2006 Letter from Lodge Master

From Sekhet-Maat Lodge

November 22, 2006 ev.

Over the last year, through the fraternity of its members, Sekhet-Maat Lodge has reached a point where our income from dues and pledges has been enough to pay about 75% of our expenses. Since our goal is to reach 100% or more so that we can be financially stable and self-sufficient, paying for rent, monthly bills, and consumables, we will raise dues to $35 per month or $420 per year, effective at the upcoming Winter Solstice.

We'd love to hear from you about this so please do contact myself, Geoff, Kim or Dawn if you have any thoughts or questions.

It may go without saying, but without having a dedicated temple most of the activities that we now take for granted would cease immediately. For this reason, to accomplish our mission it is of primary importance that we continue to occupy the temple and bear the costs associated with doing so.

Sekhet-Maat Lodge is quite different from other membership organizations. Unlike a dance studio or pool hall, we’re a fraternity of men and women who work to manifest something together. Specifically:

• We are dedicated to the high purpose of securing the Liberty of the Individual and his or her advancement in Light, Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, and Power through Beauty, Courage, and Wit, on the Foundation of Universal Brotherhood.
• Our mission is to preserve and advance the religious tenets, doctrines, principles, teachings, traditions and rites of Ordo Templi Orientis, a leading proponent of Thelemic thought and culture.
• We encourage creative excellence through aesthetic expression in all areas of individual and group endeavor, and promote an ethos inspired by Liber AL II:35—"Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy & beauty!"
• We maintain and improve our physical presence near the center of Portland, Oregon, from which we offer services in support of our mission to our members and to the public.
• We uphold the highest standards of excellence and effectiveness in the practice and dissemination of our religious, spiritual, magical, and ethical teachings.
• We espouse and defend the principle of individual liberty while cultivating strong fraternal bonds within our ranks.
• We foster harmonious and constructive relationships with the academic, business, civil, and greater social communities within which we operate.

Sekhet-Maat Lodge has long sought a state of financial self-sufficiency so that our time and effort can be spent supporting the vision described above. We reasoned that the best way for everyone to afford this is for all to make a solid commitment to contribute regularly. We therefore established a dues program on the Spring Equinox of Anno IV:x (2002 EV), at $60 per year. Just three months later, we realized that would not be nearly enough, so we increased to $20 per month. We calculated this amount by dividing rental cost by the number of "active" initiates in the valley, reasoning that most of these initiates would become members and we could make up for any gap with fund-raising. When only about half of the local initiates became members, fund-raising became the focus of our attention. This extra work by the most active initiates has helped pay rent every month, but placed a major strain on everyone. Some have experienced burnout, and many are justifiably concerned that we are always scrambling for money. We have been in that "rent-raising" mode ever since, and we’ve all made sure the rent was paid for nearly five years.

Over the last year, things have been changing. We asked everyone to increase contributions by pledging, and many stepped up to contribute more time and money to reduce the need for fund-raising. As mentioned above, dues and pledges now account for 75% of our expenses, a record high. Because we had built up a "cushion" from the fund-raising of years past, we've been able to divert all extra funds raised this year to improvements which have been long overdue. This is the first year that we have been able to devote so much to improvements, and we have a lot more on our wish list.

If you’ve been following the math, you might be wondering: "If we've raised 75% of our costs with dues and pledges and we haven’t done any 'rent-raising' this year, how did we make up the difference to pay the rent?"

The answer is simple: we have depleted our "cushion" in the temple fund, which had been built with fund-raisers over the prior couple of years. Obviously, this cannot continue or we will run out. We have a choice now, to go back to "rent-raising," or to turn the corner and transform Sekhet-Maat Lodge into a fully self-sufficient—nay, prosperous—body of courageous and fraternal men and women.

Here’s a brief summary of what we’ve accomplished and where we’re headed:

• We now have oil lamp candles, which save us about 10 hours of work per quarter in polishing brass and removing wax from the main altar. We painted the classroom walls, which were so marred and dirty. We have significantly upgraded a major piece of initiatory temple equipment. These projects would have been impossible to accomplish in a given year if our fund-raising efforts were primarily dedicated to paying rent as they have been since day one of renting a space.
• We’re working on replacing the boards in the temple windows with a dark blue, insulating fabric; painting the temple room and the exterior; and getting a better stove.
• We would also like the Lodge to pay for consumables like lamp oil, roses, coffee, charcoal, paper towels, and metal polish—all of which are currently donated by individual members. There are many other possibilities that open up once we are able to cover our basic expenses, including: broadband internet; putting Lion & Serpent in our annual budget (with color covers); making new small altars for the Mass; opening a pass-through between the kitchen and temple for larger feasts; purchasing a taller clothes rack so that robes don’t drag on the floor; new storage systems to accommodate our lances and swords; a display rack for sale items; outfitting the Lodge with yoga mats, straps, etc.; remodeling the closet and storage area to be more suited for changing clothes, doing makeup, and preparing for ritual; making needed improvements to initiatory equipment and furniture; and, of course, saving funds in case we need to replace a major piece of furniture or are forced to move to a new space.
• Acquiring real property will require quadrupling our present income as I explained in my recent essay in Lion & Serpent, "Manifesting the Lodge." The first step to that kind of prosperity is to make sure that our basic costs are covered by dues and pledges alone.

In determining how much we will need to increase the dues rate, we’ve looked at our current numbers, how many of us are pledging, how many are paying the minimum, and how many are in temporary hardship. We’ve created a complete budget for 2007 EV, which you can find in the treasury section of our website. Assuming that all those pledging continue to do so, and accounting for some who will be unable to afford the increase, we arrived at a dues rate of $35 per month to achieve self-sufficiency.

If you are unable to afford these dues, please do make an arrangement with myself or the Treasurer to make a commitment that you can afford. Our goal is simply to meet our expenses with dues, not to make participation impossible for any brother or sister who may have temporary financial limitations. Naturally, we hope that you’ll commit more than $35 per month by making a pledge to contribute more. We recommend setting a goal to give a total of 3% of earned income so that as we all prosper as individuals, the Lodge benefits too.

On a final note, I’d like to remind you that Lodge Members are eligible to take part in the organization and development of our services by serving on a committee or as an Officer. If you are someone who desires to learn management, facilitation, leadership, and karma yoga, and if you have opinions on how things should be done, do make contact with myself, Geoff, Kim or Dawn right away! You do not have to have any experience working in a leadership capacity. What you will need is devotion and a desire to learn.

Thank you again for your ongoing contributions, for your continued interest and work, and for all that you have done to further the cause of Light, Life, Love, and Liberty. As we are constant partakers of the Sun’s bounty, let us each in our particular orbits give out light and life, sustenance and joy to them that revolve about us without diminution of substance or effulgence for ever.

Fraternally,

Fr. HydraLVX

Master, Sekhet-Maat Lodge