KEEPING TRACK OF ATTENDANCE
by W:.Tim Bryce, PM, MPS
timb001@phmainstreet.com
Palm Harbor, Florida, USA
"A Foot Soldier for Freemasonry"
"There is little point in producing information if nobody is going to act on it."
- Bryce's Law
As Secretary of my Lodge, one of the things I monitor is attendance at Lodge
meetings. Few people do this, but I find it useful for monitoring the pulse
of the Lodge. Keeping track of membership trends is also useful over the long
term, but tracking attendance tells a lot about the current interests of the Craft
and is easy to do.
To track attendance, simply setup a spreadsheet on your PC. For columns, post the
date of the meeting followed by a comment denoting the type of meeting; e.g.,
Stated Communications (business meetings), and Called Communications (degrees).
You can also add other categories such as: Social functions, Officer Meetings,
Work Parties, Masonic Funerals, Ritual Practices, Masonic Education Days, etc.
As for me, I am primarily concerned with just Stated and Called Communications.
I also leave space to comment on a particular meeting; for example, for a Called
Communications I typically enter "MM," "FC," or "EA" to denote the three degrees.
For Stated meetings, I may denote a guest speaker or a significant topic.
As for rows on the spreadsheet, keep track of the type of people attending the
meeting, such as Lodge members, first time visitors, and return visitors. Then
add formulas to sum up attendance, as well as to calculate averages.
Here is an example:
| MEETINGS
| OCT 29
STATED
DeMarco
| NOV 5
CALLED
FC
| NOV 12
STATED
Smith
| NOV 19
CALLED
EA
| NOV 26
STATED
| DEC 3
CALLED
MM
| DEC 10
STATED
Elects.
| TOTALS
|
| Members | 23 | 25 | 20 | 24 | 15 | 42 | 37 | 186 |
| 1st Visitors | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 9 |
| Return Visitors | 4 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 29 |
| TOTALS | 28 | 33 | 23 | 34 | 16 | 49 | 41 | 224 |
| AVERAGES | STATED | CALLED | TOTAL |
| Members | 23.75 | 30.3 | 26.5 |
| 1st Visitors | .5 | 2.3 | 1.3 |
| Return Visitors | 2.75 | 6.0 | 4.5 |
| TOTALS | 27.0 | 38.6 | 32 |
>From this statistical analysis, you can then perform a trend analysis and make some
conclusions about your meetings. For example, you can determine what meetings were
more successful than others and why; What attracted visitors and what didn't.
Such conclusions should obviously affect Lodge programming which may include
sharpening ritual work, changing the order of a meeting, or selecting different
topics to be discussed.
Thanks to the simplicity of today's PC based spreadsheets, such analysis takes
little time, but be forewarned: if the Lodge officers have no intention of acting
on the information, such effort will be a complete waste of time. But for those
officers who are smart enough to understand the value of such information, it is
time well spent. Remember, "Organizations progress when the impact of good actions
and decisions outweighs the impact of poor actions and decisions" - Bryce's Law
Keep the Faith.
NOTE: The opinions expressed in this essay are my own and do not
necessarily represent the views or opinions of any Grand Masonic jurisdiction
or any other Masonic related body. As with all of my Masonic articles herein,
please feel free to reuse them in Masonic publications or re-post them on Masonic
web sites (except Florida). When doing so, please add the following:
Article reprinted with permission of the author and www.FreemasonInformation.com
Please forward me a copy of the publication when it is produced.
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http://www.phmainstreet.com/timbryce.htm
Copyright © 2007 by Tim Bryce. All rights reserved.
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