My lodge merged with another a decade or more ago. Seven years ago, I retired and moved out of town. Ny eyesight precludes driving at night to lodge meetings in my old community. The lodge would not relieve me of dues or assign partial dues for more than one year. I wrote a letter to the Secretary and received no help. I wrote to the WM and received no relief. All they wanted was the do-re-mi. I dutifully paid everything I was billed for, although I could not really afford it. Then, I requested a formal cessation of affiliation with the lodge. The lodge would not issue a certificate of demit stating that I am an unaffiliated Mason who was in good standing at the time I ceased my Lodge affiliation.
That sounds like bad business @motie2 Here in our lodge we have guys that have special needs and/or problems. We have put together a small committee within our lodge to investigate and return with recommendations to the lodge as far as further action. We started this committee way back when some of our brothers were being deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, ect. We waived their dues, and took up weekly donations (a dollar here, a dollar there) which has become a fund from which we help those who need financial help, including their dues... I hate to say it, but I think you are correct. It doesn't sound as if "brotherhood" was taken seriously in your lodge... That saddens me, especially when there are so many different paths that could have been taken to remedy your situation...😔
Dues, it’s one of the main reasons I have not joined my sibling in the Mason’s. That, and anytime I have been around a club/group it always seems to end up in in-fighting, or “one-up’ed-ness”. It’s been close here at TPL a few times for me and I have noticed others that have been jumped for petty stuff. I try to let it slide. I face the reality that there are jerks everywhere (and sometimes that jerk is me).
I tend to agree with @RockyMountainBriar And the only perfect "lodge" I know that I'm a member is heaven. Like I tell everyone when the situation calls for it, "lf I take myself seriously, I'm usually the only one who does". It's just a slightly different way of saying, "If you can't laugh at yourself, someone else will".😁😄😁
We help our brothers who cannot pay there dues and remit the dues for members with 35 years of continuous service, as a Past Master, I am an endowed member, the lodge pays for it once your year in the East is completed.
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At this point in time, time anything over $50🙁. I know at least two Masons other than my brother that would enjoy one.
Trust me, it's painless...
Brotherhood?
Here in our lodge we have guys that have special needs and/or problems. We have put together a small committee within our lodge to investigate and return with recommendations to the lodge as far as further action. We started this committee way back when some of our brothers were being deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, ect.
We waived their dues, and took up weekly donations (a dollar here, a dollar there) which has become a fund from which we help those who need financial help, including their dues...
I hate to say it, but I think you are correct. It doesn't sound as if "brotherhood" was taken seriously in your lodge...
That saddens me, especially when there are so many different paths that could have been taken to remedy your situation...😔
And the only perfect "lodge" I know that I'm a member is heaven. Like I tell everyone when the situation calls for it, "lf I take myself seriously, I'm usually the only one who does".
It's just a slightly different way of saying, "If you can't laugh at yourself, someone else will".😁😄😁
A Masonic Pipe and Stories of Freedom
https://www.meerschaummarket.com/masonic-pipes/
We both know they should have called those hammer pipes "gavel" pipes, but they're beautiful just the same...
https://www.hiramandsolomoncigars.com/