Speech given at the
Grand Masters Conference in Savannah, Ga.,
by Ralph Semb

Looking at the decline in membership in the Masonic Fraternity, the Shrine has to ask itself where it will get its members?

You will receive an address made by Imperial Sir Gene Bracewell that was made at Albert Pike Lodge #1169 in Texas in 1984 when he was the Imperial Potentate. That message is saying the same thing that we are saying today. Nothing in that report has changed except for the numbers, which today, are much lower. The Shrine was concerned then, as it is now. I have been involved with the membership program for years, and suggested in 1990 that the Shrine really needed to take a real hard look at itself when it went below 700,000. At that time we were prepared with the proper paperwork and tools necessary to bring men into the Shrine, i.e. investigating committee etc. That proposal nearly passed.

The Shrine continues to do all that it can to promote the Shrine, but we continued to meet with obstacles, such as men wishing to become Shriners, but being blackballed at the Blue Lodge because when asked why they wanted to be a Mason, they may have replied, because I want to be a Shriner. I can remember Albert Timothy Ames, Past Grand Master from Massachusetts, who told me that he received a call from a Master of a Lodge, who said, What do I do with a man that wants to be a Shriner, should we not accept him? Al's answer was, accept him, because we as Masons should make the Lodge activities interesting enough for that man to want to stay in Lodge. Assuming that all appendant bodies had all worked together, and not one considered any better than the other, everyone, the Masonic Fraternity, the Scottish and York Rites and the Shriners would have benefited because of dues income alone.

We must again remind you that the Shrine at its regularly scheduled annual meetings sets it own bylaws, and sets how it will govern itself. Some Grand Lodges try to regulate the Shrine, I have yet to hear any Grand Lodge threaten any Masons who are members of the Elks or the Knights of Columbus, or the Rotary or any other civic organization, who may run raffles, have lotteries or Bingo or sell alcohol. For example, recently, one of our Shrine Temples in North Carolina needed some fundraising to help with the expenses of their building. It was in the form of a lottery or raffle and complied with all the bylaws of the Shrine of North America as well as all local and state laws. However, the Grand Master wrote the temple a letter telling them that: "There is nothing to interpretation of the North Carolina Masonic Code and Masonic Law and you must recognize and admit to the Grand Master that Masonic Law Governs. I cannot allow you and the other Masons to settle this matter by abandoning it. I cannot allow you to resolve this matter by claiming that you disagree with our Masonic Law, I cannot allow you to conclude it in a defiant tone or manner, I cannot allow you to end it on any basis other than an express recognition by you that the questioned conduct was prohibited by Masonic Law and that in the future you will abide by the CODE and its provisions. I will expect to receive from you the requested admission."

In Arkansas, another of our temples needed some funding. The new Alltel Arena in Little Rock had asked the many civic organizations in Little Rock if they would like to man the concession stands? The arena would return to the organization an amount that they agreed upon for each man or women that worked. They had to be dressed in the colors of the arena, and could not show any emblems, like the Shrine or even Rotary may have. The Grand Lodge of Arkansas learned of this and immediately wrote a letter to the Recorder and told him that the Shriners could not do this, as it was against the Digest of Laws of the Grand Lodge of Arkansas. The Grand Master found it difficult to believe that those members engaged in the selling of beer at a concession stand are not aware of this code. He said that the Shrine Temples are aware of our laws and the leadership has an OBLIGATION to see that their appendant bodies obey the laws of this Grand Lodge. By way of this letter, they must stop what they are doing, and if they continued, Masonic Charges would be brought against them, and also against Scimitar Temple. He also told the Grand Secretary that he would lock the door of the Scimitar Shrine Temple. A business owner in Arkansas, who was, I repeat WAS a Mason, Scottish Rite and Shriner, and an officer of Scimitar Shrine Temple, had received the dealership for Coors Beer. This distributorship sold this beer, and when the Grand Lodge learned of this, this person was suspended from Masonry. Again, nothing against shrine rules in this case, but we lost a very valuable and possible future contributor to our Hospitals.

In Canada, as you are well aware, our Representatives voted to let certain of our Canadian temples take members directly from Masonry. Such is the case with Khartum Temple, which has jurisdiction over the Province of Manitoba and, in addition, has exclusive jurisdiction in the upper northwest area of the Province of Ontario. However, the Grand Master in Ontario issued an edict, stating that those Masons from that area of Ontario are not allowed to join Khartum Temple without being York or Scottish Rite members and if they were to do so, their membership in the Masonic fraternity would be suspended. We think it is important at this point in this discussion, that I reiterate a little bit of history. It was the Shrine in its formative period that made the determination that membership in the York or Scottish Rite would be required prior to being able to be a member of the Shrine. Here is a Grand Master entering an area that is purely a Shrine decision and actually has no effect on the Grand Lodge itself. These are only isolated incidents and we know of many many more, all interfering with the Shrine Bylaws. It is very difficult for the Shrine to comply with the numerous regulations and edicts of the many Grand Lodges.

We are asking you, the Grand Lodges, not to try to run the Shrine of North America. We, the Shrine, do not want to even consider running your organizations. Let us instead of being at odds with each other, respect each other's Fraternity. In the year 1989, at the Imperial Session in Toronto, the Representatives adopted the Sovereignty, Rights and Responsibilities, which is included in the packets you will receive. We ask that you read them, as they were distributed to all Grand Lodges at that time. There is no doubt in the minds of any of us standing here, that we want to have a relationship with the Masonic Fraternity. Our bylaws continue with the exception of a few Provinces in Canada and in Mexico that we must be in good standing in the Scottish or York Rite. Remember, the Shrine was the one who set these criteria and not the Rites or Grand Lodges. The Shrine has to be the one and only one that can set its own destiny.

As membership gets lower, we are seeing fewer and fewer leaders coming into the fraternity as a whole. It is quite obvious that if men are not attracted to the Masonic Fraternity, the Shrine will never see them. We have seen "One Day Classes" and we will agree that these classes are not the single answer. In fact, we know that many of you do not believe in them, for if you had, a bigger percentage would be doing them now. It is a little cure, and did help some, yet, the overall membership continues to drop. We congratulate those Grand Masters that took the challenge, like, the Grand Master from Maine, who was almost threatened with impeachment, and the Grand Master from Maryland, who has done a great job in opening the door in Masonry, along with many others over the past few years.

The topic, Quality vs. Quantity, certainly is another area of concern. So many of you speak of the need of quality, and say that we do not need quantity. We are not very successful in either area. I'm sure there are millions of quality men out there. It's just that we have to be a relevant and viable fraternity to attract them and retain them. We must also be cognizant of their time constraints in today's, fast paced society. Masonry can always determine the quality of its members through its investigation process and the ballot box.

When I addressed the Northern and Southern Jurisdictions of the Scottish Rites, I reminded everyone that we all should be on the same playing field. We should be equals. I know that at Shrine functions, we continually speak about the Rites and the Lodges. My question to you, does this happen in the Lodges, or at the Rites meetings? If it does, it is certainly not often enough, and in fact, we hear more of something like this; The Shriners just take our members away from Lodge.

Another item that we hear over and over is the fact that the Masonic fraternity contributes $2 million a day to the community in charitable ways. I gave you the figures in my opening remarks as to how much the Shrine contributes, Scottish Rite in both jurisdictions with the Learning Centers and the York Rite with its Eye Foundation and other activities add quite a bit more. So where does that really leave the Masonic Fraternity in actual charitable contributions in the community? The Shrine has a very low percentage of the total Masonic Membership. It was never set up for everyone to become Shriners. One thing is for certain; the Shrine of North America is NOT Anti-Masonic. We believe in Masonry. But we also believe that we have taken this train as far as we can go without some action on our part to correct the decline we have in our membership numbers. We realize that we would lose members if we tried to distance ourselves from Masonry; however, we also understand that if we wait too long to make some change, our forces will continue to decrease and get weaker, and then there would be no return. The perception amongst many seems to be that the Shrine is a collection agency for the Rites if threatened. After all, we are the ones that try to convince those that are about to be suspended for non-payment of dues, to pay them. In my travels, I see little or no effort in the Rites or the Lodges to make it interesting for men to remain in these Bodies. If you have not read the book, "Who Moved My Cheese" by Spencer Johnson, maybe this is a good time to do it.

No one seems to either have a solution or seem willing to try something new or different, which would or may help. We, these Shrine Officers, believe that we have a possible solution. We are not trying to be inventors of something new and different, we are trying to be innovators, by taking something that is great, and making it better. At least it is an attempt on our part to bring more members into this entire fraternity.

I remind you of the following:

1. Charitable Trust Funds in the Hospital Corporation cannot be used to support the Shrine fraternity. Those funds are for the hospitals. Although you may think that there are plenty of dollars in those endowment funds, I can only assure you that for the first time in all the years that I can remember, we have had to put a stop to the open check book concept, and hold the Board of Governors responsible for the budget that was adopted this year.
2. The loss of per capita income with declining membership is a dramatic loss to the Shrine fraternity. This year alone is over $100,000.

Shrine membership loss results in the following:

1. Hospital Volunteers, including availability of good Board Members are declining.
2. Units in local Shrine Temples are downsizing and going out of existence. Units are the backbone of the Shrine.
3. Officers are becoming more and more a popularity contest, as those in leadership positions in the communities are not becoming Masons.
4. Parades are getting to be a show of antique vehicles, no marchers, no excitement, and if at one time the Shrine was a showcase, that is fast becoming a myth. We certainly do not look like the display in the Shrine Rooms East at the "George Washington Masonic National Memorial."
5. Many programs suffer from member participation.
6. The fraternal presence is lessening and we have less of a fraternal influence.
7. Fund raising becomes more and more difficult.
8. As the average age increases, the retention and attraction of younger members becomes more difficult.

One possible answer to this problem may be this.

The Shrine who is attracted by many men for the charitable efforts it puts forward in each community, and for its family participation will attempt to pursue the following:

1. Invite men to join the Shrine as a "Civic member." We will charge these men an additional $25.00 more than the regular dues of that Temple. These men will not be able to vote at a Temple meeting, or to hold office in the Temple.
2. The additional dollars would be put aside for their use to become a regular member of a Lodge and Scottish or York Rite. When that is complete, their regular dues would go back to normal.
3. We would investigate these men similar to that presently done at the Lodge level, but with men that are interested in the entire fraternity. We have that ready for the by laws.
4. They would be voted on, as is the case now.
5. It would be our duty to teach these men about Masonry, and that they should be a part of the complete Masonic Fraternity.

As was written in one of the Scottish Rite Journals, "The Year 2035" It may very well be the "Year of the Last Mason." Do you recall the old stories that many of the old timers like to riddle you with, you know what I mean, That's right, the old "When I was your age" story. Whether it's the "10 miles uphill in a snowstorm both ways" story, or "we didn't have television, we had to kick a rock around for entertainment," you know what I am talking about. Well guess what, generation X, the Internet and the current evolution of e-commerce is here. People getting home to get on the Internet are growing in leaps and bounds. In 1998 alone, online sales totaled over 50.6 billion dollars and it is projected to reach $1.3 trillion, yes I said TRILLION by the year 2003. Global annual saving from online sales will reach $1.25 trillion, yes trillion by 2002. They will have even less time to go to a lodge or much less, a desire to go where they can be ridiculed. Have you ever asked yourself or gone to a Lodge and asked how many of the members present are Shriners. If you have not done this, I would tell you to do it.

You will be amazed at the numbers of Shriners that are now keeping your Lodges open and are officers. We, the Shrine need to take action now. We need and desire to work together with our Masonic Brethren, but we must be the authors of our own destiny. We are asking you to consider this in your deliberations, and respond to us now, today, and if you partner with us, I am sure that we will all survive. The records over the past 40 years are very clear. We are going the wrong way, and we, these officers standing right here, are determined to bring the Shrine and the appendant bodies back to a good strength, and we hope to get your agreement with these plans. Should you not decide, we have tried to work together for over 127 years as a team, it is time to stop blaming each other for our decline in membership and realize we are in this together, and realize we are together as equal partners. It will be much easier to join forces and attack the problem united, not divided, as an equal, not one with at attitude that they are better and trying to dictate to one another. We in the Shrine fraternity will survive; hopefully it will be in the same structure as is now, if not, so be it. We cannot continue doing what we have been doing, because we will continue to get what we have been getting. We ask you for a favorable poll amongst those of you here, realizing nothing the Grand Masters Conference does is binding.

Oliver Wendell Holmes told us many years ago that the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving. He said, "To reach the port of heaven" he pointed out, "we must sail sometimes with the wind, and sometimes against it — but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor." The problem we have before us keeps us from sailing in the direction of our markets. It recognizes that we may have to tack this way or that, as the warm and cool winds of our fraternities (business) move north and south."

In summary, What is the definition of a leader? A "leader" is someone that you would follow to a place that you would not go to by yourself. We hope that you will join with this Imperial Divan, and be leaders of a fraternity, a fraternity that will take a new direction in this new century. Change is not easy to make, but as that great member of the football Hall of Fame Fran Tarkenton said, "If you do not make changes, you will die; If you make changes just for the sake of making changes, you may survive; BUT! If you create the change, you will dominate." We thank you for allowing us this time, and let you know that we will be here to discuss these issues in more detail if you wish. We hope that the Grand Architect will guide you when and if you all decide to join in with us. We hope that you, the leaders of these Grand Lodges in attendance will want us to continue to be a part of the Masonic Family, and we would like to be, if we can afford to do so.

Shriners, making a better tomorrow for kids.

Thank you and good morning.

Ralph W. Semb, Imperial Potentate