We Know Your Frustration; We Ask For Your Patience


> Yes, I know. And I apologize.

I do read my e-mail, and so does everyone else read theirs, here at the fraternity’s headquarters building on the Mooseheart campus. We know, we understand--and if we were in your shoes (indeed, some of us are) we’d feel the same way.

We know that many of you have been frustrated by the process of renewing your Loyal Order of Moose or Women of the Moose dues via the online option of the new Centralized Dues program. And among those of you who renewed via more conventional options by mail, many of you were frustrated by delays in receiving your new Moose card.

We know now that the online renewal service needs enhancements, which is why it has not gone as smoothly as we expected up to this point. With the enhancements now underway, and the clearing out of some procedural bottlenecks, the system will become much more member-friendly and efficient.

Having said all that, we also know this: As much as our Centralized Dues program didn’t go as well for the Sept. 30, 2005 dues quarter as we might have hoped, and as well as it will work in future quarters, we can assure you that it does indeed work.

As of this writing, Oct. 5, it HAS worked--for more than 147,000 Moose men and women who successfully paid their dues by that date; all of them should have, by the midpoint of October, received their new cards. Of those, the great majority were those who took the new dues renewal form and followed the appropriate instructions to pay with a traditional check. But many hundreds successfully paid by mailing in their credit-card number, and--again, at this writing--nearly 1,500 Moose men and women successfully made it a fully paperless transaction, paying with their credit card online over www.mooseintl.org.

New membership cards are being produced and mailed weekly; deposits are being made into Lodge, Chapter and Moose Legion unit accounts weekly.

Here’s even better news: Things can and will only improve from here.

We know also, that as we have been in the process of shifting to our new membership management system, our Moose member-sponsors--both with the Loyal Order of Moose and the Women of the Moose--have been sort of “running blind” since spring, bringing new members into the Order without receiving notification of sponsor credits, or recognition awards. What is encouraging is that the applications continue to come in; our member-sponsors are bringing new men and women into the Order as before--because they believe in the Moose, not just because of the recognition awards they hope to earn.

Member-sponsors continue to be, as they have always been, the engine that makes this fraternity run. Know that tallies are being carefully kept, and things will be made right.

Radical changes in an organization’s procedures--and it is not an exaggeration to use that term for what we are going through--are not something that human beings easily or naturally accept. The light at the end of this tunnel is a better-functioning, more efficient Moose fraternity. We profoundly appreciate the patience you have shown us so far. Together, we’re getting through this rough period. And we’ll all be better off for it. If you have suggestions or comments, please contact me at DRoss@mooseintl.org.

Don’t hold back.



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