Last year the Petaluma Moose lodge was the fastest growing Lodge in the country. The fact that so many new member were joining did not go unnoticed at HQ in Chicago. Because of this I was invited to give the keynote presentation at the mid-year Moose convention Reno NV, Monday 13th Nov Atlantis Hotel

Good Morning, everybody. My name is John Crowley and I am a Moose. I’ve been a Moose for one year and 6 months and it has changed my life. At my swearing-in ceremony when the Junior Governor said, and I quote, that “this would be the best decision I would ever make”, I had no I idea how true this would be.

I’m going to talk to you about how we brought the Petaluma Moose Lodge from the brink of closure back to a thriving lodge. I’m going to talk about how I created a tipping point around joining the Moose; how I made joining the Moose a hip and cool thing to do. And I’m going to talk about how many of these things that we’ve done in Petaluma can be done in Moose lodges around the world.

I’m going speak about what’s the matter with the society and I’m going to show you how the Moose can be an integral part of society; how the Moose can be a force, a good and powerful force in changing society for the better.

But before I can do that, I need to tell you a little about myself. I grew up in Dublin, the son of a publican. Now a publican is the owner of a Public House or a pub or as we say in Ireland, your local. And I know that some of you have probably been to Ireland or heard about what a pub in Ireland is like.

I meet many, many people who, hearing that I’m from Ireland, tell me about the fun they’ve had in Irish pubs; about the family atmosphere, about the young and the old sitting and chatting and having fun together, about the married folk conversing with the single people; about the fact that pubs are not about getting smashed or trying to pick someone up; pubs are about getting to know your neighbor, it’s about getting to know your mail man or plumber or bank manager or meeting a potential baby-sitter for you kids.

It’s about something that all of you know about; it’s about creating community.

I started working in the family business when I was only 14 and as I grew older I worked more and more hours as my studies would allow. And what I saw during those years was something amazing. I saw a community gathering place. I saw the parish priest have his weekly meeting there with his lay helpers, I saw the local school PTA have their monthly meeting, I saw kids soccer teams come there after every game on Sundays, I saw wakes, I saw first holy communion parties; I saw the machinery of a community in action.

On Sunday nights, a local band would come in and play. And most of the customers were still in their teens, 18 and 19 year-olds. Most were drinking sodas as they were either working or going to school the following morning. They chatted about their week-end escapades and about the week ahead. They’d meet up for a chat and to listen to some music. And every now and then a young couple might come in with their kids and listen for a while before heading off home to put their kids to bed. I saw families sitting together enjoying a night out together.

Now fast-forward some 10 or 11 years. We had recently moved to Petaluma , a small town in northern CA with a population of some 40,000. Petaluma was essentially a farming and agricultural community that was slowly filling up with families moving out of the larger cities to raise a family in a safe and friendly environment. Petaluma was once known as the chicken capital of the world because we shipped nearly one million eggs per week all across the western states.

But I remember one afternoon my wife and I were strolling past a bar I had recently been to with her visiting brother and I wanted to go in and show her the electric bull that I had ridden (for the first and, let me tell you, the last time) but were stopped at the door and told we couldn’t come in because we had our 2-month-old child with us. My wife and I looked at each other puzzled and were told that it was California Law that no one under 21 was allowed in.

Well, where were we supposed go to hang out with our children and have a glass or wine or a beer? Was there was no place like my family’s pub in Petaluma ? I knew what I was missing; I just didn’t know where to find it. Not until I walked into a Moose lodge some ten years later.

Now let me turn to why I decided to put my energies behind the Petaluma Moose Lodge.

It all started about 3 years ago when my wife and kids were away and I found myself, alone in front of the TV at 8pm on a Saturday night, flicking from channel to channel. And I remember thinking to myself “I don’t want to grow old doing this; sitting in front of a box of dancing lights and funny sounds watching programs that only seem to get worse as the years go by.

No, I wanted to go back to my local, that Irish Pub, to where I could find someone I knew and sit down for a chat or to shoot some pool. I wanted a sense of community. But I had nowhere to go.

I phoned some of my friends and everyone said, “Sorry we haven’t got a babysitter”, “It’s already too late or “Oh, we just turned on the DVD to watch a movie”.

I was alone. Again I had that feeling of knowing what I was missing and again I didn’t know where to find it. That evening sitting alone in my home with only the TV for company stuck in my throat for a long time. It would be a while before I would get to know about the Moose.

Around the same time I started becoming interested in a concept called Social Capital. It’s defined variously as Civic Society or Cultural Capital but I prefer the definition by the social scientist Robert Putnam as "referring to the collective value of all 'social networks' and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each others".

So what does that mean? It means placing actual value on the connectedness of a town or community. It means the value of having a community where people interact and connect with and know each other; where people are part of a club, or go out for a pint together to their local pub or take part in local politics or are involved in their kids’ schools or volunteer at a local charity.

I picked up a book on the subject and was amazed. The book is called “Bowling Alone” by the social scientist that I mentioned before, Robert Putnam. It’s about the decline of Social Capital in western society and America in particular; about how people are no longer part of clubs or lodges; it’s about how more and more of us are feeling alone and isolated from each other; it’s about the lack of a sense of community and it’s about the effect that this has on our health, economy and general well-being.

Putnam puts out many factors that lead to this trend but the most important reason he suggests is urban sprawl and TV; we are spending more and more time commuting and more and more time in front of the TV.

Now I could see and feel the effects of this diminishing social capital in the town where I lived. I saw the neighborhoods where the streets were empty; where the only things moving were those dancing lights of the TV behind the living room curtains. I wanted to get those people out from their TV sets and play pool and chat with them but I didn’t know how.

So then a little less than 2 years ago, a friend of mine sent me an invitation to a party and this party was to be held at the Moose. “At the Moose” I thought. “Isn’t that a club for retired people”? This was the image I had. It was a false perception but none-the-less that was the picture that I had in my mind. But it is also the perception held by many of the younger generation.

The party came and went, it was definitely a great party but I didn’t get a chance to talk with any of the Moose members at length. I remember the building itself definitely had seen better days; I wondered a little what the lodge was about and wondered if they had funny hats or secret handshakes; And then I remember thinking to myself that soon the lodge would be a thing of the past and thought little more about it.

About this time my wife and I had made the firm decision to live in Petaluma for the rest of our lives. We loved our town. And because I knew that I was going to live there for the next 25 or 30 years I knew that I had to invest in it; to make it more like the kind of place that I wanted to live. It was a great town but I wanted to make it even better.

The second time I entered the Moose lodge was for another party in April of last year. And this time I had a better look.

I saw the remnants of what once had been a vibrant community; a community where people laughed and sang and chatted and danced together; a community that had once been full of young people and families, of singles and couples, of old and young all celebrating life together under one roof – the Moose roof.

That evening I remember well talking with one of the older gentlemen that night; an ex-prison guard at San Quentin, Don Fredericks. I asked him what the Moose was about, what the Moose did, what was the point of the Moose.

I remember what he told me. He explained to me about Mooseheart and how the Moose cares for children in need and Moosehaven where we care for our seniors but he also explained to me that the Moose was also a place to make friends; a place to bring your family and socialize; a place to get to know your neighbors and although he didn’t call it that, he was describing a place that created social capital.

He had struck a nerve. Something inside me had awoken. I remember distinctly seeing a vision of what the Petaluma Moose Lodge could be; like it was before, a lively facility where families would once again create the social fabric of a community. That night, remembering that lonely Saturday night in front of the TV, I spoke with a friend of mine and excitedly we said to each other “Imagine what would happen if we all joined the Moose and restored the lodge to what it once was. Imagine the possibilities!”

I woke the next morning and said to my wife “Let’s join the Moose”. I remember she looked at me sideways and asked “What on earth were you drinking last night!”

About a week later I went back down to the Lodge and had a deeper discussion with the governor and administrator about what the Moose meant; about the goals of the Moose; about what the Moose stands for and about its values.

I knew I had found what I had been looking for. And I knew I had found it because the values that the Moose represent are the same values I hold. Cherish the young, care for the elderly and at the same time provide a space for families and singles to gather together creating a community, sharing the resources and responsibilities. I filled out the form and wrote a check there and then.

I talked with many of the members; some of them had been members over 50 years. And let me tell you what they wanted. After caring for and being the guardians of the Petaluma Moose lodge they want nothing more than to see the younger generation take on the lodge with the same passion that they had some 20 or 30 years ago.

These men and women were tired, tired of making dinner every Friday and breakfast every Sunday for the same people; tired of seeing their children and the younger generation in general not joining and carrying on the great tradition of the Moose; tired of wondering how much longer they would survive the dwindling membership. They wished for nothing more that to see their work not torn down and left as some footnote in a history book. They wanted nothing more than to see a new generation joining the club and regenerating the spirit of the Moose. And now I wanted that too. And I knew that I was going to have to work to make it happen.

So, how was I going to do this job that I had set myself? The first thing was to ask some hard questions. We must all ask ourselves some hard questions. We must ask ourselves why the younger generation is not joining our organization; why it’s not hip or cool to join the Moose. I asked myself those questions when I decided to put my energies into regenerating the Petaluma Moose Lodge.

I talked with Dave and Dan, our administrator and governor, about attracting new blood; and thought a lot about why they were having trouble attracting new members.

I asked around. I asked my friends and co-workers. I asked acquaintances. I asked “What do you know about the Moose?” Much of the responses were something like “Isn’t it a club for retired people?” or “Oh, yeah...cheapest place in town for a drink”

Whatever had been done to try and attract new members simply wasn’t working, in fact we were losing members and losing members fast, but I knew there had to be a way of reversing this trend.

In business, as well as in organizations like ours, when one is faced with any problem like this, we have two options:

1) we need to do more of what we are already doing.

or

2) we should be doing something different.

I borrow a little from Jonathan Byrnes, a well-known business consultant when he says:

“When people interact in organizations, we naturally form repetitive patterns of activities, and continue them as ‘the way we do business.’” This is a good thing, because without these patterns, organizations would be chaotic and would collapse.

However, these patterns of activities can become very entrenched and difficult to change. Over time, many organizations lose their effectiveness as the environment and society around them requires new and different ways of doing business.

So with this in mind, I asked myself: “Which one was it?” Were we not working hard enough to promote the Moose or did we need a different approach?

In asking my friends and acquaintances about the Moose, I saw that people had a vague idea of what the Moose was, about its values and about the kinds of events that happen there. So people knew about the Moose and yet they still were not joining.

But why weren’t they joining? My hunch was that second reason: We needed to do something different to attract new members. We needed to send out the message to the community that something different was happening at the Moose and at the same time tell the community what our values are and why we are here.

So what did I do? I asked some of my close friends to join the Moose – I explained what the Moose was about and I also explained to them what my intensions were; that my goal was to revive the lodge. Some of them were skeptical; to some the whole idea of being part of a fraternity was completely alien – remember, the younger generation is a generation of non-joiners and individualists.

We are told time and time again that it’s a good thing to be independent – to not have to depend on anyone else. I agree with this but only to a certain extent. I believe that it is far, far better to be inter-dependent; inter-dependent on each other. I help you and you help me. Much of the younger generation has forgotten the value of this.

I don’t know how many times people have quoted Groucho Marx to me; you’ve all heard his one-liner: “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.” Thanks a lot, Groucho!!

But I persevered and asked my friends to trust me. At first it was slow. In July of last year, I sponsored my brother and 2 other friends but the numbers grew and grew and a few months ago, we swore in 22 people in one ceremony.

The first thing I needed to do was to create a buzz, you have to get people talking and people love to talk especially when there’s something new in the air. I had to get people always talking about something new at the Moose and I had to provide that something that was new.

I started off late last year by inviting all my friends to something called a Conversation Café. Now a Conversation Café is where a group of people, maybe 6 or 7, gather around a table and talk in a semi-structured manner about something important. So, one Thursday evening at 7pm I set up a few tables at the club and as my friends came in – there was maybe 15 or 20 of us – I broke everyone up between 3 tables. I hosted one table and 2 other members hosted the others.

Each person at the table took turns introducing themselves. They talked a little about how long they’d lived in Petaluma , about how many kids they had and where they went to school, essentially creating a connection on a human level. On the second round each person said what they wanted to talk about and out of those topics we chose one.

Since then we’ve held these conversation café regularly, once a month, and we’ve talked about the most diverse things you could imagine; we’ve talked about "Creating community", "Schools and Education", "Children and the internet" and "Drugs" to name but a few.

Now what did I want to achieve? The intent of having the Conversation Café was two fold. Firstly to get my friends into the Moose – getting a potential member inside a Moose Lodge for the first time is the most important thing. But secondly I wanted to create a ripple of conversation in the community at large that something different was happening at the Moose.

Each one of those people went to work the next morning and talked with their colleagues and said “Hey, guess where I was last night? And guess what we talked about?” The message was going out; word was spreading. People where starting to hear that something different was happening at the Moose.

It was about this time I committed myself to creating one new event each month. I knew that to keep the momentum going and to keep people talking I had to show to the community that new things really were happening.

Next thing was Band Night at the Moose: I persuaded a friend of mine, and fellow Moose member, who is in a local band, the Sofa Kings, to play at the Moose. Now we couldn’t afford to pay for the band, so I said that we would ask for an optional $3 donation at the door and that money would go to the band. The band was willing to take the risk.

Then I spread the word among my friends that the Sofa Kings would be playing at Club ‘M’. “The Sofa Kings at Club ‘M’ January 21st“. On purpose I didn’t tell anyone where or what Club ‘M’ was. Now that immediately started a buzz. “Where is Club ‘M’?” was the talk of the town? A new place where we could hang out? But where was it?

As the event got closer I revealed where Club ‘M’ really was, it was The Moose. But the mystery had done its job – people were talking about the Moose again. And that is what we need;

I spent a lot of my own money buying my friends drinks in the beginning. But at a dollar or two per drink I knew that it would be a good investment. I’d say “I’ll buy you this drink but the next time, when you are a member, you can buy me one”. And it was a great investment, because nearly all of my friends have joined and have definitely bought me a lot more than one drink in return.

Let me go back for a moment and talk about the history of the Moose. Although it was John Henry Wilson who originally founded the Moose, most of the credit goes to James Davis. It was he who exactly 100 years ago took it upon himself to breath life into the organization. It was Davis who knew the awesome force that bringing people together under one roof could be. It was he who set up the Moose to be the social net to catch any of our fellow members if they fell on hard times. It was Davis who set the core values of looking after our seniors and cherishing our young ones.

I borrow a little for the following that comes from our former enrolment ceremony that I’m sure some of you will recognize. It is something that inspired me to join the Moose; it is a moving and beautiful statement:

Think of something that is a large and powerful, something that is a protector not a predator. Something that takes only what it needs, nothing more . . . yet for its great size and strength it lives in peace with others. It uses its size and power not to dominate but to protect, not to spoil but to preserve. It is a fierce protector, a loyal companion, and a generous provider who brings comfort and security to those within its defending circle. This something is the Moose.

James Davis helped establish the Moose to provide a safety net in times of economic difficulties; to look after the orphaned wives and children of members; to provide “sick benefits” to member too ill to work and to care for the elderly.

Now, in today’s world, we may not have to help our fellow members as in the times of the great depression; but the Moose is here to provide in other equally valuable terms.

We are not in an economic crisis as America was back when the Moose really got going. But we are in a crisis – a social capital crisis. Never before has our social capital sunk to such a low level. Never have we been more separated from each other than we are today.

We spend hours each day alone in our cars commuting to and from work; we spend more time in front of the TV than ever before. We are busier than ever before. We are becoming more and more isolated from each other. We don’t join clubs anymore we’re not in bowling leagues any more, we don’t go to pubs anymore; we hardly even go to the movies any more.

But you, my fellow Moose members, know the difference between 3 hours watching TV and 3 hours down at the lodge. You and I know that being around real people is much more real and satisfying.

Much of today’s society has forgotten this, but you and I haven’t. That’s why we’re members of the Moose. But I have the feeling that this is changing; people are starting to realize that there is something missing in their lives and this something is people.

The next thing we started was a Classic Movie Night; good movies that have depth and meaning and that would appeal to the existing elder members and at the same time draw people from my generation who week after week looked at the local cinema and see nothing worth paying $9 to see. There is some truth in the saying that they don’t make movies like they used to.

I went down to the local hardware store and bought a $17 white drop cloth and hung it up on one end of the hall and my friend came with his DVD projector. We started with an old favorite, “Dr Strangelove” and followed with “The Petrified Forest and “On the Waterfront”. The off-white drop-cloth gave the show an added sense of being a classic showcase.

Again here I wanted to send out a message to the town that something different was going down at the Moose. I wanted people to go out and tell their friends and co-workers who weren’t members that something different was happening at the Moose. I wanted them to tell people not only about Mooseheart and Moosehaven but also about the community building aspect of their local Moose lodge.

Now many of the younger generation are not used to volunteering; we have lost our sense of civic involvement. We have forgotten that when you give in the form of volunteering that you get as much, if not more, back.

People sometimes need a little push to volunteer but I’ve noticed that if they are pushed too hard they will resist so I needed then to set the example of volunteering. I needed to show people that it’s fun to volunteer.

So, I started cooking Sunday breakfasts at the Lodge each month – I started telling everyone “Third Sunday of the Month, come watch me flip a pancake; and bring guests”

And we made sure that it was a great breakfast; we had strawberries and cream, pancakes for the kids and we made sure that the omelets were extra big; we needed people to come away satisfied, spreading the word about what a great breakfast they had had at the Moose.

It took time for the new members to step up and volunteer but they did. This month, November, half of the breakfasts are being cooked by new members.

One of the most successful events has been the Acoustic Open Mic night - singers, storytellers, actors come down to the lodge and perform. Now, you might ask what the “acoustic” part of it and why even bother making it part of the name. Well, names are important; names send out messages; and the message we wanted to send out was that the Moose open mic was different.

By calling it the acoustic open mic we wanted to encourage the spoken word and acoustic singing. There are many of the usual open mic nights around town that are geared toward electric guitars and drums. But again here we wanted to people to ask “What’s an Acoustic Open Mic?”.

I’m toying with the idea of having a classical music open mic. We may not get a huge turn out of violins but the point is that people will talk about it as something different.

Another event we started was Foreign Movie Night; now this could sound like it might not appeal to a wide audience. But one of our new members, Tom Lewis, loves foreign movies and the hall was empty on the first Thursday of each month so we thought why not, let’s try it - it’s something new.

Now it true that sometimes we didn’t have a huge audience but that didn’t matter; what mattered was that we gave the impression of something new. It didn’t matter if you weren’t interested in foreign movies what mattered was the sense that it was different.

We, as an organization, have to realize that we have to do something different to attract the younger generation. This is fairly obvious as we have seen the membership falling over the past years.

Now we could say to ourselves, “No, we’re not going to change; it’s the younger generation that has to change, it’s the young people who have to conform to us, to our ways of doing things. But the trouble is, how long can we wait?

I am not suggesting for a second that we have to change our core values. Our core values are what make us Moose. Mooseheart and Moosehaven; caring for the young and elderly and building community for those in between. But I think we have to realize that how we achieve or goals may have to change if we are to survive. Our core values will never change but our methods will.

One of the most important things that we must do is to change the image of the Moose. I quote Dominic Pereira, a third generation Petaluma Moose member who has been a member for 35 years, when he talks about the Petaluma Lodge, saying “The reputation was an old men’s drinking club”. This image of the Moose is one of the factors that keep the young from joining our organization. We must turn this image around. We must start spreading the word that we are here for families, for singles and for children as well as the elderly.

We must think how we can push the envelope within the guideline of our General Laws, the IRS and other governmental bodies. As a private organization we are bound by certain governmental rules and we must always be very careful to follow these.

But I want to talk a little about our General Laws and how they guide us and help us create a framework in which we achieve our goals. We must look at each of our General Laws and ask ourselves if they still serve the original intended purpose. Our bylaws have been changed over the years and these must continually be updated and kept meaningful.

Over the course of this conference many of you will come up with some excellent ideas about how to get our message out. And some of these ideas will go against one or other of our laws. The question is: Should the good idea just be immediately dropped, never to be discussed again because it violates one of our laws?

I don’t think so. We have two options: One, we examine how we can change this good idea to fit within our General Laws by modifying it. Or two, we examine and question the article that prevents this good idea.

Now that may seem a little rebellious. Let me tell you that it’s not. It is something that happens on an ongoing basis in all successful organizations, businesses and governments the world over. It simply means that we change the rules to serve a changed environment.

When we examine each article in our General Law there can be two outcomes. One, it is a general law because of an IRS or government regulation. We are bound by this and cannot change it. But the other outcome is that maybe this law is outdated and no longer serves its original intended purpose. Our General Laws are not written in stone. Society changes and so must the Moose.

I am not going to stand here and tell you that we should continue doing business as usual. Some of the new ideas and programs that I’ve mentioned might seem strange to some of you – and indeed some of them might not work in your lodge. But we have to be open to considering change. We have to welcome change.

Later today when we brainstorm on new ideas you will hear ideas that might go against some things that we have all taken for granted. Your initial reaction to a new idea might be “No, we can’t change that. We’ve always done it that way.”

If this is your reaction I’m going to ask you to stop and ask yourselves: “Why not?” If this idea does not go against what makes us Moose, our core values, then please consider it and find a way to make it work.

So over the next few minutes I’m going to suggest a number of ideas. Some of these ideas are mine and many have been suggested to me by some of the newer members that have recently joined. But many have been suggested by some of the longstanding members who see the need for change. Some of these ideas will create a reaction in you mind. I ask you please to think again about what makes us Moose – it is our core values.

1. We should consider a junior membership where 18, 19 and 20 year-olds can come into the lodge when the social quarters are locked or otherwise kept off limits. These young people need our support. They are neither adults nor kids and they have no place to go. Let us provide a place for them.
2. Maybe even consider a teen membership for high school age kids. I see the kids pile out of school at 3pm and have nothing to do. Let’s find a way that we can be there to support them.
3. A website is a must for every Moose lodge; the younger generation does not communicate or get information like we are used to. The web is fast becoming the main source of information to the young; that’s where they first turn to find information. So we must make it appealing to young people. If they want to find something out about the Moose the first thing they will do is Google it. Make sure that your website is designed for younger people and preferably by young people and I mean younger then me – if we are to attract younger people we must use the image of a younger generation. In many cases your website will be the very first impression of your lodge. So make it young.
4. What about a new logo for the Moose? It has changed before. Maybe it is time to update it for a new generation. Remember, the Moose logo does not make us Moose – it’s our core values that make us Moose.
5. We must also examine the enrolment ceremony. But it must be brought up to date. The younger generation is not used to ritual and it can turn people away. They look at the ritual as something from the past.
6. One of your most valuable members in your lodge is your newest member. This is because the new member has access to a new set of people who might be potential members. Each new member has a set of friends who don’t know anything about the Moose and we must not loose the opportunity let them know about our great organization. New members must receive some kind of incentive to get their friends to join. One suggestion is that we give them a dinner coupon to be used only with 2 other non-members. This will encourage them to bring in new people to the lodge.
7. Sponsors must also be incentivised. I know we get the recognition of Moose international but we are thinking of setting up our own incentive scheme. One of our members is a restaurant owner and is willing to offer a dinner for two as a raffle prize where you get one raffle ticket in the hat if you sponsor one member; the more members you sponsor the better chance you have to win. We might put a big “Thank You” in the newsletter thereby letting all our members know about their business.
8. I cannot stress how important it is to support other local organizations and indeed your local businesses. Buying coffee from Costco does not serve us or bring us recognition. If you buy your coffee from a local merchant maybe that merchant will learn about the Moose and may join. If we support them they will support us.
9. Networking business mixer. Have a monthly business mixer for members where they can meet and talk about our respective businesses. You’ll meet a daycare owner, a mortgage broker, a carpenter. It’s about connecting with each other to help each other.
   
10. Start a Yahoo group – again back to the web – young people expect things on the web. They want the calendar emailed to them or posted on a private internet group.
11. Have an option system to put the dues on a credit card so that they will automatically be deducted each year. We can market this as a service to our members. I’d certainly use it.
12. Write letters to the local news media explaining what the Moose does. Explain about Mooseheart and Moosehaven but spend a lot of time explaining the community building aspect of your local Moose lodge. Explain that the lodge is available as a space to other community organizations – it is surprising how many people do not know about using the Moose lodge. We have to get our message out to the community about our good works and our facilities.
13. Contact other local organizations and let them know that they can use the lodge for community services and fund-raiser. Recently we had a group of people using the lodge to organize Neighborhood Emergency Response Teams – organizing people to help each other in times of crisis such as earth quakes or flooding.
14. Next January we are starting something new; something we call the Moose Lecture Series. It’s where a different Moose member come in once a month and gives a presentation about their area of expertise. I have 3 people lined up already. The first will be a presentation by a local historian about the History of Petaluma. This will be followed by a presentation by a local artist on Renaissance art and the third will be a talk on nutrition. Again people see something new happening. If you’re not particularly interested in the topic you probably know someone that is and hopefully tell them thereby spreading the word.

Take these ideas and add to them. In many situations, people sometimes do not make suggestions of new ideas for fear that the idea is too radical and for fear of rejection. Because of this most successful companies have a way of submitting a suggestion or new idea anonymously. I suggest that this be done in all lodges. But don’t just have a suggestion box. At your next dinner put a note pad and a bunch of pens at each table and ask people to fill out a questionnaire. You’ll be surprised at how many people will fill these out when asked directly and have the contact name optional.

I’ve talked a lot about change this morning. Change is hard. Last Friday, just 3 days ago, I gave up a career of 20 years; the last 13 years in one company and changed careers 180 degrees. I was not unhappy with my job but I knew that I needed a change. I was a computer programmer; I spent 8 hours a day dealing and talking to computers and in 3 weeks time, I’ll be opening up my own restaurant. And boy, does this change scare me.

But with respect to the Moose, I don’t think we have to change as individuals since, as the younger generation takes the reigns of the Moose, the organization will change naturally; new ideas and new people, but our values will remain constant.

I know the older members in the Petaluma Lodge didn’t have to change and I don’t expect or want them to change. The newer members, because most of them only come home from work at 7pm , held their events later in the evening whereas the older generation might have already gone home by then. So the point I make is that we do not have to change; we simply pass the Moose on to the next generation; the change will happen naturally as younger people join and are given the reigns.

People are starting to realize that right here in our own communities that there’s an organization with a purpose of creating community – an organization already there and ready for new members and new ideas – an organization called the Moose. We are at a good place in time – the Moose, now, needs revitalizing and people now are starting to seek out community more and more every day because we have something that the TV cannot provide. There are many, many people searching for community but don’t know where to find it.

We have many things in our favor: What other organization has a marketing force of one million? That’s what we are; every one of us must be ambassadors for the Moose, letting the community know who we are, what we represent and don’t forget to tell them how much fun we have.

What other organization has to offer what we have? What other organization is trying to pass on to the next generation a network of 1700 lodges, many of then owned outright with dance halls and restaurants and places to create community?

Imagine what will happen when each of us return from this convention and spent the next 12 month telling our relatives and colleagues that the Moose is changing; changing to be the fraternity of the next generation. Don’t say it once; say it every time you meet someone; tell them that we are ready to pass on what we have built, on to them.

Let me talk a little about Petaluma Lodge 475. Over the past year and a half, we have had an unprecedented raise in our membership. About 2 years ago the lodge was on the line, the membership had dropped to an all-time low and the morale was also at an unprecedented low. The lodge was empty and bare.

What was it that allowed a growth that under normal circumstances would have created an unbalance; a “Them versus us”?

One of the main factors that allowed for this growth was the fact that Dan Gaffney, our governor, and Dave Boyd, our administrator, were open to new possibilities. They knew that in order to survive, things had to change, and they were open to change. They knew that success was equal to change. Without them in the position they held, none of this would have happened. The leadership of each Moose lodge has to want to change if change is going to occur.

But what kind of change was necessary? As a new member in May of last year, I talked with many of the senior members to find out what kind of activities they had put on, which were successful and which were not. I thought long and hard about what my generation could do for the Moose and what the Moose could provide for us.

As we know. at the core of the Moose are our Moosehaven and Mooseheart. But also at the core of the Moose is providing facility to create community in our town. Our town of now 55,000 people already had a great sense of community but I knew the Moose could take our community to a whole new level. It would provide a place where we could sing and dance and watch movies and listen to music, a place where we could have a conversation and a place to laugh together.

And in order to try and get a younger crowd to join, I had to ‘re-brand’ the Moose. That’s a term I learned from a marketing friend of mine. It means marketing something with a new identity. It means getting the message to the community that the Moose is changing. It means that I tell everyone that I meet that I’m a proud new Moose member and that it’s changing.

One thing that I was very careful was to make sure that everyone felt welcome. I remember at one of our board meetings someone complained that they had talked with one of the new members and was annoyed that this new member was just coming down for the open mic and nothing more.

I didn’t see that as a negative at all – I thought “Great, at least they joined and are coming to the lodge and maybe as time moved on that person would become more involved”. At the very least that person would act to spread that word that she was a Moose member and spread the word about what the Moose does. That person now waits tables at Sunday morning breakfasts and has sponsored 3 other members.

My generation has somehow become a generation of non-joiners – it’s not just the Moose that is suffering; the Elks, the Lions, the Masons, the Oddfellows; all of our fraternal and service organizations are suffering from dwindling membership. It is partly because the younger generation is wary of secret organizations. You and I know the Moose is not a secret organization. But that is the perception of the young people. And it is a perception that we must change.

My generation and the generation younger than I must be shown again what it means to be part of an organization; learn the benefits of volunteering and learn the benefits of belonging.

In closing, I tell you this, it is the organization that welcomes change; the organization that opens its arms to the younger generation and their new ideas; the organization that embraces a changing society that will flourish.

Society is changing and we must change with it. And if the Moose is prepared, and I believe that we have the leadership to do it, the Moose will thrive again. What will the Moose be in 25 or 50 years? The decision is in our hands.