“We’ve really become everybody’s new favorite place,” boasts Veroni Que, referring to an increase in membership at Ft. Lauderdale Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie 3140.
In fact, membership has increased by at least 25 percent since the coronavirus pandemic hit, estimates Que, a bartender at the club. She attributed the growth, in part, to the club’s pleasing physical appearance, reasonable prices for meals, and camaraderie among club members.
A strong membership drive during 2020 might have also helped, club trustee Kelly Carver said.
But apparently, such efforts elsewhere in the world of fraternal organizations have not translated into increased membership.
Indeed, a 2019 congressional report found that membership has been steadily declining in a variety of social clubs and groups. Specifically, the joint economic committee report found that membership rates in some organizations decreased from 75 percent in 1974 to 62 percent in 2004. “At 52 percent, the drop was steepest among fraternal organizations such as the Freemasons or the Knights of Columbus,” NPR reported, citing the committee report.
Speaking of the Freemasons, its membership in Florida has considerably decreased over the last 10 to 15 years, says Stewart Davies. He’s the secretary and past master of the Hollywood-based Roe Fulkerson Masonic Lodge No. 299 of the Free and Accepted Masons.
Today, the lodge boasts 192 members, about 30 less than five years ago, Davies says. But within the last couple years, the lodge has “held its own” in terms of membership, he adds.
“We have a really good team of new blood in our lodge,” Davies says. Specifically, he notes, within the last five years or so, men in their mid-20s to mid-30s with vigor and ambition have joined. In contrast, older members didn’t return when the lodge re-opened after a closure due to the pandemic. The lodge lost almost a dozen members in 2020. Six died, and the others left for different reasons.
Davies says he feels one of the reasons that membership is down among Freemasons is that people have other interests.
“We’re just competing with natural diversions,” he says. But Davies also notes that a Mason must follow strong rules and regulations. And it might be harder for younger people to follow them.
There’s also a lot of work involved to become a master mason, Davies says. In particular, the process can take anywhere from four months to a year. There is no “instant gratification,” he adds.
Freemasonry, or masonry, comprises fraternal organizations which trace their origins to the local fraternities of stonemasons that, from the end of the 14th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities and clients.
Modern Freemasonry consists of two main recognition groups. Regular Freemasonry “insists that a volume of scripture be open in a working lodge, that every member profess belief in a Supreme Being, that no women be admitted, and that the discussion of religion and politics be banned.”
Meanwhile, Continental Freemasonry is now the general term for the jurisdictions which have removed some, or all, of these restrictions.
Davies says that lodges are particular when deciding who
joins.
“We take good men and make them better. We don’t take bad men and make them good,” he says. “We’re not looking to fill our chairs with numbers but with quality men. We want people whose heart is in freemasonry.”
“We’re not some weird, secret society,” Freemason Daryn Hufton-Rees told CNBC for an article by Holly Ellyatt published in 2013. “There are no Illuminati roaming about or funny handshakes involved — although, by the way, it’s a grip, not a handshake — We’re an organization with moral codes and people join us for the sense of camaraderie, the opportunities to learn, and charitable giving.”
The Fort Lauderdale lodge, for example, held a school supplies drive at the beginning of the academic year. The lodge has also conducted food drives.
Opportunities also exist to perform good deeds with the Fort Lauderdale Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie 3140. Que, the club’s bartender, says she thinks the “charity work” that the club performs is a draw for people considering membership.
The Fraternal Order of Eagles, an international nonprofit organization, “unites fraternally in the spirit of liberty, truth, justice, and equality, to make human life more desirable by lessening its ills, and by promoting peace, prosperity, gladness, and hope,”according to www.foe.com.
“We have a great group of people here,” Que says about her Fort Lauderdale chapter.
Once people notice the camaraderie within the group, “they come back, they want to be a member,” she adds.
Now, Eagles Aerie 3140 is striving to bring in younger members. Carver, one of the chapter’s trustees, says he feels that in general, younger people are not as interested as are their older counterparts in joining fraternal groups. They might just be too busy, Carver says.
“It’s a tough group to shoot for,” he adds.