I’m told constantly by many Masons of tenure that we need to focus on retention.
That we need retention.
Retention. Retention. Retention.
These brethren have been masons for longer than I have been alive, yet when discussing membership they only want to talk about retention. That’s supposedly what we need! Well why haven’t they successfully implemented any retention strategies in their lodge?
Why is it that their lodges are also going backwards with their membership numbers.
So if they’re right about retention, how come they are not retaining their members.
Now let’s set the record straight, it’s easy to observe that men leave the craft, and we can come to the conclusion that we haven’t retained them. Duh!
So then saying that we need to fix our retention, well that’s just lazy.
Here is why:
1. We already have the greatest retention & engagement strategy but we just don’t use it,
2. We already have a supportive retention & engagement strategy but we overlook it
3. We don’t realise that the solution to retention is contained in our Warrants
If we just realised those 3 things, you’d solve the membership problem.
But why don’t we listen to the actual experts on these things?
IMAGE credit: the square magazine Digital Collection (CC BY 4.0)
Because we have fallen into the trap of thinking, believing and acting that tenure beats expertise. Argh!
Let me ask if you this, who’s the better person to give advice on driving a car?
Someone who’s been driving for 50 years, or a 25 year old Racing Car Driver?
I’ve worked in Sales my entire life. I’ve sold services and products which are a once off buy, but for most of my career I’ve sold recurring service’s. I’ve been through the wars of having to acquire, engage and retain customers.
I’m battle-scared from all the wounds of a career in sales. But it’s taught me, and the whole sales industry knows this as well, that the key to retention and engagement is all dependent on acquisition.
Do you know what the hardest thing in sales is? It’s trying to get someone to use a product that they haven’t emotionally bought into because they’ve bought for other reasons than the main value & purpose of the product.
Free trials and big discounts to get deals done and over the line create the most difficult customers to onboard and then to get to utilise the service they bought.
Businesses spend significant resources of time and effort to get these customers to use the product and when they do, they’re just not committed to doing it.
Now I can tell you, having done this thousands of times. You can sit in-front of a customer, ask them will they commit to using the thing they’ve just bought— the answer is always yes, because they just bought it.
But they don’t, and you go back to them and say, well you said you’d use this and you haven’t. Guess what happens next?
Cancellation.
Now I am also told that there are many reasons why someone becomes a Mason, and stays a Mason. Again, like selling a product or service you can say there are many reasons why someone would buy one product over the next. That is true.
If someone is buying a drill, they are not buying it because it is ergonomic, has fast charging, makes them look cool, allows them to talk shop with trades or their mates about drills or handy work they do around the house, or even to put in screws faster than a manual screwdriver.
Sure, they’re all the other reasons why someone would buy a drill, but guess what they’re actually buying a drill for?
IMAGE credit: the square magazine Digital Collection (CC BY 4.0)
The Hole.
To drill a hole. That’s the core purpose of having a drill. There is a saying, don’t sell the drill, sell the hole.
This means sell to the solution of the problem. Ie, so you went to put a hole in the wall, here is a drill.
For us in Freemasonry, this is how Practicing Freemasonry and participating in the “peculiar system of morality..” is the hole.
Except, we are trying to fill a hole instead of create one. That hole we need to fill is made up of the following three elements:
○ Purpose
○ Fulfilment
○ Meaning
Freemasonry solves that for Masons. If someone is becoming a Mason for any other reason than to solve those 3 things, then I can guarantee you the risk of them leaving has been exponentially increased.
Why?
They didn’t buy the product for its core purpose and function.
Don’t believe me?
Why is it lodges were full when pubs closed at 5pm? Now pubs are open late and lodges are (comparatively) empty. That’s just one example but it proves the point.
What I am trying to say is, if we acquire men who want to become a Freemason because they need to fill a hole in their life, we have half solved the retention issue, because only by practicing Freemasonry is that hole filled, and this solves half the engagement issue as well.
Practicing Freemasonry is the greatest engagement strategy, we already have, that we just don’t use.
While I have previously written about practicing Freemasonry, but did you know the simplest answer to the other half of the retention (and engagement) issue is contained in our Warrants?
IMAGE credit: the square magazine Digital Collection (CC BY 4.0)
Before I explain how the answer is in our Warrants, I need to address something that’s written in our ancient texts. From memory, I think this is in the Halliwell Manuscript.
“That no Master shall take on an Apprentice unless he can be gainfully employed”.
This means that we shouldn’t neglect our Apprentices and Fellowcrafts and make sure they have work to do. But this should lead us to ask what is the work we they should be doing?
Now we can say that we need programs and initiatives to engage them. That’s all rubbish because we already have a program and a curriculum for them. It’s the examination.
You should be aware I’ve previously stated how if we just study the meaning of the words on the page instead of plainly memorising them, we teach the lessons of Freemasonry. It’s basic. Learn the meaning of the text so you can apply it and fill the hole.
But why don’t we actually study the texts?
Because we initiated men who haven’t become Masons to fill the hole in their lives that meaning, purpose and fulfilment through practicing Freemasonry does.
Can you see how this is a circle?
Sure that only gets them to Master Mason, how do we keep our Master Masons gainfully employed. Well this is answered in the Warrant.
By Making Masons. Initiating, Passing and Raising Men is how we gainfully employ Master Masons.
Guess what?
So if the other half of the retention problem is solved by making sure Master Masons have work to do, that means in order to solve that problem you need what?
Acquisition.
A Lodge should be able to make 3.5 Master Masons a year, assuming 12 months from Initiation to Raising and 1 meeting for an Installation. This means, 3 initiations a year.
Doesn’t this just focuses on ritual and not on learning or understanding?
No, as I wrote previously the progressive science of progressive office gives Master Masons a curriculum to follow to learn the meaning of the symbolism and allegories.
This is why I say that if you want to solve the RETENTION problem you need to solve the ACQUISITION problem.
If you Make Masons who fill the void of meaning, fulfilment and purpose in their lives by Practicing Freemasonry (learning & applying the lessons from our text and participating in the peculiar system) here is what happens:
1. They are productively engaged
2. They are actively retained
3. They perpetuate the system
IMAGE credit: the square magazine Digital Collection (CC BY 4.0)
What is the ultimate result?
MEMBERSHIP GROWTH
But QUALITY growth not Quantity, and building a stronger Craft.
There is a kicker to this too!
Quality Attracts Quality. The more you perpetuate the system with quality the more the quality brings in more quality.
I want to come back to the whole mathematics of it all, because if you can make 3.5 Master Masons a year but only 1 can go into Progressive Office, this creates a backlog of Master Masons and can cause issues with their engagement and retention – you end up not having work for them and failing to gainfully employ them.
But what if I told you we don’t need a strategy or program for these brethren because we already have one, it’s “perfect” and leaves a “mark” on a Brother!
Let me introduce you to our best kept secret for engagement and retention.
1. Mark & Royal Arch
2. Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite
That’s right, the other orders are the best supportive strategy for engagement and retention.
Now I will hear people say, Craft first, we still want them to attend Craft. I get it, but that is self serving and you are not putting the best interests of the Brother first.
Let’s be real for a moment. People give their time to what they value. Craft, Other Orders, Netflix, Pub, Football or whatever.
If you are not serving them with value (filling the hole) they won’t stick, so if you want them to put Craft first, you better make sure you as a Craft lodge are serving them first! Not the other way around.
However, let’s be pragmatic for a moment.
You can’t be a member of the other orders without having an active craft lodge membership. Whether they turn up or not, they still need to pay dues.
This is where you just need to accept that they’re getting meaning, fulfilment and purpose from the other orders.
Ask yourself this — do we really want what’s best for our Brothers or are we just going to be selfish and self serving? Just be thankful they’re paying dues and still a member on the books!
Article by: Darren Allatt
Darren Allatt is the Founder of Daily Masonic Progress, Australia's leading masonic education and information newsletter focused on decoding the allegories and symbolism of Freemasonry to help Masons and good men build a life of meaning, purpose and fulfilment.
Darren holds the Right Worshipful Rank of Past Senior Grand Warden and is the Chairman of Membership & Education for the United Grand Lodge of NSW & ACT.
Initiated into Freemasonry at 19, Darren progressed through the Craft Degrees and progressive office and was Installed as Worshipful Master of The Leichhardt Lodge No 133 in Sydney Australia in 2012. In 2014, Darren served as District Grand Inspector of Workings and later joined the Board of Management in 2019.
In other masonic orders, Darren is a Past Most Wise Sovereign of the Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite for the Supreme Council of Scotland (NSW Province), and is a Knight of the Rosy Cross in the Royal Order of Scotland.
Darren took an interest in Freemasonry upon learning that both his Grandfathers were Freemasons. On being Raised to the Third Degree, Darren was invested with his paternal Grandfather's apron, and then his Installed Master apron when Darren was Installed into the Chair.
Outside of Freemasonry, Darren works as a Technical Product Manager for a Software Company, holds a 3rd Degree Blackbelt in Taekwondo and former National League Referee for Futsal and State League Referee for Football.
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