Page 22 - EM-Issue-93

Provincial Membership
P ro v in c i a l M e m b er s h ip

Pathway – a strategy for success

The Pathway Scheme is proving to be a massive success following launch
events at all of the major centres – and by Christmas we expect that more
than 200 Lodges will have signed up to this programme – an initiative
that is set to transform Freemasonry across Essex.
Pathway is not all about attracting new members, although we can
now see growing numbers of young men being introduced to Lodges
across the Province - and early statistics are suggesting that our overall
membership has now stabilized for the first time in 10 years.
As a result of Pathway and individual Lodges reaching out to potential
members, we expect to initiate around 325 new Brethren into our
Fraternity over the next 12 months. We are also forecasting that we shall
continue to attract a further 300 plus members every year for at least the
next five years.
But it is not just about new initiates - the scheme is also about retaining
members, reaching out to those that have not attended for a while. It’s
about keeping Brethren interested by encouraging visiting, promoting
learning and development and ensuring that no one ever feels left out.
To this end we have redefined the roles of the Almoner, Mentor and
membership Officer in line with UGLE recommendations.

The Almoner
The Almoner will now take on more responsibility for retention and
retrieval, it will be his role to chase up members who have not attended or
have not been seen recently. Full training and support are being provided
in this area by the Provincial Almoner team.

The Mentor
The Mentor will now be expected to deliver learning and development
and we plan to ensure that a regular flow of information is sent each
month via our Comms Team to allow Mentors to make reports and
update members. A monthly newsletter using content from Solomon has
already been launched to provide Lodge Mentors with the content to
deliver during an itemized report or to present in quiet periods during
the meeting.

The Membership Officer
The Membership Officer, as well as looking after newer members, will
also act as a social secretary to ensure they can visit other Lodges and not
be left out of Lodge activities. They will also encourage newer members
to consider the Royal Arch where appropriate.

Has your Lodge signed up?
If your Lodge has not signed up then we cannot send you any potential
initiates. If you are wondering why, it is because we try to place square
pegs in square holes. When you sign up, we ask for Lodge profile so that
we can get a better understanding of the type of candidates we can send
in your direction.

These candidates are sent to us via the Essex and UGLE websites and are
carefully vetted before being passed on to a suitable Lodge. Most are not
suitable for a wide number of reasons – only about 10% actually make it
through to initiation, but past experience has shown that these are the
kind of people we want, keen, dedicated and wanting to know more.
These are the people who simply do not know how to become Freemasons,
but have always been interested in joining. To this end we will therefore
be launching our own social media advertising campaign from September
to reach out to young men based in Essex.

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