Quantitative Membership Programs Have Failed

Look at the names in your attendance register vs. how many total members are in your meetings.  How often to you have real quorums in attendance?

Let's face it: our quantitative membership strategy has failed.  The Grand Commandery of Illinois is discontinuing all numerical membership initiatives, incentives, and recognitions.  This approach simply doesn't work, so we're admitting it and moving on.  We must deal with reality and focus on qualitative experiences that engage those relatively few members who wish to remain active.

This means using measurements like individual satisfaction, participation, and engagement to measure success.  Countless members have never bonded with our organizations and have drifted away.  Let us take a lesson from their absence and finally start paying attention to what they are telling us – we need to offer something of value that is worth their time.

Nostalgia will not save us.  It is not the 1800s or even the 1900s anymore.  We can't blame the weather, traffic, economy other Masonic bodies, or being "busy."  We have to learn to function with far fewer members.

This is your challenge.  There is no top-down solution.  Start by figuring out what you can offer members who want to help sustain and improve things.  Learn what it would take for them to stay involved, and let them do that.

Next time you accept a new member ask him about what he would like to personally accomplish in your organization.  Ask him what he wants from his membership experience.  You might be surprised by his answers.  Whenever possible, empower him to do those things, and you'll probably gain a dedicated lifelong participant.  Remember, once upon a time, we were all like him.

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SOURCE:  Admitting Our Quantitative Membership Programs Have Failed, Sir Knight Russell Schlosser; Knight Templar Vol LXI, Number 7, July 2015