Clerk-House

Every organized body has to have goals, and the growth of that body depends on those goals being SMART.

Specific

• a clearly defined outcome and a clearly defined means of exactly how the outcome will be achieved. You must know how far away the goal is and when it has been achieved.


• e.g. "Increasing membership attendance by 15%, increasing self-sufficiency by 20%, and increasing performance of public rituals by 10% [along with specific means to achieve these numbers]" not "Make the local body better."


• Enemy: vagueness in formulating the goal & means of achieving that goal.
  

Measurable

• the goal must be measurable or quantifiable and the specific roles & responsibilities must be clearly delineated.


• e.g. A goal like "establishment of the Law of Thelema in the world" is too vague to be measurable. "Passing out 50 pamphlets of 'The Message of the Master Therion' every year" is measurable.


• Enemy: Vagueness in measurement achievement of the goal.
  

Attainable

• It is achievable and realistic within the bounds of finance, membership, and time of the body.


• e.g. when you have very few members, "Hosting 10 Social Nights per year" not "Hosting the Rites of Eleusis every year".


• Enemy: unrealistic or unlikely goals
  

Relevant

• Relevant means it (1) adheres to the mission & goals of the organization [such as in the OTO USGL Strategic Plan where it says “The plan consists of five main initiatives, derived from the USGL Vision Statement. The strategic plan guides us toward achieving our vision, in support of our mission, and in conformity with our values.” (2) helps the growth (increased membership & income) of the local body and (3) is a realistic/attainable goal (as above) when the body's financial capacities are taken into account,


• e.g. "Print and distribute at least 100 tracts/pamphlets to local bookstores, etc. every year" not "Create completely furbished Enochian temples at every body."


• Enemy: Irrelevant goals.
  

Timely

• Tangible time-frame, The length should not be too short as to not give enough time but not too long so that people forget there is even a goal to be attained. The end date should be a DAY, not a time period.


• e.g. "In 6 months from March 21, 2010" not "In the Aeon of Horus."


• e.g. “…completed by the date of December 21, 2010” not “Winter 2010”


• Enemy: Time-frames that are too short or too long, there needs to be medium strictness.
  

I've noticed an argument against active promulgation coming up more and more lately in various discussions. The idea being promoted is of "leading by example," that is, to just sort of "be awesome" and wait for people to ask what makes you so. Then you tell them about Thelema, and they will naturally gravitate toward it.

This is supposed by some to be more effective than other methods like, say, handing out tracts or greeting strangers with the Law, "pronounced in a clear, firm, and articulate voice, with the eyes frankly fixed upon the bearer." This "leading by example" technique has been billed as "passive promulgation." panshiva summarized this approach as follows:

"... 'promulgation' should come as a result of people being attracted to radiance of individual stars who are centered on a Thelemic core, and curious how they might do similarily [sic] in their own lives."

Often offered in support of this is Liber AL II:42 which states, "Success is thy proof: argue not; convert not; talk not overmuch." Less frequently employed in the argument for "passive promulgation" is the following from II:24:

"Behold! these be grave mysteries; for there are also of my friends who be hermits. Now think not to find them in the forest or on the mountain; but in beds of purple, caressed by magnificent beasts of women with large limbs, and fire and light in their eyes, and masses of flaming hair about them; there shall ye find them. Ye shall see them at rule, at victorious armies, at all the joy; and there shall be in them a joy a million times greater than this. Beware lest any force another, King against King! Love one another with burning hearts; on the low men trample in the fierce lust of your pride, in the day of your wrath."

The problem with taking this as an endorsement for "passive promulgation" is that life doesn't work that way. People do not go around saying "Wow you are awesome, what's your religion? I'm looking for a religion that will make me more awesome like you." It may seem obvious that life does not work this way, but it is also demonstrated by researchers like Rodney Stark and Laurence Ianaccone.

"Religious movements will grow to the extent that they can generate a highly motivated, volunteer religious labor force, including many willing to proselytise."

One must first make people aware of Thelema, and how this plays a part in the way one lives. Only then will they observe our life and evaluate it in the light of Thelema. The evidence of our life is used in place of argument, not in place of declaring the Law. Even Crowley explains this plainly and succinctly in Liber CCC where he comments upon both the above quoted verses:

"Note, pray thee, in verse 42 of [chapter 2 of Liber CCXX] the injunction: 'Success is thy proof: argue not; convert not; talk not overmuch.' This is not any bar to an explanation of the Law. We may aid men to strike off their own fetters; but those who prefer slavery must be allowed to do so. 'The slaves shall serve.' The excellence of the Law must be showed by its results upon those who accept it. When men see us as the hermits of Hadit described in CCXX II:24, they will determine to emulate our joy."

Promulgation is not coercion or 'enticement'. We must not convert, and we must not argue. We must, however, "preach openly the Law to all men."

"Whereas the institution of Free Masonry has fallen to complete and deserved contempt among all men, but especially among true Masons, and whereas the traditional knowledge which it was designed to guard has been lost, degenerated, prostituted, or exploited, and whereas, especially in America, the institution serves as little else but a cloak for the operations of various gangs of swindlers, be it resolved by Us, the authorized representatives of its highest degrees and the faithful depositories of its ancient secrets, that the present machinery for communicating those secrets, be declared obsolete and the work of all who may unlawfully to usurp Our authority be declared void and of no effect." —Aleister Crowley, Preface to the Revised Rituals of O.T.O.

The observed and undisputed decline of Freemasonry (in the U.S. at least) has engendered much speculation about its cause. There could be many contributing factors to this, including importantly its adherence to Old Aeon ideals. One frequently discussed cause is the shift away from esoteric teaching and the serious practice of dramatic ritual towards socializing and networking.

While it's hardly fair of me to excerpt a single statement from a whimsical article as an example of the state of Freemasonry today, this nevertheless neatly sums up one of the biggest failures of that institution in my view, and represents a major hurdle upon which we in O.T.O. must take care not to stumble:

"Really, you could say that the fraternity concept is a model of pre-digital social networking bringing in individuals to meet, mingle and grow their base of friends and associates." —Masonic Traveler, Secret Societies in the Social Media Age

Social networking may be a function—even a vitally important function as I have stated elsewhere—of secret societies in general and in particular of fraternal orders, but is it not a means to an end? Or do modern Freemasons treat the institution as nothing more than a social club?

I'm sure this question has been studied, and I wouldn't be surprised if it is addressed in books like Bowling Alone, but I haven't done the reading yet. I do have some direct experience of Freemasonry, however; and anecdotal as it may be, many other active and inactive Freemasons that I have talked to have reported similar experiences and impressions to my own.

When, over the course of some months, I undertook the Blue Lodge degrees in my home town, I found the rituals to be done rather poorly and the members seemed to be entirely uninterested in the esoteric import of them, and uninterested in the real effect these rituals have on the candidate. I came away from the experience with the impression that most (at least) of those present viewed the rituals as a rigmarole that one has to go through in order to trade business cards. I have subsequently heard that there exist some Lodges dedicated to the pursuit of esoteric knowledge; but the rarity and exceptional nature of these Lodges proves the rule that Freemasonry is generally not dedicated to such pursuit in this day and age.

The sentiment expressed in the above-quoted passage has crept even into the so-called "occulture" groups in the U.S. which claim at least a superficial interest in occult philosophy as the basis for their social networking. These groups tend to eschew esoteric organizations with the idea that such Orders and clubs are made irrelevant by the Internet:

"There was a time when Occult groups served as the only place in which to find a network of quality subversive peers, but nowadays given advances in technology, they serve as a specific network to find a focused approach to particular styles of thought and schools of magical aesthetics. ... PDXocculture began because there was the desire to have casual social situations in which people could mingle and discover one another, without any particular focus. With this scenario, good discussions are had and friendships naturally evolve." —About Portland Occulture

(Of course, the networking role of occult organizations has not been diminished in the least by social websites. The Internet has done nothing but help occult orders grow in number of members, in maturity, and in organizational dexterity.)

The human network that is developed in initiatory orders is, however, of a fundamentally different character than that formed in blogging communities and the like. Social networking sites offer a sense of community based on common interest. Fraternal, initiatory orders on the other hand, offer unmediated networks with built-in levels of trust which go beyond common interest. The reason for forming these deeper connections is that in esoteric orders, the social network and even the resulting business associations and partnerships are not ends in themselves, but means to a greater purpose which requires greater trust.

This brings us to the question, To what end do esotericists organize themselves into groups? Surely it is different for every organization or network of people, or even for every individual, and the answer to this question often reveals the underlying motivations which drive the organization—forward or into the ground. To the extent that an organization or an individual seeks to "mingle and grow their base of friends and associates," or in the case of the Portland Occulture, to "have casual social situations in which people could mingle and discover one another, without any particular focus," that organization or individual will get exactly what they are looking for, and this will have little difference from their experience of the Internet combined with going out for drinks—little difference, except, of course, that organizations cost more. It is when organizations use the Internet and social events for a greater cause, when they are but means to an end, that they become different and distinct from any other social outlet.

Without some greater purpose beyond social networking, esoteric organizations will find themselves in competition with the Internet, and individuals will find themselves lacking in direction; rather then making use of social networking, they will be transformed or torn apart just as are the beingless forms of Choronzon: "These forms swirl senselessly into haphazard heaps like dust devils, and each such chance aggregation asserts itself to be an individual and shrieks, 'I am I!' though aware all the time that its elements have no true bond; so that the slightest disturbance dissipates the delusion just as a horseman, meeting a dust devil, brings it in showers of sand to the earth." —Confessions

In O.T.O., the purpose for which we have organized is to secure the Liberty of the Individual. The Order seeks to instruct the individual by allegory and symbol in the profound mysteries of nature, and thereby to assist each initiate in discovering and executing his or her own True Will.

"I claim for my system that it satisfies all possible requirements of true freemasonry. It offers a rational basis for universal brotherhood and for universal religion. It puts forward a scientific statement which is a summary of all that is at present known about the universe by means of a simple, yet sublime symbolism, artistically arranged. It also enables each man to discover for himself his personal destiny, indicates the moral and intellectual qualities which he requires in order to fulfil it freely, and finally puts in his hands an unimaginably powerful weapon which he may use to develop in himself every faculty which he may need in his work." —Aleister Crowley, from an excerpt of his Confessions commonly referred to as "What is Freemasonry?"

I created this crest with input from stevensteven and translation by salimondo. It symbolizes the ethos and aspiration of self-sufficient bodies of O.T.O. who strive toward the establishment of a profess-house in their area.

Sekhet-Maat Lodge has this crest on our "About" page and on our MySpace.

Click the image of the crest below for a complete explanation and code for your own web site or blog, or that of your local body. If you post it somewhere, please comment!

As mentioned in the previous post, here is the SML Treasurer's report, including graphs!

http://sekhetmaat.com/wiki/Treasury/Reports/2007_Annual_Meeting

I have posted my address from last night's annual Lodge meeting to our website. It is available here:

http://sekhetmaat.com/wiki/2007_Annual_Meeting_Address

I'd be interested to hear any comments about it.

We are also working on putting the treasury report form the meeting up, with the charts and graphs that were included in that presentation. I will post here again when that is completed.

[Originally posted to my personal LJ]

One of the reasons why I get so irritated with discussing local dues is often those who discuss membership local dues seem to be acting as if it were the cure-all for all the local financial issues that ail us. And from a local body leadership position there is something seductive about being able to say that once you establish a "reasonable" local dues system (with "reasonable" defined in some vague, hand-wavey sort of way), then all of the local body financial problems will go away.

Hell, there are even those who suggest that if we could just institute the right local dues system, we would be able to buy a space rather than just rent a space.

If wishes were fishes...

The topic 'local dues' is essentially one dimension of a larger topic of local fund raising, which itself is simply the means by which a local body obtains the resources in order to do what it sets out to do. Local dues is not an ends in and of itself--but a means to an ends.

So on the topic of raising funds for local body activities, there are several questions that come up in my mind--questions which seem not to have been asked, much less addressed, in forums such as this one.

(1) To what purpose is the dues being collected?

Yes, it's easy to answer this with boiler-plate stock answers: "to do the mass, to perform initiations, to establish local body stability and to establish a presence" But the answer that you should be searching for should have more depth than just a boiler-plate stock answer. After all, the answer given above could be done in someone's home without the tens of thousands a year commitment a space entails. And suggesting "to establish a presence outside of someone's home" could be responded with "why?"

In short, neither of these are, in and of themselves, compelling. And unfortunately those who seem to be pushing for a local space have dwelled exclusively upon the negative: "what if the local body master moves?" "Garages are smelly and filthy." "It's unprofessional."

So come up with a compelling positive answer that goes beyond the stock "because." The reason why is not just so you can answer it here or so you can justify yourself to a mentor--but because when you go hat in hand asking for money from your various sources, you need to give them a compelling reason why they should give you the money rather than spend the money on themselves.

(2) How much do you need to collect?
( Read more... )

Dear Br. Joseph and kinfolk -
93.

Regarding the issue that was mentioned in the Normalization thread, about the College feeling that gathering and publishing information in Agape similar to that which we gather in the Annual Report - eg. number of Masses, Outreach programs, etc. - freely volunteered by local Bodies, would be viewed as an end-run around the way we decided to handle the ARf data itself.

That just didn't line up with my own understanding of the College's take on such a question, so I have been doing some followup.

The Elector who made that remark to Br. Joseph was expressing a personal concern based on tensions that obtained at that time - it was not meant as an informal or clandestine warning from the College.

If a one, or a dozen, or all the Body Masters wrote reports for Agape to share with the membership(as they are encouraged to do) and noted "We are up to two Masses a month, have a library of 150 volumes, and are engaged in outreach with the local University" - or if Br. Joseph built a summary from such reports, no one is going to say anything but "Well done."

Masters are free to share such information, or not, as seems good to them, and Agape is certainly free to publish information sent in to be shared. As noted in the Normalization thread, the idea is not to call out Bodies that don't choose to send in their info but to see which Bodies seem to have a handle on doing different aspects of this Work well, and to learn from those achievements when we can, rather than re-inventing the wheel.

Hope that helps clarify this particular situation.

Love,
Paul

I'm new here, thiebes read a post on my LJ and thought it was good, asked me to repost it here.  So here it is:
   If the OTO or any part of the OTO wants to increase the number of people it has its disposal to work it must consider how to go about doing it.  My local body has a reasonable number of members, most of whom only show up every now and again, myself included.  And of those that do show up only a small number do the work.  
   As I understand, this problem is rampant throughout the order.  One might say, well at least we're getting their money.  But often, even that is not the case.  What should be done to remedy this?
   When the U.S. Army wanted to increase its numbers it set out on an aggressive advertising campaign that gave the impression that the Army could be whatever you wanted it to be.  Recruiters still push this idea.  I imagine their idea is that if we can just get them in, if they don't like it after finding out the trouble they'd have to go through to get out, they'll just decide to stay and do their frickin job.  The problem with that is you get people that don't want to be soldiers.  They are not equipped morally or by aesthetic to live the life being a good soldier entails.  Consequently you get a lot of turnover, wasting money.  And you get a lot of bad soldiers.
    I definitely don't recommend the same thing for the OTO.  In fact, I recommend quite the opposite.  The OTO should expose itself.  It should bring in new members and bring back old ones who know the work.  But in order to do this it must be able to say why it's important that people join the OTO, and consequently why it's important that the OTO exist at all.   To do this we need to have a purpose.  And, granting the mission, values statement and program synopsis of the order, to a certain extent we do.  
    But these things only give the arena in which we work.  They do not express how we plan to do them or how effective we will be.  And our difference, our importance as an organization in the world rests upon how we work in that arena, i.e. our goals.  
    If you can say what you want to accomplish to somebody and how you plan on doing it, it will be easier for that person to know whether they want to be a part of your organization.  It will also help to keep people away that would not be good members for the order because they don't want to do the things the order is doing.  
   In other words, goals are a good filter.   And as I write and think about it, having them and intelligently applying them, would go a great extent to solving many of the order's problems. 

I'm about to discuss local body development and the challenges that I see facing the OTO today in terms of fostering the growth of pre-existent local bodies and generating new local bodies. In this post, I will pull from my experience with Abrahadabra Oasis (AO) and Knights Templar Oasis (KTO), as the former was born of the latter and I think there are lessons that can be learned in examining the process of their separation. I am presently a member of the former and affilliate of the latter. If that's not your bag of tea, then please feel free to continue scrolling.

( No lj-cut tags were harmed in the formatting of this message. )

At some point, Thelema Lodge wants to be able to make its library available to the general public so that it can get a grant from the government. Grants have been given before for large libraries such as this and we wish to go the same route. We are having one problem, however. . .

Our first step is to get the library insured. This is easy except for one thing--we need to give the insurance company an appraised value. The Thelema Lodge library (also called the Rose Library) contains between 2500 and 3000 books. The cost of a professional appraiser in this area ranges from $150 to $250 per hour. One appraiser told me that he would be willing to determine how long it would take to appraise the library for the sum of $300 which then could be added to the appraisal cost. Considering the size of the library, and the fact that some books are still in boxes, this particular job is easily going to exceed $1000, and we simply don't have that kind of money.

Does anybody here have any ideas? We want eventually want the grant from the government in order to help fund a permanent stand-alone space for the library and Lodge, but we are caught in a bottleneck. How can we appraise this thing without breaking our bank?

If you have been clicking the links in recent announcements, you may have noticed some changes to the Sekhet-Maat Lodge website. We've rolled out a new site which can be edited by any of our members, and it has a fresh new look and feel.

Along with upgrading the site in general, we have added a number of new resources and documents which will be useful and interesting to all visitors to the site, but especially members of this community. Here is a brief rundown, along with links to the new pages.

( Would you like to learn more? )

Departing for a moment from the lofty world of policy to the very mundane one of bookkeeping... Can anyone here point me in the direction of some resources or fora (preferably online, and cheap or free) oriented toward Quickbooks? I also welcome personal expertise.

The question I have regards the assignment of classes to certain types of transactions. More specifically I'm finding that a few types of transactions have no means for associating with a class. This screws up the reportage because this means that we have no way of determining, for example, exactly how much of the amount in our bank accounts belongs to which class.

BTW, we use the classes to track incomes and expenses purposed to particular ends. We have a "Temple" class for all of our facilities needs like dues and rent, an "Events" class for parties and other special events, etc. We also have special funds for our library, temple improvements and such. We break it up in this way so that people can donate $100 to the library fund and know that it will be spent on the library, not rent or paint. If there's a more effective way to partition funds like this, I'd love to hear about that, too.

93,

You can view the schedule, register for Kaaba online and pay through PayPal or by check.

http://kaaba.oto-usa.org/2006_11.html

If the above link doesn't work for you, there is an announcement on the USGL site: www.oto-usa.org

93 93/93
BT

Corss-posted from stevensteven by request:

The study of Freemasonry as an organization is a fruitful exercise, both because it is an antecedent body to ours, and in that it has some similarities with its Lodge structure. The study of organizations such as the freemasons is a well researched area in sociology. A question plaguing the organization is the decline in membership, and a team of sociologists did a study on it. Oklahoma Grand Lodge provided its data for all its lodges which was then correlated against US census data for the area.

"This article had two goals. First, we used statistical analysis to evaluate the membership structure in the 1990s to determine which socioeconomic variables related most strongly to higher or lower levels of Masonic membership in Oklahoma. ... We used statistical methods derived from regression analysis to find significant links between Masonic membership and socioeconomic variables including age, commuting time, education, income, occupation, political and religious activity, and residential location. Second, we mapped pertinent statistical results to demonstrate the regional variability of Masonry and significant variables in Oklahoma".

Although a simple remedy for Freemasonry in Oklahoma does not exist, understanding what socioeconomic conditions and what regions are more or less amenable to Masonic membership provides the Grand Lodge of Oklahoma with information it can use to focus its recruiting and retention efforts.

What they found was interesting:

"Overall, our results demonstrate that age is the most significant predictor of Masonic membership, specifically the proportions of the population who are in the retirement age categories (55 and over). Masons are generally elderly men, and few younger men are joining like was once the case. Masonry, like many other fraternal and service clubs, is losing out in popularity in the face of longer commutes, increasing competition for leisure time from sports and television, and the greater overall range of free-time activities available to urbanites as compared to rural communities. Along these lines, variables indicating rural living are the second most common variables that demonstrate significant explanatory power.

Educational levels correlate moderately to Masonic membership, but in an inverse trend in which more educated persons tend to avoid the group. This is a well-established trend that has been present for at least 100 years, if not longer. Certain occupations, in particular machinists, farmers, and protection services, correlate strongly, although these seem to behave more as proxies for urbanity and ruralness than as the impact of these specific occupations, given their modest contributions to the overall employment base of Oklahoma.

Political activities correlate modestly, and religious and income characteristics seem to have little relationship to Masonic membership at the county level despite some evidence in the literature. This may reflect the overall decline of popular interest in religion and politics in this country, even though hard data on whether churches or religion are truly in decline is often contradictory."

And what is recommended?

"The results of this study in aggregate indicate what characteristics to look for in a county, if one wishes to identify a "model" county in which Masonic membership should be strong. This ideal county would have a large percentage of its population in retired age groups, more rural farming residents, short commutes, more occupational opportunities for protection and farming occupations, and a lower-than-average educational level. This description seems to accurately portray small-town America. Although this helps identify the counties that should and do have strong Masonic lodges and membership levels, this does not solve the systemic problem of how to attract younger members who will remain active for four or five decades. The typical older Mason today is such a person, but this cohort is dying and not being replaced by the baby boom and generation x cohorts that dominate the population today. Understanding where Masonry is strong or weak in the state is an important first step, but it falls to the Grand Lodge of Oklahoma, as well as other state lodges in the United States, to determine, first, whether it wants to change its target demographic, and then, second, how to go about effecting this change."


Another fascinating statistic not from this study is that 42.7% of people who take masonic initiation drop out. However, they have a 75% retention rate for people that take the third degree. It would be interesting to find out what is it that happens that causes half to drop out after first, and what is it about third that makes the retention rate jump up? Perhaps more education about what the system is about would help reduce that drop off, and perhaps extra effort in getting people to third would help the retention rate? I also wonder if the one day multi degree mass initiations they do now (which I think are poorly thought out) changes these rates?

The data in in itself is interesting, but what you do with it is even more so......

93,

Invitations were sent to all the LBs in the Eastern US. If anyone who wants to attend the Fall 2006 Kaaba has not seen the info, please email me at bill (at)set-triumphant (dot) org. I will send you all the information currently available.

There is an October 30th deadline for reservations at the host hotel. The registration fees are $30 for LB Officers and $40 for anyone else attending. This is the first time this iteration of Kaaba has been presented in the Eastern US.

93 93/93
BT

An article in this week's MetroActive mentions OTO in the course of a nice little bit about H. Spencer Lewis and the Rosicrucian park.

The man who claimed to have disinterred Rosicrucian documents from California's soil was H. Spencer Lewis, an energetic Egyptophile and adman who founded the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis in New York in 1915. Lewis was initiated by a Rosicrucian master in Toulouse and spent time as well in the Ordo Templi Orientis, an occult order led by the notorious Aleister Crowley; Spence took AMORC's Rosicrucian emblem from the pages of Crowley's journal, The Equinox. In 1927, Lewis purchased a modest plot of land amid the luscious apricot and peach orchards that once thronged San Jose. The Grand Imperator dubbed the property Rosicrucian Park, which would become home base for the largest and most famous Rosicrucian group in America.

Today Rosicrucian Park is one of the crown jewels of California's visionary landscape. An inviting maze of temples, fountains, statues, plants, and bas-relief gods, the site is part Egyptian Revival, part Deco, and part Disney. (Walt Disney, it should be mentioned, was once a member of AMORC, as was Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.) Though Lewis saved his heaviest sacred designs for the interior of the windowless main temple, the park's grounds and exteriors stand as a public monument to the esoteric imagination.

More here.

Wouldn't it be nice if we had something like a public monument to Thelema?

For those who missed it, there are some excellent replies to 00goddess's post on oto_community (click here) where she asks for examples of fliers that local bodies have used. This is also relevant to local body development for obvious reasons, so I thought it would be worth posting a link here.