Theos-Talk Archives (April 2005 Message tt00504)

Jerry Hejka-Ekins wrote:
> I remember this was done in the 60s, when there was a real resource of 
> Lodges and speakers. In the greater Los Angeles area there was once a 
> dozen or more Lodges and some very fine and knowledgeable speakers. The 
> So.California Federation tried to set up a speaker's list, but I 
> remember opposing it because I saw it (I think correctly) as a 
> transparent attempt to have an official list of "approved" speakers, so 
> that Lodges would know who to invite and who to shun. California Lodges, 
> in those days, were very competitive, run by ego driven managers, and 
> resisted any attempts by members to have them work together. Today, we 
> have gone way beyond the problem of having to make lists of speakers. 
> As the number of Lodges have dwindled over the years, there are few 
> Lodges which still have neighboring Lodges from which to draw speakers. 
I was thinking of something more on the order of letting anybody who 
wished to list themselves do so, and also let individual members write 
reviews.

> I have visited the Lodge in New York which you belong. The real estate 
> must be worth millions of dollars, though that old building should have 
> been raised and rebuilt many years ago. That alone scares people away, 
> in spite of the fact that you are sitting on some of the most expensive 
> real estate in the country. 
There have been a number of opportunities missed in the past. My guess 
is that the real estate is worth between 1 and 2 million dollars; part 
of the problem is that it is not on a great block (there's a halfway 
house on the block, a number of closed businesses, and a couple of 
nearly abandoned buildings). There has been rebuilding, and, for the 
last several years, the Board of Directors worked on a principle of 
making sure that everything was done legally and properly.

> Alexandria West has had to think about these things. We need a minimum 
> of 4,000 square feet of floor space to do what we need to do--10,000 
> would be more realistic. Even in our Small California community, that 
> would be a million dollar investment for starts. Such an investment 
> requires a very solid foundation of meaningful activity to sustain 
> itself and to be able to change with the times. By meaningful activity, 
> I mean services which goes far beyond the traditional fare of weekly 
> lectures and book sales. 
And the Kern Foundation will NOT donate money towards physical 
buildings. By the way, for those not familiar with Alexandria West, here 
is a link (Jerry, are there any others?):

http://blavatskyarchives.com/alexandriawest.htm

Bart