Price the Lodge
Before debating a dues number, put the costs on paper. Gather annual expenses, other income and expected collections to find a starting point.
PRACTICAL GUIDES FOR THE BROTHERS DOING THE WORK
Good lodges take work.
Listen to your brothers. Work out the costs. Keep the stories. Care for the records.
You don’t have to fix everything at once. Choose one job and use the guide’s questions and forms to begin.
Free worksheets · Digital guides from $7 · No subscription
A SMALL PLACE TO BEGIN
A useful place to begin. No charge.
Start a conversation about lodge costs, or prepare to record a brother’s stories. Each worksheet is three printable pages.
Ask Him These
The best story may begin with an ordinary question. Use these forty question groups after agreeing on recording and access. Ask one part at a time, then let him talk.
The links open Gumroad. Enter 0 for a free copy; an optional payment is welcome. An email address is needed for delivery. Subscribe to the essays separately if you want them.
What would help your lodge right now?
Each guide stands on its own. Choose the work that matters to your lodge.
THE FOUR GUIDES
One guide. One job. A place to start.
See real pages before you decide. Every guide comes with its matching forms, which your lodge may reproduce for its own use.
Hear from the brothers you seldom see
Call Every Brother
A Listening Guide
Before planning another event, find out what being part of the lodge has been like for your brothers. Nine questions help you listen, notice patterns and choose one small change to try. An answer is a starting point, not a promise to attend or volunteer.
Included: The guide, a three-page member worksheet and seven coordinator-form pages.
What’s inside Call Every Brother?
- Nine core questions, invitation scripts and a written alternative.
- Private response records, counting and privacy checks, a small-test plan and a report-back template.
- Allow four to eight weeks for the listening round; set a separate review date for the practical test.
Bring a clear explanation to the dues discussion
What Should Our Lodge Dues Be?
Worksheets for setting a rate you can defend
“What should our dues be?” is easier to discuss when the numbers have a story behind them. Start with what your lodge should provide, work through costs and income, then compare rates you can explain. The workbook keeps the building’s costs and the lodge’s activities distinct.
Included: The fillable workbook, 16 planning-sheet pages and the offline browser calculator.
What’s inside What Should Our Lodge Dues Be?
- Purpose planning, cost and income evidence, cash timing, hardship and accepted-work records.
- A fictional Cedar Lodge example and twenty-year scenarios, with a record of the final decision.
- PDF fields accept entries; they do not calculate. Use the calculator for arithmetic and save working data to a JSON file.
Make time for a story worth keeping
Let Him Talk
How to Record a Brother’s Stories and Preserve Them
You don’t need a polished speaker or a studio. You need a willing brother, a tested recorder and time to listen. This guide helps you agree on access, ask useful questions and leave a recording the next authorized keeper can find and understand.
Included: The guide, six form pages and the three-page Ask Him These question sheet.
What’s inside Let Him Talk?
- Forty question groups, equipment tests, a recording agreement, interview log and time index.
- Backup and handover records, specific-use approval and restriction/removal tracking.
- A family copy, lodge playback or publication needs approval of the exact material and use.
Give the old records a practical plan
Photograph the Minute Books
How to Copy, Catalog, and Preserve Your Lodge’s Records
A shelf of minute books can feel like a job for another year. Begin with an authorized batch that is safe to handle. Photograph it carefully, check every image, and leave labeled copies with clear access and custody records.
Included: The guide and eight matching form pages, including the wide survey and catalog sheets.
What’s inside Photograph the Minute Books?
- Handling guidance, a tested capture station, sequence log and catalog.
- Backup, custody, completion and access-decision records. Three independent copies, at least one off site.
- Damaged records may need specialist help. This is a copying workflow, not conservation treatment instructions.
More than one job on the list?
The complete set includes Call Every Brother, What Should Our Lodge Dues Be?, Let Him Talk and Photograph the Minute Books, with their forms and the dues calculator. You do not need to buy the individual guides as well. Choose it if your lodge will use several; one guide is enough for one job.
$19 for the set · $33 bought separately · No subscriptionListed prices are in US dollars; check the final currency and applicable tax at checkout. Digital purchases arrive as ZIP downloads; unzip them to open the PDFs and calculator. The two free worksheets are individual PDFs.
FROM ONE LODGE TO ANOTHER
Written from the work of a lodge.
I’m Secretary and a Past Master of Bethel Lodge No. 358 in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. The listening and dues guides grew from work we did in our own lodge. The story and records guides grew from what I wish we had preserved.
We are missing fifteen years of minutes because a Secretary took them home and died. A separate building clearance cost us other records and objects. Those losses are part of why I wrote these guides.
What we know. What we don’t know. What’s next.
I’m Rob Linn, the writer behind Square Thoughts. Brotherhood of Purpose is where my practical lodge guides live. Bosley Press is my publishing imprint. Use the guides, adapt the forms to your lodge and tell me what needs to be clearer.
A few practical questions.
Can we print the forms for our lodge?
Yes. A lodge that owns a guide may reproduce its forms for lodge use. The free companions may be copied and adapted as stated on their sheets. This does not make the complete paid guides free to distribute.
Are the PDFs fillable?
The dues workbook and its planning-sheet pack have fillable fields. Those fields accept entries but do not calculate; the separate browser calculator does the arithmetic. The other guides’ forms and both free worksheets are designed for handwriting.
What do I need to open the downloads?
A PDF reader opens the guides. For the paid downloads, unzip the package first. For the dues calculator, open the included HTML file in a desktop browser; calculations work offline. Research links need internet. Save working data to a JSON file rather than relying on browser recovery.
Do I need to buy the whole set?
No. Each guide stands on its own. The free worksheets let you start a dues conversation or plan an oral-history interview. Choose one guide for one job; the set is there if your lodge needs several.
Are paperback editions available?
The 8½ × 11-inch paperback editions are planned for November 15, 2026. We’ll add purchase links here when they’re available. You can get the digital guides now.
Is this an official Grand Lodge program?
No. These guides are independent and do not teach ritual. Check the governing rules and permissions for the work you plan. A listening response is not a volunteer commitment or permission to record; oral histories and paper records need their own access decisions.
How do I get the weekly essays?
Visit Square Thoughts and choose Subscribe. It is separate from getting a worksheet or buying a guide.
Further reading.
Books and a lodge register from Bosley Press. These are separate from the practical-guide set. For daily personal reading, explore Candidate to Craftsman; for the broader lodge-renewal discussion, explore the Square Thoughts book.
Square Thoughts
The Unfinished Temple
Candidate to Craftsman
Masonic RegisterBring the guide to the table.
Each digital guide package now includes a topic-specific workshop script and a separate sample meeting agenda, with preparation, spoken prompts, practice exercises and follow-through. The four-guide set includes all four companions.
Already have a guide? Get the matching printable forms and reader companions.