Fall 2014
At least once a year, I invite a small but diverse group of Elks to my office to spend a day with my staff and me to more or less give us an update on the things going on in our Lodges. We call it our “think tank” meeting. The idea is to advise us on our program of support to our Lodges and help us plan the activities and workshops that are offered at our upcoming state meetings and at our officer training seminar held in March. Generally I have a pretty good idea of the state of our Lodges from my frequent talks with many of you and my occasional visit to a Lodge or a district, but wow, was I in for a surprise as the stories and details began to come forth from the participants! I wish I could say it was a pleasant surprise, but it wasn’t, as problems we have known have existed for a while seem to be taking on new lives of their own! To me this can mean only one thing and that is that we are not getting these problems fixed in our Lodges and fix them we must or we are going to lose all control!
“You don’t drown by falling in water; you drown by staying there” – Edwin Louis Cole
What follows is a synopsis of many of the issues we discussed, along with my thoughts and a few suggestions. It is sometimes, to use a cliché, out-of-the-box thinking on my part, but, maybe more appropriately coined, it is “out-of-your-mind” thinking, a description recently used by our Membership Development Director, Don Moon. Regardless of what you call them, our problems are real and we cannot allow them to continually regenerate and undermine the success of our Lodges, chipping away at our vulnerabilities until we finally succumb. We must begin to eliminate and minimize the problems in our Lodges so we can begin to grow once again, and get back to the work we exist to perform, that of service to others!
Numerous movies have been made over the years depicting the end of life on earth and the chaos and calamity that ensue as a chosen few are rocketed off to an awaiting spaceship to be transported to a new beginning on a far off planet. Some of our Lodges may very well be experiencing these feelings of chaos and calamity at this very moment! Please, if this is your Lodge, become a part of the solution, not the problem! Perhaps these ideas will help!
Infighting & Cliques
Perhaps the single most devastating of all our problems is the infighting perpetuated by the bar Elks and bar lawyers clique! There is not a statute written that they cannot refute with an opinion from somewhere or someone and their sole purpose in the Lodge is to distract attention and create controversy! Neither of these so-called “members” provide solutions to our problems because they are the problem. Perhaps if we stop giving them attention and just ignore their feigned attempts at disruption, they will simply go away! Adopt a no tolerance stance in your Lodge to deal with this problem and do it now!
Responding Reactively, not Proactively
To effectively manage challenges, the leadership of a Lodge must get to the point where they are planning to prevent problems and not always having to solve problems! Simply reacting lessens our defense and enables those perpetuating the problems to distract us from the things we should really be doing. It’s a strategy played out over and over within our Lodges. The endgame of the detractors is if they can’t win, no one will! I was recently in a Lodge that is known for its evening dance bands. The occasion was the visit of the state VP and the District Deputy Grand Exalted Ruler. As the event was winding down, the dance crowd began to arrive and some acted a bit perturbed that an Elks function was getting in the way of their dancing! Now is this the tail wagging the dog or what? How about the Lodge that offers bingo and the group running it give all the proceeds to the players and none to charity lest they go to the fraternal down the street? How many of our Lodges allow the fraternal down the street to dictate our prices? Here again we are reacting so we don’t lose our patrons! Haven’t we got our ideals and priorities just a little out of sync here? Are we operating from a position of power or giving in because that’s so much easier? The Lodge leadership has got to set goals and communicate those goals to the membership and through its activities so the members know who is in charge. When we don’t, the above can happen with devastating consequences. It must be controlled.
Undervaluing the Value of a Lodge Membership
Recently I spoke to a Lodge Secretary who told me of their experience with a $1.00 initiation fee and prorated dues. This seems to be all the rage these days and for the most part I believed that they were being considered to be successful. This particular Lodge reported that a significant class of initiates had been brought in the prior year under this program but that this year when dues notices went out, this group declined to renew as the price had gone up! Even though the class had been sufficiently informed they would pay normal dues the following year, when the time came, they did not see the value! I see several things from this that can be learned, the least of which is that when offering a door-buster discount, you need to have something to hook them on the other side! Secondly, if we value our membership at only a dollar, how can we expect others to value it any higher? My advice is stop this practice now. It is a short-term strategy at best and can be equally accomplished with a well-planned and executed open house. Our membership product should be an “if you try it you will like it product,” but if bar and restaurant are the sale, you can get that all day for no cover charge at any bar or restaurant establishment in town!
Gone are many of our Rituals and Customs
It is rare today to find anyone who buys furniture or other items with the idea of passing them down to the next generation. We have become a throwaway society influenced by the consumption of short-lived or disposable items. In our Lodges we used to pride ourselves on working our way through the chairs to become the ER, being trained along the way, but now we find ourselves begging brand new members to step in and run the Lodge! Maybe since our membership has shrunk to half its size since our glory days, it is now time to shrink the number of officers REQUIRED to operate the Lodge. Think the ER, one VP, a secretary/treasurer and the four trustees – seven, not fifteen! Might we then get more committed officers who actually compete to win a part? Also, while I’m completely out of my mind, let’s make all positions two-year positions! Now all you PDD statute followers, don’t get overly excited here. Our Lodges need solutions yesterday, not in three to five years when the statutes could get amended or the Lodge bylaws changed. We can do this by simply adopting it as a “best practice” in your Lodge! Yes, that’s right, tell those running up front that you expect a two-year commitment from them and then simply reelect them the second year. Adopt progression in the chairs remaining by requiring your ER to serve as VP for two years first so they can learn the ropes and traditions. If someone is gone for six to eight weeks in the summer and can’t commit to attending meetings during those times, find another job for them in the Lodge! We’ve realized the benefit of continuity in the secretary’s office for years and constantly reelect our secretaries. We can start this today! Show me a Lodge in which 99% of operations are not overseen by the ER and house committee/trustees and . . . no really, show me! Our Lodges that are successful in membership growth year after year have an underlying commitment to membership growth that is an expectation when someone in those Lodges seeks the ER chair. It is not legislated; it is the way they think and it works!
But we are a Snowbird Lodge!
While I’m on a roll here, let me also make a comment about Lodges that wait for the snowbirds to come back before they can turn a profit. One, I’m sorry that your business plan relies so much on part-time residents to make you profitable and I understand the volume principle that makes it work, but maybe if you are so snowbird-based, maybe you should not burn the overhead during the summer just to keep a few people happy and create the hole the snowbirds have to dig you out of? Or, maybe you need to get just a little more proactive and find ways to generate other income during those months with hall rentals and the like!
Economize and Save
Our Lodges need to start looking at every way they can to economize and recycle, from power-saving light bulbs to cash for aluminum cans. I recently heard from a business practices member that a common response heard when a Lodge is asked why they are not using an electronic POS (point of sale) system in their club is they can’t afford it. In this day and age of competition and razor thin margins, if you are one of those Lodges, how can you not afford it?
Elks Family
We talk about the Elks “family” and as much as we bicker and argue, is there any doubt we are an Elks FAMILY? I think it is past time for a little family intervention! We have got to put our collective feet down for the good of the family or pretty soon there will be no family! Hold a town hall meeting in the Lodge or two or three! Bring someone in who is not in the family to moderate it or call me to do it. The key is to project neutrality to the membership and to allow all opinions to be fairly represented! Become a family again, one that respects one another and gets along!
Time to Downsize from our Oversized, Aging and Inefficient Buildings
Our buildings and club operations are consuming all of our way too valuable and limited volunteer time! We must right-size our facilities and the sooner the better! Our Marketing and Communications Director, Greg Weis, has been telling us and telling us that the values of the millennials and Gen X & Y are vastly different from our boomers today. I know many of our Lodges are managing one day at a time and asking them to look out beyond even a year is incomprehensible to most, but can we afford not to? My prediction is that not one existing Lodge in Florida today will ever again need to expand its existing building’s size and that most will still be in the same aging and inefficient buildings they are in today or will have to downsize to survive! There seems to be a demand for our buildings and land as of late as we have had to abandon a few in the past few years. Perhaps it is time to start planning for a reset in many of our Lodges and I would even go so far as to challenge the state to bring some builders, banks and other real estate-minded people to the table to provide assistance to Lodges needing to explore this possibility so we can preserve our equity and reposition our Lodges for the future!
Enter the 3-2-1
One of our think tank participants shared an idea another civic organization is using as its model for the future called 3-2-1. The basis of their operations is three community projects a month, two meetings and one social. How simple is that? Someone in that organization is looking down the road! Is there any doubt that they know who their future members are going to be? Oh, and guess where this organization meets for their meetings two times a month? They meet in different locations because they don’t own a building! Maybe we should look them up and offer our buildings to them for their meetings? Can you say rental revenue?!
It’s an Insane World we live In!
If we are to maintain our sanity in today’s insane world, we are going to need to maintain a focus on the positive. We will need to continue to confront our fears, we need to spend more time on family, and we just plain need to get back to having some fun!
Serve – Not Be Served
Perhaps we need to adopt a new motto in our Lodges such as “Serve – Not Be Served”!
Share Your Thoughts
Thank you for reading this all the way to the end! As I have mentioned often, my goal is to get our members thinking and to hopefully even provide a few solutions along the way! Please, if I have moved you to share your opinion or otherwise comment on anything I have proposed, please share them on our Florida Elks member forum or simply get them to myself, Don Moon or Greg Weis. We would be happy to have you become a part of the discussion! My email is carl@floridaelks.org.
State Secretary