I've been asked to join the Freemasons

[D1ngd0ng]

My turn! Received my summons for next Monday. Boy is that gonna roll around quickly.

[escargot]

D1ngd0ng said:

My turn! Received my summons for next Monday. Boy is that gonna roll around quickly.

Initiation?

Just relax and 'enjoy'.

[Bebee]

I have still not joined the FM, the door is still open for me though.

[D1ngd0ng]

escargot said:

D1ngd0ng said:

My turn! Received my summons for next Monday. Boy is that gonna roll around quickly.

Initiation?

Just relax and 'enjoy'.

Yes initiation, heard all sorts of comic tales of shenanigans already from the lodge I'm joining. Never met a more immature bunch of blokes in my life. Should be good fun.

[chris.mapey]

Don't know how I missed this thread - having a read through & catching up, as I'm a recent joinee to Freemasonry, having just been raised in Sept.

Really enjoying it, and if anyone fancies popping over to a Suffolk lodge, then get in touch!

[Andy XJ]

Did my second last February and I've got my third next year.

I'm doing the WT for a first this month. First step on the hundreds of pages of learning I've got ahead of me.

Really enjoying it.

Edited by Andy XJ on Tuesday 1st November 16:48

[steve2]

I shall be doing my third early next year and then at least i will not have to sit in the bar on my own until dinner

[Sticks.]

steve2 said:

I shall be doing my third early next year and then at least i will not have to sit in the bar on my own until dinner

Good luck with that. Don't they readmit and close in the 1st then? Pretty rusty myself but thought we did.

[escargot]

Andy XJ said:

Did my second last February and I've got my third next year.

I'm doing the WT for a first this month. First step on the hundreds of pages of learning I've got ahead of me.

Really enjoying it.

Edited by Andy XJ on Tuesday 1st November 16:48

The first tools are a great piece. I thoroughly enjoyed delivering them for a chap I proposed.

[Daggers89]

I work at the Chase Golf Club near Stafford and we have several lodges that attend for rehearsals/meals etc. Fantastic people from what I've seen, I'd say go for it, sure you'll enjoy it!

[jjones]

nipple, slipper, no metal, staked on the beach and getting a turn being the big womble or something.

[escargot]

jjones said:

nipple, slipper, no metal, staked on the beach and getting a turn being the big womble or something.

Succinct

[chris.mapey]

escargot said:

The first tools are a great piece. I thoroughly enjoyed delivering them for a chap I proposed.

Doing them at next LOI meeting. Can't wait :-)

[andyjo1982]

We had our first meeting at Great Queen St last week. Great day out, we went round the museum in the morning, then done the grand tour, wow, what a building, a few beers and bite to eat in The Pillars, then had our meeting, then on to The Prince of Wales for the festive board.

I highly recommend the tour and a look round grand lodge, if you're a fan of Spooks, you wont be disappointed...

[HAPPYFEET]

OP may I ask why not ?

Bebee said:

I have still not joined the FM, the door is still open for me though.

[Saddle bum]

Just a few observations.

I get the impression that many of the contributors to this thread are quite young (in masonic terms). This is encouraging, I hope that the average age in the Craft is going down as it has risen alarmingly over recent years. Although my Mother Lodge is in West Kent, I am in a London Lodge and see many young men emerging from FMH, which adds to my optimism.

Despite the number of years I have been a member, I still get the same enjoyment from attending meetings, seeing new members come in, seeing aspiring officers work hard to achieve excellence - encouraged by those who have done it all before and who still get a kick out of passing on their experience and guiding those now doing the work.

Before some get the impression that the organisation is stuffy and hidebound, November marks the start of a mustache growing for charity event. I think they can leave me out of that, I'll just contribute some dosh. Another brother just spent the night in a reputedly haunted house, he survived and much was raised for Help for Heroes and the like.

[Bebee]

Bebee said:

I have still not joined the FM, the door is still open for me though.

HAPPYFEET said:

OP may I ask why not ?

I dont feel old enough yet, much the same way as I'd love a Jag but I'm going to wait until I'm over 55. The lodge is full of over 60yr olds. Also the chap who invited me, claims there is bitterness and in fighting (not fist fighting) at the moment, doesn't sound like a brotherhood in that lodge! Either way not yet for me, if at all.

[Rude-boy]

Saddle bum said:

This is encouraging, I hope that the average age in the Craft is going down as it has risen alarmingly over recent years.

It looks very good for the future. My best friend has joined a lodge near him and is loving every minute of it.

My Grandfather was one of the founders of my Mother Lodge but with it being over 200 miles away it was always going to be hard to stay with them. Sadly it would appear that their desire to stick to old timetables more suited to half day closing and their advanced years they have only attracted one new member in the last ten years and he was poached shortly after being raised. Too many once grand old men in their seventies, eighties and even nineties, running it like their club than part of a greater body - very sad.

I'm unlikely to start practicing again due to other commitments but it is great to see that there appears to be a narcissisant renascence after years of being marginalised and treated like the protectors of a dirty secret.

So long as Freemasonry continues I know there will always be others who share the same core values and attitudes towards their fellow man.

[D1ngd0ng]

Bebee said:

Bebee said:

I have still not joined the FM, the door is still open for me though.

HAPPYFEET said:

OP may I ask why not ?

I dont feel old enough yet, much the same way as I'd love a Jag but I'm going to wait until I'm over 55. The lodge is full of over 60yr olds. Also the chap who invited me, claims there is bitterness and in fighting (not fist fighting) at the moment, doesn't sound like a brotherhood in that lodge! Either way not yet for me, if at all.

I'm 29, next youngest member is 39, then a few in the forties, then you're looking at 65+. From the social events I've attended so far its the old men of the lodge who are the most immature of the bunch. Sounds like a riot to me.

[RichB]

Bebee said:

I don't feel old enough yet, much the same way as I'd love a Jag but I'm going to wait until I'm over 55. The lodge is full of over 60yr olds. Also the chap who invited me, claims there is bitterness and in fighting (not fist fighting) at the moment, doesn't sound like a brotherhood in that lodge! Either way not yet for me, if at all.

My wife and I go to a certain Ladies Festival weekend every year because several of our friends are brothers, it's become a pre-Christmas fixture and is fun. Several are members of two lodges and catching up on the politics, bickering and internal gossip is great fun on the Friday evening. I always get asked who I am joining and I reply that I haven't looked at the table plan yet But truthfully I already have too many hobbies which are time consuming; my cars - can't drive them all at once, gliding - which takes up a weekend and recently golf - my son's a pro', plus I am still working which takes me around Europe and there's no way I could commit to being at the Lodge by early evening (they meet around 6pm) on a fixed day for 6 months of the year. Crikey I struggle getting to monthly AMOC meetings and if I can't manage something that important I'd never manage lodge! That and I prefer mixed company, I actually dislike large groups of men talking in bars and dining together, they usually become borish and start gossipping, bickering and politicking, oh hang on...