Keeping It Simple (Through the Complexities) -by Ian Love-Jones

This writing is not about doing away with those valuable, and sometimes even critical complexities. Those structures and business processes help a great deal with elevating voices, keeping lodge doors open, lights on, charities funded, and member efforts organized. As we navigate those complexities though, it’s important to remember the simpler spirit of Odd Fellowship.

Trouble At The Top -by Toby Hanson PGM, PGP (WA)

I’ve heard so many stories from new members who have to battle older, more entrenched members who have grown complacent and no longer care to follow the Code or their jurisdictional constitution. While I can and do empathize with those who have carried the burden of keeping a charter on the wall for many years, their actions are often detrimental to the survival of the lodges they have worked so hard to preserve.

The Family We Choose -by Ian Love-Jones

For me, the real difference between being related, and being chosen family, is in that action of choice.
Being related is passive because while we know in our minds that we have common ground, that common ground may have limited meaning in our hearts.

Join or Die -by Mason Wolf

And there definitely is hope! Because as a country, we’ve been here before. At the beginning of the 20th century, we were dealing with many of the same issues that are facing us today, and rather than give in to despair and watch our democracy collapse, we instead started turning toward each other, and away from the isolation and hyper-partisanship of the Gilded Age. We started clubs and joined them, in huge numbers, and in the process, we created a more inclusive and nurturing society.

Live Degrees, for a Living Order -by Mason Wolf

I’m a huge believer in the value of conferring our degrees live, with full props and costumes. And I know how hard it can be, especially for lodges without enough members to put together a degree team, or when they don’t have access to the props already. If the only way to confer a degree is with a video, or by giving the lecture form (for those that have one), some degree is better than none. But not by much.

The Final Degree of Odd Fellowship -by Mason Wolf

When death comes, we have a degree for that…Euphemistically referred to as “the last degree”, it was written in the style of one of our degree ceremonies. It has no sign or password, but it does have a memento, the evergreen branch, which reminds us that the virtues of our departed brother or sister will remain ever green in our memories.

The Joys of Sister(Lodge)hood -by Mason Wolf

But that familiarity, as wonderful as it is, often leads members to view their entire experience in Odd Fellows as beginning and ending with their local lodge, and I think that risks missing out on one of the greatest benefits of being in a fraternal society – sister lodges.

Thoughts on the Degree of Friendship -by Michael Douglas PG/PCP WA

It may sound odd to speak of friendship as a contract, because it seems to reference an unfeeling or legalistic business model, but in the ancient world, in the pre-lawyer culture of the patriarchs, there wasn’t much of a difference. A contract was a promise; it was a vow; it was giving your word of honor; and people would swear themselves to friendship in a way that is no longer common in our culture. Establishing a relationship of voluntary commitment in this way is the purest exercise of our freedom.

Issuing Member Benefits in the Modern World -by Paul Mitchell, GUOOF

Long ago one of the reasons our Fraternity was one of the biggest was the issuing of member benefits. Lodges provided benefits for Sickness, Death, and Funeral costs. Most Lodges today have not issued benefits in years. There has been discussions lately about changing that.

Thoughts on the Initiatory Degree -by Michael Douglas, GHP of WA

The Initiatory Degree is the doorway to Odd Fellowship. Its chief moral lesson is the consciousness of mortality. In fact, the contemplation of our own mortality is the starting point of many fraternal paths and wisdom traditions. There are different ways to do this and also different levels on which to approach it. We can do this with intention or without. We are forced to do it by external circumstances periodically in our life when friends, or relatives, or people close to us die or are in danger of death.

But What Do You DO? -by Toby Hanson, PGM, PGP

When it comes to explaining Odd Fellowship to people not familiar with fraternalism, it’s a challenge. The two most common modes of explaining the Order to others are either 1) comparing it to certain *other* fraternal groups (of the apron-wearing persuasion, usually) or 2) talking vaguely about community service and listing off some of our bigger charitable partners or a couple of local lodge activities.

The Initiatory Degree: A Love Story- By Michael Greenzeiger PGM (CA)

I decided that it was time to restore the Initiatory Degree to its rightful place as a shining jewel in the diadem of Odd Fellowship. In this, I enlisted the help of my other love, my wife Linnea who is my partner in Odd Fellowship as in my life… We searched far and wide and got our hands on every versions of the Initiatory Degree we could put our hands on.