Committees are important, but a committee can be a hindrance as well as a help. If you really want a job done, don't bury it in a committee. Find the right man to do the job and put him to work.

6 - Preparing To Rule And Govern

Dear Tom:

OON you'll be at the halfway point in your year as Senior Warden of Acacia Lodge. For five months I've been writing to you regularly. Up to now we have fixed our attention on the broad view of Freemasonry--what it is all about, some of the basic concepts without which Freemasonry would not be Freemasonry.

And you have been patient, my lad. But any day now I shall expect you to reply, "Okay, Pop, but when do we get down to business?"

Very well, let's get down to what current slang terms "nitty-gritty." But above all things, in our desire to be "practical," let us keep in mind Joseph Fort Newton's classic description of the true Freemason in one of the books on your reading list. Remember it?

"When is a man a Mason?" the author asks. Among other attributes, he points to the true Mason as a man "who can look into a wayside puddle and see something beyond mud ..."

For the next few months, then, let's be particularly careful that we do not get bogged down in the mud and fail to see what is beyond it!

• Appointment of your "first rung" officer. First, let's consider the appointments you will be expected to make at your installation as Worshipful Master.

Most Lodges have an "official line." It is ladder promotion, whereby a Brother once appointed to an office advances to the East whether he deserves to advance or not.

Quite naturally, the practice of ladder promotion is subjected to severe criticism by many thoughtful leaders of Freemasonry, and rightly so. It happens that Acacia Lodge follows that practice; hence, I would not want to disturb any of the "sacred cows" by questioning its wisdom.

My only suggestion is this: If we must have ladder promotion, then it's well to take particular pains that the Brother who is appointed to the lowest rung on the ladder be one who will grace the office of Worshipful Master.

I daresay you have noticed, as I have, th tendency of many Worshipful Masters to appoint Brother to the first rung who is a step or two beneath himself in intelligence, prestige, cultural attainments, social standing. It's quite natural, I suppose, for a Worshipful Master to want an appointee who doesn't "outshine" the Brother who appointed him. But what a body blow he is dealing his Lodge in so doing!

Tom, my lad, I hope you'll be big enough to resist that temptation. Select the finest Brother you can find, regardless of whether he is a step above or a step below yourself. The Lodge will be the loser if you do not.

• And don't underestimate the importance of your Chaplain. Time and again in old Acacia Lodge we have struggled through a year with a Chaplain who hasn't the slightest comprehension of what the universality of Freemasonry really means. Every lesson of the Craft with reference to universality is denied by the Chaplain the minute he starts praying. To him, the Masonic Lodge is nothing more than a men's club subordinate to a church of the Christian faith down the street!

All of which means that a Chaplain should be selected and instructed carefully and thoroughly.

• And what about committees? You'll need them, of course, but don't permit them to "run" Acacia Lodge, or to ruin it. A Lodge committee can be a help or a hindrance. That means you as Worshipful Master must select yours with care, appointing only those who will observe the Worshipful Master's will and pleasure. That is their job-- not to tell you what to do, but to do as you instruct them. That's the way Masonic Lodges are constituted.

Here are some of the committees you should be thinking about:

Required by the Regulations

CHARITY--Composed of the Worshipful Master and the two Wardens. I shall discuss this at length in another letter.

DUES--Made up of the Senior Warden, Junior Warden, Secretary, and as many others as you care to appoint. Its job is to establish contact with every member who has not paid his dues by the time specified in the by-laws. It is one of the most important of all Lodge committees. Dues Committees, I'm sorry to say, do not seem to be doing their job very well, and, worst of all, don't seem to care much whether they do it or not.

As a result, Brethren who are paralyzed and helpless patients in nursing homes are suspended for non-payment of dues simply because a Dues Committee which didn't care enough to make personal contact has failed to ascertain the facts. I hope you'll build fires under your Dues Committee, and if you have reason to believe the Brethren haven't investigated with concern, defer action until you know they have functioned.

FURTHER LIGHT--The General Regulations call it a Lodge Committee on Masonic Education, but you and I have discussed that point before and we are in agreement that no committee designed to enlighten Freemasons as to Freemasonry will ever succeed until it is known by a name more stimulating than Masonic Education.

Your Committee on Further Light (or whatever you choose to call it) must be carefully chosen also. You may not find the proper personnel for this committee among those who are always on hand whenever the Lodge door is opened. You may need to go outside the "regular attenders" and get Brethren who have the broader concept.

MASONIC HOME--This committee usually doesn't go into action unless there is an application for membership in the Indiana Masonic Home, and then it really has a workout. There is no reason why the Masonic Home Committee should be dormant at other times. You can change the course of that lazy practice if you choose to do so. Put the Brethren to work. Ask them to organize and execute a Lodge pilgrimage to the Home. That will be a "starter" for the first year.

Other Committees

BUDGET--Smaller Lodges may not need this committee; the larger ones do. The job is just what the title implies. It can be a strong right arm for any businesslike Worshipful Master.

FUNERAL SERVICE--An alert and hard-working committee on the Funeral Service can do more good for Acacia Lodge from a public relations standpoint than almost any other. But don't settle for anything less than the best. And see to it that these Brethren do their job--every time the occasion calls for it.

GOOD CHEER--Some Lodges, I'm sorry to say, call this the Sick Committee. "What a hell of a name for a committee!" exclaimed a friend of mine the other day. And I agree. Sounds as if the committee itself were sick, and in too many instances it is. Many a Brother has been ill, perhaps even a patient in a hospital, without so much as a word of encouragement from a single member of his Lodge. Some of those Brethren have been bitterly resentful, and understandably so. Your Good Cheer Committee can sow seeds of everlasting good will if you get the right men, and follow through to see they work at their assignment.

HOUSE--Just to keep the schedule of meetings clear and to insist that groups using our Lodge hall do not abuse the privilege granted them.

INVESTIGATING--The most important committee of all. I'll have more to say about this one in a later communication.

MASONIC FELLOWSHIP--To my knowledge, no one in our Lodge has ever suggested such a committee. And what a shame that the most important facet of Freemasonry is so sadly neglected! This time I'm not going to outline the duties of a committee. Use your imagination and set the committee to work on your own specifications. What a thrill it would be if the Brethren of old Acacia Lodge could be introduced to Masonic fellowship at its best!

REFRESHMENT--Just what the title implies. Above all things, don't underestimate the importance of this committee, and see to it that it does not neglect its assignment.

One word of caution, my lad, and I'm through for this time:

If you really want to get a job done, don't bury it in a committee. Find the right man to do the job and put him to work. And remember, every Lodge has that kind of man somewhere--possibly a man who has never been asked to do anything for his Lodge and who is overlooked time and again simply because he isn't one of the little clique that is present whenever the doors are opened!

I have always been thrilled by those words of A. Whitney Griswold, former president of Yale University:

Could Hamlet have been written by a committee, or the Mona Lisa painted by a club?

Could the New Testament have been composed as a conference report?

Creative ideas do not spring from groups. The divine spark leaps from the finger of God to the finger of Adam.

Andre Gide said the same thing this way: "Man is more important than men. God made him, and not them, in His image. Each is more precious than all."

There's your assignment, my lad. Find the man, and put him to work!

--Your Old Mentor