Theos-Talk Archives (April 2005 Message tt00484)

Jerry Hejka-Ekins wrote:
> This sounds like the Lodges we used to have here in the early 1960s when 
> I first joined the Theosophical Society. Besant Lodge in Hollywood used 
> to typically have 100 people attending their Sunday lectures. A Picture 
> of Krishnamurti hung on the wall, as well as pictures of Besant and 
> Leadbeater. Times have changed and the American culture has changed 
> quite a lot. TSA management no longer actively supports Lodges, and 
> there are very few of them left. Besant Lodge now has very few members. 
One of the reasons I formed the theoslodges group was to create a 
backdoor for helping lodges support each other. I had a concept, that 
got lots of lip service, but no backing: to have lodges create lists of 
local speakers who would be willing to speak at lodges within traveling 
distance; sort of like the national speaker program, but on a more local 
level. I had originally thought to make theoslodges Adyar-only, but 
would not be averse to having inter-society cooperation as it IS a 
private, not an official, list). The only real "rule" is that it not be 
used for simple bashing of any given Society; in other words, to stay on 
a local level, and be constructive rather than destructive.

Back to the issue of dwindling attendance, in New York, at least, the 
problem is one of competition. It's especially difficult to compete with 
groups that claim to have all the answers.

Bart