Quote:
| Originally Posted by D. W. Brown Do you think the U.S. Grand Lodges are operating effectively? |
This reminds me of the old line from Winston Churchill: "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all of the others."
What does "effecitve" mean? If you mean "DO GLs work to meet the needs of all of the members?", then the answer is - of course - no. GLs are the bureaucratic arm, necessary evils that work to coordinate the consituent lodges, and to interface with other jurisdictions. We may not like them, but without some overarching entity, there would be something just short of chaos.
That said, we need to recognize that virtually any bureacracy will tend to feed on itself and grow larger over time, poking tendrils into otherwise unnoticed corners. We'd probably be better off if most GLs stopped working so hard at making rules and regulations and left more latitude to the individual lodges. However, that responsibility cuts both ways: individual lodges that are failing to attract members, support their buildings, and/or do their essential functions need to realize that they should either close, merge with another lodge, or allow the GL to come in to help.
The single biggest problem is that we, as Masons, feel too far removed from our GLs, and we fail to understand that we
are the GL. We vote on officers and initiatives, we have a say through our GL reps - the GL officers, DDGMs, committee members, etc. People tend to get the sort of government that they deserve. It's time to stop moaning about the effectivity or heavy-handedness of GLs and to stir the pot a bit.