modern tools.

I know without a doubt that 21st century technology has a place within the Temple walls, to assist in building and strengthening them. I have decided that it’s going to be my goal for my work at my Blue Lodge to help to make this happen.

In order to best provide information to men about how to become Masons, we need to “enter their world” through digital means and the Internet—via blogs, podcasts and social networking sites—to make sure that they see us, provide a bit of understanding about who we are, what we do and our general motivations. But most importantly—we need to provide them with the easiest opportunity to ask to join our organization, if they so desire.

The time to do this is now, more than ever—and especially for Lodges where membership may be declining instead of growing.

With Dan Brown’s next book rumored to be slated to be about our beloved Fraternity, we can be sure to experience many more inquiries and as a result more growth of our organization—particularly with younger men who are using Internet technology on a daily basis in their lives. Now more than ever it isvital to have an electronic presence on the web, as this is the way that an increasing number of people are communicating now—and will be in the future.

For many of us who have seen the rise of the personal computer, it has always been a miracle of technology—much like seeing a “what if?” actually come to fruition. But with personally talking to younger people today, I have found that computers are not seen as some impressive, mystical accomplishment of technology. Computers and Internet technologies [blogs, podcasts, social networking sites and more] are merely everyday tools for this younger generation—much like a stapler, a calculator or a pen. They are tools to get work done.

Because of this, we need to be ready.  We need to not just provide an avenue to us for new candidates via these technologies and social networking sites, but we also need to follow through with the use of technology within the Lodge. It is of the utmost importance that we incorporate the everyday use of tools like Lodge intranets to make our Lodges more efficient, more connected, better equipped and to allow us to work more productively—when we are physically within the Temple walls or when we are “on the go”.