Mr. Dylan Sweyko-Kuhlman, Archivist of our Kansas Masonic Library and Museum, provided an update about our online collection to the annual meeting of the Kansas Lodge of Research (KSLOR) in Topeka on Thursday, March 15, 2018. As a reminder, KSLOR is the group that made the online collection possible through our donations for the PastPerfect archiving software Dylan uses to catalog our holdings. A button labeled Library & Archives has been added to the menu above so you’ll be able to easily find the collection as long as your remember KSLOR.org.
Sample of items available in the online collection.
Per Dylan, the next series of priorities is to scan in the most requested or needed books in the collection so you’ll be able to access them online. These would be the books that are not available elsewhere: The out-of-print, rare ones, and one-of-a-kind. For those books currently available for sale at, say, Amazon or Macoy’s, we’ll need to find them in catalogs of local libraries where they can be read online or ordered delivered to your local library for check out. Maybe a revamped Research Committee can start posting links to the libraries and repositories of Research Lodges and grand Lodge libraries of the other jurisdictions in the US (hint-hint).
The collection can also hold your digital artifacts. Several KSLOR members mentioned having pictures of key events or historical figures in their lodge. These are important parts of our heritage and should not be neglected. I recommend that you call Dylan at 785-234-5518 and coordinate how to get those artifacts into the online collection. It is my dream that someday we will be able to research and find the golden gems that are currently quietly reposing in dusty lodge archives across the state.
There was mention that the Grand Lodge office is attempting to digitize all the membership records. This is excellent when tracing a family’s Masonic history. Our eventual digitized collection of both Grand Lodge and local lodge holdings will take the family tracing to the next level. You’ll not only know who in your family was a Mason, but what they did as a Mason and their impact on their lodge and community.
History has a way of repeating itself and the glory days of men seeking Masonic membership en masse is not behind us. It is ahead of us. As younger generations begin to look for a solid rock in the rough seas of anti-establishment, pursuit of the profane, and distributed electronic societies, they will discover what we have and come to us in numbers.
Greetings brothers! The calendar has flipped to 2018 and the means your dues are due for KSLOR. Those not current as of February 1st will no longer have access to the member area of the KSLOR site and may be dropped from distribution of meeting information.
The demographics of Leadership Academy show that we are attracting a greater audience of leaders and potential leaders at the Grand Lodge level. Nearly all Area and District Deputy Grand Masters, as well as a huge contingent of line Grand Lodge officers were present. So, too, were the leadership of the successful lodges and those lodges with bright hopes for a long, prosperous future. Those visibly absent were representatives from the struggling lodges, the smaller lodges, troubled lodges, and the lodges that find themselves on the so called “death map”. In other words, the Wardens about to assume the East and in the most need of this information were the least present. Puzzling is the reason that the very officers who need this information the most are the least likely to attend. Maybe a look at the genesis of Leadership Academy is in order.
For years, Grand Lodge operated a Wardens School with the intention of arming near-term Worshipful Masters with all the basic information needed to assume the Master’s duties. Presumably, this would give the elect enough time to understand their duties and make plans for their year. However, leadership of a lodge is the paramount attribute that determines success of a lodge. The demands of a lodge Master and the officers of the progressive line are numerous and extremely weighty. Event planning, annual budgeting, volunteer management, paid personnel management, facility management, meeting facilitation, and new member programs are just the start of required knowledge. The leaders must also be proficient in degree work, keepers of the landmarks, officers in all committees, lodge spokes persons, fundraisers, and dispensers of charity. Additionally, they are members of the Grand Lodge and liaisons to outside organizations, subject matter experts in their lodge bylaws and those of higher authority, keepers of the charter, and must stay well appraised of legal, social, moral, and civil matters affecting the lodge. The lynchpin is a plan to guide the Master elect through it all.
While the Wardens School was well organized and refined over the years to “put some meat on the bones”, it garnered a reputation for being dry, and, as it has been said many times, was like “drinking from a fire hose”. Attendance dropped and Wardens School became uneconomical to sustain. A common conclusion from Wardens School was that getting all this information as a Warden was too late. Real learning and shaping oneself for the successful term as Master had to be done over a course of many years. A new approach to longer term lodge leadership ramp-up in a more adult-style, academic environment was needed. Leadership Academy was born.
While Leadership Academy attendance growth is one marker of success, missing criteria are those markers that show how well an attendee destined for the East is prepared to make the ascent to the third step. A demographic study along with a more focused evaluation will be required but necessary to ensure that the long-term intent of the academy is met. Information needed would include whether the attendee has ever served in the East before, from what lodge position in their progressive line did they start attending the academy, did they come away with at least three golden nuggets each time, and, the ultimate test of success, how prepared did they feel they were just prior to assuming the Master’s role. The same survey needs to be sent to the Master at 6 months during their tenure and again within 30 days after they transitioned out of the Master’s chair. The main purpose on the latter survey should be to ascertain a list of subjects in which the immediate Past Master felt most deficient and, from Leadership Academy attendance, most prepared.
In a society of friends and more especially brothers whose primary pursuit is further light, it is disheartening that so many of our brothers in lodge officer positions fail to attend 
The Best Show Up. Recorded attendance at the Leadership Academy held on November 4, 2017 in Topeka was 215. While this number is impressive, it represents less than one member per lodge. If just the wardens of each lodge came, there would be 436 in attendance plus the usual cadre of Area and District Deputy Grand Masters and Grand Lodge officers. It is reflective of the state of Masonry in Kansas. If you assume that 100 lodges are dead or disconnected from Masonry, then we’re pretty close to an average of 2 members from each breathing lodge. The reality is that those gathered in Topeka are the heart of Kansas Masonry; those interested in actually seeking Masonic light and learning ways to raise the value of Masonry for their lodges. Thanks to those brethren who made the trip. You are truly the top 1.26%.
Grand Lodge Building. The concluding session was a well-researched and delivered summary of where we are in the decision-making process whether to preserve or abandon our 100-year-old Grand Lodge landmark at 320 SW 8th Ave in Topeka. MW Cole did an amazing job giving the leaders all the puts-takes. The bottom line: We Kansas Masons need to commit to an average of $365 per Mason donation within a year in order to proceed. Knowing that only 10% will likely invest in their own hallowed legacy means we few-proud Masons will need to donate $3650 per Mason. That’s a huge chunk. And we still need to finish the 50th Anniversary $20 million Kansas Masonic Foundation campaign. I have learned – “Never fall in love with a building. It will not love you back.” So it is with the Grand Lodge building. We Kansas Masons who participate in the Craft comprise the Grand Lodge. Where the administration, operations, archiving, and artifact display takes place is immaterial as long as it is effective for the Craft. If we err, let’s err on the side of preserving the Craft and move to a building we can afford. Maybe we can obtain another Masonic landmark in Kansas for the purpose before it either gets sold or falls to ruin, like the Masonic temple in Salina or the Scottish Rite building in Topeka. In ALL cases, Kansas Masons need to express their opinion NOW through the 
We’re blocked. When you get to a road block, I imagine several possibilities pass through your mind. Can we get through the blockage? Is there an alternate route? Did we take a wrong turn somewhere? Or, is this the end of the road? We’re at such a decision point with the Kansas Lodge of Research.
The way forward. KSLOR is a Grand Lodge entity which has reached a leadership roadblock. Has it reach the end of its usefulness? Should it have a modified mission? Should it just be left to die of its own weight? 
The road ahead. Kudos to those KSLOR members who have made significant contributions. Your efforts have not been for naught. This is not a crisis of membership. Thanks to the partnership by Kansas Masonic Foundation, our membership reached a high in the past few years. What’s missing is integration with Grand Lodge leadership with a limited, related, important mission.