Boiling Frogs

There is an apocrophal story about boiling a frog. Apparently if you put a frog in water and gently boil the water the frog will not jump out because it is insensitive to small changes in its environment. In the same way Freemasonry has become insensitive to subtle changes in its environment. In my Lodge, for example, there has been a steady decline in membership since the turn of the last century; a decline that most brethren seem to accept with a resigned sigh.

1. Can't tell you, it's a secret.
2. Three. One to change the bulb, another to take the minutes and a third to tell you how it used to be done.
3. Change? Change? What do you mean, change

Stewarding

One aspect I have never understood about Freemasonry is its [apparent] fascination with stewarding. On Sunday I went to a cycling club Sunday lunch where someone pointed out a former member of a local Lodge.

He had joined and, because newer members were somewhat thin on the ground, all the bar and meal duties were left to him. His response? He promptly resigned. How many members have we lost because of this archaic system?

After a full day's work the last thing a Brother wants to do is wait upon table. This is the biggest singular complaint I hear from newer members. My previous post talked about the lost metaphor of apprenticeship. Getting the apprentice to sort the nails may have been an acceptable practice 30 years ago. Now many of our brethren are university educated this metaphor is lost. In fact apprenticeship in days gone past were little more than a cheap source of labour, which is effectively what stewarding is to newer members.

We are all equal, but some more equal than other it would seem.

Another lost metaphor

Previously I have written about the lost metaphor of the ashlar as the building brick of society. Yet there is another metaphor that has become lost over the years: the meaning of an apprentice.

With the knowledge economy a larger number of brethren who join lodges have been educated to degree level. Up until the 1950s most of the members will have followed a recognised appretiship. However these have become less and less over the years and most of the newer members will not have had the 'lived the experience' of being an apprentice.

Likewise, it has to be pointed out that many of the brethren who served an apprentiship left school at 15, and do not have a university degree!

Tempered radicals

A cynic has been defined as somebody who has given up trying, but hasn't given up talking about it. I would prefer to call my position as a 'tempered radical' from the work of Debra E Meyerson. Tempered radicals work within the organisation, balancing radicalism with constraint.

Freemasonry as a normative organisation

Freemasonry can be best described as a 'normative' organisation. Albert and Whetten who did some of the ground-breaking research into organizational identity referred to the concept of the 'claimed central character'. Writers on organisational culture, meanwhile, refer to a strong culture but were unclear about how this would be operationalised in an organisation.

Freemasonry has a strong culture, because it has a defined central character - a clear credo that members are expected to adhere to. This manifests itself in expectations the behaviour on members. In this way Freemasonry is similar (but not the same as) many of the great religions of the world. These are based on the normative standards of good citizenship behaviour. Church is a good example of a normative organisation.

Saint Jude - Patron Saint of Lost Causes

Saint Jude, the patron saint of lost causes, would feel well at home within Freemasonry. Any organisation struggles with the two extremes of regulation and innovation. Over the years Freemasonry has become increasingly regulated to the point where its culture is based upon one of compliance. Unfortunately this has created an ultra-conservative organisation (with a small 'c') where members value the 'dull security of tradition' as Robert Putnam put it. Significant change, therefore, is next to impossible as it attracts people who are conservative in nature.

In the meantime membership is falling at an annual rate of approximately 2-3%. It would appear the organisation would rather decline than change.