How to Join

Could you please tell me what the requirements are? And How can I join?

The absolute requirements for becoming a Mason are:

• Be a man.
• Be at least 18 years old.
• Have belief in a Supreme Being -- of any faith. No particular religion or faith is required or excluded. All are welcome.

Also:

• you should be someone who does, or wants to learn to, enjoy the company of other men from all different social classes, faiths, backgrounds, races, countries, etc. Masonry is universal in its ideals.
• if you are a family man, Masonry considers that your family obligations come FIRST, so you must be sure that:
  • you have the time to participate (usually two or three evenings/month at first for meetings and instruction, and then at least one evening per month for meetings from then on -- often more if you get involved in lodge activities.)
  • you can afford the initiation fees and the annual dues without hardship to yourself or your family.
• you should be coming to Masonry "of your own free will and accord", to learn to improve yourself and to enjoy the company of other good people, not because someone keeps pestering you to join or because you think it will help you "get ahead" in business.

To join, all you have to do ask a Mason: (2B1Ask1)

• Preferably someone you know or at least who lives or works nearby:
  • You have to be able to meet him in person.
  • Contacting someone by e-mail may get you pointed to a lodge in your area, but you CANNOT get a recommendation from someone you have never met.

• Think you don't know any Masons in your area? You'd be suprised. I know I was.
  • Go to The Grand Lodge of Florida. Call or write to the office of the Grand Secretary, and say that you're looking for lodges in your area.
  • find nearby lodges listed in your phonebook: White-pages listings for lodges may be under "Masons", "Freemasons", or "Masonic Temple", and the Grand Lodge would probably be under "Grand Lodge of Masons".
  • fill out the contact page and someone from our Lodge will contact you. Even if we are not in your area. We will try to help find someone in your area for you. That's the way it happen for me.

Once you find a lodge

Once you find a lodge (or two or three) in your area, you can arrange to meet with them. They will want to get to know more about you, and you can use the opportunity to ask them some questions. Some of the things you might want to ask about:

• How often do they meet?
• How often do they get new candidates? How many members does the lodge have, and how many usually attend the meetings? (Is this lodge growing, or faltering, or something in between?)
• Do they confer the degrees themselves or do they usually use a "degree team". (This gives an idea of how proficient and active the lodge officers are.)
• How much is their annual dues and the (one-time) initiation fee?
• What would they expect of you as their candidate? What is the usual amount of time for a candidate to receive the three degrees? What kind of "proficiency" work, and how much of it, will you need to learn between degrees?
• What is the average age of the lodge members? What are their interests? What kind of social activities and public service activities is the lodge involved in? What kinds of things could the lodge put a new member to work on?

If you are thinking about becoming a Mason, I hope this was helpful. If you do apply to a lodge, would you please tell them about this web-site? Thanks!

For changes, ideas, or any incorrect information please email the webmaster. Well things have changed a little, email is routed to my cell, so it is see pretty fast so there is no delay in email any longer. So any help is welcomed.
Copyright © Trilby Lodge 2009. This Page was created by The Webmaster, Most recent revision Thursday, June 25, 2009 7:04:43 PM