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7 Point Plan

  • The 3 Rs
  • Our Charities
  • Standards
  • Back to basics
  • Communications
  • Leadership
  • Learn from others

7 Point Plan: What does it mean?

The 3 Rs

Recruitment, retention and retrieval are all vital components of our future. By 2017 we want to be a Province which has arrested its decline in numbers and started to grow again. All our members are encouraged to believe that losing members and losing lodges are a sign of failure. Recruiting good quality candidates must be every lodge’s objective.

  • Lodges will be encouraged to form small committees to agree, organise and implement actions to recruit good quality men and to address retention and retrieval;
  • Lodges will be encouraged to develop a website (which will be linked to the Provincial website) and to use social media as a tool for recruitment;
  • Regional Mentors will convene area meetings of lodge mentors to spread best practice;
  • There will be annual meetings for relatively new brethren who aspire to progressive offices;
  • Lodge Almoners will be strongly encouraged to do more to contact brethren who are not attending lodge regularly;
  • The Executive Committee will consider additional measures in light of management information it receives every quarter.

Our Charities

Charity remains at the heart of what we do as Freemasons in South Wales. We will support local, national and Masonic charities, as well as looking after our brethren and their families. Our principal aim over the next few years is to launch and make a success of our forthcoming festival in 2021, but we will do more than that.

  • We will launch the 2021 Festival in 2014 to give us 7 years to make a success of our Festival year;
  • Lodges will be strongly encouraged to make the 2021 Festival fun in its preparation with social and enjoyable fund-raising events at the heart of our charity.
  • We will design and produce a new Provincial tie as a contribution to the Festival.
  • 2017 is also an important milestone for our Craft, as we celebrate 300 years of Freemasonry. The Executive will consider how we can make 2017 a special year, by contributing to a local charity (or charities) and celebrating our tercentenary in style.
  • We will continue to encourage lodges to contribute to local causes as they wish.

Standards

We are a Province which values high standards. From the quality of the candidates we choose to the effort we put into our ritual and the way we behave in our lodges and outside, our standards must be something which sets us apart from others.

  • We will continue to encourage lodges to exercise caution in the quality of men they bring into our Craft.
  • Our ritual is very important to us. It must be the anchor point for providing a meaningful experience for our candidates and an enjoyable one for our members and visitors. While wholesale reading of ritual is to be discouraged, the key to success is the quality of the experience for the candidate, so sharing of ritual is preferable to leaving a brother to struggle his way through what he may find as difficult ritual.
  • The floorwork is extremely important and must be practised if it is to be a memorable experience for all. Lodge DCs and Preceptors will be invited to regional Education and Training seminars to discuss and share ideas about floorwork and other ritualistic issues.
  • Grand Officers will be asked to report on lodges on an annual basis.
  • Standards of behaviour in and outside lodge meetings are important; unacceptable behaviour will not be tolerated.

Back to basics

Brethren will not stay as members unless we make their masonry enjoyable and involve them as much as they wish. We should encourage social events, to involve families as well as members; and we should do all we can to encourage more fraternal visiting.

  • Lodges will be encouraged to organise social events, especially where this practice has slipped. If appropriate, lodges should work with others to organise joint events rather than do without.
  • Families are important in this regard.
  • Lodge members – and particularly individual’s mentors – will be encouraged to increase fraternal visiting. New members should have the opportunity to be taken along to other lodges to mix with different brethren and see different temples and workings.
  • The Provincial Executive will work up a regional ‘Travelling gavel’ initiative from all areas of the Province, together with a Provincial-wide initiative if possible.

Communications

We will use every possible medium to be more visible in our communities, to tell non-masons about what we do and how they might benefit from joining us, and to communicate with our brethren. We will embrace new technologies and we will use all means to become more of a presence in our communities.

  • We will refresh the Provincial website and open Provincial Facebook and Twitter accounts.
  • We will make more use of Y Dalaith to communicate with the brethren, including a regular PGM article to communicate progress against our 7 point plan.
  • We will learn from other Provinces and from good examples within our own Province as to how we can be more visible in our communities. We will design and produce a Provincial ‘stand’ for use at community events throughout the Province.

Leadership

The Provincial Executive will provide more of a lead in terms of setting, monitoring progress and reviewing our Provincial strategy. Grand Officers will be asked to take on a greater responsibility for showing leadership in the lodges in which they are members or to which they are mandated. They will also do more to share ideas and best practice across the Province.

  • The Provincial Executive will meet more often to review progress against our 7 point plan, taking action as necessary to drive success.
  • Grand Officers will meet in regional meetings to share good practice and ideas. Theses meetings will be at least once a year.
  • Lodge of Benevolence will be re-cast so that the May meeting is for Grand Officers only (members and guests). This will be an annual opportunity for the Provincial Grand Master and Executive team to share thinking with the Grand Officers, to secure GO input into the leadership of the Province and to share ideas and concerns.
  • Grand Officers will be asked to report annually on their lodges’ progress in implementing the 7 point plan, especially with regard to the 3 Rs, Charity and Standards. A standard form will be produced for this purpose.

Learn from others

The Executive and principal officers in the Province will visit and learn from other Provinces. Grand Officers and senior lodge members will be provided with opportunities to meet more regularly and learn from each other so that good ideas can spread across the Province.

  • The Provincial Executive team will visit Quarterly Communications and other Provinces to learn from good practice elsewhere.
  • Grand Officers will meet regularly (as above).
  • Regular seminars will be delivered by the E&T team.
  • The Provincial Orator will be available to give lectures on various issues, including ritual and examples of good practice from elsewhere in the Province.
  • Regional Mentoring meetings will take place, led by Regional Mentoring coordinators.

Members’ Areas of responsibility

 The 3 R’s

  • Executive Officer:
    All Executive Officers
  • Provincial Level:
    PRM, AJS + Grand Lodge members and mandated GLOs
  • Lodge Level:
    WM, GLO, Senior PMs, Lodge Mentor

Notes: Lodges to establish a small committee to take responsibility for R, R & R

Charities

  • Executive Officer:
    All Executive Officers,
    Chairman of 2021 Festival
  • Provincial Level:
    Provincial Charity Steward, Provincial Almoner, 2021 Festival Team
  • Lodge Level:
    Charity Steward, Almoner

Notes: Lodge Charity Steward to establish a small working party to assist

Standards

  • Executive Officer:
    DPGM, Provincial Grand Director of Ceremonies
  • Provincial Level:
    Provincial Grand Director of Ceremonies + Acting DC Team, Provincial Mentor
  • Lodge Level:
    Grand Lodge Officer, Worshipful Master, Senior Lodge members, Lodge Preceptor and DC

Notes: Regular attendance by all Lodge members at LOIs.

Back to basics

  • Executive Officer:
    WEJ, AJS
  • Provincial Level:
    AJS + Provincial Mentoring Officer
  • Lodge Level:
    Worshipful Master, Lodge Mentoring Officer, Proposers and Seconders

Notes: Encourage inter-lodge fraternal visiting

Leadership

  • Executive Officer:
    All Executive Members
  • Provincial Level:
    All Grand Lodge Officers, Senior P.G. Lodge Officers
  • Lodge Level:
    Worshipful Master, Senior Past Masters, Lodge Mentoring Officer

Communications

  • Executive Officer:
    RFR/Prov Secretariat
  • Provincial Level:
    Communications Team – Year Book, Magazine, Diary Teams, External Comms Officer
  • Lodge Level:
    Lodge Information Officer, Lodge Secretary, Ch. Stwd, H.C. Rep.

Notes: Lodges to consider establishing lodge web site incorporating Social media to assist with recruitment

Learn from others

  • Executive Officer:
    Executive Team
  • Provincial Level:
    Provincial G.Orator
    ProvincialG.Mentor
  • Lodge Level:
    Worshipful Master and Wardens

Notes: Attendance at Seminars