1. Technology in
Freemasonry
Conference of Grand Masters 2013
Mark Menard
President, Enable Labs
North American Conference of Grand Masters 2013 - Kansas City, MO
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2. Who is Mark Menard?
 Past Master of VanRensselaer Lodge #87, East
Greenbush, NY
 Past Secretary of VanRensselaer Lodge #87, East
Greenbush, NY
 Member Grand Lodge of New York Technology
Committee 2002 to present
 Creator of MORI the Masonic Online Registry
System in 2004
 Engaged with Grand Lodges for 9 years on IT
issues
 Responsible for the management of over 300,000
active Masonic member records as President of
Enable Labs the providers of MORI
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3. Themes
 Communication
 Coordination
 Data Management
 Data Preservation
 Social Engagement
 Mobile
 E-Commerce
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4. Lodge Issues
 Improve Communication
 Increase and Simplify Coordination
 Preserve Lodge Records
 Manage Membership Data
 Socially Engage the Membership
 Collect Dues Quicker and Easier
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5. What are lodges using?
 Communication and Coordination
 Email
 Websites
 Facebook
 Twitter
 Blogs
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6. What are lodges using?
 Data Preservation
 Nothing at worse, generally ad-hoc, the very
few are using offsite such as Carbonite
 Data Management
 Home grown member management systems
(Paper, Excel and Access)
 Third party stand-alone member management
systems
 Grand Lodge provided online web-based
member management systems
 Document Preservation
 Ad-hoc document storage (some of it not so
good)
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7. What are lodges using?
 Social Engagement
 Email
 Facebook
 Private Forums on Websites
 Twitter
 Collecting Dues
 PayPal
 Other third party payment processors
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8. The Generational Change
 New members coming into Freemasonry are
conversant with:
 Email
 Facebook
 Twitter
 Web Applications
 Smartphones
 The average age of secretaries in the jurisdictions
that use MORI has been dropping steadily since
the introduction of the system.
 Younger secretaries are tech savvy.
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9. Future Lodge Technologies
 Improve communication and social engagement
by adding new avenues:
 Managed email such as Constant Contact or
Contactology
 Facebook
 SMS text messaging
 Private online communities
 Move beyond email for coordination
 Basecamp - Online project management
 Eventbrite - Online event management
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10. Future Lodge Technologies
 Preserve documents by scanning them.
 SnapScan - Cheap and Easy
 Improve dues collection by using online options
such as:
 PayPal
 Square
 MORI (4th Quarter 2013)
 ... and other payment processors
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11. Grand Lodge Communications
 Blind CC emails aren’t sufficient anymore.
 A printed magazine doesn’t work like it used to.
 How do we improve?
 Managed email lists
 Find out bounce rates
 Use professional templates
 Easy and regular communication
 Electronic Magazine
 We can’t abandon our older members, but we can
repurpose.
 California Mason available for iPhone, iPad, Android and
Kindle Fire
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12. Grand Lodge Coordination
 The Challenge
 Your team is all over your state.
 Some of those states are BIG.
 You as a Grand Line Officer have to keep tabs
on a LOT of stuff.
 Some Ideas:
 Basecamp
 Support To Do Lists, Discussions, Document Storage and
more
 Used by the Ritual Renaissance Committee in NY very
successfully.
 Pivotal Tracker
 Good for projects that are highly task oriented.
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13. Coordinating Member Management
 How old is your member management system?
 Is it web-based?
 Are you running your own server?
 Can lodge secretaries and officers; and Grand
Lodge staff see the same data?
 Does it integrate with the US Postal Service?
 Do you still require the submission of forms by
either postal or email?
 Do you accept submissions from lodges in any
form that then need to be processed in some
way?
 Options: MORI and Bell Systems
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14. Grand Lodge Data Preservation
 Do you have a formal backup process?
 If you have an older membership management
system can you even open the files in a more
modern program?
 Do you have some form of off-site backup?
 File formats are not forever?
 Word and Excel are not archival formats.
 Does your staff have a file saving convention?
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15. Grand Lodge Document Preservation
 Paper doesn’t last forever.
 Everything decays over time, not just physically
but organizationally.
 It gets harder to find documents over time.
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16. Grand Lodge Social Engagement
 Can you be found on Facebook?
 Do you have a formal team managing your
Grand Lodge page on Facebook?
 If you don’t create the page someone will!
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17. Grand Lodge E-Commerce
 Are you extending credit to lodges for goods?
Why?
 There are simple online solutions you can use to
sell goods.
 Shopify
 If you have MORI you can sell online securely
using our built in store.
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18. Mobile
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/survey-new-u-s-smartphone-growth-by-age-and-income/
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19. Mobile
http://www.wirefresh.com/making-calls-is-one-of-the-last-things-we-use-smartphones-for-study/
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20. Mobile and Freemasonry
 The majority of our members under 55 have a
smartphone.
 The vast majority of our members under 64 are
getting a smartphone when they get a new
phone.
 We need to engage our members on their mobile
devices.
 Find a Lodge Based on Location
 Find Meetings Based on Location
 View Lodge, District and Regional Calendars
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21. Shameless Self Promotion
 Over 340,000 active member records
under management.
 Cloud based
 All you need is a web browser
 Complete Grand Lodge, Lodge, and
Fundraising Support
 On and Off Site Backup
 Full service phone support for Lodge
info@enablelabs.com secretaries, Grand Lodge, Grand Line,
Everyone
518-272-4455  Complete turn key solution
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