Membership in California Masonic Lodges today is less than fifty percent of what it was in the 1960s. While there are dire predictions that by the year 2030 Masonic Lodges will cease to exist, Freemasonry's disappearance is as improbable as the likelihood that democracy will perish from the earth.

Nevertheless the reality exists that the entry of new members into our gentle Craft has receded. Some Grand Lodges are resorting to measures that reduce the time (an essential element today) it takes for the initiate to become a Master Mason and men are being made Masons in a single day of degree work. A cliche says that today we are living in different times. It is probably true, however, that what interested and attracted men thirty years ago is not as effective today. Becoming a member of any organization, church, service club, or fraternal order is no longer the convention it was in the 50-year period between World War I and Vietnam. Time has become the essence as local and national news comes in sound bites via television rather than the written page; when a family needs the time of two wage earners.

Despite the changes taking place in our society the need for the adoption and practice of Freemasonry's moral and pragmatic principles and tenets is just as urgent today than it was fifty years ago, attest the decline in morality that has occurred in America during the past twenty years.

Is there an answer to declining membership? I not only believe there is, but that it is at hand. Freemasonry has never solicited members, not because it is an elitist society, but because of its belief that those who knock at its doors should come of their own free will and accord. This doctrine has served well and has resulted in a camaraderie of men who have adopted high moral standards, practice the principles of the Golden Rule, and want to help their fellow man.

There was a time when Masonry was so well-known that others were excited to seek admission simply by the example and reputation of its members. That attraction no longer exists in today's fast-moving society. It is not because of any regression or declination in the character or good works of Freemasonry; it is because of the formidable competition that exists today for the attention of the minds of men. Here that Masonry has failed to compete.

Now there is way for the story of Freemasonry to be told to the thousands of good men in California who should be members of our Craft. It is in the form of a video tape titled "Friend to Friend". It places in the hands of California Masons a way, foregoing solicitation or one-day classes, to tell the story of Freemasonry so that the non-Mason viewer may be encouraged to test that Biblical admonition, "Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you."

For those thousands of men who have wondered why no one has ever invited them to join our noble and beneficent fraternity, the video "Friend to Friend" tells them why. It describes what Freemasonry stands for and how its doors are always open to men of goodwill and good report, who, of their own free will, simply ask.

As we move toward the 21st century, the future of Freemasonry rests not only in the hands of its leadership, but more particularly in the stewardship of its members. We can be crusaders in opening Masonry's doors and telling all who will listen that Freemasonry is the same vital force for goodness and for the welfare of the community today as it has been in the past. We should tell all that the doors of Freemasonry are open to men of goodwill. When we do that our membership will rise to the heights it deserves.