Theos-Talk Archives (May 1997 Message tl00399)

Hi
We have had a lot of discussion on the issue of charging.

It appears there could be a problem in certain lodges. For example, due to
taxes and maintenance, some lodge property may have very high overhead. I
recall that several decades ago which Krotona was located in Hollywood, they
seemed to have faced a similar situation. It was resolved by selling the
very valuable property and moving to Ojai. So it is possible there could be
other lodges which face somewhat similar problem. But if the high overhead
problem is there, still the question that each lodge is faced with is for
what and how much it should charge to keep it going. Only those running the
lodge will know all the facts and can try different approaches. The bottom
line is does it really work in furthering the cause of Theosophy or does it
help just get by for the day or month.

Another problem that seems to affect some of the lodges which own property
is the level of utilization. For example we have a situation in San Antonio
where we have a fairly large Lodge building which is used for a couple of
hours each week and rest of the time the building is locked. Here due the
life estate of the donor and donor has been missing for couple of years, the
situation is more complicated.

May be others have other kinds of problems and it would be interesting to
learn about them.

.........doss