religion within Odd Fellowship. We’re non-political and non-sectarian. You can support the political philosophy of your choice and worship in the way that suits your conscience and still be an Odd Fellow.