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In fact, while they may appear on the
surface to glide like swans, they achieve
it by paddling like fury under the surface.
Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that
their existing undergraduate membership
exerts a gravitational pull, reinforcing their
daily efforts to ensure a healthy future. For
those setting out on this path for the first
time, the biggest hurdle is the first one. How
are the first few undergraduates to be found?
A typical initiation path is that a chum will
suggest that Masonry might interest the
individual; he will be introduced early-on
to other young members; he will meet the
secretary and be given a fairly frank outline of
what he can expect and what is expected of
him. Very few do not proceed to initiation.
In seeking to answer that question more
broadly, each participating Lodge is setting
up a committee to determine its own unique
approach. If that looks like successive wheel
re-inventions, it is not quite so. The function
of the scheme group is to provide to
participating Lodges the benefit of the
group’s collective experience and ideas.
But, more importantly, it is fundamental
that each Lodge should resolve the question
in the way that suits its own circumstances
and customs. The AGM’s scheme has no
intention of seeking to create clones across
the country; rather the focus is that the
objective should be achieved in a range of
different ways, further enriching the diversity
of Freemasonry and fully respecting the
individuality of each Lodge.
Let me nevertheless offer a little of the
thinking of the group. Recent experience
has shown that a fair proportion of young
initiates first made contact with Freemasonry
through the internet. To some that will
come as quite a surprise; others will have
known or guessed that it was so.
But the conclusion must be that a website
is a valuable thing. University Lodges must
be prepared to be fairly public affairs; they
must advertise without shame, to freshmen
each year, using opportunities to promote
Masonry in general. University Lodges
should support undergraduate charities
and ensure that such benevolence is
known to the public. Another, probably
unsurprising, feature of successful experience
is the opportunity for undergraduates to
meet the Lodge either over drinks or dinner,
in order to acquire an impression of the
people and, even more importantly, of
Freemasonry itself.
The avoidance of un-undergraduatefriendly
features is also significant. Careful
consideration has to be given to costs, to
dates and times, to early involvement of
new joiners and many similar details of the
Lodge’s administration.
In addition to all of this activity within the
university Lodges, a valuable contribution to
this theme is the recent pair of reductions in
dues agreed by Grand Lodge, both for its
own levy and for that of the Grand Charity.
All costs for undergraduates and other young
men are magnified in their significance,
whether they be subscriptions, dining fees
or the price of regalia. With initiative and
determination, ways can be found to
ameliorate the burden.
It is also to be hoped that the profile of the
scheme itself will result in an enhancement
to the usual paternal or family-based
encouragement. Where such suggestion
might typically have awaited the initiate’s
30th birthday, it might now instead relate
to establishing contact with the Lodge of an
undergraduate’s university, ten years earlier.
Although the focus of the scheme is
squarely on universities, everyone involved
is very well aware of the relevance of it
to young men outside university life. To
them, Freemasonry should extend a similar
welcome whenever and wherever the
opportunity arises. Universities may
represent merely the start to the process
of Masonic involvement of a materially
wider age-group.
There is no doubt that the scheme
represents a project that will take many years
to achieve its full potential. The challenge
will be to continue to innovate, to continue
to drive the programme in the face of
occasional set-back and disappointment.
But with momentum, the scheme will
deliver.
Oliver Lodge is chairman of
The Universities Scheme Group.
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