Grand Patriarch of the Grand Encampment of Georgia, I.O.O.F.
Greetings,
I wish to thank my Brother Patriarchs for allowing me to serve in this exalted position, the highest in the Encampment, your Grand Patriarch. We are caught between the rock and the hard place. Declining membership, lukewarm interest. We are all guilty of allowing this to happen but our concern for this year will be to start the proceess of CHANGE. Change some attitudes, change the way we do things. The Encampment does not grow unless the Odd Fellow lodge grows. The Canton depends on the success of the Encampment. If the Encampment and the Canton are not growing, are not functioning as well as they should, perhaps we have neglected the source of our growth.
We have got to assist the local lodges in doing the things that they should be doing in order for us, the Encampment to grow, to flourish. I promised the Patirarchs that I would bring the Sovereigh Grand Lodge Membership Pogram into each Encampment and I will do that if possible.
What I would like for each of the patriarchs to do is this. Ask yourself these questions:
Who in the Odd Fellow Lodge needs to be in the Encampment??
Who in the community needs to be in the Odd Fellow Lodge??
What are we doing as a lodge of Odd Fellows to assist the community in which we live??
When you look at these three questions, you should be able to see the direction in which we need to go.
My suggestions, and you will hear this a lot is three easy steps,
Stand Up
Put the mind in gear
Move the feet.
Good Patriarchs, until we get moving, get to doing the things that we should be doing, we will never find members or retain the members we have. The world is a busy place, the folks that we would like to have join us are busy, they do a lot of things, have lots of diffenert interest.They are also interested in doing community work, worthwhile community projects. But, they do not have time to join any organization that is not moving forward, is not up to date in communication, is living in the past.
If we are going to survive as a worthwhile organization, we have got to get moving, move into the future with our excellent programs, our excellent principals. Patriarchs, lets share who we are with the world, starting with your community.
Jimmy Humphrey, Grand Patriarch of the Grand Encampment of Georgia, I.O.O.F.
Sovereign Grand Warden Charles Renninger, Grand Patriarch Jimmy Humphrey
