Freemasonry

FREEMASONRY “Rite-Sizing” Your Officer Lines by Robert F. Ogg Jr., 33˚, Active Member

We hear it all the time: “Good officers are hard to find.” The reason we hear it all the time is that it is true. Finding people amongst our membership who are good leaders and managers is not an easy task. Let’s face it, most people are good at something, but quality leaders have that special thing that sets them apart. If you agree with that, then you probably agree with this: Everyone is after the same leaders, and very often, there are just not enough of them to go around.

Pity the poor new member who displays any sort of ability because he immediately has to deal with “recruiters” coming at him from every direction. That puts quite the burden on a new, young Freemason anxious to please his brothers but having to weigh that with family duties. Can we avoid this? Maybe not entirely, but we can at least make sure that we are not trying to fill officer slots the way we always did it.

Valleys must conduct their business in conformity with the Supreme Council Constitutions, and as we all support the Constitutions of the NMJ, we all try to do the right thing. Does the “right thing” include a way to right-size your officer line? of people, but does a Valley really need that many?

Let’s take another look at the Constitutions. It says that the Presiding Officer of each body must be elected. Well, that accounts for as many as four people. Next, the Secretary and Treasurer must also be elected, but they are permitted to serve in all four bodies. That brings us to a total of six people. All other officers may be appointed. The Bylaws of the Valley may call for more elected officers than

Yes, it does. A quick look at Article 346 of the Constitutions tells us that a fully populated Consistory line would have fourteen officers. The other lines are somewhat smaller. Together, it could take as many as 45 members to fill every position with no repeats in a four-body Valley. That is a lot those I have mentioned, but it does not have to. What that means is that the same appointed officers can serve in more than one body. In fact, they can serve in all four bodies. Doing the math tells me that you could, if you wanted to, have four fully populated officer lines with as few as 17 people. Not many Valleys would want to go to that extreme, but some might.

You could, if you wanted to, have four fully populated officer lines with as few as 17 people.

The message here is simple. You need somewhere between 17 and 45 members to adequately staff a fourbody Valley. What is the “Rite” size? Clearly, one size doesn’t fit all, but knowing that there are options allows the Valleys to choose what best suits their needs.

Another way to ease the burden on officers is to have a Casting Director to cast the degrees and perhaps not insist that the line officers do all of the degree work. They could also try a “Candidates Degree,” letting last year’s class of candidates fill the roles for a degree.

The bottom line is that it is up to you to do what works best for your Valley. “Rite- sizing” is just one of the possibilities.