Freemasonry
and the Internet
by W:.Tim Bryce, PM
timb001@attglobal.net
Palm Harbor, Florida, USA
December, 2005 This paper will attempt to explain the role the Internet
has had on Freemasonry and provide some guidance on where
it should be going. Whereas Freemasonry is an ancient order,
the Internet is still considered a relative newcomer. Fortunately,
the two should be seen as compatible with a great deal of
synergism
arising between the two; e.g., increased membership, reduced
costs from streamlined administrative processing, improved
public relations, etc.
Before I go any further, allow me to establish my credentials
in this area. I have been involved with the Information Technology
industry since 1976. My company specializes in Information
Resource Management (IRM) which, among other things, includes
methodologies for business planning, as well as systems and
data base design. This involves considerable teaching and
technical writing. Consequently, I have been writing articles
on management and technology issues since 1976, as well as
industry newsletters, not to mention the volumes of manuals
I have written for my company's products. I have been using
e-mail and e-phones since 1982. In the early 1990's I began
to write web pages
as a cost-effective alternative for our company's voluminous
manuals. Shortly after being raised a Master Mason, I began
to develop Masonic web pages in 1997; first for local lodges,
then for districts, zones, and then on an international basis.
I have visited virtually every Grand Lodge web site in the
world and probably 90% of all
local Lodge and peripheral Masonic body web sites. In other
words, I have seen a lot; so much so that I feel I am in
a unique position to offer the following advice.
Basically, what I have learned is this, if that there was
ever a vehicle devised for supporting Freemasonry, it is
the Internet. The Internet fits Freemasonry like a glove
and begs the issue of the universality of the Brotherhood.
Regrettably, as a relative newcomer, it is still not considered
a vital and integral part of Masonic operations. This is
due to simple ignorance of its capabilities. Understand this;
the Internet is primarily a vehicle for our younger Brothers
as well as those considering joining this great institution.
It is our future.
In the United States alone, 75% of all households now have
access to the Internet. Close to 100% of all libraries, schools,
and public institutions also have access. It is not uncommon
to find training in the use of the Internet at any of these
institutions, normally free of charge. Beyond this, the Internet
has replaced telephone books and other voluminous catalogs
and documents as the primary vehicle for reference and research.
So much so, many Lodges are eliminating land-line telephones
simply because they are no longer being used.
Want to find a Masonic Lodge near you? In all likelihood
you will be searching Google or Yahoo! before you ever pick
up a thick telephone book. Further, candidates for the fraternity
will reference the Internet well before they consider visiting
a local library or book store. This is the hard truth of
the Internet, and the sooner Grand Lodges accept it and adopt
a sound course of action to adapt to it, the sooner they
will be able to capitalize on its capabilities.
Not all Masonic web sites are created equally, some are
obviously better than others. It all depends on the Grand
Lodge's understanding of the situation. For example, very
few Grand Lodges have developed formal and published rules
and
regulations for the use of the Internet within their
jurisdiction. Fewer have recognized the need for a Grand
Webmaster to oversee all Internet activity. Don't laugh,
such a title
is inevitable. Due to the dynamics of the Internet, such
a person cannot be encumbered with too much bureaucracy in
its implementation. True, such a person should operate under
a set of rules and regs, but he should be entrusted to update
web sites without having every word or character
go through a lengthy review process. It is simply not practical
to operate this way. Beyond this, the Grand Master and Grand
Secretary must be Internet savvy. If they are not,
then they should be educated and brought up to speed as soon
as possible. In this day and age, ignorance of the Internet
is simply a reckless course of action for any leader to take,
Masonic or otherwise.
Up to now, most Grand Lodges have a basic presence on the
Internet. But the Internet is still evolving and growing
in sophistication. And already most Masonic sites are falling
behind in looks and functionality.
As I see it, Masonic web sites should serve three primary
functions: as a Communications Aid, as a tool for Administrative
Support, and for Research. Let's review each function in
more detail and describe what can be done
COMMUNICATION AID
there are essentially three audiences we, as Freemasons,
need to communicate with over the Internet: our membership,
potential candidates, and the general public (including news
services). As such, it is important that we graphically project
a positive and professional image. I realize "flash" graphics
(a la Macromedia)
can be pretty snazzy in terms of initial graphical appearance.
Frankly, to the regular web surfer, it is an annoying distraction
that keeps the reader from the information he wants to get
(as an aside, if you are going to use "flash" graphics,
make it a separate
option to the viewer). To me, I prefer a clean and elegantly
simple design offering effective navigation through the web
site. To this end, here are two of my favorite Grand Lodge
sites I like to frequent:
Grand Lodge of British
Columbia & Yukon
Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania
It is important that your graphical layout be inviting
(so that people want to return to your site), as well as
intuitive
and easy to use. Layers of web pages are nice, but site
search engines or drop-down lists are the preferred method
of navigation
these days.
As a communications vehicle to the public, your site must
be able to adequately promote the message of the fraternity.
Although, this can be done through simple text and graphics,
on-line multimedia presentations are the wave of the future.
Two Grand Lodges have produced such imaginative presentations
including:
Grand Lodge of Indiana
Grand Lodge of Texas
Another useful resource along this line in Stephen Dafoe's
Radio
Free Mason.
The development of multimedia content should be encouraged
for three reasons: people would rather watch a presentation
than read text (sad but true); it’s cheap to do, and;
it can be updated rather easily. I'm waiting to see which
Grand Lodge is going
to be the first to issue routine "web seminars" in
this manner in order to communicate to the Craft.
Other items useful for communications include:
- General Contact
Info ("Contact Us") - to include
postal, telephone, fax, and e-mail addresses.
- Officers (a
Who's Who of the Masonic World) - listing all of a
jurisdiction's officers, from the Grand Line, to
State/Zone/District Committeemen, to the local Lodge,
all with adequate contact information.
- Newsletters/Magazines
- currently there are 32 Grand Jurisdictions in the
world who issue their official publications over the
Internet as well as in print form. Some are moving
towards complete electronic format simply for the economics
it
affords. As printing and postage costs rise, electronic
magazines make a heckova lot more sense. The predominant
format for
such e-zines is PDF suitable for reading with the Adobe
Acrobat
reader (a popular and widely supported product).
- General
News and Announcements - a great way to issue bulletins
to the Craft, particularly in the event of emergencies
(anyone remember Hurricane Katrina?).
- On-line Calendars
can be very effective for scheduling and promoting
Masonic
events, thereby improving attendance. Personally, I
recommend "layers" of
linked calendars so people can see what is going on at the Local, District,
and Statewide levels.
- Lodge Locators are invaluable for helping visiting Brothers
find a local Lodge. As such, it is important to be
able to find Lodges based on different search criteria,
such as
Lodge
Name, Number, City, District, etc.
Two Grand Lodges who
do an excellent job in this regard is: Grand Lodge of Missouri
Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania
Also, the Grand
Lodge of Ohio has a fine graphical map to
locate
Lodges (as do other jurisdictions; e.g., New York and Wisconsin):
The graphical format is nice if you need to search by location,
but burdensome if you need to search by name or number (as
many Masonic Secretaries have to do).
- On-line map services are
invaluable for plotting maps and providing driving
instructions to Lodge locations. This
should all be incorporated into the profile of each
Lodge. Also, local weather stickers are useful.
- Discussion
Groups (aka "List Servers") are essential
for broadcasting both official and unofficial messages
throughout a jurisdiction. One of the finest examples
of this is:
The
Grand Lodge of Ohio
As in Ohio's example, a moderator
is needed to oversee postings. The Discussion Groups
also offer facilities to
share computer files and for on-line "chat" sessions.
As to the latter, I am surprised there aren't any Grand Lodges
holding regularly scheduled "chat" sessions to
discuss items of interest. Further, Discussion Groups often
provide "polling" facilities to get a pulse on
current issues. When forming a formal discussion group, such as Ohio's,
it is highly desirable to check the credentials of participants
when joining the group, thereby keeping the "riff raff" out
of the group. This can be performed simply by establishing
an initial application screen where people submit their credentials
for verification. It might also be a good idea to establish
some Masonic questions to substantiate they are a Brother;
e.g., "Who died first;
Hiram Abiff, his mother, his father, his brother, his son,
his niece, etc.? (My personal favorite is "What was
the first name of Hiram Abiff's wife?) ;-)
- Links - a repository
of links to other pertinent Masonic web sites
is an absolute must. Grand Lodges should encourage linking
as it promotes traffic to their site. The problem here
is keeping the list of links up to date.
Other items that promote traffic to your site include
web rings, web site awards, and, of course, registration
with search engines such as Google
and Yahoo!
TOOL FOR ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT
- This is perhaps the weakest part of any Grand Lodge web
site. Some offer virtually no administrative support
whatsoever; and they are missing the boat. Here are they
types of things
they should offer:
- All of the Masonic Forms should be available
for download (in PDF format), If it is good enough
for the IRS, why not
Freemasonry?
- The ability to order
Masonic supplies on-line complete with secured
on-line payment. Everything from forms, booklets,
and other paper supplies, to furniture and office equipment.
- The
ability to make secured on-line donations to charities.
- On-line
processing of membership data, which should be
tied directly into a data base. This, of course, should
have
effective security tied into it for authorized use.
- On-line
processing of applications for things like the
Masonic Home, Scholarships, and requests for assistance
in
sickness or distress. This could greatly simplify the
processing of paperwork.
RESEARCH
This is another area rarely considered by most Grand Lodges,
yet would greatly benefit the membership. If done properly,
the following items should be provided:
* History of the Grand Lodge as well as Local Lodges and
other Masonic bodies.
* Genealogy of the membership - this is particularly useful
for studying someone's Masonic heritage. As a Lodge Secretary,
I am occasionally asked to look up a past member's records.
As another example, a few years ago I was researching a project
involving a member of the Grand Lodge of Minnesota in the
1800's. Fortunately, the Grand Lodge Secretary was able to
finally track down the data I was looking for. However, an
on-line query would have greatly simplified this task for
all concerned.
Such information is growing in popularity on the Internet
and is relatively simple to establish. It would be entirely
feasible to tie-in third party genealogy engines such as:
Geneology.com
Face Book
- Laws, rules and regulations of the Grand Lodge. What
better way of distributing official documents than through
the
Internet? Plus, it would simplify how they are updated
and greatly
reduce printing costs. This could be done either through
standard web pages (HTML), PDF, or both. Nonetheless,
putting the laws, rules and regs on the Internet would
greatly
expedite the distribution of this vital information to
the Craft.
- State/Zone/District
Committee Reports/Booklets could also reach more
people and considerably less cost.
- Masonic
Education - essays, workbooks and on-line tests
could be provided to promote continuing education in Masonic
affairs.
In all likelihood, items such as these should be restricted
and accessed through effective security mechanisms.
CONCLUSION
The above shopping list is just scratching the surface of
where Grand Lodge web pages should be going. I can also visualize
it becoming a worldwide forum to verify membership, and as
a communications vehicle between members (e-telephones and
messaging). Frankly, I am thunderstruck as to why Grand Lodges
are not
diving into the Internet deeper than they have. Simple economics
would dictate that this is far and away a cheaper way of
operating
than with today's manual methods.
The secret to any successful web site is to make it a place
where people WANT to return to; that they find it an invaluable
tool they cannot live without. If you do not understand its
potential, contact me, and I'll try to explain it to you.
But if you consider the Internet inconsequential, your Grand
Lodge is going to lose ground and will simply wallow back
in the 20th century.
One of the subliminal benefits of marrying Freemasonry and
the Internet is that it promotes the universality of the
Brotherhood. Masonic web sites can greatly facility communications
and understanding not only within a given jurisdiction, but
on a worldwide basis. As a byproduct, it promotes critical
thinking and the exchange of ideas, all of which is vital
to the continued evolution of the fraternity. This is hard
for some Grand Lodges to swallow and, as such, often view
the Internet and such discourse as a threat to their authority.
This is certainly not the intent. Rather, it is intended
to think on a global basis, reaffirm the relationships of
the Grand jurisdictions, and build for tomorrow. As Masons,
we have been given a remarkable tool to help propel us into
the 21st century. But are we smart enough to take advantage
of it?
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