Supreme Council Issues
‘State of the Order’ Report

Recap on ‘A Very Challenging Year’

> It was a fiscal year during which Moose International launched a new centralized-dues system which proved to be not ready for implementation--and in part as a result, it was one in which the fraternity sustained its sharpest single-year loss of membership in decades. And, just one month before the fiscal year’s close, Supreme Governor Ronald Sweetman and the Supreme Council had to choose a new Director General and management structure. So it seemed appropriate that Sweetman and the Councilmen themselves delivered the “State of the Order” report to Sunday’s opening session of the Supreme Lodge.

It fell to Councilman James Gallagher of California--later elected Supreme Prelate at this Convention--to deliver the roughest news: “Total membership in the fraternity has dropped from 809,379 to 684,223, a decrease of 125,156.” Gallagher noted, though that “Potentially, we have an additional 45,773 applications reported . . .but never reported as enrolled . . .the Membership Department is working closely with Information Systems (on) a solution as to how to get these members into the system. Gallagher noted that the Women of the Moose likewise sustained a loss in membership, from 485,015 to 386,485.

Before the Supreme Council’s State of the Order Report, Supreme Governor Ronald Sweetman (left) accepted the gavel after receiving his Oath and Obligation from Pilgrim Governor Andrew Collins PSG.

On the Centralized Dues issue, Councilman James Henderson was characteristically direct: “Let’s clear the air . . .First, Moose International had no choice but to go with a centralized-dues program, and we have no intention of returning to the old system . . .(which) as much as some Administrators (like myself) may have liked it for the local control it gave, had many faults. For several years, we had dozens of members daily calling into headquarters wondering why they’d been a member for three or four years and had never received a Moose Magazine.

“The answer, of course,” he said, is that that member had paid with cash or check to the Lodge and “they had received a ‘temporary’ membership card each year, but had never been reported to Moose International. That Brother was building no years of service toward Moosehaven eligibility; he simply didn’t exist in the fraternity’s records.”

While a change from that former system was essential, Henderson also said flatly that “the Centralized Dues system, in the form that we attempted to put into place last September, just did not work for the Moose. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that, but it’s important to acknowledge from this lectern . . .Most importantly, we’ve spent the last two months starting to make the necessary changes so that it DOES work for the Moose” (click here for more info).

Also reporting were, in order:

• Supreme Jr. Governor William Scott of Ontario spoke on the status of the seven components of the Moose Momentum program four years since its 2002 introduction. “A number of these newly implemented programs have already experienced success, such as the now extensive Member Benefits program; Education & Training featuring Moose University under Lynne Reeder; certainly the improvement in Communications, especially with the swift evolution of our Moose websites. We now have successful Joint Management operations, and have begun the expansion of our Family Activities program.”
  
  

• Councilman Joseph Koons of Pennsylvania reviewed the fraternity’s efforts toward building public awareness. Here, the year’s two big coast-to-coast achievements were a four-page spread on Mooseheart Child City & School in the Nov. 28 People Magazine, sold to 4 million readers across North America; and the Jan. 17 hour-long closeup on Huntington, NY Lodge 318 on Bravo TV’s national Queer Eye show (click here for more info).

• Councilman Eugene Huggins of Illinois discussed the fraternity’s dealings in real estate, in which Moose International has taken the proceeds from selling 230 acres south and west of Mooseheart to commercial developers over the last three years, to purchase some 470 acres of commercially zoned land southwest of Chicago. In less than a year, the value of this land has increased more than $1 million, and the Moose owns more acreage than ever.

• Councilman Liguori Saladin of Florida reviewed the development of the “Pay-As-You-Go” alternate residential plan at Moosehaven (May/June/July issue).

• Jr. Past Supreme Governor Don Eisel of Ohio reviewed the ongoing management restructuring of Moose International, including the appointments of Moose Legion Director Shawn Baile and Grand Chancellor Janet Fregulia, and the abolition of the Women of the Moose concept of male affiliation.

• Councilman Wesley Crowder of Virginia paid tribute to the “dedication and commitment of our volunteers in the field,” particularly training the spotlight on the Order’s 84 Certified Leadership Trainers and 219 Technical Trainers.

• Councilman Terry Walls of Oklahoma noted the ongoing evolution of Moose websites, under volunteer Webmaster Steve Speaks of Ohio, “into a fountain of literally thousands of pages of information both for the public and our members.”

• Supreme Prelate Chris Perry of Arkansas discussed the Council’s decision to appoint Wiliam B. Airey to succeed Donald Ross as Director General, and to name General Counsel Leonard Solfa to the new post of Chief Operating Officer, enabling Director General Airey to concentrate fully on the fraternal operations of the Order.

• Supreme Governor Sweetman of Delaware closed with a report on his year as the fraternity’s chief presiding officer--the full text of which is available at www.mooseintl.org/public/2006Conv.aspx.