Unity and Progress Lodge

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The Metropolitan Grand Learning and Development Officer writes:

Introduction

You may well have heard of Building Together. Whether you have or not, it could be just what your Lodge or Chapter needs to help it thrive.

Building Together has been developed over the last few months, harmonising the excellent material in the Craft’s Members’ Pathway and the Royal Arch’s Archway, into one coherent set of materials that can help both Lodges and Chapters.

The main thing to note is that Building Together is not something that is ‘done to’ a Lodge or Chapter, nor is it being ‘imposed’ on Lodges or Chapters by either UGLE/SGC or the Metropolitan Grand Lodge/Chapter. Rather, it contains a wealth of material that Lodge and Chapter members can use to get practical ideas, drawn from the experience and successes of Lodges and Chapters over recent years in engaging members, ensuring meetings are well planned and enjoyed by all, stemming losses and growing memberships.

In Metropolitan Grand Lodge and Chapter, we are fully supportive of Building Together, but if Lodges and Chapters are successfully using Members’ Pathway or Archway approaches then there is no pressure to stop using these materials immediately. You are encouraged to begin using the new materials, which are often very similar, within the next year or so.

Finding what you need in Building Together

Building Together is made up of five hubs, as illustrated here:

In short, these hubs each contain copious examples of good practice that other Lodges and Chapters have found help them to grow and maintain their memberships, namely:

Shape

The Shape Hub contains material covering two main themes, short (mostly two sides of A4 maximum) documents that give tried and tested ways that Lodges and Chapters can:

• Review their Lodge/Chapter, including developing a Lodge/Chapter Profile that will help them understand what a good target audience for potential Initiates/Exaltees or Joining Members might be.
• Develop a Membership Action Plan to galvanize the Lodge/Chapter into action in growing the membership.

I cannot emphasise too strongly that full guidance is given throughout Building Together, and if you feel that your Lodge/Chapter’s biggest challenge is attracting new members then this is the area of Building Together at which you might like to start. There is no sense trying to do everything at once!

Shape is likely to be of most interest to the Lodge’s Membership Officer and whoever fills that function in a Chapter – perhaps the ScribeE – but all members can participate in its implementation.

Attract

The Attract Hub is for Lodges only and contains useful materials that Lodges can use to attract non-Masons to consider becoming Freemasons. It then includes guidance on how to make the interview useful for both parties and a positive experience for the potential candidate.

The Attract Hub is of most interest to the Lodge Membership Officer and Secretary, but other members may be able to support.

Continue

The Continue Hub, which is for Chapters to use, fulfils a similar function to Attract, but notes that the pool for potential Exaltees is not the public but members of the Craft.

This Hub supports Chapters to work with Lodges to attract potential Exaltees, good advice on managing the interview process, and guidance on managing a Craft Mason’s expectations to ensure the Exaltation and membership of a Chapter is a positive one.

Please note that all Companions should bear in mind that success means bringing a new Exaltee into the right Chapter for them, which works in terms of time/day, ethos, and costs, not necessarily the Chapter of which a Companion happens to be a member, or the Chapter to which the Lodge normally feeds into.

The Continue Hub is of most interest to the person fulfilling the role of Membership Officer in the Chapter, as well as the ScribeE, and all other members. All Royal Arch Companions are expected to be an ambassador for the Royal Arch in their Craft Lodges, not just the Royal Arch Representative.

Engage

Once one has attracted a new member into a Lodge or Chapter, it is necessary to support them. The Engage Hub contains lots of useful information that Lodges and Chapters can use to ensure that the new member has an interesting and fulfilling experience. The Hub also contains material to support Masons throughout their time in the Lodge or Chapter, including:

• Excellent advice on Mentoring.
• Opportunities to find out more about playing your part in the Lodge or Chapter.
• Resources to learn more about the history and traditions of Freemasonry.
• Guidance for Lodges on supporting candidates towards Exaltation.
• Supporting a candidate to leave the Lodge or Chapter and help them find one that suits them better, perhaps due to a house move to another locality.

The Lodge or Chapter Mentor and Almoner take the lead on Engage matters, but every personal mentor, the Secretary/ScribeE, DC, and other members should play their part in making the Lodge or Chapter engaging to their members.

Respond

The final part of the Hub looks at how signs of dissatisfaction can be spotted early, and how Lodges and Chapters can support the Mason, hopefully averting a potential resignation or exclusion.

The Respond Hub supports Lodges and Chapters to handle a resignation and ideally resolve the issue, guiding a resigning member to cancel their resignation or assist them to join a Lodge or Chapter at which they would be a better fit.

The Respond Hub also contains guidance to a Lodge or Chapter which might want to change its ways of working radically, to make it more attractive and engaging to potential and current members.

The Lodge and Chapter Almoner and Secretary/ScribeE would take the lead here, with input from the DC and all members on the Alternative Futures element.

Final Remarks and finding Building Together

There is no golden rule for making a Lodge or Chapter thrive, but the material in Building Together will be a good starting point for any Lodge or Chapter that wishes to maintain and grow its membership.

You might find the ‘Digital Quick Start Guide’ at Rosetta > Building Together (log into Rosetta first) a really good next step. If you know that your interest is in one of the above topics, such as Engage, then you might well jump to that part of the Digital Quick Start Guide. The Digital Quick Start Guide contains links to hundreds of PDFs, mostly short, which contain the specific advice to Lodges and Chapters on the topic of interest.

This article is part of the Arena Magazine Issue 58 – Summer 2025 edition.
Arena Magazine is the official online magazine of the London Freemasons – Metropolitan Grand Lodge and Metropolitan Grand Chapter of London.

Read more articles in Arena Issue 58 here.

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