Freemasons

Dear brethern
I was thinking again about how to increase membership number into Free Masonry.

I thought about an idea and I hope you find it useful.

If most of the free masons in the community uses an e-mail as follows: .........@freemasons.co.nz (e.g. on their business or personal cards). Imagine it, if each free mason gave his e-mail address to few people…..the following possibilities then can happen:

1- if the other person was already interested in the craft but waiting to be invited he will immediately ask about it and may show his interest to the person who gave him the e-mail….this could be translated at the end into joining the craft.

2- If the person who got the e-mail does not know what is this….he will ask about it and may like it at the end and also join as a member.

3- If the person who got the e-mail was Anti-Masonic….then there are 2 possibilities a- if the brother who gave him the e-mail was good person (most likely)…the person who is anti-Masonic might start to change his views about the craft and his views may even become positive (depending on how good the brother was) and may even think about joining or at least stop talking negatively about the craft b- if the brother was not showing good character (unlikely) then the only change that can happen is an anti-Masonic remains anti-Masonic (No much difference !)

For example, when I was teaching at the medical school in NZ, imagine if my students got my e-mail address tarek@freemasons.co.nz….many, if not all, will start asking about the craft and then the steps can go as described above.

As you can notice, this can markedly help starting a conversation about the issue and "break the ice" which can work very well for those who do not have the experience to start it.

I hope you find it a useful idea.

Practically speaking it is not difficult to get this domain name (@freemasons.co.nz) organised to be used by most, if not all, of us)

Love

Tarek

Good in theory.... not so great pratically...

Managing all those emails would be a bit of a nightmare... not to mention all the extra internet traffic charges.

Possibly an alternative to person@freemasons.co.nz is for people to always use a signature at the bottom of emails....

ie..

Jeremie [jeremie@jeremie.cjb.net]
Freemasons New Zealand [www.freemasons.co.nz]
Member of Lodge #??
'New Zealand Freemasonry, Caring for the community'

Why not give it a try...can we get an idea as to what would be involved in setting it up at least. Maybe we could gauge the interest out there for it. I for one would be in if it assists in putting us into the face of the community to get that long lost interest in Freemasonry going. Anything is possible, it is just a matter of trying.

I agree Cheker, sorry I've been out of the loop of late busy with work & family. I would be interested in having a freemasons email address.

Has there been any further movement on this one?

Fraternally - William

_________________
William Durning
Hamilton
Waikato - New Zealand

Lodge Hillcrest #363
Waikato Royal Arch #22

durning@xtra.co.nz

Giday Guys this would be my first post on your boards but its good to see left field ideas coming out.

Jeremie in regards to getting up a mail server it isnt that much administration but more money in getting a server, installing the right email software and then the admin would be putting the person into the system after initiation.

You would need relevent help files for those older members wishing to use the system but unable to understand its correct use.

I certainly agree that it would get the word out there if your members wanted to use the service in a non confrontational way.

I think I'm going to have to have a chat to our grand lodge about such an idea. If victorians can get there own freemason credit cards I dont see why we cant get email address's