Thursday, January 15, 2015
Issues that Affect our Members
By Administrator Daryl Conley, and the Lodge Board of Officers
Abraham Lincoln once said, "you can please most of the people some of the time, and you can please some of the people most of the time, but you can never please all the people all the time." I'm not sure if that is exactly how he said it, but it's pretty close, and brings me to the point of this article.
We recently segregated a small area of the Social Quarters to be designated as Non-Smoking. This was in response to several members who were bothered physically by the presence of second-hand smoke by those sitting next to them. As a courtesy to our non-smokers, the board approved three tables and one section of the bar near the entrance to be non-smoking. This is not something we've never done before. Several years ago this area was non-smoking; it's just that somehow, over the course of the past few years, it hasn't been adhered to or labeled as such.
As with any change, you are bound to get positive and negative response, and such is the case here. While we have had numerous members compliment and thank our efforts, there are also numerous members who want to see the non-smoking area removed.
Moose International has not taken a stand on whether to allow smoking in Moose Lodges, they have thus far left it up to the lodges to handle on their own. However, the Moose International by-laws do state that each lodge should make an effort to establish non-smoking areas within their interiors. It's a fact - we lose members every year (in our lodge and nation-wide) because they feel we do not do enough to alleviate second-hand smoke or provide a non-smoking area. Others have called or written to Moose International complaining, and those complaints come right back to us and we are asked what we are going to do to deal with the situation.
Even though the non-smoking is not always full or sometimes even empty, there are also times when it is full to capacity. For this reason, and those stated above, the board of officers has decide to leave this area as non-smoking. Whatever your feelings regarding our decision, please understand that we are trying to do our best to make it comfortable for all members, smokers and non-smokers alike.
Another issue that has caused some problems is the RV parking. When the RV parking was first completed, it was agreed that it would be a "first come, first serve" basis. It's main intention was to service those out-of-town and out-of-state members that come through our town to entice them to visit the lodge and spend a few days in T or C. Bearing that in mind, it was an "unofficial' policy to give preference to visiting members.
At some point in time, we began to allow members to "reserve" their RV space, days, weeks, even months in advance. This worked fine for a while, but eventually we wound up with more "reservations" than we could handle, and in may cases, had all spaces "reserved" which meant there were none left for the passers-by or wayfaring traveler. We have also had some members that had a space reserved, but found someone else there when they arrived.
What started out as a courtesy to our members, has ended up causing animosity, ill-feelings, and name-calling, something we obviously never meant or wanted. So, it will now be our policy - actually we are just reinforceing the original policy - that we will no longer reserve RV spaces. You will need to just show up and take whatever space is available. And as always, if we are full, and an out-of-towner stops by, we would ask those who are able to (self-contained) to park off to the side and allow the visitor to use the space.
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