It’s Springtime in the Northern Hemisphere of the third rock from the Sun and my car is covered in buds from the slowly emerging leaves from the trees. Soon enough I’ll get those little maroon caterpillar-looking things all over my car, followed by the little helicopter seedlings all over my car, followed by the fluffy seedlings from the cottonwood trees all over my car.

It’s not a great time for cars, really…

It’s not just my car, of course. They get all over my driveway, my roof, my front yard, and in my gutters. And oddly enough, this all reminds me of leadership and a growing lodge, because there’s not a single seedling that has taken root and sprouted on my car. Nor has a single tree sprouted from my roof.

My yard is a hard-soiled mess of a thing where only grass, clover, and dandelions are hardy enough to survive. While the occasional baby elm makes an attempt to be born, it is quickly pulled or mowed over, but for the most part the seedlings bounce off the ground and blow away or rot.

But those gutters… After collecting an entire Autumn’s worth of leaves and Spring’s worth of decaying buds and rain water, my house’s gutters are more fertile than ancient Mesopotamia and as Summer arrives, a forest of greenery has sprung up. Hundreds, if not thousands of little baby trees ready to crush my house if I let them.

How does this relate to lodge leadership? Because it’s a reminder that growth doesn’t depend very much on the seeds that fall, but the soil and dirt they fall into. In lodge ideas can be a dime a dozen. Ideas for fundraisers, for get-togethers, for lodge initiatives, etc. can be pretty common if you’ve got a creative or dedicated group of brothers. But like the helicopter seeds that fall from my trees every year, if these ideas are met with an unyielding resistance or constant opposition, then like seeds bouncing off the hard ground or carried away by strong winds, those ideas are worthless, no matter how many of them there may be.

So, what are you doing to ensure that your lodge is a fertile, healthy soil in which good ideas can take root?

Take a look at our past post on The G-Men and pay particular attention to the four personality types you don’t want in lodge. People who never lift a finger to help, or those who cool any new ideas because they’re resistant to change or have some past beef with Freemasonry, all harden the soil of a lodge. Those who nitpick, or argue just for the sake of arguing and the constantly blowing crosswind. Together they will ensure nothing new takes root and grows in your lodge until there comes a time where the only think left of your once-thriving lodge will be an empty dirt lot.